A Ski Legend Turns 100: Junior Bounous, Utah Powder Pioneer

Junior Bounous just joined the century club. The Utah ski legend turned 100 on Sunday, marking ten decades of skiing innovation and stoke. 

Born in Provo in 1925 to Italian immigrant fruit farmers, Bounous grew up skiing the Wasatch before resorts even existed, carving his first lines around his family's farm.

By the late ‘60s, he would help launch Sugar Bowl, Sundance, and Snowbird, drawing up latter's the resort’s first trail map, cutting runs by hand, and kickstarting the ski school. In an era before grooming, ski instructors prepared runs for students manually by side-stepping the whole thing.

“It was a time of experimentation,” Bounous said.

Bounous pushed the limits of deep snow skiing. In 1970, he became the first skier to drop Snowbird’s Pipeline, a 50-degree classic that still intimidates pros. He sent it again on his 80th birthday. 15 years later, he made it into the Guiness book of World Records as the oldest heli-skier on Earth.

But Bounous’s biggest legacy isn’t found in record books. Bounous changed Utah ski culture, helping kids, beginners, and everyday riders see powder as the best part of the sport. He is inseparable from the culture of Utah skiing and powder skiing more broadly. Even more impressive, he reportedly never broke a bone or tore a ligament in his years of elite skiing.

One hundred years later, Bounous is charging as hard as ever. He is an embodiment of passion for the mountains, living proof that in the best cases, devotion to skiing is an avenue of both longevity and stoke.

When you take care of something, it usually takes care of you.