Missoula News

Local Culture

A Ritual Complete: Montana Snowbowl’s Last Day

By Brianna Randall, 4-03-07

The author takes part in the hula hoop fun at Snowbowl's last day. Photo by Geoff Fast.

The beginning of April signifies many things for different people: Easter and chocolate bunnies, rebirth and renewal, and, of course, the tail-end of Montana Snowbowl’s lease with the U.S. Forest Service.  In some circles, the latter event involves almost as much ritual and tradition as religious ceremonies.

Folks came up to “The Bowl” in colors and costumes of all kinds to celebrate—and properly mourn—the end of the ski season on Sunday, April Fool’s Day.  Bikinis, fur coats, pirate costumes, Hawaiian shirts, evening gowns, and plenty of crazy hats decorated the slopes. Discarded capes, pajamas, ‘80s outfits and boas littered the slushy snow around the Last Run Inn as revelers soaked up the spring sun (and the remaining Snowbowl beer) after removing their skis and snowboards for the last time.

Besides people-watching, Snowbowl’s last day festivities included:

- a first-annual “Spring Splash” pond skimming contest, complete with face-plants into chilly water and unintended body-launches over the carefully-erected orange fence

- a free barbeque, featuring salmon burgers, chicken things, and even some beef

- live music, crooned by a band on the bunny hill

- and lots of hula-hooping precariously close to pitchers of beer. 

Visitors managed to squeak in a few runs between the festivities, too.  Although the parking lot was near-deserted at 11:00 a.m., lines of ski-laden vehicles trundled into the muddy lot by mid-day to take advantage of the remaining snow.  Slogging through the gravel at the base and glancing up at the exposed ground under the Grizzly Chair, an outside observer might think these skiers and boarders were too ambitious in their last-day aspirations. 

But the runs off Lavelle Chair on the top of the mountain were covered in plenty of sumptuous snow, and plenty of smiling faces.  Whooping catcalls echoed across the Rattlesnake Mountain peaks, hailing the changing season.  Children large and small careened down Paradise (avoiding the grassy mud-field halfway down), commemorating the close of another fun-filled winter. 

All in all, Snowbowl’s closing day seemed to be a successful ritual.  Let’s hope the costumes, catcalls, and cheer bring deep powder—and an early opening day—next winter.

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