Junior Bounous was born 1925 in Provo, Utah. Before he became interested in professional skiing, he was an outstanding Nordic competitor and captured the Intermountain Cross-Country and Ski Jumping Championship for successive years beginning in 1945 through the early 50s..
In 1948, Junior first came to Alta to take alpine ski lessons from ski school director, Alf Engen. That association grew… and because of Junior’s outstanding athletic and ski teaching ability, Alf offered him a job in his ski school. Junior accepted and eventually became Alf’s first Assistant Director, a position he held until 1958 when he moved to Sugar Bowl in California to take over ski school director duties.
Junior returned to Utah in 1966 to take over the ski school at Timp Haven (now Sundance) ski area. There he developed and directed a county-wide ski training program involving eight city recreation organizations and eight city high schools, involving up to 1500 students per session.
In 1970, Junior took over ski school directorship at Snowbird and held that position until he became Director of Skiing in 1991. Junior is the ultimate example of ski instruction perfection. His reputation throughout his career has been one of skiing excellence and giving joy and pleasure to others who want to learn how to ski.
Junior’s love of skiing involved winning the National Gelande Championships at Alta in 1970 and playing a leading role in the formation and development of the Professional Ski Instructors of America organization. He was also a contributing writer and consultant to the ski media for more than 30 years.
His awards and contributions rank him as a major contributor to the development of skiing in the United States. A few of his honors include the Sports Writers of California award; the Alta “Diamond” award in 1964 for powder skiing excellence; the Lowell Thomas Award for Intermountain Skier of the Year in 1983; the PSIA-Intermountain Hall of Fame in 1991; the Alf Engen Ski School Hall of Fame in 1993; inducted to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1996; received the 1999 Utah Ski Archives “Quinney Award” for “forging ski history in the West;” and in 2002 was inducted into the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame.