The FroMan

Robert Frohlich, a friend of my family and a friend to Lake Tahoe passed recently after battling cancer for the past two and a half years.  I first met Fro when he laid the tile in the entryway of my families house in Ward Canyon when I was 8 years old.  At that point in my life I was really falling in love with skiing and I remember religiously taking the Tahoe-Truckee weekly from my Dad to find the frequent articles that Fro would write about the local ski community.

As I grew older I sometimes became the subject of his articles because of my ski racing success and I was always proud to be mentioned by him in the paper.

I once had a long stretch of time where I could not ski because of knee surgeries.  I remember seeing Fro in the village at Squaw where I was becoming a too frequent customer of Mamasake where he worked serving drinks.  We had a beer together and it was all fun, but the second time in less than a week that I set up to his bar he was not smiling.  He asked me what I was doing and if I ever wanted to accomplish my dream of returning to the US Ski Team.  It was a poignant moment because I knew that he was proud of me for what I had accomplished and he had the heart to tell me that he thought I was about to throw it all away.  At that time it had a big effect on me and I credit Fro for helping me buckle down and become strong enough to overcome my injuries.

The next season I came back strong I still have an article where he claimed my World Cup Downhill victory in Chamonix was the most notable accomplishment of 2008 for Tahoe based athletes.   Coming from Fro it was real!

The last time I saw Fro was a few months back.  We talked a lot about skiing and how he was sad that he had to leave these beautiful mountains behind, he knew he was on his way out.  We were mutual fans of each other and we made a trade that day, I gave him my Nike puffy jacket from the Vancouver Olympic Games and he gave me one of his rugby Jerseys from his days at the University of North Carolina.  We snapped a couple of photos, he kept telling me how beautiful how my girlfriend Anna was, he always loved the ladies!

I will miss Fro, as will many.  The way he could put into words what people were feeling was amazing to me.  I will be traveling with his rugby jersey in my bag this year on the World Cup tour and every time I look at it I will remember the FroMan and ski a little bit faster!