Community ski areas

Sometimes the value of a ski area isn’t measured in its terrain, but in the support it receives.

The Ski Bowl at Mulligan’s Hollow is in Grand Haven, Michigan, perhaps two miles from Lake Michigan.

You won’t confuse the ski bowl for Vail or Stowe or even the typical Midwestern ski area. At just seven acres, it’s smaller than the parking lots at major destination resorts.

Even a slow double chair would be outsized. The bowl, which has six named slopes, is served by five tow ropes. The longest slope is 700 feet–about the length of two Wal-Mart or Target stores.

On the upside, there’s another small dimension: A season pass is $65. You can take lessons as well as develop your skills in slalom racing or in freestyle snowboarding or skiing.

You can also develop your muscles in civic participation by supporting the bowl, which has depended, in part, on the local Rotary, volunteer workers, area businesses, and the local community foundation.

Recently supporters held Burgers on the Bowl, one of several fundraising events that has helped pay for lighting, snow-making equipment, and a groomer.

The bowl has seen its share of financial difficulties through the years:

The city opened the Ski Bowl in December 1963, but the facility closed in the late 1970s because the city had higher priorities at the time than to repair the aging ski hill equipment. Several residents and supporters stepped in and raised money to reopen the Ski Bowl in 1981.

The adjacent Tri-Cities Family YMCA took over the operation in the early 1990s, which may have kept it from being closed down again. The YMCA ran it until 2005 when its own budget constraints became an issue, and the city took it over again. That’s when the group — many of whom were already involved in the support of the ski facility over the years — stepped up and asked to take over the operations.

By the way, the bowl is the ski “area” closest to Muskegon, the home of the Snurfer, the predecessor of today’s snowboard.