Since 1937 Payette Lakes Ski Club has been a cornerstone of winter recreation in our community with a mission of providing an affordable, accessible, and sustainable winter recreation facility which provides a full spectrum of winter recreation programs for surrounding communities while reducing any financial barriers to participation.
Payette Lakes Ski Club operates both The Little Ski Hill and Bear Basin Nordic Center in McCall, Idaho.
At The Little Ski Hill our primary focus is our after school program. This unique program provides transportation from McCall, Donnelly and New Meadows schools to the ski hill four days each week. Kids learn healthy lifetime sports and skills in this full circle program. As participants grow with the program, they become instructors who teach the next generation of children all about how much fun Little Ski Hill is.
Outside of our After School Program, Little Ski Hill offers night skiing, a full terrain park, great food, and a fun place for families to gather.
At Bear Basin Nordic Center we aim to provide the highest quality Nordic trails in the area. Community support allows us to groom daily and keep our ticket prices low. In addition to great trail conditions, we offer a Nordic ski school which accommodates all levels of skier. Whether you have never tried Nordic, or you are looking for some tips to improve your skills, we have instructors to show you how.
OUR EXECUTIVE STAFF
Colby Nielsen, Executive Director
I am a McCall native who learned to ski at Little Ski Hill. Upon graduating MDHS I spent 10 years living, working and attending college throughout the western U.S. I have brought my passion for skiing and community to PLSC since 2008.
Jennifer Dummar, Director of Development
I am deeply passionate about education, recreation, and magic that happens when the two worlds collide. I quickly found myself a perfect fit for the life at Payette Lakes Ski Club because of my experience in these fields . I was raised in Baltimore, Maryland and attended college at Salisbury University where I studied Outdoor Education and Environmental History before moving west to Mammoth Lakes, California in 2001. I met my husband Furel in a ski shop and moved to Idaho with him in 2004. I find life in McCall to be authentic and enjoyable and I especially feel this at PLSC venues. I work closely with the board, staff, and our funding partners to improve the programs and facilities that our organization operates.
Preston Woods, LSH Mountain Ops & Terrain Park Director
Idaho is the only place I have ever called home. I started skiing when I was 5 years old. When I was 11 I tried snowboarding and never put skis on again. That was 33 years ago, and I have since focused much of my life around the sport. I have been building and shaping terrain parks for 22 years. In 2011 I was hired to host a small rail jam series at the Little Ski Hill. I instantly fell in love with the place and the community that considers the hill their second home. With Colby’s guidance I immediately started plotting a way to create a Terrain Park program at LSH. I now work full time at the Little Ski Hill fulling ingrained in mountain operations and directing the terrain park. I am honored to be able to continue the LSH legacy of sending the youth flying into the air and down the slopes.
Simon Ingham, BBNC Director
Skiing was a sport only rich people could afford when I grew up in England in the 1980’s. However my High School sponsored a ski trip – not to the Alps as you might expect – but to communist Bulgaria. It was a hard introduction to the sport.
Falling in love with telemark at Willamette Pass near Eugene Oregon was much better and a love of little ski hills and the backcountry was born. A winter spent in Kimberley BC added skate skiing to the list and then dogs happened.
Skijoring may be the best sliding sport there is. Finding nordic trails that welcome dogs is not easy. Bear Basin stands out in the Rocky Mt and Cascade region as THE most welcoming place for dogs. I’ve checked. And so along with my ski buddies – pups, Jasper and Sinka – I moved to McCall in 2017.
We wanted to live in a town with a ski hill – not a ski resort with a town down the valley. McCall is the town and Little Ski Hill and Bear Basin are the ski hills and I’m ready to help maintain and build them for the next generation.
Halley Shultz, Nordic Program Coordinator
I first tried cross-country skiing in 2016 when I spent the winter in Kimberley, BC. I didn’t grow up skiing, but quickly fell in love with it and haven’t looked back. I moved to McCall in 2018 and have been learning as much about skiing as I can from as many different coaches and friends as possible ever since. I started teaching lessons at Bear Basin in 2022 and am a PSIA Level 2 certified instructor. Through the Nordic Program Coordinator position, I hope to continue to grow the Payette Lakes Ski Club Nordic skiing community exposing more people to this beautiful sport and helping folks of all ages to achieve their goals on the snow – whether that is being able to take a casual ski with family or tackling their first race.
Ed Roper, Nordic Trail Maintenance
I am a native of Florida who got his first real taste of the mountain west at 16, when I took a month-long Outward Bound course in Colorado. That wilderness experience led to me working as a river guide after college followed by forty years (and still counting) of outdoor pursuits.Before landing in McCall, I worked and traveled around the US and the world. I have worked as a kayak manufacturer, sales rep and as a member of National Ski Patrol for more than 25 years. I got involved in the Little Ski Hill when my children became old enough to ski there. I have been the Nordic trail groomer at Bear Basin since 2011.
Catie Reed, Marketing & Communications
Bio coming soon
Desiree Hines, Program Director
Bio coming soon
Leslie McCoy, Lodge Manager
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OUR BOARD MEMBERS
Amy Holm, Board President
PLSC is close to my heart, as I grew up learning to ski and race on the Little Ski Hill. I’m married with 2 children (working on their ski turns) and am an attorney with the firm Millemann Pemberton & Holm LLP. I joined the PLSC Board of Directors in 2019. The After School Program and providing accessible skiing to any child who wants to learn are important to me. The Little Ski Hill is an amazing community resource. I want to see the LSH’s history preserved while we grow and adapt our programs for skiers, boarders, and Nordic skiers of all ages. I’m lucky to be able to promote the PLSC mission while skiing or hitting the Nordic trails with our next generation of ski enthusiasts.
Tor Andersen, Vice-President
McCall is the place my wife Caitlin and I chose to call our home over 15 years ago, and more recently decided it was the right place to start and raise a family. I work as a backcountry pilot for a small air charter based in town, and during the slower seasons I am fortunate to be able to turn my focus more towards being dad and having fun with our two girls. With the Little Ski Hill’s deep history in McCall, and as one of its newer board members, I am honored at the opportunity to help the LSH continue its tradition of offering fun and affordable skiing for McCall and its broader community.
Tom Owen, Treasurer
Bio coming soon!
Nish Weiseth, Secretary
Around Little Ski Hill, I’m mostly known as Rowan and Scout’s mom. We have lived in McCall since 2018 and I joined the PLSC Board in 2020. Erik and I are the co-owners of Orange Torpedo Trips, a whitewater adventure company offering rafting & fishing trips on over ten stretches of river across two states and three bases of operations.The After School Program, along with the community around the Little Ski Hill has dramatically changed the life & fiber of our family. Our children have found confidence and passion, they feel included and celebrated, and The Little Ski Hill has helped my kids grow in ways we never could have imagined.As a board member, I’m honored to help Payette Lakes Ski Club in any way I can, and I hope to see the inclusive, encouraging tradition of the Little Ski Hill and its programs continue for years to come.
Susan Lovelace, Board Member
I learned to ski in the 1960’s on the rope tow at Bald Mountain up above Orofino, a place much like the Little Ski Hill. Bear Basin is where you’ll find me most days, though, before Zoom meetings with Idaho students, talking about their college plans. I’m on the PLSC board because the mission of bringing all of our children to the mountains to slide, to jump, and to scare themselves enough to go out into the world with courage matters to me. A 4th-generation Idahoan, I’ve lived around the west wishing I could do more than just visit McCall, and since 2020, have done just that. Recently, my three grown children and their young families have inherited the edgy-wedgy. Watch out, Little Ski Hill!
Jan Eitel, Board Member
bio coming soon!