Anderl Molterer was born in Kitzbuhel, Austria on October 8, 1931. Despite his late start as a serious ski racer, he became the Austrian national champion eleven times from 1952 to 1960.  In addition, from 1953 to 1959, Molterer won all of the most prestigious alpine ski races—the Kandahar, the Hahnenkamm and the Lauberhorn--- several times.  On the world level, he won a downhill bronze at the World Championships in Aare, Sweden in 1954, and silver and bronze at the Olympics in Cortina, Italy in 1956.  During these years, the world press anointed him “The Blitz from Kitz,” a nickname he still bears proudly.

Immediately following the Olympics of 1960, Molterer moved to Aspen, and went to work for D.R.C. Brown’s Aspen Skiing Co. Appointed racing director, he coached Aspen’s promising young racers, skied with VIPs, and provided Aspen with an international ski star that promoted Aspen and Colorado to skiers from all over America. 

In the winter of 1960-61, Freidl Pfeifer created the first professional ski racing circuit, the International Professional Ski Racing Association (IPSRA.) Before this pioneer professional circuit folded in 1966, Anderl had been the world professional champion four times.

                During those same years, Anderl continued on Aspen Mountain as the ski company’s ambassador, skiing with hundreds of celebrities and skiers.  Each autumn, he accompanied Aspen’s marketing team to the major ski shows across the nation to promote Colorado skiing. He also modeled and promoted Aspen Ski Wear at fashionable stores across the country.  In 1970 Anderl opened Molterer Sports in Aspen and ran it for seventeen years.    

In the summer of 1966, Anderl and Pepi Gramshammer of Vail, and Eric Sailer of Austria set up a summer ski camp near Red Lodge, Montana, named the Red Lodge International Summer Ski Racing Camp. This soon proved to be the outstanding facility of its kind in the U.S. For 25 summers, the Red Lodge team coached as many as eight thousand youngsters from all over the United States and the world. 

Anderl has been a regular participant in the American Ski Classics and Legends of Skiing events held at Vail and Beaver Creek each March. In 1997, he was presented with the prestigious “Legends of Honor” award given annually to only a handful of the greatest skiers in the world.  And in 2000, his hometown of Kitzbuhel named him the “Hahnenkamm Legend of the Century” for his nine Hahnenkamm victories, more than any other competitor. 

Both honors marked a fitting culmination to a career that spanned two continents. Recently Anderl commented about his 40-year stay in Colorado: “Colorado is a magical word for me because it is synonymous with the greatest skiing in the world. I may be Austrian by birth, but Coloradoan by life choice.