GREAT FALLS — Due to the warm weather in recent days, Showdown Montana ski area has postponed its opening day from December 11th to December 18th.
Showdown event coordinator Rickey Nash said that as of Wednesday there was only enough snow on about 60 percent of the mountain.
There is still an opportunity for you to get out on the snow during what would have been opening weekend though.
A pop-up terrain park will be set up on Saturday, December 12.
"We're going to be serving cheeseburgers and drinks and beer starting at 11 a.m. for people that want to hike or skim up and earn their turns or go sledding. We won't be running the lifts, but we just want people to come up and play in the snow and get on the mountain,” said Nash.
Tickets to the pop-up event are $15 and you will have to bring your own equipment.
(NOVEMBER 16) Showdown Montana near Neihart is gearing up for the ski season, and has released details of its plan to help keep visitors and staff safe during the COVID pandemic.
Showdown plans to open for the season on Friday, December 11th. The popular ski area had to cut short its 2019-2020 season back in March.
"I think the main message is just to hang in there with us. We need a lot of cooperation from our guests. It is going to be a different winter up here at Showdown. We've made a lot of accommodations to our normal operations,” said Katie Boedecker, the general manager.
Showdown released its COVID plan on its website. Similar precautions and guidelines have been implemented at other Montana ski areas.
“It’s been almost full-time in our planning since we closed on March 15,” said Big Sky Resort general manager Troy Nedvad. “Obviously our summer has been a lot of opportunities to test our operations on a smaller scale. We’ve obviously been working on all the industry data — both state and county information — as to figuring out our operating plan for this year.” Click here for more information.
“When we start looking at COVID-19 precautions and how to most safely operate this winter, one of our biggest issues was the amount of inside-seating we have,” says Travis Crawford, Great Divide general manager. “So, what we came up with, was the ability to build a new facility and increase that by just shy of 100 total seats, which gives us a lot more options.” Click here for details.
