Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 14 A single chairlift to the top of 9,000-foot Maverick Mountain services 24 runs through the high and dry Douglas-fir forest of the Pioneer Mountains. But the mountain is deceptively large for only being serviced by one chairlift, and it feels even larger by virtue of its vistas: of the vast sagebrush draws of the Grasshopper Valley and of the long arête of High- boy Mountain and its East Pioneers neighbors. It's not an overly manicured ski area, and the scattered aspen groves and gnarled whitebark pine limbs — and the lack of crowds — reinforce the wild feeling. "e views are the best in the state," says Dillon na- tive Cory Birkenbuel, a professional actor who has also worked alongside ski-movie pioneer Warren Miller. e Dillon-born Birkenbuel might justifiably have some home-hill bias, having skied at Maverick since he was two weeks old — his mother, a ski patroller, threw him in her pack and toted him around the hill as soon as she was back on her feet after his birth. But Birkenbuel also created and completed "Montana's Sweet Sixteen," in which he skied the state's 16 ski areas in 16 consecutive days, a few years ago, so he has a unique perspective on Maverick's merits. Says Birkenbuel, "Sometimes you have a whole run to yourself. en you come back up and you're the only person on the run again." "Sometimes I'll be able to ski the same dump of knee- deep powder for a week. at's what makes Maverick special, these hidden areas; I find a new zone every year." Owing to is location in the dry Pioneers, Maverick receives particularly dry and fluffy snow — some 250 inches a year. e presence of the Big Hole Valley to the west, a giant moisture sink, seems to further contribute to quality powder. "I HAD TWO GOALS FOR TODAY. MY FIRST GOAL WAS TO WAKE UP THIS MORNING. My second goal was to ski my hundredth run [of the season]." Every ski hill has its resident long-timers. Eighty-two-year-old rancher Robert Marchesseau of Polaris is likely one of the few who can claim to have helped build his favorite ski area. Decades ago, his draft horses dragged the logs that would become the first lift posts at Maverick Mountain in Southwest Montana's Grasshopper Valley, west of Dillon and about one-hundred miles from Butte. Today, Marchesseau rides the mountain's sole chair on the honor system: two dollars per run, paid directly to the ski area owner at the end of the day. Schussing in Wranglers, work gloves and a red puffy jacket older than most of his companions on the chairlift, Marchesseau embodies the "Maverick Magic" of his home mountain and the mom-and-pop charm of Montana ski areas, where you're likely to share a chair with a Carhartt-clad farmer, and where winter is a throwback to the old days--including the ticket prices. F I N D Y OU R A D V E N T U R E • SP I R I T A N D I N S P I R A T I O N • MAVERICK MOUNTAIN Skier Cory Birkenbuel jumps over one of the massive pines that characterize 9,000-foot Maverick Mountain's un-manicured charm.

• Cover