Toni Matt trail dedicated in east at Catamount Mountain

This column was published in The Republican, a newspaper in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Dec. 22, 2024.  

EGREMONT – For most of the world, Toni Matt was the fastest man on skis. For Catamount Mountain kids, he was their cigar-smoking, limburger cheese-eating instructor. 

Staff at Catamount Mountain in the Berkshires are now honoring his legacy by changing the name of The Race Trail to Toni Matt. 

People know Matt best for his record-breaking 6-minute, 29-second dash down Mount Washington’s Tuckerman Ravine — a run where he famously and not particularly on purpose schussed the 55-degree headwall. He essentially straightlined the trail to win The Inferno. 

That feat was recently added to the Guinness Book of World Records. 

But what many don’t know is that the same Toni Matt served as the director of the Catamount ski school and race program from 1960 to 1974. 

“To have someone like Toni Matt affiliated with Catamount is an honor and I’m appreciative of the opportunity to tie his legacy back to Catamount and the race program,” Mark Smith, general manager of the mountain, said as the new trail sign was unveiled Dec. 14. 

Smith grew up in Vermont and, like most skiers, knew of Matt’s famous run. But he said it wasn’t until he was recruited to serve as the head of Catamount that he learned about Matt’s local ties. 

Matt, whose real first name was Anton, was already a European junior national champion in 1936 when he was just 16. 

“I call him an Austrian American ski pioneer because he came to America in 1938 or ‘39 to teach and develop the ski industry,” said Richard Matt. “He was probably one of the best racers in the world at the time he started winning races. People wanted to learn how to ski like Toni Matt.” 

Richard Matt, who lives in Woodbury, Connecticut, said his father first worked as an instructor at Cranmore Mountain in New Hampshire and raced. 

He stayed there until the U.S. entered World War II. Although he was an Austrian citizen, he joined the military and was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division in Colorado because they were looking for men with experience mountain climbing, skiing and overall cold weather experience. He became a U.S. citizen after the war ended because of his service, Matt said. 

After the war, his mother, Stella, and father married and headed west to Sun Valley and then to Whitefish Ski Area, in Montana, where he helped cut trails and began the ski school in the 1950s, Matt said. 

Earlier honor 

While Catamount would like to claim credit for having the first Toni Matt ski trail, Whitefish beat them to it by more than 25 years. Richard Matt said he is thrilled to now have a trail named for his father on the east coast as well as the west side of the country. 

Matt was recruited back to the east coast in 1960 to head up the Catamount Ski School. He settled in Pawling, New York, and in the summer worked at a golf course while he and his wife raised their five children. Matt remained there until his death in 1989 at the age of 69. 

“He loved the ski school,” Matt said. “We were all kids here, spoiled brats skiing everywhere and breaking rules and we all knew everyone.” 

Did his father ever talk about the Tuckerman Ravine run he was best known for? 

“He talked about it all the time, I got tired of it,” Matt said. “Every spring there were phone calls, there were reporters, there were questions because, of course, Tuckerman is climbed by thousands of people.” 

That April day in 1939 at least 150 racers had signed up for The Inferno and most were familiar with the Ravine. His father, however, was not and he and his teammate – another Austrian – spoke little English at the time. 

“That was the problem. He thought he had gone over the lip but he hadn’t,” Matt said. “When he did go over the lip he said there was no sense slowing down or turning.” 

It is believed Matt reached speeds of up to 85 mph on the trail, which winds through a narrow, wooded slope at the bottom of the ravine. The previous record was 12 minutes, 35 seconds. 

That was all on a pair of wooden skis measuring 220 centimeters with beartrap bindings that do not release in a fall, said Jed Williamson, a retired college president, affiliate of the New England Ski History Museum and a long-time friend of Toni Matt. 

“He was a great ski instructor. His basic deal was to say ‘Just follow me,’” Williamson said. “That’s ‘chust’ with a C followed by an exclamation point.” 

“My God if you did that you were a skier,” Williamson said. “That’s how I learned. I could see what he was doing.” 

Kevin Clarke, now an announcer for the World Pro Ski Tour, and Frank Reeves, who lives in Goshen, Connecticut, were two of those mountain “brats.” 

They talked about Matt being larger than life. He was rarely without a cigar — lit or unlit. He swore by silver wax for his skis and to this day they remember his fondness for smelly cheese popular in Europe. 

In the summer, Matt favored Bermuda shorts, even though his legs were mapped with scars, they said. 

Clarke said he lived near Egremont and Matt would pack all the kids in his Pontiac Grand Safari and drive them to the mountain on his way to work. At one time he remembers Matt hitting 100 mph in the station wagon, showing his love of speed wasn’t limited to skis. 

“He was a hell of a guy. He had a very good sense of humor,” said Kitty Kiefer, whose mother, Louise “Weezy” Kiefer, took over the ski school when Matt left to head to Whiteface in Lake Placid. 

The instructors and regular skiers at Catamount became a close group of friends who would play hearts when the lifts closed. At the time, reflective aviator sunglasses were the rage and she remembers Matt using them to read his opponents’ hands. 

“He was such a hoot. I always took off my sunglasses after that,” said Kiefer, who showed up to the trail-naming holding an old patch that read Toni Matt Ski School. 

He was also an excellent ski instructor and lived up to his reputation of skiing fast — he eschewed those slalom turns, she said. 

Rich Edwards, one of the former Catamount owners who still works at the mountain, said the idea of renaming the trail took years to come to fruition. 

Along with the trail sign at the top of the run, there are plaques explaining Matt’s history at the top and bottom of the run, where racers often gather. 

“The name Race Trail just didn’t have enough meaning,” he said. Now that it is called Toni Matt it will have meaning for everybody, whether they are a ski racer or a ski instructor or a race coach.” 

    Toni Matt. (Photo provided by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame to Republican staff)
  

    Kitty Kiefer, of Salisbury, shows off a patch she found dating to the 1960s when Toni Matt ran the Catamount Mountain ski school. She brought it with her to attend the dedication of the Toni Matt Trail at the mountain on Dec. 14, 2024. (Jeanette DeForge/Republican staff)