George Woerndle was living in Aspen, his birthplace, in 1955 when he began skiing at the age of two. His teacher was his father, Toni, an instructor at the Colorado resort and a member of the pre-war German Olympic ski team.
To say that George learned the lessons of the day would be an understatement. With the ideal conditions present at the Red River Ski & Summer Area this winter, an expert skier like George is still a fan of making more than a few turns. Since selling Sitzmark Sports & Lodge in 2018, he has had the time to hit the slopes and enjoy every minute of downhill fun.
He was seven when he moved to Red River with his mother, Ilse, and brother Rudi. His dad had been lured to New Mexico by skiing Hall of Famer Buzz Bainbridge with the offer of heading up the ski school in the new resort.
“It was a small group in the ski industry back then and they all knew each other. Bainbridge had been in Colorado before moving to Santa Fe.”
George recalls that the ski school in Aspen was run by Austrians and “they didn’t think of Germans like they did Austrians, so he got treated like the stepchild.
When he was asked to run his own ski school, he was happy to come down here!”
The Woerndles bought the SEB Motel from ski area owner/builder Stokes E. Bolton and it became the Alpine Lodge, named after the lodge they had owned in Aspen. Ilse managed the lodge while Toni lead the ski school. For two young brothers, moving to Red River was an adventure.
“For fun we’d wander in the woods, explore old mines – you know, we did a little of that. We rode horses a lot back then. All of the kids here rode horses, so we rode with them, hiked and messed around.
“I came at the end of my first grade year,” George remembers, “and finished the school year at the Moly Mine school. I went through the fifth grade at that one-room school. When they closed it, I went to Questa.”
He attended 6th through 8th grade there before attending the Abbey of the Holy Cross in Cañon City, CO. His education would include a one-year stint at Denver University before enrolling at UNM where he attended classes for 3½ years.
George recalls that there was friction between Toni and Bolton which resulted in a expansion of Alpine business.
“My dad decided to put in a ski rental shop so that the guests in town might have some decent skis. They didn’t like that at the Ski Area, so they told him either he could have a ski shop or he could teach at the Ski Area ‘but you can’t do both.’ So they let him go” That was about ‘62 or ‘63. Sigi (Klein) was already here – he worked for Toni for a year.
“Bolton bought everything used. I guess the equipment wasn’t in too good of shape.” Toni’s shop had first rate skis, bindings and boots, a standard that George maintained.
“Then dad started running the ski school at Monarch (CO). He’d drive up there on weekends, then come back to Red River during the week.”
George says his mom “ran the lodge, took care of the clothing part of the shop and had someone who helped her run it. She had the restaurant, bar and everything else going, too.” Toni would take care of the shop during the weekdays.
The ski shop was at Main on the corner of Mallette Road, current location of Karen Kelly’s KWK Events.
It had originally been a barbecue place run by Horrible Harold Maroney. When Ilse decided that it would bebetter to have a restaurant and a bar in the main building, the vacant store became the ski shop, sitting next to the movie theater which had been built by Bolton.
The theater became a source of summer cash for George when he began to run the large movie projectors at the age of 12 or 13. It was a good deal.
“They decided that I was old enough to do that. I had my outside job, too. I mowed the Alpine lawn, but the projector job gave me a chance to make a little money!” George ran the projector until 1991 when the lodge sold to Jerry and Verna Henson.
He also spent a few summers working at the Rainbow Lake, a pay-by-the-pound trout-fishing lake owned by Mike and Judy Walner that was just across the river from the Alpine.
When the ski shop was relocated across the street in 1977-78, the move was a family affair.
“I was involved in that when I came back from UNM in ‘75. I was skiing and tending bar one winter.
I didn’t like that, so they said ‘If you don’t like doing that, you can start running the rental shop.’ I ran the ski rentals in that original location. Then in ‘77, we bought that property across the street.
“J.B. Veale owned it and was going to put in a ski shop but didn’t. He sold it to some people from Taos who were going to do a Kentucky Fried Chicken (or something), but decided they didn’t want to do that, so they sold it to my mom and dad.”
It was a one story building which soon saw a second floor added. A few years later, there was “an area between the building and where the Pioneer Shop is and there was an old cabin that had been several restaurants and a pizza place that Harvey Large ran.
When that didn’t work for him, we bought that property also.
“In ‘84 we tore that building down and built the retail shop, the way it is now. I ran it for a few years, but then I decided I didn’t like all that retail stuff.
That’s when we started renting it out. First was the Cheaper Skier (they’d had a place in Lifts West).
They left after a year, and a couple from McKinney Texas ran it for one year, weren’t excited about the volume up here because it was one of those really bad snow years.
“Randy Lyles had been renting from us in the original Alpine building, where the winery is now. He had his T-shirt business there before he decided to move to our side of the street. He took the whole retail side, I think around ‘94.”
Over the years the Alpine Lodge saw several additions.
Living quarters were added above the restaurant/bar. Shops were added on Main St and rental rooms were added above them. George says that it was around 1980-81 that lodge rooms were added on either side of the theater, with that work being done by Ron Pockrandt, Sr.
Toni Woerndle died in Fall of 1981 after a short bout with cancer. Woerndle Park by the Conference Center is named for him.
Ilse was active in community life, supporting events and always with a smile. When she sold the Alpine, she retired, visiting Sitzmark only to pick up mail and visit. She skied into her 80s and was a regular sight on the streets of Red River, vigorously walking around town, using ski poles as walking sticks.
Her death in 2013 was widely mourned.
George has been a community supporter too, and has sat on the Red River Town Council since 2000.
In October 2019, after a determined effort by Paul “Snappy” Smith of Red River Dreams, Toni and Ilse Woerndle were inducted into the New Mexico Ski Hall of Fame, a well-deserved and long overdue honor. Before a large crowd of NM ski industry dignitaries, George and Rudi accepted the award on behalf of the family and the town of Red River.
