NORTH CONWAY — What do Wanaka, New Zealand, Telluride, Colo., and Chamonix, France, have in common with North Conway, N.H.? They're all on National Geographic Adventures' list of the world's top 25 ski towns.

It's no surprise to locals in Mount Washington Valley that North Conway made the list, which was based on great skiing and snowboarding, along with “inviting mountain burg steeped in ski heritage, amenities, and culture.” According to freelance writer Aaron Teasdale, North Conway is best for history-buff families in the Northeast.

Teasdale's article cites the area's early purpose-cut ski runs and innovations on grooming, lifts, and ski schools. He also mentions the town's close proximity to seven downhill ski areas and six Nordic areas,specifically lauding Cranmore, Attitash and Wildcat.

Cranmore Mountain Resort is the backdrop for the North Conway Village, and is where legendary skimeister Hannes Schneider taught for many years. The story of Schneider's arrival in North Conway is a part of local lore, repeated as often, and with as much reverence, as the tale of Chorcora's leap off the mountain, thanks in great part to local journalist and ski writer, Tom Eastman, and the New England Ski Museum.

Schnieder, who founded the world's first ski school in St. Anton, Austria, and was creator of the Arlberg ski technique, was brought over to North Conway from Nazi-occupied Austria in1939 by North Conway native Harvey Dow Gibson, who had become a prominent New York financier. Schneider was director of the ski school at Cranmore named after him from 1939 to 1955. Schneider also served from 1939 to 1955 on the board of directors of the Eastern Slope Ski Club, which was founded in 1935 to promote skiing and make sure the children of the valley had a chance to ski.

That program is still going on, and is a big part of why North Conway is still a ski town. The local ski mountains host school children during weekday afternoons, an activity provided by the Eastern Slope Ski Club's Junior Ski Program.

Encompassing students in grades one through six, the program offers low cost rental equipment to make it affordable to all youngsters, with ski lessons by volunteers. Every November the Junior Ski Program holds a two-day used ski and snowboard sale at the North Conway Community Center.

There's a life-sized sculpture of Schneider on skis at the base of Cranmore,and the train station at which he and his family arrived with great fanfare in February 1939 is still very much in use, only now it is not the last stop for skiers to the area, but is the embarkation point for visitors on excursions in the Saco Valley.

That the historic Victorian train station has been restored to a new life as the Conway Scenic Railroad station, from which one can look across Main Street and see the slopes of Schneider's adopted home, is one of the reasons the village, and the area, still has the feel of ski towns of yore, and likely one of the reasons Teasdale chose North Conway as one of the top 25 ski towns.