By Bob Soden

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Address: Vienna, Austria

Born: November 30, 1917

Category: AMERICAN SKI/SPORTS BUILDER

Walter Foeger was born in Innsbruck, Austria, to Anna and Franz Föger. He came to the U.S. in 1956, and was granted American citizenship in 1963.

Foeger displayed early athletic prowess in many sports, and capped his civilian competitive career with a 1^st place in the junior division of the Hahnenkamm, downhill and combined, in March 1936. He attended Innsbruck State Teachers College. During WWII he was Alpine expert for Ski Command 11. After the war he was coach of the Spanish Olympic ski team for many years, attending the Oslo Winter Games in 1952.

From 1956 to 1973 Foeger was a significant and colorful part of the American ski scene. He established an alternative and successful ski teaching system, and contributed his expertise to the development of the ski economy in northern Vermont and elsewhere.

Natur Teknik, Foeger's innovative and direct-to-parallel ski instructional method, was introduced at Jay Peak in early 1957 and was being taught as late as 1991.

The Jay Peak ski area was begun as a business development project of the neighboring towns, spearheaded by Harold Haynes and the Kiwanis Club of North Troy, Vt. When Foeger arrived in December 1956, Jay Peak had one open slope and a non-functioning ski lift. By the time he moved on in 1968 there were 45 trails and 7 lifts. Those familiar with Jay's history readily acknowledge he was the major force behind this early growth.

Foeger developed his unorthodox teaching method to help beginning and intermediate skiers achieve parallel skiing without using the snowplow and stem-christie turns employed by most other systems. Instead, Natur Teknik used "up-unweighting" of the ski tails, heel-thrust, and the "natural" counter-rotation of the upper and lower body to effect turns. He first published his ideas in the book "Learn to Ski in a Week" (O'Shea Publ., Vt., 1958), following up with "Skiing for Beginners" (Ronald Press, NY, 1962).

In February 1958 Foeger's Natur Teknik method was the subject of an article entitled "Revolution in Ski Teaching" in Ski Magazine. Former general editor of Ski Magazine Morten Lund devoted a chapter to "Natur Teknik" in his 1968 book "The Skier's Bible".

By 1958 Foeger had passed on the principles his system to his first full-time instructor, Hubert Daberer. By 1960, the year ASTAN¹ was incorporated, 5 instructors had been certified. In 1984 ASTAN records indicate 421 instructors had been qualified to teach the system.

For varying periods a number of ski areas, besides Jay Peak, taught Natur Teknik. Among them were: Okemo Mt. and Bolton Valley, Vt.; Camelback and Jack Frost, Pa.; Dutchess and Moon Valley, N.Y.; Thunder Mt., Mass., etc. As well, Foeger gained moderate successes introducing the system in Canada and Japan.

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