'Spirit of skiing' thrives into summer at Beartooth Basin

A skier is towed uphill on a Poma lift at Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area on May 28. May 28 was the second day of the season for the spring- and summer-only ski area south of Red Lodge.

Lee Deffebach, 25, of Bozeman, takes in the view from the top of a run at Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area on May 28. It was his first time to Beartooth Basin, he said, and "I'm super psyched to be here."

Beartooth Basin ski area doesn't have a lodge. Or cellphone service. Or electricity. Or running water.

But the small, historic ski area perched high in the mountains south of Red Lodge offers something no other ski area can claim: Lift-accessed summer skiing amid a panorama of peaks at nearly 11,000 feet. That, plus an old-school atmosphere that's long disappeared at most other ski areas. Tickets are purchased on-site with cash, or online in advance. The office is an old Airstream Argosy trailer plastered with stickers. Portable toilets sit on another trailer.

It doesn't hurt that the skiing is good, too. And the setup is unusual: Skiers and snowboarders park around the ticket trailer at the top of the ski area, well above the tree line. They ski down, and then a Poma lift, which tows riders on the ground with a retractable line from a cable above, hauls them back to the top — a spot that any other ski area would call the "base."

There are no permanent structures at Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area. A sticker-covered camper serves as the ticket office.

Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area has a short season, if it has one at all. It didn't operate last year because of historic flooding around Yellowstone National Park and the Beartooth Mountains on the park's north side, eroding portions of Highway 212. It was a similar story in 2005 when the road to the ski area washed away in multiple places. But two years ago — 2021 — was a banner year for Beartooth Basin. And it's open this year, too.

Because its season usually begins sometime around Memorial Day weekend, Beartooth Basin was the first ski area in the nation to open after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The ski area sits barely inside Wyoming, but it's accessed via the Beartooth Highway between the Montana towns of Red Lodge and Cooke City. Opening day depends in large part upon when the highway is plowed and opened for summer.

This year, the highway opened May 26, and Beartooth Basin's two Poma lifts were hauling skiers the next day. The ski area will operate every day until the snow runs out. (The exception is the ski area is closed for maintenance this Thursday and Friday.)

Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area, pictured here from Beartooth Highway, is located in northern Wyoming south of Red Lodge, Montana.

Kurt Hallock, 67, is one of eight shareholders of Red Lodge International Summer Racing Camp, Inc., the entity that operates Beartooth Basin through a special-use permit from the U.S. Forest Service. Sitting in the sticker-covered trailer around 3 p.m., when the lifts stopped spinning on May 28, he noted, "This year, 15 days ago we had great snowpack. We’ve lost 8–9 feet of snowpack in the last 10 days. If it doesn't freeze at night it goes fast. It just keeps running."

Hallock has been a shareholder for 20 years, since he and Rob Hart bought the company from its founders and opened it to the general public in 2003. (The ski area had been open only to ski teams.) Long before that, he worked for the original proprietors. Despite his decades-long tenure at Beartooth Basin, Hallock couldn't venture a guess how long this season might last.

"The climate has changed so much that we can't predict it," he said. "If it doesn't freeze at night, we may have a two-week season. It's a lot of work to do for a two week season."

The ski area posts operations updates to its Facebook and Instagram profiles. As of June 3, it was still open.

Adam Fairbanks, 23, of Bozeman, watches as Brady Cool, 20, of Bozeman, jumps into a run at Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area on May 28. The pair were both skiing the basin for the first time.

No matter how long the season lasts this summer, the skiers and snowboarders packing the steep alpine basin at 10,900 feet elevation on May 28 were enjoying the snow and the views. Almost everyone said it was their first time there.

"First time, so I’m super psyched to be here," said 25-year-old Lee Deffeback of Bozeman. "It's just kind of like a legendary place. People always talk about it, so I had to come check it out. It's smaller than I thought but super good vibes. Just everyone having fun, keeping the season going. It's super cool."

Skiers ride uphill on a Poma lift at Beartooth Basin. The lift is rumored to be the steepest Poma lift in the world.

