Rebuilding 70 years of family, community and legacy
Maverick Mountain was the community ski area that could. Cory Birkenbeil and the Friends of Maverick Mountain are dead set on not only bringing it back after it was damaged in the Sand Creek Fire, but bringing it back better than before
“I remember my first time skiing. It was with my mom. I probably was two or three years old, and I remember going to Midway and just like skiing in between her legs. I looked up at her and I yelled at her. I was like, ‘I'm faster than a speeding bullet, you know.’ And that, I just remember that was my first run ever, and it's so vivid in my brain. That's what's cool about skiing. You just have these little memories and why you do things. Maverick's my why. Why I live and why I teach skiing and why I kind of do the things I do. And why I love the outdoors is because of Maverick.”
48-year-old Cory Birkenbeil stood with friends at his home in Polaris and watched Maverick Mountain burn in early August of 2026. He’d not only grown up there, but he’d watched 15 years worth of kids grow up there the same way while he worked as a ski instructor.
“I'm glad that I was able to watch it burn because if I wasn't there, I probably would be kind of disappointed,” he explained, searching for words like a grief stricken widow might. “It’s weird to say, but that was my old childhood, you know. So I needed to be there and tell the story.”
Birkenbeil gives the mountain he calls home credit for saving his and his community's homes as well.
“As we were watching it burn, it was like a monster,” he remembered. “It sounded like a jet airplane. You know, just roaring at you. It just consumed and that was the craziest thing. How it consumed everything, but it wouldn't burn a house down. No fatalities happened.”
“It was a miracle how it happened,” continued Birkenbeil who, in addition to working as a ski instructor, has also served as a firefighter. “I tell people and I write about it on my social media. Maverick saved the whole valley in a way. Because there's those big runs, once it hit the top it burnt out. Then it advanced to the middle of another run, burnt those trees, but it slowed it down. That's the big thing with fire, right? It needs a fire break to slow down. If it didn't have those runs, it could have burnt the whole valley down.”
Not only was the valley spared, but so was the ski lodge and the lion’s share of the equipment needed to make a ski area work. So was the hope that more kids would get the experience of growing up at a ski resort where you can buy a whole day of skiing for the cost of a burger and a beer at the big hill a few hours away.
Maverick Mountain opened in 1946 and has been a one chair lift, 24 run community ski resort ever since. In 1955 the Dillon Jaycees started their Little Skiers Program. The 70-year-old program still serves 250 kids a year according to friendsofmaverickmountain.org, the website put together to help with community outreach following the fire.
“This is kind of devastating for the kids,” said Birkenbeil. “You know, that's their little time to get in the mountains, and maybe their only time. Unfortunately, this year they won't be able to do anything. There's talk about some little things, but you know it's just really hard not having a lift.”
While much of the equipment survived, the lift, which ran the first day the hill was open in 1946, and the ski shack were a total loss. By a stroke of good fortune, a new lift is already on the property waiting to take the place of the original chair and provide the community ski area with modern uphill capacity.
In 2024, Aspen Skiing Company sold the retired Gent's Ridge quad — a 122-chair fixed-grip lift that Aspen skiers had nicknamed "the Couch," to Maverick Mountain. They also acquired parts from Jackson Hole's old Sublette lift.
Owner Erik Borge described the purchase at the time as a chance to "achieve the otherwise unobtainable for a small, family-run hill," on friendsofmaverickmountain.org.
While the lift is onsite and as much of it as possible were transported to nearby ranches to be saved during the fire, there is an enormous lift to be accomplished to get it operational on the mountain. The website describes it like this:
“In addition to engineering and the approval process, what remains is a new haul rope, a full electrical upgrade, a new AC drive, and the installation of at least 18 towers, top and bottom terminals, and 120 chairs.”
The haul rope is an item that will have to be made to order and that is expected to take time. The website points that out specifically as the biggest hold up to getting the kids and Mavrats, the affectionate name of the Maverick Mountain enthusiasts, back on the hill. Birkenbeil, along with the community around him, has taken the fundraising onto his shoulders and is off to a great start.
“Our community is amazing, and a lot of people are helping,” said Birkenbeil. “There're all these fundraisers, like the one Burnt Tree Brewing and the Gravel Bar that Scott and Amy Kelley have put together on October 3. We're very grateful. I just want to stress that we are very grateful to the community.”
Every dollar spent at the Gravel Bar and Burnt Tree Brewing in Ennis on Oct. 3 will go to the Friends of Maverick Mountain Fundraiser. The event will feature live music and silent and live auction items as well.
“What makes Maverick so special is just how egalitarian it is,” said Scott Kelley, who along with his wife Amy own the Gravel Bar and Burnt Tree Brewing and is also a long time Maverick season pass holder. “It doesn’t matter who you are outside of Maverick, when you’re on the hill you’re just somebody skiing and maybe having a beer in the Thunder Bar- no more and no less. This is refreshing, especially in these times.”
While the growing number of people getting involved to help with the aftermath of the fire has grown to include recording artists like Tim Montana and community groups from all over the Southwest part of Montana, Birkenbeil and the community know that there is one group in particular that none of this would be possible without.
“I'm very thankful for the firefighters,” he said. “That's got to be talked about more and more. I talk about it a lot. I was a firefighter, and it just came full circle when I was thanking firefighters. People used to thank me, and I was like, ‘I'm just doing my job.’ Now, Holy cow. Now I can feel that. Thank you, and it's really cool. We’re so very grateful and thankful for the firefighters.”
Donations to the rebuilding effort can be made at https://friendsofmaverickmountain.org/ or any Stockman Bank location. If you are interested in making a larger donation, please contact Jason Schumacher with the Dillon Jaycees at
