STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
They come together over a love of skiing and a desire to get better.
But they come away from Sun Valley’s Mountain Masters with more than an increased proficiency at staying forward while skiing the bumps.
Barbara Thrasher and Jo Murray hatched a plan to start what became the Wood River Women’s Charitable Foundation while riding the chairlift during a Mountain Masters class. Now, 10 years later, its 200-plus members have given out $1.3 million to non-profit organizations ranging from The Advocates to the Bellevue Library.
At least two people—Jane and Paul Hansen—tied the knot after meeting in Mountain Masters.
Rick Koffey decided to take the plunge and retire after taking a few months off from his career to take part in the Mountain Masters program.
And Esther Ochsman says the program helped her go from having one foot planted in Washington, D.C., where she had had her career, to having both feet planted squarely on Sun Valley soil, aka or snow.
Many more have established lifelong friendships through the program.
“The circles of friends you develop are amazing,” said Barbara Thrasher, who is embarking on her 16th season with Mountain Masters. “When I came here in 1999, I didn’t know anyone in town. This program is not so much about learning to ski, although you do learn to ski, as it is about community. I’ve met more friends here—good friends—than anywhere else.”
Mountain Masters kicked off another season on Monday as skiers decked out in colorful shades of Columbia, Bogner and other ski wear assembled at Lookout Restaurant atop Bald Mountain.
(If you weren’t among them, you can still join in the fun. You can even ski with Mountain Masters for a week or two if that’s what fits your schedule.)
A quick ski-off down Ridge and the 60-plus skiers were sorted into groups of six according to their abilities and the type of terrain they wanted to ski.
“Once you’re dialed in it’s like having season tickets to a basketball game,” Mountain Masters Director Randy Van Dyke told them. “If it’s snowing real hard one day and you don’t want to come, take the day off. Give yourself a break—it’s a long season. Your seat will be there the next day.”
Indeed, Mountain Masters is a nine-week program that runs from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. Sun Valley’s top instructors teach it, rotating among the groups so that the groups learn under nine different instructors through the course of the season.
Those who wish can even drop down to Lower Warm Springs as often as they want and learn to race gates. Sun Valley has produced some of the top Masters racers in the country through its racing program, said the SnowSports School Technical Supervisor Nick Maricich.
“You have to be technically correct to race gates so it’s good for skiers whether they want to race gates or ski the moguls,” he added.
The genesis of Mountain Masters started about 20 years ago when a group of women that included former Sun Valley Mayor Ruth Lieder tried to get into Sun Valley’s race clinic but couldn’t because it was full, said Van Dyke. They started the Over the Hill Gang, running gates on Elkhorn. They were folded into Sun Valley’s program the following year.
The program was retooled when Becky Smith and others told then Ski School Supervisor Rainier Kolb that they wanted to do more than run gates.
Over time Mountain Masters has had as many as 114 skiers. Most years, attendance settles in around 60 or 65 skiers, said Van Dyke.
On the first day of this season, Van Dyke took his group out for some easy skiing in Seattle Ridge that quickly turned into easy skiing on some mellow oval-shaped bumps in the newly renamed Kaitlyn’s black diamond bowl.
“If the snow is hard, lift your toes up,” Van Dyke advised. “That puts you in the go-zone.”
Skiing is all about getting the ski to work for us, Van Dyke told his group. The only thing that has changed over time is the shape of the ski.
On the way up the chair, Van Dyke shared additional advice: How organic honey had healed a bad cut he incurred.
“It’s good for the dry skin cuts you get during winter, too,” he added.
While Van Dyke’s group trolled Seattle Ridge and the Bowls, Sun Valley Ski Instructor Karen Shorts took her group down Graduate and Cozy.
“Ski Graduate. Don’t let it ski you,” she told her group.
“The pole plant is not this thing where you spear fish,” she added. “Just a light tap out and back. You can walk without swinging your arms, but it’s more efficient if you do swing your arms. That’s what the pole plant is.”
Shorts said it has been great skiing with some of the same people year after year because she knows which runs are their favorite and she gets to pick the best runs of the day for them.
“I love watching them make progress from year to year, too,” she said. “They get comfortable skiing all parts of the hill.”
The opportunity to work with skiers over a period of time enables instructors to figure out what clicks with them, added Ski Instructor Tony Jefferson.
“I had a banker once who was a good strong skier but skied hunched over in a protective fashion,” he recalled. “I couldn’t get him to open up. Finally, one day, I asked him to do a Jimi Hendrix and he got it. He said, ‘I’ll do everything but the drug abuse part!’ ”
Jan Phillips joined Mountain Masters when she moved to Sun Valley three years ago from Chicago.
“Skiing by yourself gets old. But I joined Mountain Masters and it helped me meet people,” she said. “And it gets me out every day. I come up some days where the weather is awful--days I wouldn’t have come up, otherwise--and they ended up being some of the best days of the year.”
Linda Nicholson said she has enjoyed the increased ski proficiency she’s gained.
“I was a good skier but I wanted to be really good. Now I’m a confident skier.”
Want to learn more? Go to sunvalley.com and click on “Things to Do,” then “SnowSports School.” Or, call 208-622-2135 or go to the SnowSports desk at River Run or Warm Springs lodges.
Photos: Randy Van Dyke says rotating ski instructors every week gives skiers the chance to hear ski concepts presented in different ways.
Carole Horine in the POC helmet skis down Ridge.
Tony Jefferson watches as a skier prepares to ski Ridge in the first morning ski-off.
Chip Angle watches as classmates ski the Bowls.
Esther Ochsman makes her way down Graduate.