{"id":17703,"date":"2019-08-19T09:25:08","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T15:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=59548"},"modified":"2019-08-19T09:25:08","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T15:25:08","slug":"skiing-legend-pepi-gramshammer-dies-at-87","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/skiing-legend-pepi-gramshammer-dies-at-87\/","title":{"rendered":"Skiing legend Pepi Gramshammer dies at 87"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Pepi Gramshammer gets some pointers how to sound the air horn with his wife, Sheika (behind) for the start of June’s Pepi’s Face-Off race for the GoPro Mountain Games in Vail. The Austrian legend helped make Vail what it is today.<\/strong>
Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Many professional skiers have called Vail home. Pepi Gramshammer was the first.<\/p>\n

Gramshammer died at age 87 on Saturday at Vail Health Hospital in Vail.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was in a beautiful room with a view of Riva Ridge,\u201d said Sheika Gramshammer, Pepi\u2019s wife. \u201cThe first thing he said when they rolled him in: \u2018Look, Riva Ridge, my favorite run.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Gramshammer had several strokes and a seizure in recent days, and had been spending time in a hospital in Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was so excited, and so happy to come back home again,\u201d Sheika said Saturday. \u201cHe had a hard time talking, but when he saw Riva Ridge, his eyes just lit up, and he pointed at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A native of Austria, where he was a member of the national ski team, Gramshammer was courted to Vail in the fall of 1962 by Dick Hauserman, Pete Seibert, Morrie Shepard and Bob Parker, who wanted to see a professional skier call Vail home to add legitimacy to the new ski area. Gramshammer agreed but spent the early season in Aspen training for ski racing. He met Sheika there.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, his last words were to Sheika and their daughters, Kira and Sheika.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

ATHLETE AND BUSINESSMAN<\/p>\n

Gramshammer used race winnings and sponsorship money to start the Hotel Gasthof Gramshammer in Vail in 1964, which became a top employer in the area and remains an iconic Vail business to this day.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, many of Gramshammer\u2019s former employees from the early days took to social media to remember the man who got them their first job in Vail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been at (Pepi\u2019s) ski race camp in Red Lodge,\u201d recalled Buzz Schleper. \u201cWhen I got to Vail that fall and went into Pepi Sports for a job, the employee on duty told me they were full. Well, Pepi happened down the stairs and remembered me. We talked racing and then I told him that I came in for a job but was turned away. Immediately he found his manager and told him to hire me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick Quigley said Gasthof Gramshammer was the first lodge he saw after arriving in Vail in 1964.<\/p>\n

\u201cI walked in and out of the kitchen door in the bar walks Pepi with a white apron on,\u201d Quigley recalled. \u201cI didn\u2019t know who he was but told him I was looking for a job. He immediately took the apron off and handed it to me (he had just lost his dishwasher). Told me to get to work and check in after a shift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gramshammer was known to ski with his employees; Quigley was lucky enough to appear in a ski film promoting Vail with Pepi and Sheika.<\/p>\n

Ernie Crates, who worked for Pepi in the 1970s, said he loved to see the beauty of Pepi\u2019s turns when they could sneak away from work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was the best about Pepi was he loved to share the mountain,\u201d Crates said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the common folk, Pepi showed the powerful around Vail as well. He was known as President Ford\u2019s escort around the mountain, and the Gramshammers were rumored to have a direct line to the president.<\/p>\n

Pepi loved skiing into his later years, and could be seen hitting the slopes in his 70s amid health challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing him walk to the gondola with his walker to ski was so inspirational,\u201d Quigley said.<\/p>\n

SINGULAR SENSE OF HUMOR<\/p>\n

The run Forever on Vail Mountain is a quote from Pepi, who skied it before there was a lift, saying it took \u201cforever\u201d to get back out. On Dec. 10, 2010, amid Vail\u2019s best season on record, he and Sheika were at the top of that run in full ski gear for the dedication of Chair 5\u2019s upgrade to a four-person chair. Never one to hold his tongue, Pepi \u2014 in a speech to a crowd \u2014 said that at first he wasn\u2019t in favor of the decision to make it a high-speed chair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said don\u2019t put it here because more people will ski down now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A nervousness was felt among the pro-upgrade attendees before Pepi added, \u201cNow I\u2019m glad they did it. \u2026 You will get more ski runs!\u201d<\/p>\n

A statement Vail Resorts issued Saturday said there are few people as synonymous with Vail as Pepi Gramshammer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a force for Vail from its inception and an inspiration to all of us,\u201d the statement read. \u201cHis contributions to the sport of skiing and to the Vail Valley, combined with his incomparable energy and passion for the mountains, will be forever missed and will continue to live on in spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pepi was also present in June at the bottom of another one of his namesake runs, Pepi\u2019s Face, for the Pepi\u2019s Face Off running race. He enjoyed the event immensely, finding it hard to believe the run is taking on a second life in the summer as an attraction that people challenge themselves by running up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather ski down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pepi Gramshammer gets some pointers how to sound the air horn with his wife, Sheika (behind) for the start of June’s Pepi’s Face-Off race for the GoPro Mountain Games in Vail. The Austrian legend helped make Vail what it is today.Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com Many professional skiers have called Vail home. Pepi Gramshammer was the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 21:22:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}