After waiting more than 10 years, Trevor Kostanich, Peter Avolio and Dave Jordan finally took their chance to ski Mount Si from its summit.

Skiing the North Bend landmark has always been a difficult prospect. Due to its low elevation, the mountain does not get the quantity or quality of snow necessary to make it worth skiing. Trevor Kostanich, North Bend City Councilman and planning and development consultant, said that because of these conditions, skiing Mount Si was always something that they wanted to do. After seeing the snowfall in December, the group decided that now was their chance.

“You need to have a lot of low-elevation snow that you just don’t get. It’s very seldom that you have enough snow that low on the mountain to make it a worthwhile ski,” Kostanich said. “Peter and I have been talking about it for a long time, well over 10 years. I actually had just returned from a ski week in (British Columbia), the first message I got was from Peter saying it looks like Mount Si is in.”

Peter Avolio, a real estate broker in Bellevue, gave credit to Martin Volken, another North Bend City Councilman and owner of Pro Ski Service, who introduced Avolio to back-country skiing and brought up the idea of skiing Mount Si.

“About 18 years ago I met Martin Volken. He wondered if anybody had skied that, but it’s low enough and it’s far west enough that it doesn’t usually get snow. So we have been talking about the idea for a while.” Avolio said.

Finally, Avolio said, the conditions in December kept improving after heavy snow fell on Mount Si all month.

“I came into his ski shop on the Sunday before the end of the year and we made a plan to go on Wednesday morning,” Avolio said. “He had to cancel because he got sick and I got plugged in to one of my other good friends, Trevor Kostanich and another man who guides for Martin, Dave Jordan, we figured it out together and made plans to meet at 6 a.m. We went ahead and made the trip happen.”

On the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 30, the three men met at Starbucks in North Bend to plan out their trip. Then they drove up to Mount Si and started the trek to the top.

They hiked about as far as they could until they hit snow. From there they ‘skinned,’ hiking uphill in climbing skis, to the top.

“The walk up was pretty straightforward and easy. Walking until snow allowed us to skin, which was most of the climb… Then the ski off the summit which is the crux of the thing,” Avolio said. “That’s the thing apparently nobody had done before.”

Once at the summit, the skiers took some time to soak in the view and take pictures before skiing their way back down.

“It was great to see your town right below you and it’s super fun, as a passionate skier, to be there with skis on your feet, doing what you love doing on the local hill,” Kostanich said.

Initally, Kostanich thought the mountain wouldn’t be very good for skiing but he was surprised by the quality of the snow.

“I thought I would just do it once, but the happy surprise was that it was actually a really good ski,” he said.

Avolio agreed, saying the snow up at the top was very good, but as they came down the mountain, the snow quality got worse; they had to hike back to the car.

“The first thousand feet was really good skiing and then the bottom half was more just getting down without crashing,” Avolio said. “Then into the forest, taking the skis off, bushwhacking to the side trail and out. We were done before noon.”

Avolio credited their trip to Volken who was not able to go with them that day, but was instrumental in putting together the idea.

“Without hanging out with that guy for the last 20 years I wouldn’t have had any business skiing Mount Si,” he said.

Trevor Kostanich admires the view from Mount Si on a rare ski trip Dec. 30. Heavy December snows made the unusual trip possible. Avolio said he’d been waiting 10 years for the opportunity. -Image Credit: Peter Avolio