Volunteers keep skiing affordable at Badger Mountain

If you enjoy skiing, you probably know it takes more than just some skis, boots and poles to slide down a hill. It also takes money. Sometimes a lot of it. Tickets at Washington’s big ski resorts run from $65 to $150 a day.

That’s not the case at Badger Mountain Ski Area in Central Washington. There, the price is a mere $10 a day. That’s because the hill is a nonprofit, run entirely by volunteers.

Standing at the top of Badger Mountain, you can see miles of dormant wheat fields covered in snow and, not too far away, the town of Waterville, population 1,100.

General Manager Steve Hickman’s enthusiasm for skiing hasn’t waned in the 40 years he’s been volunteering.

“It's one of the greatest experiences ever, it's the closest you could come to jumping out of an airplane, without a parachute," Hickman said. "It's just so much fun, the thrill is there every day.”

Leased by the City of Waterville at no cost, the ski area’s season typically starts in early January, and, if it’s a good snow year, runs through March. They’re only open on weekends, seeing as the volunteers work elsewhere during the week.

As for who shows up, Hickman said it's always a surprise.

“I never know who's gonna show up or when and we just work with what we get," he said. "We have to train new people on the T bar. We do all the safety checks on the lifts, and keep all the lifts moving and the snowcats moving and the lodge plumbing working and somehow we pull everything together.”

They have a lot of sunny days at Badger Mountain, but even when it’s cold and wet, volunteers show up, Hickman said.

“We just put on our winter gear and stand out there in the cold in the wind and do the same thing we do on a beautiful day, but that’s just what we do," he said. "It doesn’t matter if it’s rain or shine.”

He thinks this ski area means a few hundred people in Waterville ski because they have this easy and cheap access, and he recognizes every single face.

“We know every person, their names, what they do, what their ages are," Hickman said. "We know every person who’s up here. I've seen them come up from, like, three feet high to they're married with kids.”

The Waterville Lions Club is another partner in running the hill. They handle the liability insurance for the ski area, and cook up lunch in the lodge.

Volunteer lion Susan Middlestaedt said she doesn’t ski, but her children do.

“My son started when he was 5 and, when your child finds something they love, you just keep going with it, and here you don’t have such a financial commitment to come here and learn,” Middlestaedt said.

She attributes her children’s love of skiing to her neighbors.

“They literally put my son between their legs with his little skis and helped him to ski," she said. "I don't think he could have learned without that. So I think it's wonderful. Anybody would help anybody.”

Behind the grill, volunteer Jim Rudd agreed and explained why he spends his weekends cooking burgers.

“It's just so great for the families and the kids to be able to go and afford to ski and afford a meal," Rudd said. "Our meal is $7.”

The small size of the ski hill also offers something to the kids.

“There's just a lot of freedom here because you can just turn them loose and go,” Rudd explained.

Volunteer ski lift operator Michael Church Saelens described what he sees on a typical Saturday. As he mentioned that kids would borrow shovels to build ski jumps, he was interrupted by a walkie-talkie notification that that’s exactly what was happening.

“Those are Badger Mountain shenanigans," he said. "They have a good old time doing it.”

There are few major cities in the world that have as much geographic access to skiing as Seattle. But with the price of equipment, transportation, and lift tickets increasing every year skiing is out of reach for many. And with fewer small, independently owned ski hills near local towns, it becomes harder to find a close ski hill that families can afford.

That’s why the volunteers and the Waterville community remain so committed to Badger Mountain. General Manager Steve Hickman said they know they can rely on each other.

“You know, it's a really good feeling. And without the volunteers that wouldn't be here, there's just no way, like people take all walks of life… engineers, doctors, physician's assistants, contractors, people take the time out of their busy day, their weekend where they'd like to stay home or maybe watch football, but they'll they come down and volunteer," Hickman said. "I just like to think that it's a really good public service. And it's amazing that it works every day. It's a miracle we run. And a lot of these little areas over the years fade away, and they never come back again. And so my job here is to make sure this is a viable operation.”