Snoqualmie Valley Record, January 20, 2016

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Valley Record SNOQUALMIE

1021 S YEAR

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016 n DAILY UPDATES AT WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM n 75 CENTS

Ski local Valley trio slides down Mount Si in long-awaited ski trip By EVAN PAPPAS

LOCAL

LOCAL

Staff Reporter

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 lowelevation 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 mes-

Valley Relay season kickoff event is Wednesday Page 7

Summit East creates Sarrah’s Run in honor of resident Page 8

4 6 14 15-17 18 18-19

Vol. 102, No. 35

SEE MOUNT SI, 2 Photo courtesy of Peter Avolio

Left: Trevor Kostanich glides down Mount Si Dec. 30 in video captured by ski buddy Peter Avolio. The ski trip was a once in a decade opportunity for Kostanich, Avolio and Dave Jordan.

INDEX Opinion Blotter Obituaries Classifieds Puzzles Calendar

sage I got was from Peter saying it looks like Mount Si is in.” Peter Avolio, a real estate broker in Issaquah, 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.

Mountains and trees Elementary school’s final four name options reflect Valley terrain Two weeks from now, Snoqualmie Valley School District’s sixth elementary school will have a name. School board members narrowed the list of 15 suggestions to just

four possible names for the school at their Jan. 14 meeting. The final four choices are Timber Ridge Elementary, Mountain Ridge Elementary, Little Si Elementary and Cedar Ridge Elementary. The school, planned since early 2013, is under construction now on Southeast Swenson Drive on Snoqualmie Ridge. It is scheduled to open by the start of the 2016-17 school year, in September. School staff began the naming process last fall, soliciting name ideas from the community in several rounds of online surveys. From the roughly 200 submissions received,

they narrowed the list to 15 that conformed with the school’s naming guidelines. These guidelines called for names to be known and significant to district residents; to not conflict with names of other schools; and to avoid the names of individual people. Prior to voting on the names, the school board received an update on the school’s progress and planned design theme. Assistant Superintendent Ryan Stokes reported that the district was ready to choose a furniture vendor for the building, a place holder website SEE SCHOOL, 15

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