SPOKANE — He wept on a sunny day at the end of a continent. He cried alone, perched on a rock at the top of a little known glacier. There was no wind. His tears slowed and then he sat in silence and looked down at the expanse of snow. Somewhere down there was a rock outcropping that four years ago killed his friend.
But this year the craggy protrusion was covered by snow and Glenn Stewart dried his eyes and sat in silence. Eventually, his skiing partner arrived. It was Nov. 1. Stewart carefully unscrewed a flask of whiskey, took a slug, handed it to his friend and poured some out in memory of Dr. Jim Joy.
“It felt like a weight lifted off me,” Stewart said. “Getting that behind me. Getting back up there.”
An avid skier
Jim Joy was always planning and most of those plans revolved around skiing. The well-known Spokane anesthesiologist was an avid skier, organizing trips all over the world. He first caught the powder bug going to school at Fordham University, his wife, Lori Joy, said. The addiction only grew while he was a resident at the University of Washington. The couple moved to Spokane in 1997 partly on the strength of the hospitals in the region and partly because of the easy access to skiing.