When the sun goes down, the limited night skiing that there is takes place on the modest T-bar hill under spotty lamplight.
But this little ski area with only two chairlifts has developed some of the finest competitive freestyle skiers in the world, including an Olympic gold medalist and a host of talented youngsters, some of whom may earn a spot on future U.S. Olympic ski teams.
The program was envisioned and launched by Andy Hayes, and its core coaches include Curt Tempel and Joe Chalmers, all Missoula natives with impressive competition credentials of their own and a commitment to teaching the next generation of local skiers.
Eric Bergoust, a Missoula aerialist and three-time Olympian, serves as a part-time coach and designed the jump zone on Sunrise Bowl, which will host a regional freestyle competition Jan. 13-14 and the prestigious North American Freestyle Tour Championships in February.
“I can't say enough about those guys,” said Landon Gardner, a 20-year-old Missoulian who practiced his chops under Missoula Freestyle's tutelage and is now a member of the U.S. Ski Team, which trains in Park City, Utah.
“The way the program is set up with the kids - fun comes first,” he said. “But that said, Curt, Joe and Andy are the most talented coaches I have ever had. Their knowledge of the sport is amazing, and they know the right thing to say at the right time to make things happen for their students.”
Gardner, who is hoping to make the cut and represent the United States at the FIS World Cup Freestyle Championships in Italy at the end of January, joins a distinguished list of competitive skiers who received their foundational training by way of Missoula Freestyle and Snowbowl.
Aside from Bergoust, who is a 1998 Olympic gold medalist and winner of 15 career World Cup events, and Chalmers, who competed at the U.S. National Championships, there are other award-winning alumni: Donovan Power, a 1997 U.S. National Mogul champion, World Cup competitor and five-year member of the U.S. Ski Team; Michael Stevenson, 2000 U.S. Nationals Qualifier champion and current Missoula Freestyle coach; Cory Ryan who placed seventh at the 2003 Junior World Nationals in Finland; and Ani Haas, who placed second at Junior Nationals in 2004 and fourth in the U.S. Team Selections in 2006.
Last winter, the Snowbowl team qualified 12 Missoula skiers for the junior national championships in Park City, Utah, and three of them qualified for U.S. National Championships in Killington, Vt. At the junior championships, mogul skier Britton McMannis placed sixth, and Tempel's son, Cody, placed seventh at Junior Nationals and fifth in moguls at the U.S. Nationals.
Missoula's powerhouse program was born of humble beginnings in 1986, when Hayes, who had finally had his fill of competing on the professional mogul tour, gave up his apartment in Sun Valley and came home.
“I decided I needed to give up that lifestyle and graduate from college and get a real life, so to speak,” Hayes said. Yet even as he buckled down to study at the University of Montana, he couldn't get skiing out of his blood.
Snowbowl, which was eager to expand its ski school services, didn't have a freestyle program and agreed to let Hayes develop one.
And so the program was born, with Hayes as its sole coach and five students.
Bergoust and his best friend, Chalmers, weren't yet involved with the program, but both were die-hard skiing talents with nowhere to compete in Montana. At the time, there was no regional program in place for young competitors who wanted to qualify for junior nationals.
The climate for such aspirations was so desperate, a small group of Bozeman-area skiers spent their winters driving to competitions in Utah, and Bergoust and Chalmers spent most of the winter of 1988 driving a late-1970s Bel Air back and forth to competitions in the Seattle area.
After school let out for the weekend, they'd hop in the car and hit the road, driving through the night to various ski areas and sleeping in the parking lot, waiting for the lifts to open.
On one of their epic adventures, the then-teenagers arrived at Snoqualmie Pass in the middle of a raging snowstorm that blanketed the car as they fell asleep.
“When we woke up in the morning, we heard all this noise outside the car, and the windows are all iced over. Joe rolls down the window and looks out and there's a bunch of guys hooking our car up to a tow truck,” Bergoust said.
“Joe yelled out, ‘Hey, don't tow us!' ”
Such stories frustrated Hayes. It didn't make sense that Montana, with all of its great ski areas and talented skiers, was outside the competition circuit.
So he set out to change things. He started attending United States Ski & Snowboard Association meetings to learn how to create a USSA Northern Division - a division for Montana.
