Lives

Mountain guide

Bela Vadasz
Passing Date: September 15, 2015

Bela Vadasz, who taught hundreds to climb and ski in the Sierras above Lake Tahoe, died September 15 after an apparent heart attack. He was 62 years old. At age 3, during the 1956 Hungarian uprising, Vadasz was brought to the United States by his refugee parents. The family settled in San Francisco...

Ski tuner to the Mahres

Ed Chase
Passing Date: August 17, 2015

Ed Chase died August 17 in Branford, Conn., after a five-year-long fight with cancer. He was 64.   Ed grew up skiing in Sheffield, Mass., where he attended the Berkshire School. He then went on to Middlebury College in Vermont where he was a member of the class of ’73, played soccer and rugby, and...

Guthega resort developer

Walter Spanring
Passing Date: July 31, 2015

Walter Spanring, who helped to develop the Australian resort of Guthega and served as its first instructor, died on July 15, 2015 in Brisbane. He was born in 1930 in St. Lambrecht, Austria, where he raced and became a ski instructor. He moved to Australia in 1959 and in 1961 was hired to teach...

Mountaineer, Snowbird co-founder

Dick Bass
Passing Date: July 26, 2015

Richard D. Bass, 85, the Texas oil billionaire who co-founded Snowbird and went on to become the first person to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents, died July 26 in Dallas, of pulmonary fibrosis. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Bass grew up in Dallas, where his father made a fortune in oil...

Industry Exec, ISHA Stalwart

Ian Ferguson
Passing Date: July 14, 2015

Ian Ferguson died July 14 after a long battle with cancer. He was 78. Born in Lancaster, N.H., Ian grew up skiing at Cannon and North Conway, then attended Vermont Academy, where he skied on its prep-school championship team. He then raced for the University of Vermont, while teaching at the Sepp...

10th Mountain veteran and ski-museum director

H. Newcomb Eldredge
Passing Date: July 9, 2015

10th Mountain Division veteran H. Newcomb “Newc” Eldredge died on July 9, 2015. Born in Baltimore, Maryland on August 4, 1924, he spent his early years in Pittsford, New York. He attended Culver Military Academy in Indiana, then joined the 10th Mountain Division in 1944. Following training at Camp...

Prince, racer, engineer, salesman

Serge Gagarin
Passing Date: June 20, 2015

Serge Gagarin, who raced for Yale and went on to dual careers as an aviation engineer and a pioneer of aluminum skis, died on June 20 at age 95. A scion of Russian nobility, Prince Serge Serge Gagarin was born in Bedford, New York, in September, 1918, less than a year after the Bolshevik Revolution...

Aspen novelist, Downhill Racer screenwriter

James Salter
Passing Date: June 19, 2015

James Salter, 90, the “writer’s writer” who penned the screenplay for the film “Downhill Racer,” died June 19 in Sag Harbor, N.Y. Born James A. Horowitz in Passaic, N.J., he graduated West Point in 1945 and became an Air Force pilot. In Korea, he flew 100 combat missions in F-86 fighters, earning a...

Longtime Alta Lodge and NASTAR stalwart

Naomi Wain
Passing Date: June 14, 2015

Naomi Wain died on June 14, 2015 at age 93 while attending the Ojai Music Festival in California. After discovering skiing at age 40, Wain quickly became a well-loved fixture at the Alta Lodge in Utah for 50 years, staying there for two weeks each month during the ski season. Wain was a NASTAR...

Killy's mentor and ski guru

Michel Arpin
Passing Date: May 30, 2015

  Michel Arpin, 80, was a mythic figure in France, where he was coach and mentor to Jean-Claude Killy for several decades.   Born Dec. 29, 1935, in Ste-Foy Tarentaise, 10 miles downstream from Val d'Isère  to a family of hotelkeepers, Michel Arpin joined the French national ski team in 1956....