OUTDOORS: The Season is coming to Bear Paw Ski Bowl

The Bear Paw Ski Bowl isn't open for business just yet. But, it's getting close.

Last weekend, the ski bowl had a successful work party where plenty of preparations were done in order to get the bowl ready for the season. And, with more than two feet of snow on the mountain, Claire Stoner, president of the Snowdance Ski Association said, things are coming along.

"We did a lot of maintenance, putting up signs, putting up snow fence and working on the buildings," Stoner said. "And we did some packing and grooming."

Of course, all the work at the ski bowl is done by volunteers, and that can be a challenge, because there's so much to do to get the Havre areas hidden ski gem ready and open for skiers in a season that will hopefully last through March.

"Everything is done through volunteerism," Stone noted. "And it gets harder and harder to find those volunteers every year. There's a lot of work to do, and this has been a tough year for volunteers."

And because there's so much work to do, Stoner says she isn't sure when the official opening of the Ski Bowl will be. The hill opened the final weekend of January in 2018, and remained open through the entire month of March.

"There's still things that we have to get done to bring it all together," Stoner said. "There's still work to be done and things we need to iron out. But our rental shop is open on the weekends and people can continue to check on the status of the Ski Bowl on our Facebook Page."

And time is also on the side of the Bear Paw Ski Bowl. There's still plenty of winter left this year, and while the area isn't having the record-setting winter it saw last year, Stoner said that the Bear Paw Ski Bowl will still have a fun season."

"We didn't open until around this time last year," Stoner said, "so we're looking at it as we will have a good, successful season again this year."