IPOS 2: Nordic Mountain

The last of three resorts owned by Rick Schmitz that we visited, Nordic Mountain’s quaint, wooded feel was a welcome back to the smaller resorts we’d started off the trip seeing.  After spending time with Rick at Little Switzerland, we were able to meet up with him and the rest of his family again at Nordic for a couple runs. Rick purchased the mountain in 2005 at only twenty-two years old. The existing staff was skeptical of Rick’s purchase at such a young age, but he quickly proved his dedication to the mountain, the staff, and keeping the soul of Nordic Mountain alive. New at yet another mountain, we let Rick’s kids lead us around for a few laps on their favorite runs. Once the sun had dropped behind the hill, the kids decided it was time to head in for hot cocoa and we agreed.

Nordic Mountain might have been pretty darn cold when we visited, but the warmth of the locals made us not want to leave. | Izzy Lidsky photo.

Once we could feel our fingers again, our cinematographer, who had been my partner in crime for most of the trip and I decided to head back out for a couple more laps. With a low-tide season back home, Matt had really been dialing in carving on a snowboard. The everlasting corduroy and eerie glow of night skiing in the Midwest made for the perfect opportunity to get some banger photos.

Local ripper Matt shows off his euro-carves. | Izzy Lidsky photo.

When the lifts had stopped spinning for the day, we decided to pay the tune shop a visit. We were quickly directed to Bob Kempfer, who manages the tune shop and rental program at Nordic. Bob arrived at Nordic in 1979. He learned to ski in his first winter there, but his true claim to fame at the mountain is his advocacy for snowboarders. Bob almost single handedly convinced the mountain to allow snowboarders and then set up its snowboard rental program on his own. Since then, Bob has tuned most of the equipment that comes through Nordic Mountain. His shop is a cozy little attic room above the rental shop. He was just finishing up tuning for the night when we arrived, but luckily, he had one more pair of skis to tune. Sparks flew in the little space as he ground the edges on a pair of old racing skis. Once the edges were nice and sharp, he methodically dripped a fresh layer of wax onto the base of the skis. The skis would sit overnight to let the wax properly cool before Bob scraped them in the morning. Just before we left him for the night, we asked Bob if we could maybe ski a couple runs with him in the morning.“Well,” he told us, “there’s only one problem with that. The skis you just watched me wax are mine and you won’t be able to keep up. You wanna see sparks fly? Ski behind me.”

Need a fresh edge and base grind? Bob Kempfer has you covered. | Izzy Lidsky photo.

We returned to Nordic the next morning and the morning light dappled perfectly across the freshly groomed hill. We were lucky enough to link up with three generations of the same family who had all been born and raised skiing at Nordic. The first generation, Liz and Roy, are both still patrollers at Nordic and have been for more than 35 years. Their kids learned to ski at Nordic and in turn were now teaching their kids to ski as well. The littlest ones had mastered the art of the power-pizza and we moved from the magic carpet to the lift with them for a couple top speed runs. When they’d had enough, the family welcomed us into the patrol room for some lunch. It was there I discovered how much of a family Nordic Mountain really is.

Night skiing at Nordic is the real deal. | Izzy Lidsky photo.

As we chatted about their lives there and ours back in Jackson, they told me about a girl who’d grown up skiing Nordic and had moved out to Jackson as well. In typical small town fashion, I happened to know her and when I said I did, the entire room went quiet. “You know Molly?” said someone I hadn’t even met yet. The excitement of this little connection from a friend from home who had grown up ingrained into the Nordic family to a film crew that happened to show up here was unmatched. Every person in the room knew Molly, pulled up photos of her as a kid to show me, told me stories, and asked about how she was doing in Jackson. Less than five minutes after we’d left the patrol room, my phone buzzed with a text from Molly saying “how on earth did you end up meeting Liz and Roy at Nordic Mountain??” She told me how she’d grown up racing there and worked in the rental shop with Bob for most of her life until moving to Jackson. This connection we’d made showed me more than anything how much of a family this mountain was. People skied at Nordic season after season, brought their families, and raised their kids there, knowing each person would be looked after and taken care of by the whole community. If we were looking for soul in the Midwest, we’d found not only that, but so much love at Nordic Mountain.