Glacier Park’s chalet family eyes exit- Anyone interested in starting a new family dynasty running Glacier’s backcountry chalets?

The grand old family of Glacier National Park’s backcountry chalets hasn’t yet decided whether to pass the park to the next generation.

"It’s too soon to say," said Lanny Luding, whose family has operated park chalets since 1954. "We’ll have to read through the thing before we decide."

By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian

http://missoulian.com/articles/2004/09/05/news/mtregional/news06.txt

The "thing" is an official prospectus, released in the last days of August by Glacier Park officials. It lays down the law with regard to a new 10-year-contract to run both Sperry and Granite Park chalets.

***********

Anyone interested in starting a new family dynasty running Glacier’s backcountry chalets can read the prospectus at http://nps.gov/glac/services.htm Offers and bids must be submitted by 4 PM Friday October 29.

***********

"It’s only an inch thick this time," Luding said of the prospectus. "But I suppose that’s because it’s printed on both sides of the paper this time."

More than anyone alive today, Luding knows what’s contained in that inch of paper. He knows the historic rock walls of the chalets, knows the grizzlies and goats that frequent the backcountry buildings.

Luding knows the good times, the hard times, the sunny blue sky times and the smoky forest fire times.

He knows enough to know that, at 65, he’s not entirely committed to another 10 years on the mountain.

"I’ll let the family decide," he said. "Five years ago, I would’ve signed it myself. But I’ve got other trails I’d like to see in this park."

Since 1954, when Luding was 15 and his family took over chalet operations, he’s seen two trails too much. The trail to Granite Park Chalet and the trail to Sperry Chalet are as familiar to him as the walkway up to his front door. For 38 years, his family operated the historic backcountry sites, which were built in 1914 and 1915 by the Great Northern Railway.

Then, faced with sewage and wastewater disposal problems, the park closed up shop on the mountaintop in 1992, interrupting the Luding family’s life and livelihood in Glacier.

Granite Park Chalet reopened in 1996, and Luding jumped at the chance to get back in the business. But business had changed.

No longer was the chalet a gourmet experience with fresh linens. Now it was a "hiking hut," a "stone tent" where visitors received a friendly but rustic welcome.

It came with new rules, tighter occupancy limits, more fees.

"It cost me too much money," Luding said.

After the 1997 season, a frustrated Luding dropped out, and now Glacier Wilderness Guides runs the Granite Park operation.

But getting Luding out of the chalets proved easier than getting the chalets out of Luding.

In 1999, the park reopened a full-service Sperry Chalet, the same chalet where his mother, Kay, worked for 33 straight years.

He signed on, "and except for last year with all the fires, it’s been pretty good."

Now his family has to decide whether it’s been good enough to justify another 10 years. The new prospectus will offer one operator control of both chalets, and if it’s not the Ludings, it will likely be the end of a family dynasty in Glacier Park.

The current chalet contracts expire on the last day of the year, and Luding’s family has until late October to decide whether to make a bid.

The family company, Belton Chalets, has what park officials call a "right of preference," meaning the Ludings have the right to meet any better offers.

That places the ball squarely in the Ludings court.

"The whole family’s going to have to decide this one," Luding said. "I’m old enough to know better, but there’s a few who might be young and dumb enough to keep this thing going for another generation."

Reporter Michael Jamison can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at [email protected]