Dedicated locals work to keep the ‘Frost Fire’ burning at northeastern North Dakota ski resort

WALHALLA, N.D. — Patty Gorder had to do something.

For years, she had heard her husband, Dustin, bemoan the fate of the Frost Fire ski resort, located 7 miles west of Walhalla in the northeastern corner of the state.

Although both of the Gorders are avid snowboarders, Dustin was especially passionate about Frost Fire, a 173-acre, spruce-studded property located on the west slope of the picturesque Pembina Gorge.

The Grafton, North Dakota, native had grown up in northeast North Dakota and dreamed of owning a ski resort as a kid. He had worked on the snow-making crews at resorts like Moonlight Basin in Montana, so had become a local Old Man Winter for his expertise at creating snow. Now he serves on the board of the Pembina Gorge Foundation, which acquired Frost Fire from private ownership in 2017.

The little resort is beautiful and carries charming names like “Upper Uff Dah Trail” and “Larry and Margie’s Day Lodge.” But over the past decade, it has been hit by one costly crisis after another. A new chair lift needed to be purchased and installed. The resort still had its original snow-making equipment from when it opened in the 1970s, so it repeatedly broke down. And then, right before the 2020 ski system, Frost Fire’s general manager resigned.

“Dustin came home and he was just devastated,” Patty recalled. “He was like, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do,’ and I’ve never seen him like this, so I was like, ‘OK, I can help you guys.’ ”

Patty was already plenty busy. She owns the Namaste Massage and Yoga Spa in Grafton, over an hour away. Even so, she spent a couple years volunteering her time as Frost Fire’s general manager, while also running the spa. (Today, her general manager role is a paid position.)

A general manager at a small, local ski park isn’t an office job. It means filling in at the bar and grill as the cook if the chef is on vacation. It means meeting with important investors one day and cleaning toilets the next.

And the problems didn’t magically melt away when Patty took over. Flooding, staffing shortfalls and a snow-related collapse of Frost Fire’s amphitheater roof have all created black-diamond-level difficulties for Frost Fire’s management.

Yet she remains optimistic. She and the foundation continually add new revenue sources, like yoga on the deck, special events and scenic chairlift rides to view the area’s fall foliage. They were able to hire workers through H-2B Visas — a federal program that permits U.S. employers to temporarily hire non-immigrants for seasonal work if they can prove the existing labor force isn’t sufficient.

After all, the area’s natural labor pool isn’t what it was when the resort opened. Pembina County’s total population in 2020 was 6,844, down from 10,728 in 1980, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And most locals have full-time jobs, Patty said.

“H-2B made a huge impact last winter,” she said. “We’re finally set with good employees, we have an amazing marketing team and we had a good marketing budget to steer it all out. The new (snow-making) infrastructure finally came in. We had almost 7,000 skiers come in (last season). Our Canadians started to come across, which is amazing. We had the most amazing winter. It was unbelievable.”

Now the Foundation has hired Pace Fundraising in Fargo to helm a multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign for a new, ADA-compliant amphitheater. A developer is working with the Foundation to add three “ski-in, ski-out” cabins on the property for this winter. And Foundation President Pat Chaput sees more upgrades on the horizon, including improvements to the 9,600-square-foot main lodge.

He believes the Gorders have played a big part in Frost Fire’s renaissance. As Frost Fire’s trail master, Dustin is “a wizard,” Chaput said.

As for Patty, “she has contacts, she’s organized,” he said. “Probably the positivity and passion and knowledge are three things that I think sums her up. She’s just a go-getter.”

Just as the passion of the Gorders helped to revitalize Frost Fire, so did the passion of another couple ignite that frosty spark in the first place.

Grand Forks teachers Richard and Judith Johnson believed building a ski resort amid the scenic splendor of Pembina Gorge was a formula for success. The Gorge offers a vertical drop of about 350 feet, which compares with many ski areas in the Upper Midwest.

They started building Frost Fire in 1974, in the midst of a nationwide ski-resort boom. Between 1960 and 1970, 925 ski resorts were built in the United States and Canada, and a fair share of those were smaller, family-owned enterprises, according to “The White Book of Ski Areas.”

While most resorts constructed their lodges at the base of the mountain, the Johnsons built theirs right in the middle.

“The wonderful thing about this is that we’re in the Pembina Gorge,” Judith told the Grand Forks Herald in 2010, “and we wanted to see the gorge.”

The Johnsons poured heart and soul into the resort. Their home was located just several hundred feet up the slope from the lodge, and their son, Jay, grew up there.

