MAVERICK MOUNTAIN — Downhill skiing becomes more challenging if there isn’t a way to get back up the hill for another run.
Thanks to the Sand Creek Fire, that’s the situation facing Maverick Mountain this coming season. The fire destroyed the top tower of the hill’s only lift.
“The cable flung chairs hundreds of feet when it broke”. That’s how lifelong Maverick Mountain skier Cory Birkenbuel described the destruction.
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Birkenbuel calls Maverick the farm program for Montana’s ski hills.
“Lots of current ski instructors learned to ski at Maverick.” In fact, since 1955, the Dillon Jaycees Little Ski program has helped as many as 250 youngsters each year learn how to ski, with Birkenbuel being one of them.
Birkenbuel says once the fire destroyed the lift, he went to work finding a way to raise money to build it back. He contacted the Dillon Jaycees. “We have established the Friends of Maverick Mountain. It’s a 501C3.”
Birkenbuel says there is an account set up at Stockman’s Bank, and donations can be made to the Friends of Maverick Mountain through any Stockman’s Bank in Montana.
The Friends of Maverick Mountain fundraising campaign is for $2 million. According to Birkenbuel, Maverick had recently purchased a new lift, but installing it is expensive. He says it’s as much at $200,000 to string the cable, and the mechanical part of the lift runs about half a million dollars.
Birkenbuel says the fundraising effort is focusing on getting the Little Skier program back on the hill. “I learned to ski there, and there’s a magic about this place…The Maverick Magic that people hold on to.”
Donations can also be made through a new website: friendsofmaverickmountain.org.
