After shutting down in 2020, Cloudmont Ski Resort in Mentone got new life and plenty of visitors this past month thanks to a group of volunteers eager to see Alabama’s only ski slope snow-covered and open for business once again.

Cindy Jones, whose husband Gary has owned and operated the ski slope with his family since the ’70s, said they made the decision to close Cloudmont Ski Resort on Lookout Mountain in 2020 due to a decline in her husband’s health as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jones, who works a full-time office job in Chattanooga, Tenn., didn’t have plans to re-open the ski slope again anytime soon. That is until she received a surprise call on Jan. 3 from Evan Thibaud, who offered to assemble a crew of volunteers to help bring Cloudmont back to life.

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“He called me at work and talked to me for like an hour,” said Jones, “saying ‘you got to open this thing. It’s going to be cold weather. Winter is going to be a really cold January. You got to do this thing. I’ve got all these people. We can help,’ and they did. This variety of just good people who love the outdoors and love the sport.

One guy had his own landscaping business and came out to cut the briars away from under the lift, and another guy had a tree service and checked the lights on the poles for night skiing. Another guy knew we needed a compressor for snowmaking and so he helped rent one. I’m just trusting all these people and taking a leap of faith that all of it was going to come together and work.”

Thibaud, motivated by memories of spending time as a kid skiing at Cloudmont with a friend who has since passed away, said a group of more than 25 volunteers — some from right next door while others were from as far as Mississippi and South Alabama — responded to social media posts asking for help. They spent a week at Cloudmont doing everything they could to prepare the slope in hopes that, with a little luck, it could reopen and on Jan. 11, the slope did just that.

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“That’s really one of those situations that could never be imagined,” said Thibaud. “You know, I can barely get people to organize and set up something for a weekend, but people really showed up and got it running in a week, out of nowhere. I’m getting a lot of credit for this, but it was everyone that got it open.”

Throughout this past month, the ski slope has been open most nights and several weekends, offering hundreds of locals and visitors from surrounding communities and beyond — including returning customers from decades past now bringing their families for the first time — to enjoy the ski hill. For Jones, meeting everyone and seeing the hill back in action has been an unexpected reminder of what Cloudmont means to so many, even after so many years.

“And I tell you what, the number of people that said ‘thank you for opening,’ it’s great,” said Jones. “It was just phenomenal. People would say, ‘I was here in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, you know, whenever. They brought their children, and even their grandchildren, out to ski, and some people we’ve seen multiple times, you know, while we’ve been open. It’s been a wonderful experience just to have people so excited that we’ve opened again.”

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And while last night was likely Cloudmont’s last, at least unless another cold front comes through, the new memories for visitors lucky enough to spend some time on the hill there this season will be enough to hold its loyal customers, as well as the volunteers who worked so hard to make it all happen, over until then.

“It was a crash course on running a ski resort,” said Thibaud. “I look at the place totally different now. I used to be a kid going there, and now I’m seeing it in a whole new light. And it’s a wonderful experience being an adult and seeing it with this new life. It’s like everyone goes there with a ‘let’s try’ attitude, and that’s contagious, from the parking lot to the end of the night.”

“It’s just a little ski hill in Alabama,” Jones said, reflecting on what makes Cloudmont so special to so many. “You know where people show up in whatever, whether it be your fatigues, your jeans, your fancy ski wear. It doesn’t matter, and everybody just has fun.”

You can follow Cloudmont Ski Resort’s Facebook page to learn more and for updates on openings.