Milestone Moment for the Skiing World as ’Hall of Famer Celebrates His Big Day

The skiing sport in the United States was developed gradually over the years to its present form. Behind it, there are sacrifices and efforts of men and women who shaped the sport with their passion and love for it. Junior Bounous is one such name who contributed massively to the growth and development of skiing sport in the country. There are many records and accolades with his name which he earned through decades of work in the field.

The skiing legend has defied age and has performed an incredible task that is rare to find. A few years back at the age of 96, when most people retire and live a quiet routine life, the skier set the Guinness World record to be the oldest person to perform helicopter skiing at 11,500 feet in Snowbird, Utah. Recently, the skiing world got the happy news of his birthday celebration.

Skiing legend reaches 98

According to Powder, the skiing legend Junior Bounous celebrated his 98th birthday. The news was shared by Snowbird on its Facebook page. In the post, the Snowbird gave a brief introduction to the legend and his work. Bounous was its first Ski School Director and Director of Skiing. His journey with Snowbird began back in the year 1970. He was hired by them to draw the layout of the ski tracks and runs. He is known for designing challenging terrains. Since then he has been associated with them in different roles.

Bounous has a reputation as the one who found new ways to make skiing enjoyable and exciting. He achieved that with innovation and developed ways of teaching skiing to people while nurturing his instinctive quality with it. That quality helped him to create joy and excitement for the skiers and in attracting people towards it. Bounous was the first to introduce the art of powder skiing. In 1996 he was inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame.

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Born in Provo, Utah in the 1920s, he was attracted to the sport from an early age and practiced it in his family’s fruit farm. After that when he reached adulthood he pursued his career in it and his journey took him a long way.

Legend Junior Bounous’s journey

Junior Bounous got his skiing instructor certificate in 1948 and he joined Alf Engen resort. There he was accustomed to and developed at Alta Ski School the philosophy of skiing which was to increase the joy and safety of skiing. This thought was later imbibed in the  American Ski Teaching System. Later on after 10 years, he joined Sugar Bowl, California as a director of a skiing school.

There he trained the instructors to implement the American Ski Teaching System. Bounous worked there for eight years where he refined the ski teaching methods and skills. Later on, he left and embarked on a new challenge and became director of ski school in Utah’s Sundance Ski Area. After four years he joined the Snowbord and remained there till now.

The contribution of Junior Bounous is invaluable to the skiing sport and the skiing world never wastes an opportunity to learn from his experience and work on his philosophy of skiing.

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