WAYNE POULSEN
A University of Nevada star skier in the 1930s (on a U.S. team that defeated Hitler's best collegians and placed third in the U.S. Olympic trials), Wayne Poulsen purchased 2,000 acres from the Southern Pacific Railroad in a beautiful valley northwest of Lake Tahoe with plans to develop a ski area.
Poulsen and his wife, Sandy, would climb its peaks in winter using climbing skins.
Famously, one peak was so steep that Sandy had to make 22 kick turns to ski down it. Wayne named the mountain KT-22 in homage to K-2 a famous peak in the Himalayas.
Following service in World War II, Poulsen became an airline pilot, though always with the dream of building a ski area in Squaw Valley. In 1946, he met Harvard-trained lawyer, Alexander Cushing, who was vacationing at nearby Sugar Bowl. Poulsen showed Cushing his valley and the NY lawyer immediately became infatuated with Poulsen’s idea of creating a mountain resort there. The two began working together. Poulsen had the land and Cushing had the capital, political connections, and the ability to make the project happen. However, the two men soon had a falling out over the resort's future. Poulsen lost control when Cushing became chair of the Squaw Valley Ski Corporation.
While Cushing controlled the mountain, Poulsen remained living in the Valley, opening a ski area for beginners (Papoose) and consulting on Sugar Bowl, Bogus Basin, Mt. Rose, Incline and Boreal Ridge. When the State of California sold its interest in Squaw Valley to Mainline Properties, an Australian firm with interests in real estate development, Mainline welcomed Poulsen's involvement, but that too fell apart.
The Poulsen story is star crossed. A ski champion had a dream that became reality, but without him to lead or benefit from his idea. And yet, the Poulsen family left a legacy on California ski sport both from Wayne's vision and from the Poulsen family's successes on the US Ski Team.
Poulsen's dream brought the Winter Olympic Games and fame to California, greatly expanding winter sport in The Golden State.
Wayne Poulsen was inducted to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1980.
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