For Antelope Butte ski area, survival takes community's backing

The Antelope Butte Ski Area is located off U.S. Highway 14. It is 59 miles west of Sheridan and 35 miles east of Greybull. It operated for 44 years before it closed with little notice in 2004 and, eventually, went up for sale in 2008.

“We all hoped some white knight would come along and buy our ski area and open it back up, but it just wasn’t happening,” Sheridan resident and avid skier Mark Weitz said in an interview with PBS in 2015.

Weitz kept tabs on any news of a potential reopening and learned in 2011 that a potential buyer of the area had backed out, and the Forest Service was ready to initiate attempts to salvage the area.

“My daughter was there, and when I got off the phone, she said, ‘Daddy, what’s going to happen to our ski area?’ And I just didn’t have the guts to tell her they were going to tear it down, so I said, ‘Well, we are going to work to get it open,’” Weitz said.

And that’s what he did, by recruiting interested people from communities on both sides of the mountain. They began by writing letters pleading to halt the salvage of the lodge and structures. In 2011, the Antelope Butte Foundation came into existence, with the goal of opening the facility for all-season mountain recreation.

The foundation bought the assets in 2016, which included the lodge, lifts, garage and maintenance shop, which had fallen into disrepair due to being vacant for more than a decade. The next step was fundraising to conduct repairs for a soft opening in 2018. The next year, the ski area opened with full lift service and received a five-year, year-round operating permit from the Forest Service.

Since its celebrated reopening, board members, volunteers, community organizers and employees have worked to make the area an all-seasons destination. During the summer, the area hosts camping and festival events, and then supports alpine and Nordic skiers from December to March. Elevation at the base is approximately 8,400 feet, and the 1,000-foot lifts provide access to 250 acres of skiable terrain.

Small ski areas are a vital resource for nearby communities to provide recreational opportunities and feed the economy, and are a critical component of the overall ski industry. While Wyoming is most popularly known for the larger-than-life runs at high-dollar resorts in Jackson Hole, it’s the smaller facilities where people learn to ski, build their skills and optimize their available free time close to where they live that makes it possible for larger resorts to exist.

Newly appointed General Manager John DeVivo has spent his career saving and operating ski areas. Originally from Maine, DeVivo is leaving a GM position at Cannon Mountain Ski Area in New Hampshire after 16 years, where he rebuilt large parts of the operation. During his time there, he transformed Cannon Mountain into one of the best reputed ski areas in the state. Before that, he spent another 16 years in the sphere of what he describes as “true corporate skiing.”

“I came here to AB because I’m enthralled by the mission of saving ski areas and saving affordable skiing,” DeVivo said. “We want to be the model that other 300- to 500-acre properties can look to when it comes to running with a great crew of 40-60 people and becoming profitable … and plugging heavily into the local community while doing so. I’m here full-time and full-tilt, and I live right here at the AB Lodge.”

The recruitment of national talent represents a full-faith effort on behalf of the ABF board to give the location the best possible chance for success. It was a complicated decision that, when combined with other factors related to the operation of the area, caused several board members and an executive director to resign. This year’s board is very different from last year’s.

ABF Board Director Emerson Scott said this year’s plan to operate with a new general manager, and the business agreements between board members and the foundation are the best feasible solution to keep the mountain open. Even with strong community support and nationally recognized leadership, the economics of operating a remotely located recreational business are still a formidable obstacle.

“Here we are, two or three weeks out from opening, and it’s still a nebulous thing,” Scott said. “We’re looking for lift operators and other employees from the ground and custodial perspective.”

DeVivo said he has increased wages in hopes of attracting a strong workforce to run the lodge and lifts for the season. In addition to increasing worker pay, he is working to build other incentives to help with the necessary daily travel to the location.

To bolster the customer experience and safety, all the lodge’s rental equipment was tuned up, and there were major mechanical efforts to bring the lift into compliance with three sets of expert safety protocols.

“We are beyond 100% compliant by every standard we are held to when it comes to lift maintenance,” DeVivo said.

From here, DeVivo said, it’s about providing consistent service so that the magic of downhill skiing can be made available to their guests.

“We get to a place where we consistently have improved grooming, maintained lifts, and everything is operationally smooth, and the customer has a great experience,” DeVivo said. “Then they want to come back.”

“It may take a year or two to build up our clientele and reputation in the community,” Scott said.

Building a client base while simultaneously cultivating a new generation of skiers is something that will take time, and that’s something DeVivo is expecting.

“Small ski areas like this struggle to operate financially,” he said. “You can operate and maybe break even or maybe even make a little, but even that is never going to be enough to fund big capital improvements, like new chair lifts and cutting new runs.”

“Breaking even is the main goal,” Scott agreed. “Turn a small profit is what we hope to be able to do. We can’t live on volunteerism and can’t live on donations, but we have to have them.”

With those identified objectives, Antelope Butte opens this year with the confidence of thoughtful community support and cautious optimism for the business side of the recreational experience.