Frost Fire officially opened its doors on Christmas Day in 1976. Pat Chaput remembers it well. He was a high school senior who learned to ski on Frost Fire’s slopes. “Now I’m teaching my grandkids to ski there,” said the retired farmer/banker.

Chaput worked part time at Frost Fire throughout the ’80s. So did many of his peers. “It was good winter work for folks who were farming or whatever,” he said.

In Frost Fire’s heyday, busloads of Canadians crossed the border to ski there, then ate at a local steakhouse.

Frost Fire hosted 800 to 900 skiers per day, Chaput said.

The Johnsons built an outdoor covered amphitheater in the 1980s, and the Frost Fire Summer Theatre Company started staging summer productions like “Fiddler on the Roof.”

But over time, Frost Fire was affected by the same factors that have hit ski resorts — especially smaller, mom-and-pop operations — nationwide. Baby boomers who frequented the slopes in the 1960s and ‘70s visited the slopes less often.

“Hundred-dollar tickets, transportation difficulties, shifting leisure pursuits, and a changing climate are often cited as key factors” behind the nationwide drop of interest in the sport, the National Forest Foundation website reported.

Richard passed away in 2015. Two years later, Judith sold Frost Fire for $1.67 million to the Pembina Gorge Foundation, a nonprofit that was officially incorporated to preserve the Walhalla attraction and develop it into a four-season destination, according to earlier Forum News Service reports.

The foundation replaced ski equipment, took care of deferred maintenance and, when the original chair lift could no longer be safely used, installed a new chair lift for $1.3 million. A deck was added onto the front of the lodge.

By now, the snow-making infrastructure was nearly 50 years old, but Dustin and crew worked to keep it running for the first few years. In the fall of 2022, it gave up the ghost completely. “We couldn’t make snow, so we lost the whole ski season,” Chaput said.

They were able to secure a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant for $2.25 million to purchase and install a new snow infrastructure in the summer and fall of 2023.

Many people assume that a snowy spot like North Dakota shouldn’t need the man-made stuff. “But natural snow is very different from man-made snow. With natural snow, you can have a ton of snow and the next day it’s gone,” Patty said.

Man-made snow contains more water and is heavier, which creates a denser, more resilient foundation for skiing, she added.

Mother Nature complicated matters further. In spring of 2022, flooding washed out the new downhill mountain biking trails and ski trails, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. (The system of 12 ski runs and eight mountain bike trails has since been restored by Frost Fire employees and volunteers.)

In 2023, snowfall was so heavy that it caused the roof of the Frost Fire Park amphitheater to collapse.

“It’s been a whole lot of setbacks, I’ll put it that way,” Chaput said.

Even so, the “little resort that could” keeps chugging forward.

The Frost Fire Summer Theatre company still managed to stage “Oklahoma!” last summer in the Grafton High School — and continues to offer its ENCORE Youth Arts Camp, a popular program for students grades 3-12 to practice visual and performing arts.

A new developer, Oxford Realty, is working with the foundation to build three modern cabins right on Frost Fire’s runs. The 750-square-foot cabins offer lofts, hot tubs on their decks and expansive windows overlooking the ski areas, Chaput said.

“They’re building them, they’re managing them, they’re doing everything,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a good draw.”

They are optimistic about what the next ski season will bring. A La Niña winter is expected, which means lots of snow (good for skiing) and lots of cold (not so good for skiing). Patty prefers to focus on the potential positives, such as the excess snow covering the mountain bike trails. This creates “stash parks,” which naturally blend the technical components of freestyle snowboarding with the flowy lines of mountain freeriding.

“So they become like these little natural terrain parks, which is super,” Patty said. “They’re really fun to ride.”

The foundation’s goal is to grow Frost Fire to the point where it significantly sparks economic development throughout the region.

“It’s an unknown gem, and we’re trying to get the word out and expand our reach. We’re really trying to turn this area into a destination for people to come up and explore and enjoy the outdoors and recreation,” he said.

But in order to do so, community members need to continue supporting all aspects of it — including its special events or bar and grill.

The Gorders continue to work at developing tomorrow’s skiers. Patty sends special offers to local schools to encourage administrators to bring their kids for ski days. She hopes the offers, which include perks like a free ski lesson, will expose kids to skiing and snowboarding early while making them more accessible to people from every background. 

“I know that the product we’re delivering in the winter is exceptional,” she said. “We want people to know we have a really great place, not only from the time you come into rentals and ticketing … to having your hot cocoa or sitting by the fire. You’re not just another ticket. We are excited to know that you’re going to come back and be part of the Frost Fire family.” 

Learn more about Frost Fire at

www.frostfirepark.org.