Ben Wright, 26, originally from Michigan, now lives in Belgrade and works at Big Sky Resort's ski school. He heard about Beartooth Basin from his coworkers and made his first trip there May 28. He had been hoping to go last year, but it didn't open.

"We heard it was opening this year, and it was like, 'We gotta make it happen,'" he said.

Wright also praised the laid-back atmosphere.

"It's pretty great, just to be able to ski in this kind of atmosphere," he said. "I love it. I like the low-maintenance, just show up, get your ticket, go ski — that's pretty streamlined and casual."

A skier makes a high-speed turn in soft snow at Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area on May 28. The ski area opened for the season one day prior.

Alex Frizzell, an emergency medical technician and volunteer ski patroller at Snowbowl Ski Area near Missoula, had been trying for much longer to ski Beartooth Basin. On May 28 — his 28th birthday — he finally made it.

"I’d been up to the pass a bunch of times, either forgot my skis when I first came to the pass, or I had a knee injury. This is the first year in five years I’ve been able to make it up here. I’m really excited to be up here," he said. "I love it. It's just great being up here, almost 11,000 feet, and the views are great, the (backcountry) touring has been great. Figured I’d take the easy way up for my birthday, take it easy."

Daniel Todd, 29, of Idaho Falls (left) buys a lift ticket for Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area from Jimena Hallock on May 28. Hallock's husband, Kurt, is a shareholder in the company that operates the ski area.

Other skiers hadn't heard of Beartooth Basin. Daniel Todd, 29, works at a ski shop in Idaho Falls, Idaho. A day before he left for a family reunion in Red Lodge, he told coworkers he planned to backcountry ski the Beartooths. They suggested he ski Beartooth Basin instead. He was glad they did.

"The terrain's fantastic, it looks like a super fun place to ride. It should be fun," he said. "Just super excited to be here."

Newlywed Danielle Duni-Proctor, with husband Danny Proctor close behind, ski Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area on May 28.

Some came to Beartooth Basin for more than just summer-like ski laps. Danielle Duni-Proctor and Danny Proctor, both 27 and from Denver, got married May 26 at Big Sky Chapel. Two days later, Danny said, "We’re at the best party on planet Earth here on May 28."

Danielle had skied Beartooth Basin once before with a friend, so the newlyweds decided to bring their wedding party to the ski area for an afternoon of skiing they couldn't get anywhere else in late May.

"We chose spring because of the green grass and the beautiful snowcapped mountains. And we came here because it's pretty much the top of the glacier world for the Lower 48," Danielle said.

Danny added, "And one of the few places you can ski in summer."

Newlyweds Danielle Duni-Proctor and Danny Proctor, both 27 and from Denver, and their wedding party pose at the top of Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area. The couple planned to bring their wedding party to Beartooth Basin specifically to enjoy summer-like skiing after the wedding in Big Sky two days before.

Other skiers, perhaps some of the youngest on the mountain that day, were Beartooth Basin veterans. Mason Payne, 9, and his sister Aspen, 6, have skied Beartooth Basin most of the past few years. The siblings from Vermont had no problem catching air as they dropped in off the lip at the top of the run.

"It's very good, nice and slushy, it's really good snow," Mason said. "I’m used to the ice in Vermont, so it's really good to feel the slush."

Skiers ride the Poma lift up Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area on May 28. An adjacent lift, Lift 2, serves lower terrain but was closed for the day because of avalanche risk.

Nearby, operations manager Casey Hill was carefully inching the lift along one foot at a time so another operations worker — Hallock's son, Alexander — could climb a lift tower and untangle a retractable Poma tow that had flung up around the main haul cable. Hill, 47, said he'd worked at Beartooth Basin since the late '90s — longer than anyone else. His brother, Simon, is the head of ski patrol.

"It's probably the best skiing on the face of the Earth, especially this time of year," he said. "And who doesn't like spring skiing?"

Casey Hill, operations manager of Beartooth Basin, carefully eases the Poma lift one foot of cable at a time as a maintenance worker tries to untangle a retractable platter-tow below.

