Bill Briggs
In 1953, Bill Briggs decided to devote his life to skiing, and after just two years on the slopes, he started teaching. He found that as much as he loved just skiing, he loved instructing even more. Bill’s passion for the sport led him to study every facet of ski teaching. During his career he taught the French, Swiss, Alburgh, Australian, and American techniques. Bill made a lifelong study of theories and possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of the sport.
Bill was a Ski School Director at Sugarloaf, Maine and at Suicide Six in Vermont. He started the Great American Ski School at Snow King Resort in Jackson, Wyoming. After studying skiers on the slope, he developed his own system of teaching skiing and training instructors. Several years ago, Bill ended the Great American Ski School operation at Snow King Resort so he could focus exclusively on further refining his teaching system and converting it to video.
Bill became a legend in his own right when he made the first ski descent of the iconic Grand Teton. He also recorded first descents in the Bugaboos, the Middle Teton, Mount Moran and Mount Owen. He forever changed the course of American skiing and became known as the “Father of Extreme Skiing.”
Bill Briggs is a rare combination of climbing guide, formidable mountain skier, inventive ski instructor, country western band leader, musician and collector/performer of ski songs and alpine yodels.
For his courageous first descents and other ski mountaineering accomplishments, Bill was inducted into the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame in 2003, and into the U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2013, he was recognized and honored by the Veterans ski instructors Alliance at Deer Valley Resort, and was also inducted into the newly-formed Jackson Hole Ski Hall of Fame.
It is our honor to induct Bill Briggs into the PSAI-AASI Intermountain Hall of Fame for his continued dedication and perseverance to further the sport of skiing and ski instruction.
Lane Clegg
Lane Clegg’s love of snow sports began at age 5 when his mother, Sue, would whisk him up to Alta after school on Fridays. He started on the free rope tow beginner slope, before moving up to a 10-ride pass on the chair lifts. When Sue became a ski instructor at Snowbird, Lane took full advantage of the family season pass. In 1985, he graduated high school despite averaging over 100 days on the slopes in both his junior and senior years. Upon graduation, he was hired by Patti Olson to teach skiing at Snowbird in the children’s school.
Lane decided to pursue certification in skiing, achieving his Associate pin. At about this same time, Snowbird opened its slopes to snowboarding. Lane began teaching both disciplines, which as you can imagine, required a lot of boot changes – snowboard boots, then if no lessons, into ski boots, then back into snowboard boots for the afternoon, and then possibly back into ski boots…
Lane participated in the first Associate snowboard exam in our Division, where he was examined by national team members – who were both on skis. While preparing for his full cert skiing exam, Lane received an invitation to the inaugural full cert snowboard exam. The exam was to be held in Colorado, and examined by Juris Vagners, Joe Waggoner, and Tom Long – who were all skiers. Lane was successful and became one of the first certified snowboard instructors within our division. This quickly boosted Lane into the position of also being one of the first snowboard examiners in the Intermountain division as well.
This ignited Lane’s desire to guide the direction of the sport on a national level.
In 1996, he was named to the team as well as the Snowboard Committee. At that time, snowboarders envisioned an identity of their own, and in 1997, the American Association of Snowboard Instructors was created by that demo team. A new snowboard teaching system was created along with new teaching and riding models, all of which were published in a new manual and video.
Lane was part of the division’s education staff, which initially was just 3 people. Though he was not selected to the national team in the year 2000, Lane continued to put energy into improving the division. He stayed involved nationally, participating on committees and task forces helping to author manuals, and guiding the growth of AASI.
Lane was the coach of the National Snowboard Team from 2008 to 2016. During that time, he formed two divisional task forces that created written national standards for certification, as well as freestyle accreditation standards.
Lane has served on the division’s staff for almost 30 years and has held a variety of roles. He continues to coach full-time – working with both able-bodied and adaptive athletes, as well as managing team Utah Mountain Sports – a club he helped to start in 2009 with close to 200 athletes.
Jo Garuccio
Jo began skiing in high school as a freshman in central New York. Her ski teaching career also started in that region at Song Mountain. Jo became full certified at Stowe, Vermont in 1973. After two seasons of teaching at Killington, Vermont (from 73 to 75), Jo moved to Taos, New Mexico before settling in Salt Lake City to attend graduate school and teach at Snowbird for Junior Bounous.
Jo taught skiing at Snowbird for 22 years between 1977-1999, before moving on to the Canyons Resort where she spent 12 years (from 2000 to 2012). During her tenure, she oversaw Canyons Ski School staff training for eight of those years before heading back to Snowbird in 2012, where she continues to teach today.
During her career in the Intermountain Division, she has received and achieved many accolades: Jo was the first woman member of the PSIA-I Alpine team. She served on the PSIA Board of Directors as the Education Chairperson, and also received the Junior Bounous Golden Ski Award for Exemplary Service as a DECL following the 2017 – 2018 season.
Despite all of these accomplishments, Jo’s most lasting contribution to the Intermountain Division will always be the development of the Ski Utah 4th Grade Ski program that she started in 1990 and which, to date, has introduced more than 120,000 Utah children to skiing and snowboarding. Jo also developed the Ski Utah 5th and 6th grade passport program. Some of the children who first learned to ski in those programs have become ski instructors in our division.
In the off-season, Jo has applied her athleticism to the world of endurance sports, winning seven world age group triathlon championships, 6 national age group triathlon championships, and earning group podium finishes at the Ironman Kona, Xterra World Championships, as well as the Masters National Road cycling championships.
Even today, she is one of our hardest working clinicians – in this pandemic season she lead 25 clinics, more than any other clinician.
Patti Olsen
Patti Olson did not grow up skiing; however she was always quite athletic and excelled at fresh and saltwater sports. Her first experience sliding on snow was at the newly-opened ski resort called Snowbird in the early 70s.
Patti’s ski teaching career began one day while working in the Snowbird lodging reservation department, when she was asked to drop everything to help a larger-than-expected group of children who had never skied before. That afternoon launched a teaching career that lasted for 17 years at Snowbird.
She was chosen as a Divisional Clinic Leader in 1975. That same year she was chosen to be a Children’s Supervisor by Junior Bounous and tasked with developing a children’s specific ski program and facility. During that time, Patti brought her knowledge to a larger instructor audience by leading special children’s specific training clinics she called “bag of tricks,” which she presented at Snowbird and around the Intermountain Division.
Patti attained full certification in 1978, and went on to become an Examiner in 1979, all while teaching only children.
Patti was an examiner from 1979 to 1989, when she decided to completely change lifestyles and moved to Maui. She returned from Maui in 1990 and dove back into ski instruction. Her passion was children, and educating instructors who taught children. This was her focus, and in 1997, she became the National Children’s Committee chairperson. Patty worked with the Junior Educational Team (JETs) to create the ACE program, today this is what we call the Children’s Specialist Program.
Patti was hired as a ski instructor at Deer Valley and remained there for 28 years as a private instructor, supervisor, and staff trainer. She regained her position as a Divisional Clinic Leader and became the Children’s Program Manager for PSIA-AASI. As of today, she continues her work as a member of the PSIA National Children’s Task Force.
