snowbowl

they say they're the whole point of winter and we won't disagree

Just as the winter doom and gloom brings on the blues, the most wonderful time of the year arrives; opening weekend at Snowbowl, our local ski hill. Every year we (willingly) fork over the combined household lump sum for season passes and cross our fingers our schedules and snowfall will allow us to pay them off. We keep track in the form of tally marks on the fridge. Our winter weekends revolve around getting up there to ski, I mean, they say they’re “the whole point of winter.” We can’t disagree.

Snowbowl holds a special place in our hearts. Ajax’s grandparents used to own and operate a small ski hill in Minnesota and although he never skied there, he’s heard stories from family of how hard it was to run such a place, scraping by and depending entirely on the weather to even exist. These passion projects can’t survive off passion alone and despite desperate efforts to keep it open Inver Hills closed after a couple short stints of operation.

Inver Hills, Inver Grove Heights, MN

These podunk ski spots hold so much charm. They’re the places with the shitty cafeteria food and musky locker rooms. Poor social media updates and no service. They’re the places with A-frames packed full with families having a midday grilled cheese and warming up fingers and toes next to the wood stove that’s throwing off so much heat it hurts when you get too close. The old guy stoking the fire has probably been doing it every day of every winter post-retirement and takes pride in fueling the community hearth. They are the places with slow, two person lifts that let you get to know the person you’re riding up with. Odds are you already know them, or their neighbor, or cousin. Despite the slow lifts they’re the places that (somehow) rarely have a lift line. They’re the places with bars at the base that even non-skiers drive up to hang out at. They’re the places where there’s always a chance the lift could break down and I suppose give you the opportunity to really get friendly with your chair-mate. Maybe even head to the bar for a beer and pizza afterwards and chalk one up to another epic day on the mountain. All things you just won’t find at a big luxury resort.

Snowbowl isn’t the only small operation around. Ajax and I once counted 19 (could be more or less now) ski areas in the state of Montana. If you take out Big Sky, Yellowstone Club, and Whitefish from the mix the rest of them are the small, usually locally owned spots. We have a goal to ski all 19, which will be a post of its own if we get down to business here soon, but this post is for the one closest to home.

Each season we fall further in love with all the sneaky powder stashes and locally named short cuts, keeping up with and getting to know the community and the mountain a little better each run. On a banging snow year, there’s not much better than bowl laps with the gang or ripping a groomer, appropriately named Paradise, to call it a day.

It’s opening weekend, and although the lack of snow makes it somewhat lackluster, we’re loading the skis up anyway. Another tally. We’re sitting here remembering past winters we couldn’t get enough of the place and know plenty of folks who feel the same. Although, not everyone agrees and Snowbowl seems to have a following of haters, whose favorite place to attack is online. I’m sure they’ve got valid (& invalid) reasons and the mountain itself has it’s faults. From what we’ve gathered, people expect a lot more for what they pay and expect better communication and safety standards too. It seems one bad day for one lost soul makes for rumors and turmoil in our small town and spreads unnecessary hate for our little mountain that’s just doing the best it can. I’m purely speculating and have too much Snowbowl-Stoke for some big mountain expectant to stop me from having a good ol’ time. I’ll take the charm over some ritzy establishment making skiing more than it ever should be. At the end of the day you’re just sliding downhill on a pair of boards and we like the simplicity of exactly that.

I woke up early this morning to find an inch or two on the ground and more on the way. Report says there’s much more up top. We’ll go see for ourselves, tally number two collected for the season.

Cheers to opening weekend and long snow-filled season (fingers crossed).