Former longtime Sugarbush Ski School director Sigi Grottendorfer died in St. Martin, Austria, on July 12, 2023.
He was born on December 12, 1937, in Austria and raised by his foster mother. Growing up, everyone in their village called his mother Hanna Mom and he was known as the Little Guy Hanna Sigi. His mother had a small general store and his first work experience was working in that store.
After eight years of elementary and high school, he graduated as a locksmith. While working as a cable fitter on a tram at a ski resort he was involved in an accident that ended his career as a locksmith but led to the beginning of his ski career. He attended the Ski Academy of Arlberg and attained federal certification from it after being selected to attend the prestigious academy, said be the best ski academy in the world. While at the academy, he met Othmar Schneider who was the ski school director at Boyne Mountain in Michigan.
In 1964 Sigi came to the United States where he was a ski instructor at Boyne Mountain and then came to Sugarbush where he took over the Stein Erikson Ski School, a job he held for decades. He also had retail ski shops at Sugarbush for many years.
In the summers, he began traveling to Portillo, Chile, with a cadre of his Sugarbush ski instructors, and others, to manage the ski school there. He did that for 17 years before the traveling back and forth all year long got to be too much. In 1993, he met his wife Claudia Auer at Chez Henri and they were married in Florida in May 2015.
Sigi’s love of golfing led the couple to Florida where they lived near his longtime friend Carl Creeden. They traveled back and forth between Austria and the U.S. In 2004 they rented a summer hut in the Australian alps, which is an Austrian hospitality facility providing provisions and lodging for hikers and mountain climbers. They managed that, working together for nine years.
They settled permanently in Austria two years ago and in January he was diagnosed with tongue and tonsil cancer. Claudia cared for him and was with him when he died.
