A body found in the tundra atop Colorado’s Independence Pass in 1970 has been identified as legendary ski racer Gardner Paul Smith, a Beat-era adventurer who, before he went missing at age 39, was revered as a free-and-easy companion.
Now the daughter he abandoned, who since childhood has wrestled with “a frustrating mystery,” is appealing for details from the end of his life “chasing winter” worldwide.
“I’m still sorting it out. I am just sad — sad that he was alone,” said Gaida, who interpreted his “whatever is right, friend” expression as evidence of a kind and tolerant man who accepted others’ thinking. Smith, who grew up in California at Boreal Mountain in the Sierra Nevada, became one of the nation’s fastest skiers. He went to the University of Nevada in Reno and joined the Army in 1951, serving as a paratrooper before an honorable discharge in 1957. He emerged as a fearless free-thinker inclined toward cutting-edge pursuits, according to friends, family members and old news stories.
But in 1961, Smith had flown south again to Argentina, where he met Jennifer Dawn Andrews, a British woman who grew up in neighboring Uruguay. They married, and he became a father in 1962, before a divorce six years later. He drifted, moving between California and Aspen. A postcard to his mother dated Nov. 12, 1969, marked as the last she heard from him, read: “I am doing all right. Don’t worry. Love, Gardner.
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