Gonzaga Prep grad John Stifter makes waves at helm of Powder Magazine in sunny Orange County

As a journalist, John Stifter, 31, a Gonzaga Prep graduate, may live in the best of both worlds.

As editor of Powder, he looks out at palm trees from his office in San Clemente, California, producing a winter sports magazine that tells the story of his life in one way or another, over and over, with every issue.

“Yeah, there’s nothing like staring at a palm tree and trying to think of the proper syntax for ski stories,” Stifter said. “It’s challenging, but that’s kind of the extreme irony of Powder. After starting in Sun Valley, Powder was sold to Surfer in 1976 and has been down here ever since.”

Decades after being founded by local enthusiasts, Powder and Surfer have evolved to become part of an international media conglomerate called Source Interlink Companies, Inc. Stifter grew up far from the ocean, but he’s adapted to his current surroundings and frequently hits the beach while he works with mountain prose.

“Surfing is what you do around here,” he said. “There’s not a lot of open spaces in this town, but there’s plenty of open space out there.”

Stifter grew up in Spokane and spent his formative years skiing the open spaces in Schweitzer’s . One could say Mount Spokane was the platform from which he launched his career and eventually came to live his dream.

“I started skiing at Mount Spokane when I was two, with two older sisters and mom and dad.” Stifter said. “I was a lucky kid. My parents were able to buy a cabin at Schweitzer when I was 5. Every Friday after school we’d load up the Suburban, head up to Schweitzer for the weekend, and I would have the best time of my life.”

Stifter developed a passion for writing at G-Prep and enrolled in the journalism program at Syracuse University in New York. He wasn’t comfortable living on the East Coast and returned to Spokane after one semester. Like many people around here in the ski industry, he logged a stint working at Lou Lou’s, the iconic ski shop that operated on Sherman until it closed in 2002.

Stifter rebooted his education at Montana State University in Bozeman, the school recognized by those who know as one of the best places to go to college and ski.

Bridger Bowl is 35 miles down the road. From campus, you can reach Big Sky in about 45 minutes.

Yet Montana State doesn’t have a journalism program. Stifter studied English and history instead. While reading Powder one day his sophomore year, he saw a classified ad requesting applications for internships.

“I wrote a poetic essay about skiing at Bridger and submitted that with my resume,” he said. “I actually got a handwritten letter back from the editor, saying he really liked what I wrote, but they were looking for people with published writing experience.”

Undaunted, Stifter got on the phone and called Outside Bozeman, a quarterly devoted to outdoor adventure and recreation. Outside Bozeman was his gateway to a path carved by resourcefulness, networking and turns of fate that led to the editor’s chair at Powder.

“I just wanted to learn and came into it with a really open mind,” he said. “I didn’t have much of an ego and just did whatever the editor would give me. It was great for my writing.”

His editor also happened to know the editor at Powder. It was a connection Stifter worked to his advantage.

“He knew my dream was to work for Powder, so I asked him if he could drop the guy an email and help me out,” he said. “Sure enough, the editor of Powder asked me to send him my stuff.”

In the summer of 2004, Stifter drove to Orange County and interned at Powder. That experience led to an assignment as a researcher for ESPN during the X-Games in Aspen, Colorado, the following winter.

“The job was great on all levels, because at ESPN as a researcher you really had to make sure your facts checked out, which is great if you’re an aspiring journalist,” Stifter said. “I also proved to editor of Powder that I could handle more, so they started giving me assignments.”

After the X-Games, Stifter traveled around the West in his Subaru, skiing from assignment to assignment. He worked for ESPN on X-Games research again the following winter, finished school at Bozeman and migrated to Salt Lake City in pursuit of more winter glory. The path led him to the beach in Orange County instead.

Stifter became an associate editor at Powder in 2007. He took over as editor in 2011. Now firmly ensconced in his dream, his vision is to diversify Powder beyond its traditional print personality by exploiting digital technology.

“We’re trying to prove that long-form journalism does in fact work online,” he said. “You just need to have the right platform to feature long form content.”

Powder’s foray into long-form journalism is available as a feature on Powder’s website called “The Human Factor,” by David Page, a 10,000-word, five-chapter story about avalanche training, decision making and the psychological factors that lead to life or death choices in the backcountry.

Chapter four, “And Then it Bites,” was released online Tuesday.

“The story is near and dear to me for a lot of reasons,” Stifter said. “It’s by far the best thing I’ve worked on in my seven years at Powder.”

Stifter said he missed the days of covering the ski scene traveling in his Subaru. Despite the incongruous location of the magazine’s editorial offices, the Powder staff is getting their fair share. Most of this year’s stories were covered last winter. About now, an entire season of issues has been put to bed, and it’s time to leave sunny southern California behind.

“We finish our last issue here before Christmas, so we’re pretty much gone from Christmas to April, covering events and producing editorial,” Stifter said. “Salt Lake is our ski town. You can drive to the airport here and be skiing at Alta or Snowbird in about 5 1/2 hours.”

Stifter will be in Salt Lake City Friday for the 15th annual Powder Awards, a red-carpet event promoted by the magazine to celebrate athletic performances, cinematography, photography and other aspects of the winter sports entertainment industry.

Then he’ll come home briefly and return to his roots.

“As a Powder editor, if you’re not out skiing in the community, you’re not doing your job.” Stifter said. “But I always make time for Schweitzer, to reset my soul.”