Wendy Wagner, Two-Time Olympian Turned Avalanche Forecaster, Dies at 52

By Gavin Kentch

Wendy Wagner, who represented the U.S. at two Olympics and four World Championships and was a dominant force in American women’s skiing at the turn of the century, has died at 52. The cause of death was ovarian cancer, according to multiple reports.

Wendy Kay Wagner was born in Salt Lake City on October 31, 1973. She grew up traversing the trails and mountains around Park City on foot, ski, and mountain bike. She attended Western State College, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics with a minor in environmental studies. She later added a master’s degree in atmospheric sciences from the University of Utah, with an emphasis on mountain weather and snow science.

Wagner skied professionally for nine years, from 1997 through 2006. She was based in Anchorage for much of that time, affiliated with what is now called APU Nordic Ski Center. She was one of the top American skiers of her generation, making Olympic teams in 2002 and 2006 and world champs teams in 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2005.

All told, Wagner made 39 starts on the World Cup, 17 at world champs, and eight at the Olympics. She was a workhorse, starting all five races contested at Lahti in 2001, and four of six races at Val di Fiemme in 2003. She was a member of the U.S. women’s relay team at five out of the six global championships she attended.

Top international results included 17th in a World Cup classic sprint and 19th in a World Cup 70km classic, the year that the Marcialonga marathon was a World Cup race. That is an impressive range. Wagner had another seven top-30 World Cup results, heavy on classic distance races but with a skate sprint in there as well.

At the Olympics, Wagner paired with Kikkan Randall to finish 10th in a classic team sprint at Torino in 2006, at the time a highwater mark for American skiing. She had a top individual finish of 23rd, in the 30km classic at home in Salt Lake City in 2002. She had three individual top-30 finishes at world championships: 23rd in the classic sprint in Oberstdorf in 2005, 26th in the 10km classic at Lahti in 2001, and 29th in the 15km classic in Lahti.

In domestic racing, Wagner claimed 17 wins on the North American Continental Cup Series, or NorAm, what is now called the SuperTour.

Wagner retired from professional skiing following the 2005/2006 season. She went out on top: The final result on her FIS profile shows her winning the 30km classic national championship at Spring Series in Presque Isle in March 2006. 

The following month she was hired as the assistant nordic coach at her hometown school of the University of Utah. “Besides being a solid character and a two-time Olympian, she is also a local,” said then–Utes head coach Eli Brown in a press release announcing the hiring. “Having Wendy on board will be great for our program.”

Wagner headed north again four years later, joining the staff of the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center, or CNFAIC, starting in the winter of 2010/2011. She would work for CNFAIC for fifteen years; her final forecast for the center (“High danger, P1: Storm Slab/ P2: Deep Slab!”) came in April 2025. Her final staff meeting with the center came just weeks before she died. Her face and smile, not to mention her professionalism and enthusiasm, were known to a generation of backcountry skiers in southcentral Alaska.

In a 2003 interview, USST sports psychologist Jon Hammermeister said of Wagner, “I won’t tell you much but I’ll tell you one thing, Wendy loves to fight. You wouldn’t know it off the hill as she’s one of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet but Wendy just loves a good bar fight. She’s down when it’s not a good fight, even when if she might win by two or three minutes. For her winning doesn’t discriminate performance. That’s somebody that really has the right stuff, really has the right things.”

In a separate piece earlier that same year, Pete Vordenberg, then the head nordic coach for the national team, wrote, “Wendy has taken the role of team leader for the women’s squad — the development team is full of young talented women skiers and they are lucky to have such a great role model in Wendy Wagner.”

Wagner had battled ovarian cancer since early 2024. She died in her sleep on November 6, in Park City. She celebrated her Halloween birthday in Anchorage eleven days ago with her Alaskan community, then returned to Park City on a med jet flight a few days later to spend her final days at home.

“Our Director Wendy Wagner passed away in her sleep earlier this week after fighting ovarian cancer for the last year and a half,” wrote CNFAIC in a recent post. “She spent her last few weeks surrounded by family and friends. It is hard to put into words what she meant to our team, the Alaska snow community, and the national avalanche community. But we’ll try.

“Wendy was a mentor, a leader, and a close friend to many. Accomplished, humble and genuinely caring, people were always her main concern. Everyone including avalanche forecasters, Forest Service coworkers, professional friends, and the community at large. Any change, any decision regarding the avalanche center always came down to one question — what is best for the community? This was not some unspoken virtue, it was something she talked about often, and her concern was always 100% genuine.

“She shared with us at our last staff meeting just last week, that people had been asking her what’s on her bucket list? She said the only thing she wanted to do was ‘work at the avalanche center with all of us.’

“She has built something remarkable, and we are lucky to be able to carry the torch. Wendy set an incredibly high standard for trust and respect among our team and within our community. During her 15 seasons at the avalanche center, she built a solid foundation of partnerships and systems that will benefit our community well into the future.”

In another recent post, the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group wrote, “Wendy was a trusted avalanche specialist, educator, and friend whose depth of knowledge about snowpack and mountain weather was unmatched. Her expertise was a steady guide for our team and for the broader backcountry community. When an avalanche occurred, we turned to Wendy for her insight — her understanding of local terrain, snow science, and evolving conditions helped keep rescuers and recreationists alike safer in Alaska’s mountains.

“Beyond her technical skill, Wendy was kind, humble, and deeply committed to helping others understand and respect the power of the snowpack. Her legacy lives on in the many people she taught, advised, and inspired.

“We are profoundly grateful for all that she shared with us, and she will be greatly missed.”

“Our beautiful, brave girl passed at midnight last night,” her family wrote on their CaringBridge site last Thursday. “She was enveloped in love.”

Wagner is survived by her husband, Jon Davis; her parents, Deborah and David Wagner; her brother, Christopher; her stepsons, Gus and Sam; and cousins Ashley and Lindsay and childhood friend Laura, among others, according to a recent obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Her family writes there, “Wendy would encourage us to get out and enjoy the mountains and desert, carrying her with us and tackling the next adventure with her enthusiasm. Wendy would send us off into an untracked powder bowl, telling us to ‘Center punch it!’”

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, you consider donating to the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center. You can find that donation page here. The video at the top of the donation page features one Wendy Wagner.

Here are some more photos of Wendy I could find in the Getty archives: