Hint: It’s Government Issue.

Credit: Colorado Snowsports Museum

Thanks again to the Colorado Snowsports Museum in Vail, CO, for contributing this photo to our series. A special shout-out to curator Dana Mathios for picking some interesting relics and for providing answers to the “glimpse”.

The collection at the Colorado Snowsports Museum tells the story of the explosive rise of skiing in the Colorado Rockies, preserving a legacy for future generations.

Last Week

Tread Of Pioneers Museum in Steamboat Springs, CO, provided this picture of racer and celebrity Buddy Werner in happy times. On the left is Vanda, his wife, on the right is Skeeter Werner, his sister. As so many of you commented, Buddy was raised in Steamboat, raced in the late 50s and 60s, make the ’56, ’60, and ’64 Olympic teams, and, in 1959, managed to be the first non-Austrian or Swiss to ever win the famed and formidable Hahnenkamm downhill race in Kitzbuhel. Only one other American has ever won that race since, and that was Daron Rahlves in 2003.

Buddy at Innsbruck.

After the 1964 race season, Werner retired from ski racing at age 28. Later that year, he and others were filming ski scenes for Willy Bogner’s first of many movies, Ski Fazcination, when he and German racer Barbi Henneberger were buried in an avalanche at St. Moritz. Bogner was eventually tried and convicted of negligent homicide and served a suspended sentence. The entire ski world was stunned.

Buddy Werner was posthumously inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame, now the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, later that year.

Buddy Werner, American ski racer, 1936-1964. Credit: Tread Of Pioneers Museum

6 Comments

  1. What is the thingy?

  2. Looks like a clinometer for measuring slope angles.

  3. Scott Taylor says:

    Its a clinometer

  4. Clinometer, a fancy version of a level that we can put in our smartphones now.

  5. Clinometer, to measure slope angle for races and to insure that the lift towers are at/on the appropriate angle.

  6. An inclinometer, to measure how steep a slope is.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*