PSIA / AASI - Eastern Division

The Einar Aas Award is presented to a snowsports school director in the Eastern Division as a tribute to Einar Aas and to honor his memory. Einar was an outstanding snowsports school director; his dedication to his students, his school, this organization (both divisionally and nationally) and the snowsports industry is legendary. This award recognizes a snowsports school director for achieving and maintaining the highest standards in snowsports school management as nominated and selected by his/her peers. It is to be awarded annually at the Snowsports School Management Seminar banquet beginning in December of 2009.

Einar Aas
Einar Aas was born in Trondheim, Norway on July 6, 1934. He moved to Montreal, Canada in 1960 and taught skiing at Gray Rocks while working as a mechanical engineer. Einar was certified by the Canadian Ski Instructors Association and became an examiner in 1962. He later taught skiing at Mount Snow and at Blue Hills, and was the Director of the ski school at Madonna Mountain (now Smugglers’ Notch) in Vermont.

Einar became an Alpine Level III member of PSIA-E, having joined in 1964. Also in 1964 he began teaching skiing and running the racing program at Butternut Basin (now Ski Butternut) in Great Barrington, MA. In 1968 he opened Butternut Ski Shop and became the Director of Butternut Ski School, a position he held until he passed away on July 13, 2008 after a long and courageous battle against cancer.

Einar was involved on the early Board of Directors of the National association and was a founding father on the original Board of the Eastern Division. Beginning in 1973, he would serve on the Eastern Division Board for twenty-nine years. He served terms as both Eastern President and National President, dedicating time to not only the Board of Directors, but also many committees and task forces. Einar was granted Life Membership in PSIA National and Eastern in 2002, recognizing his lifetime of dedicated service to the association.

Throughout his long career Einar enjoyed teaching skiing, snowboarding and he enjoyed coaching racing. He loved and worked actively with children and he made every effort to be sure every child who wanted to learn to ski/ ride got that opportunity. He was a mentor to all who wanted to learn. His passion for skiing and life was second to none. Einar was a true professional, a real character, a “linguistic liberator” and a friend to all that loved snowsports. This award will help keep his memory alive for years to come.

We hope you will consider recognizing a peer and fellow snowsports professional by submitting a nomination. The nomination process and timetable is as follows:

Please complete this form and submit to: Michael Mendrick, Executive Director at mmendrick@psia-e.org.

Thank you for your interest in recognizing a peer and fellow snowsports professional.
Snowsports School Management Committee