Burien Backsliders
Meet Willie Grindstaff

by Willa O'Connor

How do you turn pussycat skiers into TIGERS? Ask Willie Grindstaff. He's been doing it at Crystal Mountain for 27 years.

That's how long he has been the lead instructor of three Wednesday busloads of Burien Backsliders. The Backsliders are a unique organization that organizes their own transportation and likes to decide among themselves who gets the honor of being in Willie's class.

It is quite an honor to be in his class. He takes them to impossible places and gets them down in one piece. Three women are left from the original group that cycled into Willie's class when they were younger and cycled out again as they got "'conservative". And does Willie still do his tiger routine? "Well," he says, "I've tamed down a bit."

We should explain that the Backsliders have been just one facet of Willie's life. He ran the Olympia Ski School Thursdays and Saturdays at Crystal Mountain from 1974 until two years ago when he sold it to Rusty Brown. Now he is on the full time staff at Crystal, taking off only Mondays and Tuesdays.

You would think that by now Willie knows EVERYTFUNG about skiing. Well, he doesn't think so. At least, last winter when Chris Kastner, his boss, made some suggestions during a clinic, Willie thanked him. As Chris told me of the incident, he said, "Wow."

Willie spent 30 years as a structural detailer with the Bridge Division for the state of Washington. For 20 years he has taught drafting technology at South Puget Sound Community College on Tuesdays and Thursdays during fall and spring quarters.

Every summer, Willie and his wife JoJo take their camper to Eldorado Bar, Montana, to dig for sapphires. JoJo has a flourishing pottery business.

Willie and JoJo have had their share of travel. I first met them on one of the ski-for-credit trips in Europe that PSIA-NW sponsored thirty years ago. He was going strong then, and is going strong now. He even has time to write HIS version of the Burien Backslider story.

By Willie Grindstaff Multi-Week Coordinator, Crystal Mountain

I first met the Backsliders on a winter day, as an instructor for Crystal Mountain Ski School. Art Audett was the director and as such, had this advanced group of ladies as his multi-week class. There were two groups- one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They came to Crystal each Wednesday for eight weeks.

It just so happened that Art had some administrative duties to attend to and told me to take the classes for that week. I was a little nervous about taking a class Art had taught as his own special group. But I was able to make it through the day and had a great time doing it! I guess our personalities matched and from then on that bunch of gals was mine!

The two groups skied differently. One group was very aggressive and the other, although good skiers, was less likely to be "pushed". It became an unspoken goal between the two groups of advanced skiers as to who made the "crazy-go-anywhere" bunch and the more "laid-back" group.

By this time we "sort of" had a reputation of being the outback, off piste advanced groups. As such I became an all mountain guide and 'instructor combined. This was the start of a wonderful relationship between some great gals that has lasted for 27 years and is still going strong.

Well, the gals had their own ideas about who should be in "their" class.. So we'd ski some really steep, tough terrain and that would make the class split for me. This has worked great all through the years. Several of the original Backsliders are still skiing hard, and as the years rolled on new members came in as others dropped out. It still continues today!

The way I've always approached the group is to push them hard, go places that they may not feel comfortable by themselves, give each one individual instruction and above all, share the beauty of the mountains and be safe doing it!