Ski hill opens Friday

The winter season for Big Horn County’s Antelope Butte Mountain Recreation Area begins this Friday, Dec. 20, with lifts turning at 9:30 a.m., a switch back from last season’s 9 a.m. starts.  

“Right now we plan to have all terrain areas open in order to spread the crowds out. The snow is out there, but it’s not super deep, so we’ll groom very lightly over the first couple of weeks,” said manager John DeVivo. 

The ski hill will be open Dec. 20 - 22, then closed Dec. 23 - 25, then open Dec. 26 - Jan. 5 before switching to its regular Wednesday through Sunday schedule, plus open on holiday Mondays, through April.

Welcomed news for regulars, the summit lift will be operating faster this year. Shuttling recreationalists at 425 feet per minute rather than 320 fmp last season, giving skiers and riders less time on the lift and more time on snow. “We’ve opened up at least six to seven different terrain areas for intermediate and expert skiers and riders; it’s not new terrain, it’s just safer and more navigable,” said DeVivo.

AB is fast approaching 2,000 registrations for the 100% free season pass deal for kids under age 18. AB is in uncharted territory within the ski and snowboard industry for offering such a brazen opportunity for children and outdoor recreation: free skiing for kids. Expecting an increase in visitors, the team has prepared. 

Last season saw over 11,500 visitors in 84 days of operation. Roughly 140 people averaged for daily shredding with weekends averaging 250. Low days saw 80 riders. “There’s definitely room for growth as we handled 600 people on Jan. 24 last season,” said DeVivo. 

“We’ll have at least 40% more rental gear this year, thanks to the generosity of Boyne Resorts (MI), Vail Resorts (CO), and The Sports Lure (Buffalo). We have so much rental gear available now that we bought an 8 x 20 Connex Box (trailer) to store the extra gear, and it’ll be covered with a beautiful 8 x 20 picture collage banner that AlphaGraphics has produced for us at cost,” he added. “We’ve also brought Nordic rentals back into our shop, and we’ll groom the Nordic trails as often as possible this year.”

The Montucky Entertainment Series will host live music every Saturday in the Granite Creek Pub N’ Pizza. This Saturday, Dec. 20, will showcase Just Another Band featuring Shell locals JD Kunkel on guitar and Shelby Cole on drums from 3 - 5 p.m. in the lodge. 

“We’ll also feature a mug club at the pub sponsored by Sheridan Liquor,” said DeVivo.

AB’s weekly Wednesday and Thursday school programs are already 100% booked, and they’re adding a few Friday dates to host more kids. There will be seven free “Yoga with Trish” sessions on selected Saturday mornings upstairs in the lodge.

Staffing at the ski hill remains constant with a few new faces. “We have a new Snowsports School director (Will Chambers from Ranchester), a new groomer (Max Boileau from Shell), a new guest services/ticketing/rentals manager (Tim Brown III from Shell), and a new lift ops team leader tandem (Hans Lohof from Sheridan and Corey Collingwood from Ranchester). Returning team leaders are Ryan Morris (mountain ops), Cathy Brown (kids group programming), Chase Walden (terrain parks), Nolan Allgood (facilities), Christy Lohof (patrol), and Gary Nielsen (food & beverage). We’re very actively recruiting more ski and snowboard instructors,” said DeVivo. 

AB was heavily featured in a nationally released short film sponsored by IndyPass and produced by Teton Gravity Research (“Mountains Not For Profit”) this fall. “The 31-minute movie really draws attention to our mission as a nonprofit, and we urge everyone to get online and watch it! We’re also very excited about having sold twice the volume of adult season passes and having had nearly 2,000 kids register for free passes. This could be a transformational year for Antelope Butte,” he said.