The biggest mountain to conquer: Ski king John Kircher battles liver disease

As he waits for a liver transplant, John Kircher of Bellevue prepares his British Columbia resort, Cypress Mountain, to host the 2010 Winter Olympics

CRAIG HILL; craig.hill@thenewstribune.com
Last updated: February 12th, 2008 10:44 AM (PST)

So John Kircher skis four times per week, he devises ways to improve his Washington ski areas – Crystal Mountain and the Summit at Snoqualmie – and he prepares Vancouver’s Cypress Mountain to host the Winter Olympics two years from this weekend.

All this keeps the 49-year-old Bellevue resident in good spirits as he waits for a liver transplant.

Kircher, president of Michigan-based Boyne Resorts’ western operations, has primary sclerosing cholangitis, a disease that attacks the liver’s bile ducts. The only cure is a transplant from a donor, and he hopes his brother-in-law Harold Burton is a match.

Since last spring, the 6-foot-3 Kircher has seen his skin turn yellow and his weight plummet from 180 to 160 pounds. He’s made numerous trips to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for treatment and survived bouts with cancer and a staph infection.

“John is too humble and would never say it, but the doctors say they’ve never seen anybody recover the way he has (from the staph infection),” said Kircher’s wife, Kim. “He’s always been in great shape, and that probably saved his life.”

Last weekend, Cypress in North Vancouver hosted a two-day freestyle skiing World Cup, the first international event at one of the 2010 Olympic venues. Kircher planned to attend.

“We don’t encourage him to slow down,” said Scott Bowen, Crystal’s mountain operation manager, and one of Kircher’s closest friends. “We try to help the best we can, but staying busy keeps his mind off the illness.”

But the illness is always there.

“It’s like having a permanent case of the flu,” Kircher said. He said sometimes he has only enough energy for one ski run a day. “I’m maybe 75 to 80 percent of normal, enough to get by. But you have to have energy to be creative and have ideas. That’s tough.”

‘A POWERFUL SKI VISIONARY’

Kircher earned a business degree from Western Michigan University in 1980, but “his real degree was from the school of Everett Kircher,” said Taylor Middleton, general manager of Montana’s Big Sky Resort.

In 1947, Kircher’s dad, Everett, launched the family skiing empire with a $1 investment. He bought 500-foot Boyne Mountain because farmers in northern Michigan thought it was too steep to grow crops. Today, Boyne Resorts operates 10 ski areas, along with golf resorts, water parks and a sightseeing chairlift in Tennessee.

“John’s dad was very charismatic and called all the shots and called them in a loud voice,” said ski filmmaker Warren Miller, a longtime family friend. “John is quieter, but he has a lot of his dad’s best personality traits.”

Like his dad, who died in 2002, Kircher isn’t shy about taking chances. “He makes bold moves once he’s calculated the risks,” Middleton said. “His dad was known for making decisions that made people ask, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ The Kirchers are not conservative.”

When Kircher put in a new lift to open 1,000 more acres of terrain at Crystal Mountain this season, he could have installed a high-speed quad to whisk skiers up the mountain. Instead he chose a slower double-chair lift, thinking fewer ski runs would preserve the snow quality for customers.

“He’s a skier, and he thinks about what skiers want,” Middleton said. “He’s a powerful ski visionary, and he does things his own way. He has an uncanny knack for spotting opportunity. That’s what makes him different from the rest of us.”

Kircher spotted an opportunity in 2001 when he took over Cypress. The previous owners warned Kircher against allowing the 2010 Winter Olympics organizers to use Cypress as a site for the games. Kircher thought just the opposite.

The site was considered for bobsled and Nordic skiing, before it was selected to host Olympic snowboarding and freestyle skiing events. The organizing committee gave Cypress $6 million for snowmaking equipment and helped pay for other improvements to a ski venue whose base area was primarily comprised of trailers. Next season the resort is adding a 45,000-square-foot lodge, an upgrade the resort will finance on its own.

“We’ve had Cypress for seven years,” Kircher said, “and by the eighth year, we’ll have completely rebuilt the place.”

CREEPING SICKNESS

Kircher has been preparing for his current health battle for the past 20 years. In the late ’80s, he got sick during a trip to Africa. A series of tests showed that his liver wasn’t functioning properly even after he appeared to recover from the illness. At the time, doctors told Kircher he probably had seven years before he’d need a liver transplant.

As time passed, Kircher felt healthy. He continued to ski, hike, bike, hunt, golf and fish.

“We skied together every day for years,” Bowen said. “It never really bothered him until recently. The guy was in the best shape of his life when he got sick.”

Kircher said he was looking in the mirror one morning last year when he noticed a yellowish tint to his skin. He knew he’d finally reached the point where his health was starting to decline.

Until that moment, he’d told only a few people about his condition. “He is not a whiner,” Middleton said. “He’s such a charismatic leader, I don’t think he wanted people to worry about him.”

But there’s a significant list of people willing to give Kircher a part of their liver. Two people have been tested unsuccessfully. Six other people are waiting if Burton’s liver doesn’t match.

“This is a major undertaking for the donor,” Kim Kircher said. “It’s a testament to John and his karma and the good people in his life that so many people would want to do this for him.”

‘A LOT MORE LIVING TO DO’

After doctors discovered precancerous cells in his bile ducts, Kircher and his wife spent the summer in Rochester, Minn., making two trips a day to the Mayo Clinic for radiation treatments. During their three-month stay, Kircher developed a life-threatening staph infection.

Kircher is still taking cancer medication – a handful of pills each day – but seems to have beaten that disease and is ready for his liver transplant.

“I’m tired of being tired and sick of being sick,” he said. “But I have confidence I will get through it. There are dark days and light days, a lot of times when you feel like caving in. But there are tens of thousands of people out there who beat serious illnesses, and that gives you confidence you can beat whatever you are fighting. My inspiration comes from those people.”

While Kircher admits his health is his greatest challenge, those who are closest to him have no doubt he’ll conquer it. “He’s got a lot more living to do and lot more time he needs to spend with me,” Kim Kircher said. “He’s going to have a long life.”

Craig Hill: 253-597-8497

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The Adventure Guys: Read more of skiing icon Warren Miller’s thoughts on John Kircher at blogs.thenewstribune.com/adventure

2010 Olympics: Keep up to date on the preparations for the Vancouver Olympics over the next two years at blogs.thenewstribune.com/Olympics

VOLUNTEER IN 2010

The Vancouver Organizing Committee is looking for thousands of volunteers to help with the 2010 Winter Olympics. Tuesday, organizers will announce their needs and requirements for volunteers, as well as details for applying.

Originally published: February 11th, 2008 01:25 AM (PST)