Lives

Warren Chivers, Olympian and coach

Warren Chivers
Passing Date: August 18, 2006

Warren Chivers, 91 Dartmouth racer went on to teach and coach at Vermont Academy. Warren Houston Chivers, 91, of Saxtons River, Vermont, died on Friday, Aug. 18, 2006, at the Springfield, Vermont, hospital. He had been ill for some time, and the immediate cause of death was pneumonia. The son of...

Hans Gmoser, heliski pioneer

Hans Gmoser
Passing Date: July 5, 2006

By Chic Scott (from the CMH website) Banff, AB - Hans Gmoser, the eminence grise of Canadian mountaineering, died July 5th, 2006 from injuries sustained in a fall while cycling the 1A highway near Lake Louise. In recent years Gmoser had shunned the limelight, content to enjoy his two favourite...

John Elvrum, jumper

John Elvrum
Passing Date: July 4, 2006

John Elvrum, 97, jumper and Snow Valley developer Hall of Famer held U.S. jumping record in '30s, then served in 10th Mountain Division. U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame member. Elvrum, born in Trondheim, Norway, developed Snow Valley Ski Area in California's San Bernardino Mountains for three...

Frank Snyder, Stratton Mountain founder

Frank Snyder
Passing Date: June 26, 2006

Frank Snyder, 83, founder of Stratton Mountain Skier, sailor was president of NSAA and commodore of the NY Yacht Club. Frank Snyder, the lawyer and chemical company executive who played a key role in founding Stratton Mountain, died June 26, 2006, a few days short of his 84th birthday. He suffered...

Richard Kohnstamm, Timberline Lodge savior

Dick Kohnstamm
Passing Date: April 25, 2006

Richard Kohnstamm, 80 Rescued and managed Timberline Lodge Government Camp, Ore.,  Richard L. Kohnstamm, who transformed Timberline Lodge into a national skiing institution in the 1950s, died April 25, 2006, after becoming ill at his family's cabin on Mount Hood. He was 80 years old. Kohnstamm...

William Kirschner, K2 founder

Bill Kirschner
Passing Date: April 23, 2006

Vashon, Wash. -- H. William Kirschner, 87, the founder of K2 Corp., died April 23, 2006, of pneumonia. Bill Kirschner was born in Seattle in 1918 and graduated in 1939 from the University of Washington with a degree in engineering. He married Barbara Rankin, and spent the war years managing a mine...

Burt Sims, award-winning ski journalist

Burt Sims
Passing Date: February 1, 2006

Born in Los Angeles in 1918, Burt Sims began his career as newspaperman in 1934 when, at age 15, “Boys Day in Industry” brought him to the city room of the Los Angeles Examiner. While a senior at Washington High, he was hired to report high-school sports scores. Burt spent the next 40 years in...

Otto Lang, pioneer skier and film-maker

Otto Lang
Passing Date: January 30, 2006

Otto Lang died January 30, 2006 at age 98. Born in Zenica, Bosnia in 1908, Otto was educated and learned to ski in Salzburg, then taught skiing at Semmering near Vienna. In 1929 he was hired by Hannes Schneider to work in the St. Anton Ski School. In 1935 Schneider delegated Otto to travel to New...

David Rowan, magazine pioneer

David Rowan
Passing Date: June 10, 2005

  David Rowan, founder of the industry’s trade publication Ski Area Management (SAM Magazine) died on Wednesday, June 8, 2005 from a rare cancer, mesothelioma. Rowan joined Ski Magazine in 1949 as associate editor, and over the next dozen years he managed the magazine in a variety of publishing...

Clif Taylor, GLM pioneer

Clif Taylor
Passing Date: May 7, 2005

Clif Taylor, inventor of the Shortee ski and the Graduated Length Method of ski instruction, died in 2005  in Evergreen, Colorado, at age 83. Taylor was a veteran of the 10th Mountain Division, and was wounded during the battle for Riva Ridge. Taylor, a ski instructor at the Mad River Ski School in...