BIWABIK – Below his snow-colored hair, the wide smile that spread across Duane Ramfjord’s face said it all. 

“It’s very nice,” Ramfjord said of the new Giants Ridge chalet. “It’s finally at the stage where we would have liked to have had it.”

Ramfjord – one of the original Giants Ridge “founders group” – was an honored guest at the official ribbon cutting of the 34,000 square-foot chalet. 

When the 2016-2017 Giants Ridge snow sports season opens in a few weeks, the new chalet will offer skiers a host of new amenities including centralized skier services, electronic lockers, expanded food offerings and a renovated day chalet/nordic center featuring season pass holder locker rooms.   

The facility has come a long way since 1958, when Ramfjord, Ed Karkoska and a handful of other friends from the East Range began toiling with axes, ropes and borrowed equipment to carve a single downhill ski run out of the woods on an undeveloped mountain range between Biwabik and Aurora.

The first alpine ski run at Giants Ridge was known as “Ram’s Run,” paying homage to Ramfjord. Now 48 years later “Ram’s Run” has been transformed into the Grenoble run, which is one of 35 runs at Giants Ridge, known throughout the Midwest and Canada as a premier snow sports destination.  

“I had skied with Ed’s wife Gretchen in Houghton (Michigan) when we were kids,” said Ramfjord. “I was teaching school in Willow River and Ed said, ‘Why don’t you come up here and help me build a ski hill’?” 

A year later, Ramfjord accepted a teaching job at Aurora-Hoyt Lakes and the back-breaking work began. 

“Ed was an engineer for Pickands Mather,” said Ramfjord. “Ed looked at all the geological maps of the area and found this to be the only practical site because it was the only one that with a road going to it. Ed had connections with Pickands Mather in Cleveland, so we arranged to lease it from Pickands Mather.”

There was no electricity to the hill. The first rope tow was powered by a Mack truck engine. And the first chalet was a wash building from Evergreen Trailer Court.

A few years later, the hill’s second chalet was erected when the founders bought a building from Erie Mining Co. removed the upper portion and placed the lower half on a concrete slab. 

Creating a winter recreation area out of the northeastern Minnesota wilderness was tough work, but the founders persisted.

What started as a non-profit, in 1960 grew into a for-profit corporation and the group obtained an $80,000 loan to continue operations.

However, the group ultimately lacked the financial resources to fully develop the facility.

In 1984, during Gov. Rudy Perpich’s second term, the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) acquired the ski hill.

IRRRB paid off the mortgage and debt and began to enhance the facility as part of its mission to support tourism, provide recreational facilities to Iron Range citizens and attract private sector economic development.

“The reason this hill is here today is because of Rudy Perpich,” said Ramfjord. “If it wasn’t for the Governor, the hill wouldn’t be here.” 

Today, the ski facility, its two 18-hole championship golf courses and amenities generate a $43 million annual economic impact, according to a 2016 THK Associates, Inc. study.

“It’s very important to this area,” said Jerry Newton of Biwabik, who worked at the ski hill in the mid-1970s. “A lot of people around the Range don’t realize the impact of Giants Ridge. This is the chalet that always should have been built. It’s a world class chalet to match the hills and trails.”

Of the original founders, Ramfjord said he’s the only one remaining.

And he remains proud of the happiness the facility has brought to tens of thousands.  

“Ski hills have always had a tough time making money,” said Ramfjord. “Ski hills are here for the enjoyment of people and that’s what we had in mind.”  

Photo caption: Duane and Carley Ramfjord, John Filander, Giants Ridge staff and IRRRB Deputy Commissioner Mary Finnegan meet at the Oct. 21 Giants Ridge chalet ribbon cutting.