Grays On Trays

Sometimes the value of a ski area isn’t measured in its terrain, but in the support it receives.

The Ski Bowl at Mulligan’s Hollow is in Grand Haven, Michigan, perhaps two miles from Lake Michigan.

You won’t confuse the ski bowl for Vail or Stowe or even the typical Midwestern ski area. At just seven acres, it’s smaller than the parking lots at major destination resorts.

Even a slow double chair would be outsized. The bowl, which has six named slopes, is served by five tow ropes. The longest slope is 700 feet–about the length of two Wal-Mart or Target stores.

On the upside, there’s another small dimension: A season pass is $65. You can take lessons as well as develop your skills in slalom racing or in freestyle snowboarding or skiing.

You can also develop your muscles in civic participation by supporting the bowl, which has depended, in part, on the local Rotary, volunteer workers, area businesses, and the local community foundation.

Recently supporters held Burgers on the Bowl, one of several fundraising events that has helped pay for lighting, snow-making equipment, and a groomer.

The bowl has seen its share of financial difficulties through the years:

The city opened the Ski Bowl in December 1963, but the facility closed in the late 1970s because the city had higher priorities at the time than to repair the aging ski hill equipment. Several residents and supporters stepped in and raised money to reopen the Ski Bowl in 1981.

The adjacent Tri-Cities Family YMCA took over the operation in the early 1990s, which may have kept it from being closed down again. The YMCA ran it until 2005 when its own budget constraints became an issue, and the city took it over again. That’s when the group — many of whom were already involved in the support of the ski facility over the years — stepped up and asked to take over the operations.

By the way, the bowl is the ski “area” closest to Muskegon, the home of the Snurfer, the predecessor of today’s snowboard.

The nation’s smallest state also has one of the country’s smallest ski areas. The Providence Journal (“Area Ski Resorts Say: Let it Snow,” January 3) offers a quick review of three ski areas. Blue Hills Ski Area (350 vertical feet) and Wachusett Mountain (1,000 vertical feet) are both in Massachusetts. Rhode Island’s only downhill area is Yawgoo Valley (240 vertical feet).

The folks at Yawgoo get credit for truth in advertising when they call their business a valley, not a mountain.

Says staff writer Katherine Imbrie, “Yawgoo isn’t a mountain at all. It’s a 240-foot valley approached by a road that dips and drops right along with the ski runs next to it. Driving in, you can look to your right and watch the skiers and tubers go from top to bottom.”

That description sounds like a few ski areas (Afton Alps, Welch Village) I have been to. Put the car into low gear and start moving.

It’s hard for places with limited terrain to hold your attention for long. But they do offer a place to slide, and snowboarders, especially beginners and freestylers, will make use of what they have available. Yawgoo has been around for 45 years. Here’s to another 45 years of introducing people to the joy of snow.

There are a lot of places to enjoy snowboarding, from large resorts such as Vail and Whistler that draw from a global market, to the small day areas that predominate in the Midwest and much of the mid-Atlantic states.

Likewise, in ownership there is a great deal of diversity. You might buy a few shares in Vail Resorts, a publicly traded company (ticker symbols MTN).

But rarely can you buy shares in a company that operates a ski and snowboarding area. Some are fairly large private companies, such as Boyne USA, which owns operations in British Columbia, Michigan, Utah, and Washington.

Some areas are owned by state or local units of government. Others are co-ops.

Some, though, are true small-scale family operations. The other day I was at one such area, where I occasionally teach snowboarding. I approached one of the owners, and she greeted me by name.

I was impressed. Our most extensive exchange was at an end-of-season banquet last season. Yet here it was, months later, and she remembered me, though I am one of perhaps 200 people (ski patrol, snowsports school, back office, etc.) That’s not the kind of personal knowledge that you’re going to find in a mega-sized resort.