Bridger Bowl looks back on 50 years of memories

By GAIL SCHONTZLER, Chronicle Staff Writer

Nicoletta "Niki" Gnehm remembers a winter in the early 1950s when hardly any snow fell. The slopes of Bozeman's little community ski hill at Bear Canyon were bare.

Her husband, Gus Gnehm, a Swiss ski instructor and veteran of the U.S. Army's famed 10th Mountain Division, went scouting with fellow ski club members to find someplace better for their fledgling sport. They chose a likely spot on the east face of the Bridger Range.

"Bridger was higher," Niki Gnehm recalled, "and Bridger always had the snow."

That discovery would lead to the birth of Bridger Bowl, a nonprofit community ski area, which this season is gearing up to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Bridger Bowl has experienced remarkable growth -- starting out with a rope tow and homemade platter pull lift five decades ago, and today offering seven modern lifts.

Bridger became not only a big part of Bozeman's winter economy, but also a big part of the lives of generations of college students, families and hometown kids, who got their start on the slopes as Mogul Mice.

Symbolizing Bridger's growth is the new $4 million Saddle Peak Lodge, which opens this season.

While Bridger's success may look inevitable, there were many difficulties along the way. In a period when scores of "mom and pop" ski hills across the nation folded, Bridger survived and thrived.

Bridger Bowl was just a glint in the eye of local skiers when Gus Gnehm was photographed, squinting up at the challenging mountain, looking undaunted. The photo, which graces the covers of Bridger Bowl's brochures, captures the spirit of skiing's pioneers.

"He would be quite proud that (Bridger) developed in such a big scale," said his widow, Niki, 86, who speaks with her native Italian accent. She was still skiing until three years ago at Bridger Bowl.

"It's wonderful," she said. "It really was a homemade deal. Everyone helped with money or volunteer work. In the summer we would go to clear the rocks -- all volunteer people. When the first chair lift was put in -- Oh my gosh, I don't believe it."

Terry Abelin, 64, started skiing at Bridger Bowl in the eighth grade. He grew up to become its manager, a job he held for 24 years, until his retirement in June.

In the early days, there were no machines to groom the slopes, Abelin recalled, so before a race, the skiers would spend half the day tramping down the snow on the race course with their skis. If there were 120 skiers on the hill, 40 might be kids racing and the rest were parents putting on the race.

"It was a real tight club or community group," he said.

The first rope tow was erected by the state park system, which made a failed attempt to create a state park next to the slopes on the Gallatin National Forest.

So the local skiers took it on themselves to make Bridger Bowl a better place to ski. About 60 volunteers formed a nonprofit Bozeman State Park and Recreation Association. They rounded up a bunch of donated materials to build the first platter pull lift, Abelin recalled.

They got cheap towers from Montana Power Co. and old bull wheels from the copper mines in Butte to hold up and pull the lift's cables. The platters, just round pieces of plywood, were attached to the main cable by lengths of cable that were curled like ribbon to make them springy. Skiers would grab the platter, place it between their legs and be pulled skiing up the mountain.

The platter pull opened to the public in January 1955, Bridger Bowl's official birthday. It was primitive, Abelin agreed, "but it worked."

When the first chair lift was installed in 1964, that was a big deal, Abelin said. It meant skiers could ski the upper hill all the time. In 1971, the recreation association changed its name to the Bridger Bowl Association.

Over the decades, more chair lifts were installed and more ski runs opened. The original, A-frame 1959 Deer Park Chalet was upgraded in 1996 with a larger, more attractive building. The chalet at the bottom of the hill was replaced in 1998 by the Jim Bridger Lodge.

The new Saddle Peak Lodge is the largest and most attractive yet, with 39,000 square feet, wooden posts and beams, and faux rock facing.

It's designed to serve families and kids, while the Bridger Lodge will attract adult skiers, said Doug Wales, Bridger's marketing director. On peak weekends and holidays, Deer Park Chalet has been bursting at the seams, Wales said, and families complained they couldn't find room to sit and eat lunch.

The new lodge will have a cafeteria, seating for 275, an upper mezzanine with fireplace, more ticket windows, hundreds of seasonal lockers, a day care, and an elevator to serve people with physical disabilities.

Bridger Bowl serves everyone, Wales said, from Eagle Mount clients with disabilities to extreme skiers.

Bridger Bowl continues to plan for expansion. It has been working with the U.S. Forest Service for seven years on an application that would allow it to expand to the north and south.

The goal is to better serve the present skiers as well as to prepare for the next 40 years, Wales said. The Bozeman community is growing, and Bridger also attracts about 30 percent of its skiers from out-of-state, mainly Minnesota and North Dakota. It all adds up to an average of 180,000 skier visits a year.

Some criticize Bridger Bowl's growth, fearing it is losing its community character and becoming another glitzy resort, instead of an affordable place for local families to ski. Abelin disagrees.

"There hasn't been any lift or anything put on the mountain designed to bring in more people," Abelin said. "They were put in because the people were already here.

"It could stay the same, but eventually you would get big lift lines," he said. "Bridger has always had quality skiing, and that's why. It's not crowded."

Many other small ski hills have gone out of existence in the last 20 years, and Bridger is "really one of the few of that kind and size that has been a total success," Abelin said. He gave credit to Montana State University's college skiers, Bozeman's growth and the location that was scouted out some 50 years ago.

"Bridger has a very good mountain," he said.

Randy Elliott, 50, a former volunteer and ski patrolman, took over as Bridger Bowl's manager and seems in a good position to continue its traditions. He first started coming in the 1960s, when he was in the first or second grade. His dad, who worked for the Park Service, would drive up from their home in Yellowstone National Park.

"One of my early memories," Elliott said, "is standing in a long, serpentine line, waiting to get on the T-bar."

Bridger Bowl will celebrate its birthday on the weekend of Jan. 14, 15 and 16 with $10 ski tickets on Friday, bands, birthday cake, a community race and other events.

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