Bill Jennings

Lookout Pass Ski Area has celebrated its 75th season. That’s about as many ski seasons as Hans Reifer has seen in his eventful lifetime. I joined him on his 102nd day skiing since November. Every day Lookout is open, you’ll know where to find Reifer, a limited partner in the resort. Don’t you wish you could figure out how to get away with hitting a mountain every day? I’ll settle for skiing like Reifer when I’m pushing 80. According to him, fate will make the difference.

Mead High School graduate Will Brandenburg had a tough time sustaining the momentum from his top-10 finish in the 2010 Olympic super combined event at Whistler, British Columbia, last February. After three years of bouncing between the Nor-Am Cup and Europa Cup circuits with the occasional World Cup start, Brandenburg started every World Cup slalom of the 2010-11 season, including the world championships in Garmisch- Partenkirchen, Germany. In several events, Brandenburg carried the best time until the split, only to straddle a gate or careen off course.

A critical issue with the proposed expansion at Mount Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park is safety. About 800 acres of undeveloped state park land on the northwest side of the mountain is in the ski area’s concession. Mount Spokane wants to develop about 250 acres for skiing and riding. The Proposed Alpine Skiing Expansion Area (known as the “Pasea”) is out of bounds. However, because the Pasea is included in the concession granted to Mount Spokane by the Washington State Parks Commission, the ski area is responsible for it. When someone gets hurt back there, the Mount Spokane Ski Patrol is responsible for getting them out.

The long, arduous process of expansion at Mount Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park is reaching another critical milestone. A public comment period on Mount Spokane 2000’s final proposal began Feb. 15. The Washington State Parks Commission is conducting a workshop next week to formally present the plan to the public.

Sunday I was in the St. Joe Mountains skiing up to my armpits in light, dry powder. I was able to experience such epic conditions because of the determination of Ryan and Carey Stanley, owners of Peak Adventures. As late as December, the Stanleys weren’t sure they would be able to operate their snowcat operation based in Cataldo, Idaho, this season. A permit dispute with the federal Bureau of Land Management threatened to put an end to snowcat skiing in the St. Joe Mountains for good.

The Yoke’s Outrageous Air Show at Schweitzer brings in some big-time freestyle aerial talent. Tonight and Saturday night, world champion Steve Omischl will be amplifying the wow factor. Omischl, 32, is taking a year off from World Cup competition after 10 years on the Canadian freestyle ski team. He’s competed in three Olympic Games and more than 100 World Cup events, winning 20 titles and making the podium 40 times. He’s also won four overall World Cup titles and a World Championship in 2005. His three other World Championship medals include a silver in 2009.

Saturday morning at sunrise I watched from the sidelines of a speed training session at Mount Spokane. Teenagers in speed suits attacked the course. The wind resistance from their velocity made a whooshing sound as they streaked by. The Spokane Ski Racing Association was preparing for the J3 Junior Olympic super G qualifier at Mt. Hood this weekend. The chance to work on raw speed was rare. SSRA needs access to a big chunk of vertical and uninhabited slopes. The weather has to cooperate and the ski area has to support the effort. The 7 a.m. load was a special occasion.

Rwanda, a country in central Africa, is still recovering from the genocide that happened there in 1994. In 100 days, about 850,000 people were murdered – 20 percent of the population. Rwanda’s health care system was destroyed and 75 percent of the medical community was either killed or fled the country. A group of medical professionals from Spokane and Coeur d’Alene is teaming up to help Rwandans rebuild their health care system. This spring, Healing Hearts Northwest will make its second trip to Rwanda. It’s an expensive trip, and Mount Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park is helping the group raise money to pay for part of it.

It’s halftime at the 2010-2011 skiing and riding season. Winter is in the locker room, analyzing the first half and planning its second-half strategy. From the opening kickoff, winter’s star quarterback, La Nina, made some big plays and piled up the points. But what looked to be a rout has become a closer contest. Late in the first half, winter was caught off guard and burned with a trick play – the Pineapple Express – cutting into its lead. The Unseasonables also made some defen- sive adjustments, setting up a high- pressure system over the West Coast, which kept La Nina contained.

Most people in their right mind didn’t go skiing last Sunday. An atmospheric river flowing from the tropics flooded the region with moisture. Ski areas were pounded with rain. Mount Spokane and the Spokane Ski Racing Association (SSRA) hosted the Pacific Northwest Ski Association J3 Junior Olympic qualifier last weekend. For 173 young athletes from Washington, Oregon and North Idaho, the show had to go on, weather be damned.

I hooked up with a couple of friends who ski telemark and hit 49 Degrees North Saturday. We were there during the mountain’s Winterfest weekend. The conditions weren’t ideal. Wet snow had fallen, followed by bitter cold. Hard, scratchy bumps covered with broken crust were everywhere. I wondered why the going looked a little easier for my telemarking friends than it was for me, skiing alpine.

The Ski NW Rockies Corporate Pass is a hot ticket. But this season the vouchers good for a sweet discount on passes at local hills aren’t good at Schweitzer. A lot of local skiers and riders who can’t otherwise afford to ski at Schweitzer are disappointed. Schweitzer pulled out of Ski NW Rockies last spring. Ski NW Rockies is an organization promoting snow sports at the grass-roots level. Inland Northwest ski areas provide Ski NW Rockies with the Corporate Pass vouchers. It sells them to fund marketing, as well as programs designed to create future skiers and riders.

The search for a lost skier on Mt. Spokane in the middle of a stormy winter night was covered in this column last week. The guy everyone was looking for, Wayne Schuh, 66, also had a story to tell. Schuh’s experience came out in a debriefing a few days after he managed to bushwhack down the mountain unharmed. The Mt. Spokane Ski Patrol wanted to analyze how he got lost, where he went and why he couldn’t be found.

If you like to ski out of bounds, pay heed to a cautionary tale. A few weekends ago the Mount Spokane Ski Patrol was getting ready for its Christmas party. A full spread was catered in the ski patrol chalet. For a Saturday, the mountain was quiet.

If you like to ski out of bounds, pay heed to a cautionary tale.

Silver Mountain’s legacy goes back to 1885, when Noah Kellogg’s donkey wandered off and discovered the Bunker Hill Mine. Ever since, Kellogg natives wisecrack that their town was founded by a jackass. It’s been 20 years since the ski area above Kellogg became Silver Mountain. The gondola, Mountain Haus and skiing and riding off Kellogg Peak were introduced in 1990. To celebrate, Silver Mountain will have special deals and special events throughout the season.