The Schussing’s Over For ‘97 Skiers Hit Silver For Last Day Of Long Season

What was Debbie Maier doing on May 17 last year?

“Camping,” said the 20-year-old Coeur d’Alene woman.

Her pal, Che Shaydak, 19, of McCall, Idaho, remembers he was out on Lake Coeur d’Alene in a speed boat.

But almost unbelievably the two snowboarders joined about 1,000 others Saturday at Silver Mountain for the last skiing of the season. Since mid-April - a month longer than any other local ski hill - Silver Mountain has been operating on Saturdays for skiers who just couldn’t get enough of the Winter of ‘97.

“The sun and the music and the people are just awesome,” Maier said, lamenting that Saturday was the last day chairlifts would be running. The summer gondola season starts next weekend. “I wish the snow would stay a little longer.”

Moments later, Maier, Shaydak, and a cast of other riders pushed off for a little more skiing.

Even though the term “late-season skiing” often has more to do with dodging boulders than with actual skiing, Silver Mountain’s terrain has been open almost in its entirety for the last five Saturdays.

Skiers and boarders were ripping through the trees in the North Glades like there was no June. Or July. The massive cornice off Skyway Ridge had crumbled, but a number of folks, including 17-year-old Rion Ithomitis, were soaring through 15 feet of air onto the chunky snow it left behind.

“I think the skiing is definitely worth it,” said Ithomitis, a Shadle Park High School senior. “I love skiing the slop.”

Even Wardner Peak attracted attention, with a smattering of hikers dropping in from the headwall just below the radio towers.

“I couldn’t get the lawnmower started this morning, so I had to come up skiing,” said Joe Letourneau, finishing up a run in the North Glade trees with Kelly Murphy.

The Spokane man was kidding. He’d have been up here anyway - chores be damned. Why sweat it out with the valley dwellers when you can ski? On May 17, no less.

“It’s a record that isn’t going to be beaten until the next Ice Age,” said Letourneau. “I’ve lived here 23, 24 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

The party unfolding just outside the Mountain Haus lodge wasn’t too bad, either. Despite the advancing army of clouds that drenched sunbathers in shadows, people were still stubbornly occupying the lawnchairs planted firmly in the snow.

There weren’t as many bikinis this Saturday as there have been on previous weekends. Shorts-clad skiers were also on the wane, although a number of die-hards didn’t look too unhappy. Just a little cold. The temperature didn’t venture much beyond 60 degrees at elevation. Rathdrum’s Bill Porath was shivering a bit in his tank top and knee-length shorts.

Chilly, Billy?

“No, but I got to get skiing or I’ll get that way quick,” Porath said, motioning to his buddy, Coeur d’Alene’s Ray Watkins, to get a move on it.

“C’mon, Ray,” he shouted, waving a camera. “Photo ops.”

For folks keeping score, the fun began on Nov. 20, 1996. David Kilmer, Silver Mountain’s marketing director, said snow fell for 28 lovely days in a row last November and December. Still, never in a million years would Kilmer have guessed folks would be skiing a full seven months later.

“The prediction was for snow early in the season,” he said. “But a lot of times when you get snow early on, you get skunked in the second half.”

Just like at all the other region resorts, the stinker never materialized at Silver Mountain. In early March, the mountain recorded its highest snow totals ever, with 17 feet on the top. Even on Saturday, about seven feet of coverage remained at Kellogg Peak; only down by the lifts was it getting a little thin.

“We owe it all to the incredible snowfall this year,” Kilmer said. “Skiers could be talking about this for the rest of their lives.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo