Idaho’s Rotarun helping more kids get on snow

Lift access is free and programming is subsidized on small hill outside Sun Valley

Skiing was free for all kids at Rotarun last season, and the little mountain operating as a nonprofit just outside Hailey, Idaho, is poised to do the same again in 2021-22.

It was a welcome gift during the pandemic season, one that was appreciated by local children and their families, particularly first-timers who otherwise might have been left behind by the snow-sports industry.

Opening the floodgates to the mountain playground is increasingly possible because of the recent bounty of “impactful donations” spawned by passionate alumni of Rotarun programs, generous foundations and a larger donor base of individuals and businesses, said Scotty McGrew, the ski hill’s general manager who oversees its programming. McGrew also wears the hat of executive director of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, which supports the smaller area’s activities.

Rotarun has always been about affordability, dating back to its humble roots in the 1940s, but its mission was redefined four years ago after a season when it couldn’t open because of low snow.

“The area was failing as a traditional ski hill and in dire need of reimagining,” McGrew said. What emerged was a makeover of its operations, seen in new snowmaking and the acquisition of a winch cat, as well as a retrenchment of its community-serving purposes.

Of note are impediments to entry for children at the grassroots level that are being buffed out with the precision of a veteran snowcat driver.

“We are intent on removing all financial barriers for children up to 11 years old in our community to engage in programming that helps inspire and develop racing skills,” McGrew said. Key has been bringing in volunteer coaches and tapping into foundation funds that traditionally aren’t interested in supporting the “ski racing niche,” he said.

Rotarun’s LASER (Learn Alpine Skiing and Racing) program, open to 5-10-year-olds with a level of skiing proficiency, has 120 kids enrolled for the coming season. LASER’s alpine-focused curriculum, created in 2003 by coaches Adele and Pat Savaria, received early support from locals like the late Gary Black Jr. LASER offers participants the chance to apply for reduced or free tuition off the $275 program fee.

The Cooper Tache First Tracks Fund, Bob Beattie Ski Foundation and a local group of enthusiasts such as the Kids Mountain Fund provide support, including equipment, for those who need it.

Will Brandenburg, alpine director and head coach for SVSEF and Rotarun, surmised that building the overall skier base will eventually net dividends across the board.

“Truthfully, it just makes my day better knowing that we are allowing more accessible programming to our community. I believe opportunity is always the starting point for greatness. I think it’s inevitable that we will see more high level alpine racers by allowing a more accessible way into the sport,” Brandenburg said.

“I know across our country there is a large population of kids that grow up close to ski areas but do not have access to skiing because the sport prices them out before they can even get started,” he added.

While local schools may represent a diverse population, heretofore that hasn’t been seen on the ski slopes, according to McGrew. Slowly that’s starting to change, thanks in part to the 475-foot hill whose name was inspired by the local Rotary Club.

The Rota-Rippers program is focused on getting first generation skiers and snowboarders to the mountains and building their skills. Free of charge, Rota-Rippers is “100 percent inspired by the vision of creating more diversity in our community of skiers and riders,” McGrew said.

So far, so good.

“Rotarun is an affordable and accessible option for skiers and working parents with children in the South Valley,” said Araceli Monjaras, whose daughter Gyzzelle “Gigi” Monjaras started in the LASER program in 2017.

“She loved the sport and became our first-generation skier,” Monjaras said. Gigi “then joined Rota-rippers in 2018 and 2019 because SVSEF offered a ride to the ski resort after school, which is huge for working parents.”

Gyzzelle’s diligence has provided the basis for her to move up to the SVSEF competitive racing program, graduating through the Baldy Devo, Mini World Cup and the North Series team for U12s. This will be her first year with the U14s as a member of Alpine IMD.

“She is the start of a new Rota-ripper wave,” said Brandenburg.

Financial aid from SVSEF has been crucial, according to Monjaras: “We will try to help Gyzzelle continue racing as long as she loves the sport and it’s affordable.”

Inspirational model

Skiers have been hiking up Dutch Henry Hill in Leadville, Colo., for decades, since an old rope tow was taken out of operation in the 1950s.

“A really hard-working kid can get 15 runs a night” by trudging up the steep hill at Leadville’s entrance, said Ben Cairns, the coach of the Lake County High School Ski Team and the school’s former principal. Cairns in July was named the new vice president and campus dean of Colorado Mountain College’s Leadville and Salida campuses.

CMC grooms and makes snow on the no-frills lighted hill with an approximately 110-foot vertical drop. The west side of Dutch Henry Hill is owned by Cloud City Mountain Sports; sledding and tubing take place on the feature’s east side, on property owned by Lake County. Unique to the community is a low cost “gear library” offering equipment at little or no cost through a program called Get Outdoors Leadville, whose mantra is reducing barriers to recreation.

Leadville sits at an elevation of 10,000 feet and while hiking uphill is great to build endurance, it can substantially cut into the amount of training volume, especially during the shortened winter daylight hours.

Inspired by the Rotarun model, Christin Cooper and Mark Tache, through their ski foundation, are involved in raising funds for a Dutch Henry Hill rope tow.

“The Rotarun project is so amazing and such a model for our country,” said Cooper, the 1984 Olympic silver medalist in GS who transitioned into a successful broadcasting career post-racing.

“The future of skiing is access and affordability for kids. And we believe so strongly that even a year in a ski program of any kind can be transformative for a child,” said Cooper, the former Wood River Valley resident who resides part of the year in Aspen. There you’ll find a youth-focused and subsidized entry-level ski program, Aspen Supports Kids (ASK), that was started by Bob Beattie and others during the early 1990s. ASK wasn’t around when Tache and his brothers were competing and he has publicly decried the high cost of racing today.

Cooper’s former coach on the U.S. Ski Team, John McMurtry, the executive director of the Lake County Community Fund, will also be fundraising for the Dutch Henry Hill rope tow.

“We’re all interested in reviving the soul of ski racing,” Ben Cairns said, adding that he hopes to hear soon if the grant written to the Climax Mine owners requesting a donation for the rope tow will happen. If so then money for insurance will be next on the wish list.

“These community-based hills in Colorado need to have a comeback,” Cairns said. “This has some potential to bring back skiing to normal kids and it’s very exciting what it can mean to Leadville. Not everyone can go to VSSA (Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy) or Aspen.”

Small ski areas in certain locations are enjoying a resurgence. According to the National Ski Areas Association, there were 462 ski areas in operation in the U.S. during the 2020-21 season, including a pair of newbies, Skeetawk near Palmer, Alaska (also supported by fundraising) and Kingvale Snow Schoolers in the Tahoe area (which is reopening for the first time in decades).

Adrienne Saia Issac, NSAA’s director of marketing and communications, noted that Antelope Butte in Wyoming is another small, nonprofit ski area that is “making big strides in bringing newcomers to the sport in an affordable way.”

Significant infrastructure

Back in Idaho, snowmaking at Rotarun was discussed for over 30 years but in 2018-19, coinciding with Scotty McGrew assuming the area’s helm, a multi-year plan found its footing.

Top-to-bottom snowmaking debuted at Rotarun last season and skiers took notice as Rotarun’s attendance boomed with a 350% increase – to 11,000 skiers and riders – over any prior year on record.

“From inclusive programming for first-generation skiers, to free night skiing for the community, it hit the right notes at a time when our community was going through a profound crisis,” McGrew recalled. “It became a place for families to be able to be around others in a safe, healthy and inspired atmosphere.”

McGrew said that 300 mountain users at one time can seem rather tight on Rotarun’s slopes. Crowds are kept manageable by employment of what he called an “ice rink model” for booking team time slots that don’t conflict with the public-at-large’s recreating.

Fundraising has been successful to the point where Rotarun now has reserve operating funds set aside for crisis funding or in the event of an unforeseen expense, like a broken lift.

Speaking of lifts: Their current batch of three uphill devices have as much character as Rotarun. A new rope tow purchased in 2021 and a relocated handle tow augment the services of a Poma lift shipped from an Austrian ski field in 2001. “It has had a very long and fascinating life,” McGrew said of the Poma.

Uphill capacity these days is a vast improvement from the modest system that challenged Rotarun alums like McGrew and Picabo Street.

“I also got my start at Rotarun ski areas as a child, for the record, and have powerful memories of being dragged up the hill on the top tow. The rule was, ‘ski for as long as you can hold on.’ That was how we earned our turns,” McGrew said.

Defraying expenses for higher competitive programming remains an uphill battle.

“There is no simple way around the hard costs associated with developing ski racers,” he said. “Equipment, summer camps, competition travel expenses and participating in invitation-based projects accrete to become a much more significant percentage of the total cost.”

Donors fill in the gaps where they can. One project undertaken by the Bob Beattie Ski Foundation is providing horse race-style gates for legacy races like the Arkoosh Cup at Rotarun.

“They are such a phenomenal tool for making racing fun,” McGrew said. “It takes the complexity out of teaching speed and serves as a brilliant way to keep the kids up on the hill taking laps.”

Because at the end of a training day, volume matters. And what vertically challenged mountains may lack in terms of elevation, areas like Rotarun compensate by packing a big punch both on and off the hill.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be a part of anything as meaningful as the work we are collectively doing as a community down at Rotarun,” said Will Brandenburg, the coach and former USST member who has fond memories of competing at the currently shuttered Spout Springs area in Oregon.

“We need these small ski areas in our sports. My hope is that we can create a roadmap that other small ski areas that are struggling to be sustainable can copy,” Brandenburg said.