It’s no secret that this winter has been a challenge when it comes to snow conditions meeting the needs of our best laid outdoor plans. Those challenges struck the Little Ski Hill this past week as warmer than normal temperatures threatened the already modest snowpack at the 5,200 – 5,600 foot elevation.

Instead of postponing their iconic program until colder temperatures returned, the team at Little Ski Hill looked to one of their close community partners for help.

“The lack of snowfall, especially at lower elevations, has been a challenge for all the local ski areas this season. When Little Ski Hill asked if we could help keep the After-School Program running, we jumped at the chance!” says Brundage Mountain General Manager, Ken Rider.

When Brundage offered to temporarily host the program in the Easy Street zone, the LSH team rolled up their sleeves and got to work figuring out how to make all the pieces of the After School Program fit together, off-site.

“The biggest logistical challenge has been getting the kids’ equipment up here because we don’t have locker rooms,” says Little Ski Hill (LSH) Program Director Cortney Bayuk. “Fortunately, we had some awesome community members – Scott Fereday and Simone Brunello – donate some large trailers for us to use, which let us create a portable locker room.”

The LSH team created a system to bring the kids’ gear up at the beginning of the week and back down at the end, then let the parents in on the details.

“The kids were so excited,” says Amy Lawrence. “It was so nice that everyone came together and that Brundage offered the space so the kids didn’t have to miss another week of skiing.”

“It’s a community program, so a lot of the parents, grandparents, have kids in the program and want to see them continue to ski,” says Casey Jeffus, Program Assistant.

Parents with kids in the program pitched in to fill new roles, like scanning passes at the bottom of Easy Street.

Brundage Mountain Patrollers volunteered to provide after-hours coverage and the resort’s lift operators stepped up to stay late to run the Easy Street lift. Their response to being thanked was a unanimous, “Anything for the kids!”

The change in venue meant some extra training tips for the teenage instructors who are the heart of the program, now tasked with teaching their groups to safely load and ride a chairlift instead of a TBar. It also allowed the groups to experience some different terrain, kind of like a ski lesson field trip.

“Easy Street has great beginner terrain,” says Jeffus. “It can be a big step going from the flats at Little Hill up the T-bar on Main Run, so this is a nice treat for the beginners in the program.”

And while Easy Street doesn’t have the same variety of steeper terrain the kids find at LSH, it does have a small terrain park where more advanced riders can try new things.

“This year, with the lack of snow, we haven’t had the ability to build as many features as Easy Street has right now, so that gives the intermediate and advanced riders an opportunity to use those terrain features until Little Hill gets the snow to build out its normal, killer terrain park,” says Bayuk.

“I think it’s amazing that we live in a small town and everyone’s willing to come together and accommodate the kids so they can still ski and do something after school that’s fun and awesome,” says Beth Fulton.

“Our youngest daughter is in her third year as a student at the Little Ski Hill After-School Program and she loves it,” says Hayley Johnson. “She thrives, it’s a great place for her to burn all that extra energy she had during the school day and to get outside and recreate and learn a lifetime sport.”

The Little Ski Hill program does much more than teach kids how to ski and snowboard. Middle School and High School kids work as coaches and instructors, which parents say gives them an invaluable experience, too.

“My oldest daughter is almost 13 and is in her first year as a coach. For her this is a huge opportunity to learn how to be a leader, how to help instruct kids who are younger than her,” says Johnson. “That leadership experience will help her pursue her dreams and her goals when she gets older so it’s monumental in that aspect.”

“Brundage Mountain opening up their space to the Little Ski Hill program also teaches our kids an important lesson about community and resilience,” Johnson adds. “We see bad weather up here from time to time and as a community we just roll with the punches, and we find a way to pivot and come together and find a way to make things happen.”

“Being able to keep 200 local kids sliding on the snow and building their passion for skiing and snowboarding is very important to us,” says Rider. “The After-School Program is a huge community asset and our hats are off to the Little Ski Hill staff for the persistence and creativity it took to make the program work off-site.”

It took a lot of coordination and cooperation to relocate the program for a week, and that must have inspired Mother Nature to finally cooperate, too. While the Easy Street era made for a fun field trip for everyone, we know the ASP participants are low-key missing their lockers, flush toilets, and the rest of the comforts of the LSH lodge (Churros!). Temperatures have dropped, snow is falling, and the LSH crew is prepping the slopes to welcome the ASP participants back to their beloved home base.

“Cortney and Casey put the call out to the community and our community responded without hesitation,” adds Little Ski Hill Executive Director, Colby Neilsen. “Big thanks to the Brundage team and all the people who made it happen!”