HELENA — In the spring season, a lot happens. It starts to warm up, flowers start to bloom, and our mountain resorts start to pack up and prepare for the summer.
One of the first changes we'll see at Great Divide will be the switch to the spring schedule.
"This is the last week of our winter season schedule where we're open Wednesday through Sunday where we are moving into our spring schedule, where we're open on weekends through April, basically as long as we can stay open," said Travis Crawford, Owner of Great Divide Ski Area.
Even with excellent snow, some of the seasonal workers have to leave to prepare for their other seasonal jobs.
Crawford says that some of the workers at Great Divide are also seasonal firefighters or fishing guides. Crawford says they will move workers around to keep the resort in good shape well into the spring.
"We start to bring in some operators from maybe some other departments. We have certified operators who work in our train parks. We have some certified operators that run our snow camps. So as we start go into a weekend operation, we can shift some hours around and keep those lifts operating," said Crawford.
At the beginning of the ski season, Great Divide had estimated that they would close up shop for the season on April 2nd.
But with recent snowfall over the last couple of weeks, Crawford doesn't see a reason to close in early April but says he will play it by ear.
"I think it's fairly safe to say we'll make it to mid-April if not late April. We have in the past made it into early may before. So that's always a possibility as well," said Crawford.
Crawford says they will continue to run all their chairlifts, even during their spring schedule as long as they have snow on those trails.
"We're continuing our normal operation," said Crawford, "We're going to run all of the chairlifts as long as we have snow and we're just going to keep kind of rolling that forward."
