n defense of my shortcomings, Skiing in the Mad River Valley was
never intended to be a publication of record but rather a collection of
snapshots and slices of life that we hoped would round out the story of
the development of the industry locally. There are certainly other
omissions of fact and identities that could have been a part of the
book. In the months preceding its publication, my wife and I interviewed
more than 75 present and former Valley residents and business persons
and examined more than 1,000 photographs. Because of poor reproduction
quality, hundreds of photos were by necessity rejected, and along the
way many facts and anecdotes that would have helped tell the story of
skiing in The Valley were left on our cutting room floor.
A major challenge was in correctly identifying persons in some of the
older photographs. We received help from dozens of patient people with
good memories in The Valley and beyond, including Austria on one
occasion.
We wish to thank each and every person who made their mark, big and
little, in this endeavor. This book is theirs as much as it is ours, and
Ellie and I hope in the years to come that they enjoy perusing its
pages as much as we did in putting it together.
John Hilferty
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