Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area, “the only strictly summer ski area in the nation,” is being sold.
“For sale” is spelled out in large red letters on the ski area’s website over the top of a photo of the steep mountainside and its lift towers.
“We’d like to see somebody buy it who has the financial wherewithal to bring it to its potential,” said co-owner and operations manager Austin Hart.
Beartooth Basin co-owner and operations manager Austin Hart is shown in 2017.
“Much like most business that sell in this world, the owners are looking for a change,” Hart wrote in an email. “We are a dynamic ownership group, each with separate careers and businesses that we manage in addition to Beartooth Basin. We would like to see our operation reach its highest potential, which we currently don’t have the resources for. We feel that we have improved this operation and left it better than when we started, and we would be happy to extend that opportunity to future owners.”
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Since the news went our, he said there’s been a lot of interest. Although owning a remote, high-altitude summer ski area may appeal to a buyer’s romantic side, Hart said it’s a lot of work keeping the lifts turning.
“It’s always been a community ski hill, that’s important to our customers,” he said, adding it would be nice to continue that tradition.
“Going to the right home is the most important part of this.”
Although the Shoshone National Forest oversees management of the land, the two high-speed Doppelmayr surface lifts, three snowcats, a portable diesel generator, seven trailers and all of the tools and equipment to operate the remote facility are for sale.
Hart would not reveal the asking price.
“We are entertaining all serious offers, and ultimately we are going to find out what the current market value is for one of the most unique ski operations in the Nation and World for that matter,” he wrote. “What would you pay for your slice of heaven?”
The ski area runs under a 20-year permit from the Forest Service, which allows operation on 90 acres with 1,000 feet of vertical descent. Sale of the facilities would not automatically mean a transfer of the permit, according to Casey McQuiston, of the Shoshone National Forest. He said there would be a process to ensure the new owners were capable of running the ski area.