Hill was quick to invoke Pepi Gramshammer, an Austrian emigrant who installed the ski area's two lifts in 1983 and '84. Since the early '60s, Gramshammer and fellow countrymen Eric Sailer and Anderl Molterer had set up portable rope-tows at various locations nearby. The Red Lodge ski team has been making turns in the area since the 1930s. Gramshammer, a former top professional skier who also helped develop Colorado's Vail Resort, died in 2019 at 87 years old.

"Pepi Gramshammer and the original people that put this — I can't even say his name without choking up — (we're) keeping it going’, man," Hill said, tearing up. "Look at the lifetime memories we’re making for people. I mean, the two (kids) that you just interviewed. They’re all my children. Dude, I’m sorry."

A skier grabs a retractable platter from a Poma lift at Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area on May 28. The platter goes between a skier's thighs and tows them up the hill.

Underpinning Hill's emotion were his decades spent keeping the place running, and the hard labor it takes to open the ski area each spring. Not the least is the battles against marmots, which eat everything from hydraulic hoses to trailer floors. Prep work happens all year but begins to ramp up around the second week of April, and it all must be done by snowmobile and Snowcat so the ski area can open as soon as the road does.

"It's a large collective effort to get it running every year. Everything comes out except the towers and the haul rope," Hallock said. "And what comes out has to go back in to operate, right? It's basically seven days a week. You’ve got to put all the (Poma) drops on, get all the electronics right. A lot of times on Lift 2 the electrical panel will have all of its electronics popped out of it because of the snow pressure."

Skiers and snowboarders relax as Beartooth Basin's Alexander Hallock untangles a retractable Poma lift line from atop a lift tower on May 28. The retractable line and platter, called a "drop," flung up around the main haul cable.

Lift 1, which returns skiers to the mountaintop "base" area, is said to be the steepest Poma lift in the world in its upper reaches. That statistic is of unknown provenance, but it thrives in ski lore.

"I’ve been told that by several rangers and several lift inspectors," Hallock said. "Of course, the last 40 yards is the steepest."

Skiers and snowboarders at Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area disembark the lift at the top of the ski area, which functions as its "base" area with parking and the ticket office, on May 28.

Even the snow that allows the ski area to exist is often a obstacle to getting the place open. A large cornice — an unstable overhang of windblown snow — forms at the top of the basin each winter. It has to be blown up with explosives before the area is safe to ski, but the resulting avalanche sometimes takes out a tower on the lower of the two lifts. A couple times, natural avalanches or cornice-fall impacted the tower.

A Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area worker walks atop Lift 1, adjacent to Beartooth Highway, after the ski area closed for the day on May 28.

The snow is even difficult to groom and push around, Hallock said: "We try to operate equipment to groom, but we fight the altitude and we fight the marmots. Summer grooming on equipment is very difficult because of the texture and the weight of the snow. It's totally different than grooming in the wintertime."

After all that work, Hallock and his team won't even know how long they'll be able to operate. So, why keep laboring at high elevation to run a small ski area for only a few weeks, if at all? Why climb lift towers, brave lightning storms and go without basic amenities? Why drive up a high mountain pass when summer activities abound below?

"It's about lifetime memories," Hill said. "I can build it, I can't sell it. It takes people knowing that it's here. The spirit of skiing, it's right here in the Beartooths."

Joshua Murdock covers the outdoors and natural resources for the Missoulian.

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Outdoors reporter

Joshua Murdock covers the outdoors and natural resources for the Missoulian.

U.S. Critical Metals is registered in the U.S., but describes itself as "a private mining company incorporated under the laws of British Columbia."

The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center forecasts that Montana will experience above average temperatures at least through th…

In Montana, the BLM will spend $9.54 million on the Blackfoot-Clark Fork landscape, $6.76 million on the Hi-Line Sagebrush Anchor and $9.98 mi…

The NOI stated that the companies hoped to begin work on May 1 and complete work by Oct. 20.

Mountain bike racers from across the United States and from countries as near as Canada and far as New Zealand are descending upon Marshall Mo…