{"id":12586,"date":"2020-01-15T01:34:14","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T01:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=12586"},"modified":"2020-01-15T01:34:14","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T01:34:14","slug":"the-little-mountain-with-a-big-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/15\/the-little-mountain-with-a-big-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Little Mountain With A Big Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rotarun offers free skiing<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Mike McKenna<\/em><\/p>\n

There really is nothing quite like Rotarun.<\/p>\n

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Kids and their parents night ski for free at Rotarun. Photo credit: Scott McGrew<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The small ski area is easy to overlook, nestled in the mountains off Croy Canyon west of Hailey. That is, except for Wednesday and Friday evenings, when night skiing at Rotarun lights up the hills like a skiing version of the Batman signal.<\/p>\n

The \u201cLittle Mountain with a Big Heart\u201d has been quietly helping people fall in love with skiing, snowboarding and our little slice of Ida-heaven for over 70 years now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a Hailey icon for local families for generations,\u201d said Scott McGrew, executive director of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) and volunteer general manager of Rotarun. \u201cThe place is universally loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded in 1948 by Swiss-born Olympic skier Janet Winn, Rotarun offers 440 feet of vertical, covering 15 acres of skiable terrain and is served by a lone Poma lift. The single and simple-to-use lift is part of Rotarun\u2019s appeal\u2014it allows skiers and boarders a chance to get off the lift whenever they\u2019d like.<\/p>\n

The price is also nice, as the nonprofit Rotarun is now free\u2014making it quite possibly the only free ski area on the planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a brilliant learning theater for all levels, from introduction to refinement,\u201d said Scott. \u201cIt\u2019s a great place to learn to ski, but you can also build world-class skiers at Rotarun.\u201d Olympic skiers like Picabo Street and Christin Cooper, as well as Olympic snowboarders like Chase Josey and Kaitlyn Farrington, have all carved countless turns at Rotarun.<\/p>\n

But Rotarun is about more than just producing great skiers\u2014it\u2019s about community and the role skiing has always played locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cSkiing has driven our community since 1936, when Sun Valley opened,\u201d said Scott, who grew up in the Wood River Valley and has traveled all over the world during his skiing career. \u201cIt\u2019s part of our culture and it pulls us together. It creates a stronger, healthier, safer, more cohesive home for all of us. This community understands the power of winter sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rotarun could not remain free, or have recently added snowmaking and renovations to the ski shack\/lodge, if it weren\u2019t for the kindness of the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of people and businesses who have contributed to this is staggering,\u201d said Scott, who has volunteered countless hours himself at Rotarun over the last three years. \u201cThe generosity of this community amazes me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal for Rotarun as it celebrates its seventh decade is really pretty simple: keep skiing alive and accessible for everyone. With mom-and-pop ski areas like Rotarun closing all over the country, it\u2019s no easy task.\u00a0 <\/span>But Scott likes the odds, especially with a community like ours to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make Rotarun dependable, reliable and accessible. We want people to come out and enjoy the place. Rotarun represents the foundation of the sport,\u201d Scott said, adding with a smile, \u201cIt\u2019s got that magic to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, a schedule or to make a donation, check out Rotarun.org.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rotarun offers free skiing By Mike McKenna There really is nothing quite like Rotarun. The small ski area is easy to overlook, nestled in the mountains off Croy Canyon west of Hailey. That is, except for Wednesday and Friday evenings, when night skiing at Rotarun lights up the hills like a skiing version of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,36,38],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chamber-corner","8":"category-slider","9":"category-sponsored"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}