Friedl Pfeifer - Aspen, CO - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

Austrian native Friedl Pfeifer, a member of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division began training near Leadville at Camp Hale in 1941. He had been teaching skiing at Sun Valley. While on furlough, he skied Aspen Mountain. He vowed that after the war was over, he would return and develop Aspen into a world-class ski resort. After the war, Pfeifer relocated to Aspen and began buying up mining claims and surface rights.

By 1945, Pfeifer convinced Walter Paepcke, president of Container Corporation of America, to collaborate on Aspen’s first chairlift. Pfeifer also opened the Aspen Ski School. Just a year later, he became a founder of Aspen Skiing Corporation. The first lift officially opened on January 11, 1947, dedicated as the world’s longest chairlift, with Pfeifer and Paepcke in attendance. In 1958, Pfiefer opened Buttermilk Mouintain Ski Resort.

This life-sized bronze statue of Friedl Pfeifer is located in Gondola Square, near the Little Nell Gondola at Aspen Mountain Ski Resort. The statue stands upon a circular concrete base, just shy of 1 foot high. It depicts Friedl standing, holding his skis in his right hand and his poles in his left. The bindings on the skis appear to be for cross country skiing. While I'm sure that his clothing is of that worn in his day, it certainly is not the matching ski parka and pants common today. He is shown as wearing long pants, a sweater over a collared shirt, with the collar outside the sweater. The shirt and sweater are tucked into his pants and he's wearing a belt with a rectangular buckle. He appears to be wearing cross country style boots. No sunglasses or ski gloves for this champion skier.

Friedl's name is inscribed on the base of the statue and again on one of the skis. The base also has the inscribed name of the sculptor, Sam Fadhli, from Loveland, Colorado. Another inscription on the base states that this statue was completed in 1999 - four years after Friedl's passing. There is a plaque at the base of the statue that reads:

FRIEDL PFEIFER
1911-1995

A FOUNDER OF
ASPEN SKIING CORPORATION
ASPEN SKI SCHOOL
BUTTERMILK MOUNTAIN

AUSTRIAN NATIONAL SKI CHAMPION
10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION,
COMPANY A, 87TH REGIMENT
ASPEN HALL OF FAME
COLORADO SKI HALL OF FAME
NATIONAL SKI HALL OF FAME

HIS VISION ALLOWS MILLIONS OF SKIERS TO
ENJOY THESE MOUNTAINS AND HIS LEGACY
LIES IN THE HEART OF EVERY SKIER

URL of the statue: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
You must have visited the site in person, not online.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   07/15/2011 Chasing Blue Sky visited it