Making the summer pay at Big Mountain
One day you gaze at the mountain and realize there's more grass than snow up there, the lifts have stopped moving and the last diehard snowboarder beat feet at least a week earlier.
From the standpoint of most resorts, this means one thing: Good-bye winter profits and hello summer poorhouse.
So how does a place like Big Mountain make money in the off season?
"We don't," said Fred Jones, Big Mountain's president and chief executive officer. "Not yet, at least."
But the mountain, which is operated by Winter Sports Inc., has a master plan that will eventually turn it into a summer revenue paradise for its 300 stockholders. It already is a summer paradise for many hikers, bikers, berry pickers and bird watchers, but these are not the guests who leave behind a trail of money.
The most sensible way for the resort to turn a summer profit is to increase the number of group conferences it books, Jones said. To do this, however, Big Mountain must first add to its limited inventory of meeting rooms.
Summit House - the day lodge at the top of the mountain - has facilities for to 100 people. The Outpost (a combination cafeteria/meeting room/administration facility at the bottom of the hill) is being renovated this summer, thus temporarily removing its conference rooms from the availability list.
"It is critical for us to develop meeting spaces, as well as the accommodations that serve meeting spaces," Jones said. "Usually this requires a consistency in room offerings."
Under discussion at Winter Sports are such future events as photography workshops and writing seminars - activities designed to appeal to a variety of people and showcase Big Mountain's summer attractions.
Family business
And then there are the families.
"Families are a major market goal for us, but we still need to add more activities and facilities to be able to call ourselves a family resort," Jones said.
"We need to offer organized children's activities, so that mom and dad can occasionally relax somewhere off by themselves and know the kids will be well taken care of. Our master plan includes putting in a swimming pool."
A separate part of that plan involves injecting the existing Big Mountain Village with what Jones calls "a true sense of place" - one that capitalizes on the mountain's natural setting.
Winter Sports currently owns several condominiums in the village. Edelweiss, Kintla Lodge and Morning Eagle all have summer rental units. Hibernation House, which labels itself "Big Mountain's best hotel lodging value," offers rooms starting at $65 a night.
A new condominium/hotel facility is included in the master plan and build-out is anticipated in 2007.
Kandahar Lodge, a 50-room, European-style lodge at Big Mountain, is privately owned. According to Jennifer Fisher, Kandahar director of sales, reservation numbers for this summer are stronger than in 2004 and fears of high gas prices driving away summer tourists have so far been unrealized.
"Our early calls have been very good," she said. "And we're definitely doing more destination weddings this year. Couples from all over who have been here before and loved it are coming back to get married."
Alpinglow Inn, also privately owned, and the Hellroaring Saloon are two additional mountain draws. All village retail shops remain open during the summer and there is a good selection of restaurants available.
Connecting to Glacier
It is both a blessing and a curse for Big Mountain that Glacier National Park is 35 miles away. With 2 million visitors a year, Glacier knows how to pull in the tourists.
The marketing challenge for Big Mountain is to find a way to capitalize on this phenomenon.
"We need to make more people aware that we're here," Jones said. "We want them to use Big Mountain as their base camp when they're out exploring Glacier. Rather than staying in a typical valley motel, we offer them a mountain experience."
For the summer visitor, Big Mountain - just the way it is - can be considered a bargain. Housing prices are low-season and most of the action on the mountain is either free or close to it.
Summer lift tickets for the Glacier Chaser gondola/chairlift to the top of the mountain cost $10 a day. That means you can ride up and bike down and then ride up and hike down or just plain ride up and ride down all day long on the same $10.
Hiking the Danny On Trail from base to summit costs only sweat equity.
Mountain biking at the resort has also become more popular in recent years. Mike Ketcher has been biking for at least two decades. "They've got great rides and great routes up there and every year they change slightly," he said.
And what about the convenience of riding the gondola to the top?
"Real bikers don't take the gondola," he said, laughing.
Some 50,000 summer visitors rode the Glacier Chaser last summer and many of them were not locals, Jones said. "But they didn't leave a lot of their money behind, because there's not a lot for them to spend it on here."
Yet.
It's almost summertime at Big Mountain and resort workers are busy doing their usual maintenance on the trails, the lifts and the snow-making equipment.
They're also offering Shakespeare, wildflower walks, grizzly bear slide shows, nature hikes, stargazing, an ultra garage sale, summer festival, brewfest, races and runs and the Walk in the Treetops attraction.
Opening date for Big Mountain is June 18. Call 862-2900 or www.bigmtn.com
Reporter George Kingson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at gkingson@dailyinterlake.com