Get inspired for your next slopeside escape with Slim Aarons' dazzling photos of skiing's golden age, where style and glamour ruled the mountains
There is no photographer who captured the elegance of the sport – and lifestyle – of skiing than Slim Aarons, the society photographer who chronicled the rich and famous throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Born to Jewish immigrants in a Lower East Side tenement, Aarons began his career as a combat photographer for the United States Military during World War II. In peacetime, he headed to Los Angeles, where he soon found himself turning his lens on the glamorous figures of Old Hollywood.
By the 1960s, by his own admission, Aarons was regularly “photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places,” for magazines like Life and Holiday. And many of those attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places were in the mountains: The ’60s were a decade that saw skiing, especially in the Americas, go mainstream. He captured European princesses in Gstaad and businessmen in Squaw Valley, chefs preparing snowside feasts in Courchevel and skiers having a fondue picnic in Aspen. In the process, he slowly built an archive that defines the very idea of an Alpine aesthetic.
Below, find 34 of our favourite Slim Aaron’s skiing photos – perhaps they will even inspire your own slopeside style.
Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Two women recline on improvised sunbeds in Cranmore Mountain, New Hampshire, circa 1955. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty Images
Society hostess and style icon Nan Kempner skiing on the slopes of Sugarbush in Vermont, December 1960. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
The après-ski scene in Vail, Colorado, March 1964. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Three skiing waiters on a ski slope in Stowe, Vermont circa 1962. The man in the foreground carries a bird on a tray, the second man carries a wine in an ice bucket and the third carrying a menu. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Christine Camerana, Caroline Stoop, and Christine Semenenko Warrender on the slopes in Gstaad, Switzerland, February 1977. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Manuela Boraomanero and Emanuela Beghelli holiday in the Italian ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, March 1976. Photo: Slim Aarons
Two skiers inspecting their skis on the slopes of the Sugarbush Mountain resort in Vermont, April 1960. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
A group of skiers standing next to snow covered trees in Vail, Colorado, USA, 1964. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Princess Bianca Hanau-Schaumburg at her Gstaad chalet, 1985. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Skiers stand in line waiting for the ski lift at Vail in 1964.
Skiiers sun themselves in Courchevel, circa 1970. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Model Barbara Mullen skiing in Klosters, Switzerland. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Skiers adjourn for drinks at the bar on top of peak KT-22, Squaw in Valley, California, 1961. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Skiers outside the Chalet Costi in Zermatt, 1968. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
A stand-up fondue picnic for skiers at Snowmass-at-Aspen, Colorado. The ski picnic was organized by Holiday magazine, with the helicopter being used to bring up hot food. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Three skiers inspecting their skis on the slopes of the Sugarbush in 1960. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
A woman wearing a fur coat and holding ski poles in Vail, Colorado. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
A woman holding her skis in North Conway, New Hampshire, 1955. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Skiers prepare their equipment next to the Eagle Ski Club, Gstaad, Switzerland, February 1977. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Skiers at the Cranmore Mountain Resort in New Hampshire, 1955. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
A skier on the slopes of Verbier, February 1964. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Countess Jan Bonde in the Palace Hotel sleigh on Lake St. Moritz, Switzerland, 1983. . Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
American political novelist William F Buckley Jr. takes a break from skiing near Gstaad with economist John Kenneth Galbraith. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Skiers prepare their equipment next to the Eagle Ski Club, Gstaad, Switzerland, February 1977. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Skiers in Gstaad, Switzerland, March 1961. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
The apres-ski scene in Zermatt, Switzerland, March 1968. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
A group enjoys a skiing holiday in Courchevel, France, circa 1970. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Skiers getting ready to go downhill in Verbier, 1964. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
American lawyer and businessman Alexander Cochrane Cushing with his first wife Justine Cushing at the Squaw Valley Ski Resort which he developed in Olympic Valley, California in 1961. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Skiers line up for a hike to ski resort Zurs from Lech, Austria, February 1979. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Damon Gadd founder of Sugarbush ski resort, Vermont with his wife in a Sugarbus snow gondola. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
Courchevel restaurant chefs Jean Jacob (left) of Le Bateau Ivre, Michel Rochedy (center) of Le Chabichou and Albert Parveaux (right) of Pralong 2000, Courchevel, France, 1987. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty
A woman in a distinctive ski suit designed by Bogner carries a pair of skis while riding a horse. Photo: Slim Aarons / Getty