Editor's Note: Well Marshall Mountaineers, what was once conceived as a quarterly newsletter is now looking suspiciously annual. We’re jumping back in your inbox to share a recap of our 2025 summer and fall, some stoke for future park developments, and to express our gratitude for the community up at the hill. It would be nothing without y’all.

Riders ascending Izzy Up toward the first launches on Mission to Mars. Photo by Myke Hermsmeyer.

Moving at a Good Clip with Recreation Improvements

Free the heel, free the mind (free of charge): A 65-acre forestry project focused on the legacy ski runs was completed in fall 2025, thanks to the Missoula County Wildfire Program, a Forest Action Plan grant from the DNRC and a generous contribution from Friends of Marshall Mountain.

Izzy Up and Mission to Mars – now the two friendliest trails at Marshall Mountain Park designed for beginner and adaptive use – are up and running within the first year of public ownership, in partnership with the Missoula Mountain Bike Coalition (2024)! MMBC kept the momentum going in 2025 with the gravity defying Marshall Arts, rounding out the skill progression for mountain bikers at MMP.

A Day in the Life of the Marshall Mountain Park Ranger

Wake up, 8 shots of espresso, patrol the trails, educate an e-biker, find a lost camp kid, crash the mountain bike, crawl home (insert breakfast sandwich somewhere in this sequence).

Throwback to the Marshall Mountain Ski Area days: Donovan Power sending “the daffy” on a freestyle jump.

The Magic 8 Ball for 2026

There’s something big on the horizon for Marshall Mountain Park when it comes to the next incarnation of base area amenities and trail development, but we can’t announce it just yet. For now, trust in the paraphrased words of Hello Kitty, “Spread hero dirt like confetti wherever you go.”

Meanwhile, Girls on Shred, in partnership with Missoula County and Friends of Marshall Mountain, is excited to announce the Marshall Mountain Rail Garden, a free ski and snowboard terrain park at the base area. Skiers and boarders have shredded Marshall for years on ski area litter. This project brings real, well-deserved rails to the people of Missoula County.

The Rail Garden will be located on a portion of the old bunny slope at the park. It will consist of small, medium and large lines with professionally constructed and maintained features for people of all ages and abilities. Snowpack permitting, the Marshall Mountain Rail Garden is tracking for a late January or early February opening.

If you’re as excited as we are to bring freestyle riding back to Marshall Mountain, please consider donating to Girls on Shred via their website!

A running revival at Marshall Mountain Park. Photo by Anastasia Wilde

2025 Event Retrospective

We kicked off the summer with a new event and progressed into a handful more that are becoming flagships in May and June.  Run the Rut’s Marshall Mountain Revival debuted on Mother’s Day, May 11, and brought ~300 runners and volunteers to the hill. It featured a relay format (teams of 3, each taking a different downhill bike trail back to the base with plenty of creative liberties exercised on the berms), an elevated brunch buffet, and a bunch of moms who were stoked to celebrate their day with a run at Marshall Mountain Park! 

MT Alpha returned to the hill a week later with their annual Send and Ascend clinic – two days of mountain bike skills training for women and non-binary individuals with options for beginner, intermediate, advanced and adaptive riders. This year it was ran by an all-female, certified coaching staff!

MTCX turned the page from May into June with their homesteader 6-hour race, where ~120 participants pushed through unseasonable 90° heat to complete as many laps as possible with their team (or on their own!).

The very next day Marshall Madness ensued. Organized by Five Valleys Land Trust, the Missoula Mountain Bike Coalition and Run Wild Missoula, guided rides and runs abounded and a group of Missoula Adaptive Recreations and Sports (MARS) riders took their first rips down Mission to Mars, Missoula County’s first adaptive friendly downhill MTB trail. A week later Slow Spokes kept the lift-offs rolling on Mission to Mars when they hosted their first event at MMP introducing members of their gender-expansive audience to the spills and thrills of mountain biking.

At the end of June, the country’s top XC riders descended on the trail system for MTCX’s Missoula XC weekend. More than 300 racers competed through the rain and the mud in every category, from 8- to 12-year-old riders to elite men’s and women’s races. The hill was abuzz with teams and spectators, and Zilla Productions pulled off an incredible live broadcast of the event with a full production team and drones following racers!

Mid-summer brought Jay Alm’s singer/songwriter showcase (a benefit for Friends of Marshall Mountain), the last of MTCX’s Wednesday night league races in July and a slowdown for big events ‘til October. The Missoula Mountain Bike Coalition threw a great Season Sender/Mullet Classic to wrap the riding season and celebrate mountain bike culture at MMP. A junk jam hosted by Board of Missoula in November brought our first skiable three hours of the season thanks to a heroic effort of trucking in Glacier Ice Rink shavings for the event.

Support the park!

Want to support continued improvements at Marshall Mountain Park? Donate to Friends of Marshall Mountain to keep the momentum going!

To read this email in a browser, click here.

This email was originally delivered to [email protected]. If you'd like to stop receiving these emails, click here.