Just like in one of his Olympic medal-winning runs, Lane Spina is still smooth on his skis.
Pristine view of Lake Pend Oreille from Schweitzer Mountain Resort.
of trees when Grollmus gave us the intel on this run. “Make your way through this small section of trees and then it opens wide up for about 400 yards. I’ll go first and radio back up to EJ once I get in position.” Grollmus takes off, and a couple of minutes later we hear him over the radio, “It’s really good. Send them one at a time, stay to the left of my tracks and have fun.” Since Goldsmith was new to cat skiing, we gave him first honors on this run. Having recently retired as orthopedic surgeon, he hadn’t skied powder in several years and was a little apprehensive about powder skiing with this crew because he thought he was a little rusty. “I’m standing at the top look- ing down, thinking, ok, take it easy
The posse that came out to visit was a small group of close-knit friends I used to run with back on my stint with the US Freestyle Ski Team. We had two-time Olympian Lane Spina, who won a silver and bronze medal in the 1988 and 1992 Winter Olym- pics; his brother Yale, who was one of my coaches; World Pro Mogul Champion Johnny Witt from Sara- toga Springs, NY; Seth Goldsmith from Portland; and my long-time friend, former teammate and busi- ness partner Dan Herby. Dan and I go all the way back to the late ‘70s and our days at Coeur d’Alene High School, where as Dan says, he spent the best six years of his life. Lastly, joining our group were a couple of my local ski friends Alison Murphy and old-time freestyle skier Scott Barks- dale, both from Sandpoint.
Our morning started with a 7:45 a.m. meeting at the Schweitzer Ac- tivity Center located at the base of the Humbird Hotel in the Schweitzer Village. This is where we sign waiv- ers and get familiar with the back- country safety gear we’ll be using. Our guides John Grollmus and Eric “EJ” Jensen spent some time with us going over the day’s logistics and teaching us how to use the avalanche safety equipment. By 8:30 we were riding the Great Escape chairlift to the summit where a warm snow- cat was waiting for us. EJ did one more individual transceiver check as we all loaded up in the cat. A short 10-minute ride and we were at our first drop-off point. We were all lined up on the cat track looking over a small section
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