Town Run, No Profit, or Generally Tiny Ski Hills

the ski hills in Fairbanks Alaska, Moose Mountain, and Mount Aurora Skiland are both very free and have no terrain parks but both have around 1000 feet of vertical. Moose has a lift consisting of school buses and skiland is a nonprofit with an ancient chairlift. Skiland is actually going up for sale soon think they want about 350K or so

We have a small hill up here near where I live (Havre, MT) called Bear Paw Ski Bowl. No snowmaking, no park, only open on weekends, one double lift. Almost all the workers there are volunteers, lifties are among the few paid employees. The area is operated on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation by the tribe. Lift tickets are $20, girls in bikinis ski free every day. I haven't been there to ski yet since it's my first winter out here, but I think I'll ski a few days there this winter just to see what it's all about. I usually go to Big Sky or Bridger though. Bridger Bowl is also a nonprofit, and their lift tickets are $50, which is really reasonable when you consider that most of the shitty Midwest resorts that I grew up skiing at charge at least that much for a day pass.

Chester Bowl is another small hill in Duluth, MN that is run by the city in a city park. One double chairlift, 175 feet of vert, $6 lift tickets and they do actually have a decent amount of rails.

http://www.beartoothbasin.com/about.html

Beartooth Basin yo! It's in between Red Lodge MT and Cooke City WY along the Beartooth scenic highway, a little ways northeast of Yellowstone.

The lifts are (were, I guess, since they just sold it) run with a 1975 Detroit Diesel generator. The first time I went I remember someone saying something along the lines of "don't ski over the electrical cable dickwad, or we're all fucked," hahaha. The generator powers two oldschool poma lifts up the steepest, gnarliest cornice you can imagine. The lift towers were installed way back in the 60's when it used to be a private race camp and people weren't such pussies about liability lawsuits, no way anyone would have the balls to build it now. The ticket office is a trailer in the dirt lot at the top of the resort. Tickets used to be just a piece of paper duct-taped to your pants (they got legit stickers now!), and they do $20 power-hour specials because the owners are generally rad dudes who are all about getting people exposed to their gem of an area. The park is set up mostly by local volunteers, and they do an awesome job keeping it safe, fun, and well-groomed with the few tools they have... could really use someone like yourself to help out sometime actually ;) Typically a 6-8 week summer season from late May to early July, sometimes longer if the snowpack is particularly good. The highway is pretty much buried in snow for the rest of the year and is basically impassable unless you're on a snowmobile.

ON3P does the annual Beartooth Summer Session there and the area/event is starting to gain some traction with the NS-crowd. I can't fucking wait to go back.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/741197/Beartooth-Summer-Session-2013

^ That looks so sick!

Skiventure.

It's in West Glenville Ny, about 1 and a half hours from speculator. Look it up.

Skiventure.org

Memorial Park in Brattleboro, VT is literally this.

http://www.vtsnowsports.org/

Bridger Bowl, has good ridge terrain, small non profit mountain. Has a terrain park, but its garbage anyways.

black mountain in rumford me. $15 lift tickets for a decent sized hill

Website with the story of how they barely opened last year and how the community kept the place running.
http://www.skiblackmountain.org/

emery park, wales ny

a t-bar services 3 small trails on weekends, holidays, and some weekdays. its free to ski and there is night skiing on some days. its fun by Erie county parks.

seanahue.http://www.beartoothbasin.com/about.html

Beartooth Basin yo! It's in between Red Lodge MT and Cooke City WY along the Beartooth scenic highway, a little ways northeast of Yellowstone.

