Hi-Line Living: Bear Paw Ski Bowl

The Bear Paw Ski Bowl opened December 1960 and has been providing the Hi-Line with somewhere close to home to ski ever since.

The Bear Paw Ski Bowl is owned by the Chippewa Cree Business Committee and and managed by the nonprofit organization Snow Dance Ski Association. The association was created to maintain and run the ski bowl, and all of its members are volunteers.

Claire Stoner is the president of the SDSA and is also a volunteer. She said the association is responsible for the maintenance and for clearing the runs before the season; that this is where most of the work is.

"We're out there all the time to make sure everything is running," Stoner said.

Stoner said she has been president for 20 years and volunteers because she loves to ski.

"The ski hill is a really nice area," she said. "It's a great place and a great asset to the Havre community."

Stoner said one of the perks of having the mountain so close to Havre is that people do not have to drive one or two hundred miles to get to a ski resort.

Dave Martens, the mountain manager at Bear Paw Ski Bowl, is a volunteer like the rest of the employees other than the three to four lift operators who are hired by the SDSA from Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation.

"If it wasn't for the tribe and the Chippewa Cree Business Committee, we wouldn't have it," Martens said. "It's kind of a gift to the community that we get to go out there and ski. (The tribe) doesn't get a lot out of it."

"We start clearing runs in October and we work every weekend until ski season," Martens said.

"The clearing of the run is a lot of physical labor," Stoner said.

Stoner said they are always looking for volunteers to help with clearing the runs and how fast they can get the slopes ready depends on how many people sign up.

"We need volunteers," Stoner said. "Our volunteers have been dropping off every year ... . The only way we're going to keep it going is to get new, young people involved."

Martens said he and many of the other volunteers at the ski bowl work for free because they have a passion for skiing. Martens has been volunteering at the ski bowl as the manager off and on since he got out of college in 1974. He said he does it because he loves the people involved with the mountain.

"I'm just a small part of it," Martens said. "The volunteers and the tribe - it's incredible what they do. I can't say enough how lucky we are to have the tribe on our side."

The mountain is also watched by an all-volunteer, fully-certified ski patrol. Those in the ski patrol take turns patrolling the mountain and running the concessions stand, which sells items such as hamburgers and hot dogs. The profits from the concessions stand are used to buy supplies for the ski patrol.

"(The ski bowl) is one of the areas where you have to earn your turn," Martens said.

Since the ski bowl is in a prairie mountain range, the levels of snow they get can be "iffy," Martens said.

"But, it beats going anywhere else," he added. "We're one of the few communities in Montana that has its own ski area. Actually, we're probably one of the only ones in the country that's run like this (with the volunteers)."

This weekend will be the fourth weekend of opration this season, or at least plans are for it to be.

"The weather really has been crappy to us," Martens said. "It's been windy and too cold to ski. It's been nasty - hard to get things going."

Martens said the conditions at the ski bowl are not always the best, but sometimes this has good consequence.

"Some of the best skiers in the state come from our ski area," Marten said. "The best technical crud skiers in the world come from Bear Paw."

Crud snow is when snow gets packed in certain areas and piles up in others. This creates an uneven terrain of powder-like snow with slippery areas.

The mountain has one chairlift that has two spots to get off, one being at the top of the mountain. The top half is not groomed and is meant for advanced, black-diamond slope skiers and snowboarders.

"The whole north face of the mountain is really steep - it's really good skiing," Martens said. "It's advanced-skiing heaven."

The bottom half of the hill offers runs for less experienced skiers, ranging from blue to green. Blue slopes are meant for intermediate-level skiers - green slopes for beginners.

Martens said, so far, the ski bowl has not been very busy this season because of the terrible weather, but he thinks it will pick up soon once the weather is less bitter. He added that 100 skiers a day is a good day for the ski bowl.

The ski bowl now has a "snow phone" for people to call to check on whether the mountain is open and what the conditions are. The number is 395-4040 and the message is updated often to let people know the conditions for the upcoming Saturday and Sunday, the two days a week the ski bowl is open.

Master Sports of Havre offers ski equipment rentals for those without their own.

"A lot of times, the conditions in town will be very different from the ski hill," Stoner said.

Lift tickets for the Bear Paw Ski Bowl for tribal members are $15 for adults and $12 for students. For the general public, tickets are $20 for adults and $18 for students. Children 8 and under and people 80 and over ski for free.

"And women in bikinis ski free," Martens said. "Seriously."