Mount Spokane Ski area was more than a little different in the 1980s and early ’90s than it is today. During that time, the skiing terrain was minimally maintained beyond nightly grooming of the major runs and a little brush cutting. The area between chairs 1 and 2 were still fairly open meadows, and it was easy to get back to the B29 trail on the road when we skied the south face of the mountain, which we did frequently. Today the trails between the bottom of the south face and the road are mostly overgrown so it’s easier to cut the run short and traverse back to the top of the B29 run. Also at that time, the area was blessed with more snow than has been received the past few years. 

Additionally, the area lease was owned by the Riblet Tramway Company and managed by Greg Sowder, an executive at Riblet. To me it seemed Greg had little interest in how the area was run–especially the Ski School that I was part of. For the 19 years he was manager, I never met him and don’t even remember even seeing him. When he was there, he spent all his time in his office, I guess. I did have his brother’s kids in one of my six-week learning programs, but only met the parents once.

I don’t want this recollection to sound like a downer. On the contrary. The area operated every day during the season unless the power went out, as it did on a few occasions. And Sam Wormington, the man who made the place run, did as good a job as he could with what he had to work with. 

Every morning during the season, Sam would record the ski report and put it on the area phone. On really good snow days, he led with a yodel. Every once in a while, when the conditions were right, he would abandon his skis and ride his snow scooter–one ski with a bicycle seat and handle bars–down Northwest Passage, while yodeling of course. He wrote a book about his adventures in the ski industry.

The thing that impacted me the most during Greg’s tenure was how the ski school was pretty much left alone to be managed by a series of school directors. The one that was there the longest was Keith Sheckler. He was a very good skier and somewhat a hands-off manager. 

Keith assigned five or six clinicians to lead our every Saturday and Sunday 8 AM clinics. Each clinic leader took a group out to practice some element of the teaching progression from 8 until 9. On many occasions the clinic would end with some type of synchronized group-skiing performance. Sometimes it was skiing in a single-file line down the fall line with the leader signaling each turn. The followers sometimes had to turn the same direction at the same time. Or sometimes every other skier had to turn in the opposite direction at the same time. 

Once in a while each clinic class would stop at the top of the beginner hill and form a triangle, starting with one in the font then two behind, then three, and so on. Again, the leader would signal each turn and the group behind would turn the same way at the same time or every other line would turn the opposite way. What great ways to forget about the terrain and everything your body and skis were doing and just concentrate on the leader.

These exercises really developed each instructor’s skiing ability as well as their teaching style and competence.

I have many more stories about the years Keith was the ski school director, which I may share over time, but one more comes to mind now.

During that time, I would occasionally stay after class to free ski with some instructors under the lights. One night at about 8 PM, Keith led seven or eight of us up to the top of chair 2. He then proceeded to lead us under the rope that closed off access to No Alibi, the non-lighted run under chair 1.

The sky was clear and the moon was near full. We traversed over to No Alibi, which had just been groomed after the day’s skiing ended. We stood at the top for a few seconds to take in the view, then off we went. We put in first tracks down to the cat track back to lodge 2.

I called it a well-done day for sure.

Ken Kaiyala
8-13-2026