Did you know (that Mt. Werner is named after Buddy Werner).? I was watching an old ski biography last night about Jill Kinmont, and Buddy was her boyfriend.
Wallace "Buddy" Werner (February 26, 1936 - April 12, 1964) was an American ski racer in the 1950s and early 1960s. Born and raised in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Werner and his siblings were accomplished skiers, and competed in both alpine and nordic events on Howelsen Hill. Werner raced for the University of Colorado in the mid 1950s, making the Olympic team in his sophomore year, joining his elder sister Skeeter Werner Walker.
Buddy Werner was selected for the U.S. Olympic Team three times: 1956, 1960, & 1964. His best chance to medal was in 1960 at Squaw Valley, but Werner broke his leg two months before the games while training in Aspen.
A year earlier, he was the first non-European to win the famed Hahnenkamm downhill race in Kitzb?hel, Austria in 1959, at age 22.[1] (The only American to win since was Daron Rahlves in 2003, on a fog-shortened course.)
Werner finished in fourth in the slalom at the 1958 World Championships and took fifth in the giant slalom; he also finished fifth in the giant slalom at the 1962 World Championships. He placed eighth in the slalom at the 1964 Olympics, behind teammates (and medalists) Billy Kidd and Jimmy Heuga. Although Werner never won an Olympic or World Championship medal, he is considered the first world-class ski racer from the U.S.; he excelled in all three alpine disciplines.
Following the conclusion of the 1964 racing season (at the U.S. Alpine Championships in Alaska), Werner retired from competition at age 28 and embarked on a new career. He traveled to Europe in early spring to film the ski movie Ski-Fascination for Willy Bogner. Werner and German racer (and Olympic medalist) Barbi Henneberger, age 23, were suddenly caught in an avalanche on the Trais Fleur slope near St. Moritz, Switzerland, and died on April 12, 1964. Werner skied out of the first avalanche, but was caught up in a second; their bodies were found hours later, deaths attributed to suffocation.
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