- Mount Holiday's been here for 75 years.

It's gone through a lot of changes over those years.

We became a nonprofit, 1999, 2000, right around there.

It's a community asset and one that I am passionate about keeping around for another 75 years.

Primary mission is kids.

We love our kids.

This is the place where you can drop off your kids at the ski hill and know that they're in good hands.

They're gonna have a great day.

- [Stefanie] 10 minutes from downtown Traverse City, you'll find Mount Holiday.

It isn't the tallest peak in Michigan, but for those who live nearby, it's a way to connect with nature and each other.

- Everyone comes out and shows up and hangs out here.

So we're like the neighborhood gathering spot and part of my mission is getting just if any kids who wanna do this we're gonna get 'em on Ski Hill.

Whether they wanna snowboard or ski or tube, there's no barrier.

We're gonna figure out a way to do it.

- [Stefanie] Mount Holiday is focused on accessibility for all offering affordable programs and lessons.

The Kiwanis Club of Traverse City plays a big part in that.

- They've been a partner with Mount Holiday for 60 years.

Not only are we running our Kiwanis Kids Ski School program and snowboard program, which is a three day a week program, you get three days of lessons.

It's so budget friendly and it's amazing program that even our Bunny Hill is named after Kiwanis.

We also have free skiing and snowboarding for international students, for exchange students.

And then we're partnering also with Big Brothers/Big Sisters we have a Friday night program for teens and tweens.

Just more and more stuff like that to get kids out here, get 'em outside, get 'em off the phones, you know, socializing with each other and having a lot of fun.

- [Stefanie] The day we visited, kids of all ages, including Miles and Linus, were zipping down the hill in front of cheering crowds for the holiday race team invitational.

What does it feel like when you're going down the ski hill?

- Fast.

- I feel like I'm floating in the air.

- We learn how to ski.

- We like practice the courses for races.

Mm, my favorite course is probably yellow.

- And my favorite course is the trees and yellow.

- [Stefanie] What is your perfect day at Mount Holiday?

- My perfect day is having fun and going skiing.

- Same.

- [Stefanie] The trained Ski Patrol makes sure everyone stays safe and volunteers are always welcome.

- You get to be an ambassador for Mount Holiday and just, you know, be out there, be that face on the hill.

Maybe even when you pulled in you might have seen that there was volunteers in the parking lot helping out too.

So it takes a village here for sure and we have one.

- [Stefanie] That village atmosphere isn't something that happened overnight.

It's been built season by season through traditions that date back for generations.

- Oh, that's the first place I learned to ski.

Oh, that's the place I got married.

You know, my kids grew up there.

That was the first time they just, it gives me goosebumps.

Everybody just seems to have a good Mount Holiday story and I'm a sponge for 'em.

I mean, I love history and this place has such a rich, varied history.

And I'm going through our archives and I'm finding so many photos and actually somebody gave us their family home movie from 1960 from here.

Wild, it's so cool.

And so that it's just the history, the community, and it's a pretty awesome little place to ski too.

- [Stefanie] Some of those stories belong to longtime volunteer Mark Goethel, a mount holiday legend, known for his love of the hill and some pretty wild tricks.

- Things are pretty easy going right now.

I got a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old, so I'm skiing a lot with family right now.

And when we have enough snow, we teach, it's called Base Camp where people can learn how to do a competent straight air and we do that by a series of airbags.

So we have these jumps set up where they'll just go off a jump and land in the airbag and it's just like a big fluffy cloud.

From there, once they're looking pretty controlled, we'll just go with whatever they're feeling.

Like you want to try grab, you want to try 180, and we just build up to their comfort level.

- [Stefanie] For the most part it's fun and games, but for Mark and many like him, it's about so much more.

- Oh man, dude, it's everything.

Like I met my wife here, my best friends here.

I mean every long, the longest lasting relationships I've had to date are all I met here at Holiday.

You're not just coming here and hitting this massive jump.

It's just everybody from the lift ops to the people making snow, the people in the kitchen, everybody knows you and they're looking out for you.

(upbeat music) - If you don't wanna ski your snowboard, you can always grab a tube.

- I've jokingly call Mount Holiday a tubing hill with a skiing problem because we process so many tubers through here every week.

It's probably our marquise attraction honestly, because everybody can do it.

You know, everybody can tube and it is a lot of fun.

You don't have to walk back up the hill, you know, we can take you back up on the lift.

- [Stefanie] And when the snow melts, Mountain Holiday offers plenty of year round opportunities to play outside, including hiking, biking, and more.

- We do some other fun programs in the summer, like we do our slip and slide party, our solstice party.

We do bookend parties on Memorial and Labor Day weekends.

Get outside, have a good time, come in for lunch, maybe get yourself an adult beverage if you're old enough, and then hang out in the Tea Bar Lounge, come out and just, you know, support your local ski hill and just, you know, come and have a good time.