Alaska snow enthusiasts are mourning the loss of one of the state’s top snow safety professionals.
Wendy Wagner, director of the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center, passed away in her sleep Nov. 6 after battling ovarian cancer for the prior year and a half, according to her colleagues at the center.
Wagner, 52, was a two-time Olympic cross-country skier with a Master’s degree in atmospheric science, who joined the center as an avalanche forecaster in 2010 and became its director in 2014.
As director, Wagner shaped the avalanche center by overseeing its growth into the professional organization it is today, during a time when outdoor, off-piste snow sports were exploding in popularity, said Graham Predeger, now the center’s interim director, who began working with Wagner in 2011.
That included growing the full-time staff from three people to seven and expanding the center’s coverage area beyond just Turnagain Pass, by issuing forecasts for the Summit Lake region to the south and the Chugach Front Range to the north, closer to Anchorage.
“The avalanche center now, compared to what it was and what it looked like in 2011, is really unrecognizable, thanks in large part to Wendy's energy and efforts that she put forth towards building these systems that we lean on so heavily today and these partnerships across the snow and avalanche community in Southcentral Alaska,” Predeger said.
Wagner was also a great communicator, full of positivity, and she covered a lot of ground quickly in the backcountry while gathering observations for avalanche forecasts, Predeger said. That was on foot, with climbing skins on her skis, but also “ripping” on a snowmachine, he said.
“My first season working with Wendy, we were doing a lot of ski touring, and it was intimidating keeping up with an Olympic athlete on the skin track,” Predeger said. “And my solution to that was, ‘Let's teach Wendy how to snowmachine,’ and then I was able to keep up with her in the backcountry a little bit better.”
She was also very humble about her background as an Olympic skier, said Predeger, who said he had to pry out details from that time of her life.
Wagner made a total of 39 starts in World Cup events, in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005, and competed in two Winter Olympic Games, in 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah and 2006 in Turin, Italy.
Olympic gold medalist Kikkan Randall said she often roomed with Wagner as they overlapped as skiers in the Olympics and while chasing World Cup championships.
“I was in the young part of my career, and she was like a cool big sister, you know, a veteran athlete who I looked up to quite a bit,” Randall said. “I just loved that she was so, so personable, and could laugh and be funny, and yeah, of course, her insight.”
Wagner even helped Randall with her calculus homework when she was a senior in high school and both women were on the U.S. World Championship team in 2001, Randall said.
In her role as director of the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center, Wagner’s personability helped maintain a focus on serving the public, said Andrew Schauer, lead avalanche specialist at the center.
“She had a really strong, genuine concern for other people, both for the people that she was close with, for all of our staff at the avalanche center, and also for the community at large,” Schauer said. “I think that was one of her main driving forces, you know, we're working as a service for the community, so whatever we're doing needs to be what's best for the community.”
Schauer and Predeger agreed that Wagner’s personality contributed to cultivating trust with people recreating in the mountains of Chugach National Forest, both among members of the motorized and non-motorized communities.
“Keeping up with current research and understanding of risk communication, as well as our modern understanding of snow science, I think all of that effort is really hard to quantify, but yeah, without a doubt, she made that a safer place,” Schauer said. “When people heard Wendy talking about avalanche conditions, they listened.”
Wagner’s death presents a huge loss for her family and friends, the avalanche center and the larger snow community, Schauer and Predeger said. Messages of condolence have been pouring in from around the world, they said.
“We're going to miss her dearly,” Predeger said.
According to her obituary, Wagner left behind a husband, Jon; two stepsons, Gus and Sam; and a loving extended family.
