Skiing

Stories about my adventures as a skier and ski instructor

A Few Fun Weeks of Ski Instructing

Sometime in the 1990s when I was still a ski instructor, I was assigned what may have been my most fun class. Standing in front of me one Saturday morning were seven or eight very eager 8, 9, and 10 year boys and girls. As I normally did, I first took them up the beginner hill chair and watched them ski back down since they all said this wasn’t the first time they had been skiing. They demonstrated varying levels of ability but were fairly close, so after a second trip on that hill I ushered them onto chair three which took us two thirds the way up the mountain. [Read full article]

If You Think You Can or Can’t, You’re Right

One evening in the early 1990s I was night skiing at Mt. Spokane. I can’t remember why I was there alone, maybe I stayed after a day of teaching or I just had to get away to clear my head of the stresses of running a business, who knows. It was a beautiful clear night and there were few skiers on the slopes so I was enjoying cruising without any traffic. I would ride Chair 2 to the top, ski over to a run called Rock Slide, then join Northwest Passage for a fast run back to the chair. While on the chairlift I noticed Bruce Davenport, a fellow instructor and former ski racer, a couple of chairs ahead of me. [Read full article]

Another Skiing Adventure

Earlier I wrote about meeting Ray Willman. Over several years we had many adventures together, a lot of which occurred while skiing. For whatever reason, Ray liked my company. Probably because I gave him a lot to laugh about and because I was always willing to follow him to places I may well not have tried without his lead. He usually chose to be away from the “maddening crowd” so we frequently skied where few, if anyone, was skiing. On Mt. Spokane that usually meant skiing on the south side of the mountain south of Chair 1, including out of bounds on the open face down to the road. [Read full story]

The Ride

As I silently glide into the growing dense fog my mind reflects on past events and thoughts that seem like only yesterday. Were they real or imagined, and does it really matter? [Read full article]

So You Want to Be a Ski Instructor

The road was wet and slushy, and the last half mile to the employee parking area was enveloped in increasingly dense fog. I stepped off the shuttle below the ski school building into two inches of slush and water, and trudged up the 15-foot steep slope in very soft, spring-like snow. What a way to start a projected busy teaching day. And it was only 7:30am on December 31. [Read full article]

Riding to the Top

We fall silent as our steady ascent continues leaving me alone in the silence of winter wind. Then mystically the summit emerges like a phantom through the fog and we glide from our cold perch. [Read full article]

My Ski Friend Dave Ozuna

About 30 years ago I met Dave Ozuna while teaching skiing at Mt. Spokane. He was in his late 60s and a new instructor hire. I have to admit he was not the greatest skier, but he had great enthusiasm. He worked hard to become a good skier and instructor and continued to teach until age 93. He stopped skiing completely 3 years ago. [Read full article]

Trying Skiing for the First Time

Growing up in Portland, Oregon in the 1950s, I had no knowledge of the sport of skiing nor did I know anyone who did. Then in 1962 or 1963 a friend asked me if I wanted to go to Mt. Hood and go skiing. He said he would show me what to do and I’m not sure why, but I said sure. [Read full article]

My becoming a Ski Instructor

In the late fall of 1981, my friend Ray Willman talked me into trying to become a downhill ski instructor. He had been an instructor for a couple of years and thought I would like to be one also. I thought I had become at least proficient so I signed up for instructor training at Mt. Spokane Ski Area. Right away I found out just how little I really knew about the sport. [Read full article]

Summer Hiking at Mt. Spokane

One of the summer hikes I occasionally take on Mt. Spokane is from Lodge 1 in the downhill ski area to Lodge 2 via the cat track connecting the two lodges. According to the topographic map, there is an elevation difference of 328 feet from one to the other. The distance one way via the cat track is approximately ½ mile, and the same returning on the road. [Read full article]