Explains and shows how and why the Austrian racer and hotelier Pepi Gramshammer was instrumental in helping Dick Hausermann, Bob Parker, Pete Seibert, and Morrie Sheperd, successfully develop Vail. The story is told mainly by Pepi, the Austrian racer, instructor and hotelier of Gasthof Gramshammer, who was hired in the early 1960s to be Vail’s official ambassador to the public and media. Since then Pepi and his hotel have in many ways become fixtures in and symbols of and for Vail.