Buzz Fiorini / Skied his way to the top
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 TOM REESE / THE SEATTLE TIMES |
He sits upright with good posture, tilting forward just slightly as if he's getting ready to hop off another chairlift at the top of another ski slope.
After helping teach much of the Pacific Northwest how to ski, 91-year-old Buzz Fiorini could now show many of us how to sit. He does a lot of that these days; it's been 10 years since his last run. His ski-school classes included kids with such names as Bill Gates, the Nordstroms, the McCaws. But back then, the bigger name to drop was Buzz Fiorini.
His winters were spent overseeing a small army of instructors at Snoqualmie Summit, Crystal Mountain and Stevens Pass. In the summers, he was a fishing guide whose clients included Bing Crosby and John Wayne.
The Fiorini Ski School, founded in 1947, was believed to be the largest private ski school in the nation, getting in on downhill skiing just as the sport was taking off.
Fiorini's daughter, Georgianne, now runs the ski school. His son, Jeff, operates Fiorini Sports, which has been a University Village landmark since 1962. Their mother, Julie Fiorini, passed away in October. She and Buzz were married from 1943 to 1987, and for years the ski school was literally a mom-and-pop business. When it came to the outdoors, Fiorini felt right at home. So how does he feel about being inside most of the time now?
"I'm all relaxed. I reminisce. It's nice," he says with a smile.
What did he like most about skiing?
"Going like heck."
Did he ever get hurt?
"Oh yeah. I hit a buried stump (in the late 1950s), and it threw me into a tree and it dislocated my shoulder."(The name "Buzz" is derived from his childhood nickname of "Busty" for the rambunctious boy's tendency to break things. His birth name is Sebastian.)
Did he ever get tired of skiing in the often rainy, slushy Cascades?
"No I did not. That was part of skiing in the Northwest, and you had to accept it. If you learned to ski here and went to other areas, it was easy for you."
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