“Eric Bergoust is one of the reasons I started it,” Hayes said. “We had at least 10 really great athletes at the time who were traveling far distances to compete and I wanted them to have the opportunity to compete in their home ski areas.”
It was fitting that when the Northern Division aerial championships were held for the first time in 1989, Bergoust won the overall title.
“It had a lot of meaning for me,” Hayes said, “and it had a lot of implication for him. It meant he qualified to go to the U.S. National Championships.”
It was the beginning of Bergoust's Olympic and World Cup career as an aerialist.
For Missoula Freestyle, it was a major building block.
Hayes soon found himself buried in the bureaucracy of running the Northern Division, which involved a lot of travel and meetings.
After years of juggling coaching and his regional duties, he handed off Missoula Freestyle's leadership to Tempel, who like Hayes had returned home to Missoula after years of competing on the pro mogul circuit.
During the 1990s, when aerials and moguls became official Olympic sports, Missoula Freestyle grew exponentially. Chalmers, who had stopped competing and owned and operated summer freestyle camps, joined Tempel to help guide the program.
“With Joe and Curt at the helm, this program had nowhere to go but up,” Hayes said.
Missoula Freestyle caught the nation's attention at the 2000 U.S. National Freestyle Championships, when Bergoust won the aerial event and Power placed third in the dual moguls.
“To have those two local kids, kids we coached and watched develop stand on the podium was really amazing,” Hayes said.
“I'm really proud of what has happened to the skiers that got started in this program, and I'm proud of all the people who have made it happen.
“I'm proud of Snowbowl for stepping up to the plate and letting it happen.”
Now, with 34 kids on its development team, 14 skiers on the competition team, Bergoust back in Missoula Freestyle's coaching mix and Snowbowl landing national championship competitions, Hayes expects the program will only get stronger.
Curt Tempel and Chalmers remain committed to the program's core values: passing on their passion for the sport, teaching in a way that kids enjoy what they are learning, and always, to have fun.
“That's really important for all our coaches - and our kids,” Tempel said.
Whereas other programs at fancier resorts have rigorous after-school training programs and weekend “boot camps,” Missoula Freestyle focuses on quality, not quantity.
There's no night skiing for their kids at Snowbowl. Instead, they spend their Saturdays hot-lapping the T-bar hill where the “Air Bergy” jump zone is located, practicing moguls and aerials with their coaches. On Sundays, they free ski Snowbowl's infamous steeps.
“It's good for them to free ski the mountain - and it's so challenging, they learn a lot on their own just by getting down Angel Face and West Bowl,” Tempel said. “Sometimes, I think the mountain itself is the best teacher.”
During the summer months, the coaches take a few weekends to drive their most serious students to the Park City water ramp park, where they can safely learn sophisticated aerial moves that would otherwise be too dangerous to learn on snow.
Word has spread about the little ski area with the impressive freestyle program.
While riding the lift at Mount Gabriel in Quebec last week, Hayes struck up a conversation with a young French skier.
When his companion learned he was from Missoula, he asked Hayes, “Isn't that where Snowbowl is? I was there for the North American championships last year, and I can't wait to go back.”
Hayes was stunned by the teenager's enthusiasm and knowledge.
“It's cool to think most people in North America freestyle know about Snowbowl,” he said.
As the ski hill and Missoula Freestyle prep the aerial and mogul site for the upcoming regional competition, coaches will also be checking with Gardner, who will be in a World Cup event at Deer Valley, Utah.
Gardner hopes to sweep up top points there, and at a Lake Placid World Cup event on Jan. 19. If he has two good showings, he'll be packing his bags for the World Cup Championships in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, on Jan. 27-28.
If that happens, Hayes will be there, too, cheering on Gardner from the sidelines, where he will have unprecedented access.
As Missoula Freestyle has gained respect within elite circles, so too has Hayes. He'll be at the competition serving as the first American technical delegate - the rules enforcer - at a World Cup Freestyle Championship.
“It's a big honor,” Hayes said.
“I think it's a really exciting time for all of us,” he said. “Looking back, I can't believe how far we have come.”
Reporter Betsy Cohen can be reached at 523-5253 or at bcohen@missoulian.com
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