Selden Hannah, better known as Sel, was born in 1913 in Berlin, New Hampshire, a lumber and paper mill town populated by a colony of Norwegians, who brought their own skis and jumping tradition from their homeland.

He wasn't much older when he traveled south to Gorham, New Hampshire, and onto Pinkham Notch where he skied on the lower slopes of Mount Washington via the Carriage Road, in Tuckerman Ravine, and occasionally from the summit.

During World War II, Sel joined Dick Durrance, another Dartmouth graduate, to assist with Colonel Tappen's mission to train a large group of parachutists from Fort Benning, Georgia.

To solve that problem, he contacted friends from collegiate ski racing, including Walter Prager, Sel Hannah, his brother Jimmy, and others to train the troops.

In 1938, Sel and his wife Paulie bought the Elmer Temple Dairy Farm on Streeter Pond near Franconia, New Hampshire.