11 Facts About Ernie Blake

Ernie Blake was born in Germany, grew up in Switzerland and went to university in Germany and Switzerland before emigrating to the US in 1938.

Ernie Blake worked for US military intelligence during World War II, when he assisted in the interrogation of the leading Nazis Hermann Goring and Albert Speer.

Ernie Blake was helping to run other ski areas and flying a small plane between them, when he spotted what was to become Taos Ski Valley.

Ernie Blake grew up close to the Swiss ski resort of St Moritz, and went to boarding school at the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz in Zuoz, followed by a degree in history at the University of Frankfurt.

Ernie Blake served in the European theatre, where he assisted in the interrogation of the leading Nazis Hermann Goring and Albert Speer.

Ernie Blake was his code name during the war, and afterwards he chose it as his real name.

In December 1940 Ernie Blake met Rhoda Limburg at the top of a chairlift on Mount Mansfield in Stowe, Vermont.

Ernie Blake followed her to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she was studying art.

Ernie Blake was helping to run the Santa Fe ski area and the Glenwood Springs ski area in Colorado, traveling between them in a small plane he flew himself.

Ernie Blake was inducted into the US Ski Hall of Fame in 1987.

Ernie Blake died of pneumonia in Albuquerque on January 14,1989.