SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Much of the U.S. has been in the grip of cold and snow, but that's been good for small family ski businesses. Winters are getting fickle due to climate change, and many of them now have fewer than 80 days to turn a profit. But this winter, there's been a surge in the ski business. NPR's Kirk Siegler has this story from the Bitterroot Mountains.
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KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: Lost Trail Ski Area, perched on this mountainous spine on the Idaho-Montana border, is like a window into skiing's past, or at least that's how veteran ski patroller Chris Gaughan tells it.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOTOR RUNNING)
CHRIS GAUGHAN: I grew up skiing in New England in the '70s and '80s, and it's a piece of history up here. It's like skiing used to be.
SIEGLER: There are no high-speed quads, no luxury hotels - no hotels - just snowy glades and fog-frosted pine and fir trees nestled atop remote Lost Trail Pass, where the snow is so often deep.
GAUGHAN: Oh, so we're going to take you into cheese wedge.
SIEGLER: A smile forms through Gaughan's icy beard. The coveted untracked powder that gets wiped out so fast at the big resorts is still here late in the day.
GAUGHAN: Yeah. Yeah, I feel like we got about 4 or 5 inches. All right, as the kids say, cheese wedge.
SIEGLER: We disappear into the light fluff...
(SOUNDBITE OF SKIS GLIDING THROUGH SNOW)
SIEGLER: ...Minutes later, popping out of the glades to a chairlift.
JENNY WEST: And it's a nice mom-and-pop ski area, and you can find powder stashes at 3 o'clock.
SIEGLER: I'm riding up with Jenny West, who's been skiing Lost Trail's old but reliable lifts for more than 40 years.
This is a little bit of time to contemplate things, on the lift (laughter).
WEST: Yes, it is. Talk to people, hang out, find some good lines while you have a good rest with your legs, you know?
SIEGLER: Lost Trail first opened up as a volunteer-run club in the late 1930s.
WEST: I think this place is special, and I think people are starting to kind of seek these kind of areas out, too - smaller ski areas, better prices and, you know, kind of a local vibe.
SIEGLER: Stats from the National Ski Areas Association back that up. Since the pandemic, smaller independents report a 10% increase in skier visits.
(SOUNDBITE OF SKIS GLIDING DOWN SNOW)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yeeeooop (ph).
SIEGLER: I mean, people may just be getting tired of the hassle of glitzy ski resorts - their luxury real estate taking precedence over skiing. The day I'm here, Park City ski patrollers down in Utah were getting ready to strike. And the price of an adult lift ticket at the nearby Big Sky Resort is $272, compared to 68 bucks here.
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SIEGLER: Inside the modest lodge, the sounds of ski boots clomping up the wood stairs...
(SOUNDBITE OF SKI BOOTS CLIMBING UP STAIRS)
SIEGLER: ...Lost Trail co-owner, Scott Grasser, harbors no resentment toward the big guys, though.
SCOTT GRASSER: The way we look at all the rest of the small ski areas is that we're a feeder resort. This is where people come to learn. It's affordable. You're not going to go broke trying to teach your kids how to ski.
SIEGLER: Today, they sold 300 more day tickets than they'd expected, which is huge, because every winter they operate on a thin margin. Grasser and his sister inherited Lost Trail. Their father bought it in the 1960s.
GRASSER: I don't think there was a question of whether we were going to take it over or not. I think it was just expected, not only from our father, but the public (laughter).
SIEGLER: It's everyone's fear that Lost Trail could one day be bought or the public lands around it sold and closed off. That's why the Grassers are doing everything they can to keep it in the family. And that's what keeps diehard locals coming back day after day.
CORBIN: Jenny.
WEST: I'm Jenny. Yeah, I recognize you. What's your name?
CORBIN: I'm Corbin.
SIEGLER: Every afternoon at 4, Jenny West leads a little ritual at the top of the mountain.
WEST: The last run, last chair. We do a pole clicking with all of our poles together.
(SOUNDBITE OF SKI POLES TAPPING)
WEST: We salute the ski gods, right?
SIEGLER: It's an end-of-the-day nod to Ullr, the Norse god of snow.
WEST: You do it?
(SOUNDBITE OF SKI POLES TAPPING)
SIEGLER: You must be listening.
(SOUNDBITE OF SKI POLES TAPPING)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Woo.
SIEGLER: Another 6 inches is forecast for tomorrow.
Kirk Siegler, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF DEBO BAND'S "AND LAY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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