Seth Ratliff
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) — In 1947, a new era of winter recreation began on the Snake River Plain. Born as an offshoot of the Idaho Falls Ski Club, the KIFI Ski School was the brainchild of two local visionaries: Dan Kelly, owner of the Pine Basin Ski Area, and Jim Brady, owner of KIFI Radio.
The archives at the Museum of Idaho capture the school’s beginnings. “Jim wanted to do something for the young people of Idaho Falls,” Kelly told the Post Register in the 1940s. “He said, ‘Let’s get ’em tired, so they can’t get in trouble at night.'”
For nearly 20 years, the school served as the region’s training ground. Volunteer instructors were led and certified by local legend Wes Deist, a member of the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame who dedicated his life to teaching a generation of Idahoans how to carve through the snow.
Wes’s daughter, Holley DuPont, still remembers the height of the school’s growth. Meeting at the Konditorei Restaurant in the foothills of Sun Valley, she recalled the grassroots beginnings of the school. “They came out of the war, and they wanted it (skiing) to catch on,” Holley said. “They made their own skis, bought bear-trap bindings, and used bamboo poles.”
“Your dad taught me how to ski!”
Junior Racing Team. Courtesy: Kelley Deist.
What started with just 12 children soon exploded. By its peak, roughly 500 students were bused to Pine Basin in Swan Valley every weekend. Today, Wes Deist’s influence still echoes through the community. “I’ve heard it my whole life: ‘Your dad taught me how to ski!'” says his son, Kelley. To hear him tell it, from the late 40’s to the 60’s, everyone in town went to the KIFI Ski School.
For almost two decades, the massive effort relied entirely on the generosity of local volunteers.
“It did start out with yellow school buses, and then went to Greyhound,” Holley explained. “The Greyhounds were run by Andy Anderson, my dad’s buddy. He got certified to teach and provided the buses for free. It was all volunteer.”
“There were dozens and dozens of people who were behind this. Not just my Dad, not just Mr. Brady,” adds Kelley.
One of those students was Susan Bills Moe. A local photograph from the late 60s shows a young Susan at about eight years old, looking tiny next to the Kelly’s great Dane. “It was completely staged!” Susan laughed. “I can’t remember how they got him to look down at the skis like he was feeling sorry for me.”
Beyond the School: The KIFI Ski Team
Left to right, sitting, Greg Poitevin, Kelley Deist, Robb Brady, Fred-Anderson, Bill Anderson, Joan Curtis, and Holley Deist. Second row, left to right, Bob Anderson, Jane Poitevin, Donna Anderson, Susan Curtis, Mary Ann Lambert, Barbara Griffith, and Susan Bills. Standing, Mike Mull, Mark Brown, Mike Me-Hugh, Steve Rogers, Bob Anderson, Susan Ten Eyek, Fae Jacobsen, and Mike Kelley. Coach Wes Deist, kneeling far left. Courtesy: Holly DuPont and Kelley Deist
The school wasn’t just for recreation; it was soon the training ground for serious athletes. Wes’s children, Holley and Kelley, were skiing before they reached grade school and eventually joined the KIFI Ski Team to compete in the Intermountain Ski Association.
Wes had a keen eye for talent. He recruited Susan Bills Moe to the racing team after seeing her potential on the mountain. “My mother had just died,” Susan recalled. “I thought he was doing it, (because) maybe my father had put him up to it, or he was doing it because he felt sorry for me. It never occurred to me that he thought I was a good!”
Susan and Jake Moe, Courtesy: Susan Moe
While Susan eventually moved away from competition, her life remained rooted in the sport. She went on to marry Jake Moe, the founder of Powder Magazine. Today, at 76, she has traded downhill runs for the peace of cross-country skiing.
“It has everything that I love,” said Susan. “One thing I love about cross-country is it’s not. It’s not just zooming down a mountain. You know, you really take in your surroundings. And it’s just so beautiful.”
COURTESY HOLLEY DEIST
Holley DuPont took the skills she learned at Pine Basin to the professional freestyle circuit in the 70s and 80s, becoming one of the first women ever to land a backflip on skis.
As Holley puts it: “If you knew how to ski, you had access to another world.”
The End of an Era
As the 1960s drew to a close, the landscape of Idaho skiing shifted. With the rise of larger commercial resorts, the KIFI Ski School eventually folded. In the 1970s, School District 93 purchased the Pine Basin Ski Lodge for $15,000 (worth roughly $125,000 today).
By the time the school closed its doors in the late 1960s, Wes Deist estimated that 34,000 students had passed through the program. As Post Register writer Paul Menser noted in 1991: “Ask any baby boomer who grew up in eastern Idaho where he or she learned to ski, and the answer is likely to be KIFI Ski School.”
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