The lifts are (were, I guess, since they just sold it) run with a 1975 Detroit Diesel generator. The first time I went I remember someone saying something along the lines of "don't ski over the electrical cable dickwad, or we're all fucked," hahaha. The generator powers two oldschool poma lifts up the steepest, gnarliest cornice you can imagine. The lift towers were installed way back in the 60's when it used to be a private race camp and people weren't such pussies about liability lawsuits, no way anyone would have the balls to build it now. The ticket office is a trailer in the dirt lot at the top of the resort. Tickets used to be just a piece of paper duct-taped to your pants (they got legit stickers now!), and they do $20 power-hour specials because the owners are generally rad dudes who are all about getting people exposed to their gem of an area. The park is set up mostly by local volunteers, and they do an awesome job keeping it safe, fun, and well-groomed with the few tools they have... could really use someone like yourself to help out sometime actually ;) Typically a 6-8 week summer season from late May to early July, sometimes longer if the snowpack is particularly good. The highway is pretty much buried in snow for the rest of the year and is basically impassable unless you're on a snowmobile.

ON3P does the annual Beartooth Summer Session there and the area/event is starting to gain some traction with the NS-crowd. I can't fucking wait to go back.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/741197/Beartooth-Summer-Session-2013

Beartooth is the bomb, so stoked to get back!

There are a couple of them in Quebec. Mt.Edward in the Saguenay area is like that. Some die hard skier would find rock drops, cut them in the summer and ride it in the winter. Short runs, but has wicked terrain and lots of natural features. Everyone knows each other.

I love finding these little gems!

Hardack Hill, St. Albans, VT. Run by the town rec department, 100% free. Night skiing, rope tow, couple rails, hand-made jump. So fun. It's about 20 minutes north of Burlington via I-89.
https://www.facebook.com/HardAckInc

seanahue.http://www.beartoothbasin.com/about.html

Beartooth Basin yo! It's in between Red Lodge MT and Cooke City WY along the Beartooth scenic highway, a little ways northeast of Yellowstone.

The lifts are (were, I guess, since they just sold it) run with a 1975 Detroit Diesel generator. The first time I went I remember someone saying something along the lines of "don't ski over the electrical cable dickwad, or we're all fucked," hahaha. The generator powers two oldschool poma lifts up the steepest, gnarliest cornice you can imagine. The lift towers were installed way back in the 60's when it used to be a private race camp and people weren't such pussies about liability lawsuits, no way anyone would have the balls to build it now. The ticket office is a trailer in the dirt lot at the top of the resort. Tickets used to be just a piece of paper duct-taped to your pants (they got legit stickers now!), and they do $20 power-hour specials because the owners are generally rad dudes who are all about getting people exposed to their gem of an area. The park is set up mostly by local volunteers, and they do an awesome job keeping it safe, fun, and well-groomed with the few tools they have... could really use someone like yourself to help out sometime actually ;) Typically a 6-8 week summer season from late May to early July, sometimes longer if the snowpack is particularly good. The highway is pretty much buried in snow for the rest of the year and is basically impassable unless you're on a snowmobile.

ON3P does the annual Beartooth Summer Session there and the area/event is starting to gain some traction with the NS-crowd. I can't fucking wait to go back.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/741197/Beartooth-Summer-Session-2013

That's not what I was looking for but totally what I was looking for. Sounds epic! Had to re read that a few times to understand but still curious. This place is just open for the summer? They have a little park? And it's open in the summer?


Also to everybody else, awesome! Keep it up. A lot of these places you'll never hear of unless you live nearby. It's awesome to hear about new places.

+K for all.

There are a couple of small areas out in E. Oregon that are on my bucket list. Anthony Lakes is probably the most famous. There is also Sprout Springs http://www.spoutspringsskiarea.com/the-mountain/trail-maps/
In S. Oregon Mt. Ashland is actually run as a non-profit.

There's this little hill near watson Lake in the Yukon which is actually really sweet! 2 tbars and a fair amount of snow for 20$. http://watsonlakeskiclub.com/watsonlakeskiclub.com/Home.html

I'd love to lease or buy the former ski area on Prospect Hill across the street from the hockey rink from the town of Waltham and provide an alternate to Blue Hills and Nashoba. Well before my time when that place was a ski area.

Im sure it would be popular and busy. But then again Wal-Lex was always packed and everyone had their birthdays there mad afterschool trips etc etc and they tore that down for a Staples without opening a new one.