Michael Entin, a resident of Pacific Palisades for the last 25 years, passed away on Wednesday, April 9, at the age of 50. After a courageous battle, he succumbed to complications arising from a collision with a snowboarder that occurred on Mammoth Mountain on February 29. Earlier this year, Michael had been skiing in Canada, Europe and Japan. He reported that the snow was ‘epic’ on each trip. He had started referring to himself as ‘golden’ and his friends and family began to believe it. Everything in his life was going beautifully: he was successful in his real estate investment business; had built a new house in Castellammare; had an amazing group of friends with whom he traveled and skied the world; and had a loving wife and a beautiful 22-month-old daughter. Then in a high-speed flash, Michael’s world and body were smashed to pieces. He was born on July 31, 1957 in Los Angeles. When he was 10, his father outfitted him with wooden skis, cable bindings, lace-up boots and bamboo poles. That first trip to Mammoth etched an insatiable passion for skiing into Michael. By high school Michael was a renowned mogul, ballet and hot-dog skier. He mastered the ‘airplane turn,’ ‘tip roll’ and ‘crossover’ maneuvers. He skied Mammoth close to 100 days a year while gaining his business degree from Pepperdine University. After graduating, Michael bought an oceanfront trailer in Palisades Bowl along PCH and began attracting many friends (including his brother Rick) to mobile-home life. In the mid-1990s, he purchased a house in Castellammare and eventually bought the vacant lot behind the house, where he completed the new home for his family last fall. Michael was also one of the world’s most accomplished travelers. A member of the Travelers’ Century Club, he visited 269 countries and is listed 24th on the MostTraveledPeople.com Web site. He made ski ‘tracks’ in 26 countries, including Iran, India, Romania, Russia, Armenia, Kashmir, Korea and Dubai. He also helicopter-skied in nine countries, recalling fondly the duct tape used to keep helicopters flying in several former Soviet republics. He was an elite travel agent by hobby. Who else would have in his desk drawer copies of passports for 21 of his closest friends? Michael would book a trip to some far- off land and always find someone to join him. When the call came, people knew not to question when, where, how or why. He was the group leader and he inspired confidence. If Michael was going, they wanted to come. His travel and skiing stories told during his morning breakfasts at the Palisades Spectrum Club were legendary. He was also a pilot, having flown in his single-engine Cessna from the Artic Circle all the way down to the Caribbean and up through Mexico. He had a knack for finding real estate deals and influencing friends to join him in all kinds of travel and business ventures. One of the more exotic ventures was organizing nine of his closest friends to purchase Tioga Pass Resort, a small back-country group of cabins located outside the eastern entrance to Yosemite. His partners never knew if they would make money, but they gained access to some of the world’s best back-country skiing and bragging rights to an Eastern Sierra gem. A few years ago Michael’s wife, Yelena, came into his life. No one really thought this nomadic bachelor would ever get married. When Yelena married Michael she also married the mystique, the friends, and the lifestyle. However, during the last few years, wherever Michael went, he always spoke of the biggest loves of his life: his wife and daughter Anna. Michael was predeceased by his father, David, in 2007, and by his younger brother Randy, who died from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1988. In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by his mother, Sondra Marks of Pacific Palisades; his brother Rick (wife Dana), also of Pacific Palisades; niece Alana and nephews Kyle and Drew. More than 500 guests attended Michael’s service at Mount Sinai Memorial Park. His spirit will live on through the adventures of his dedicated friends and family, especially his young daughter Anna.
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