Weekday
The weekly feature page of the University Daily Kansan January 25,1978
Standing atop the gentle 1,500 foot slope of Mont Bleu, is Walter Klammer, who feels that he could bring a Colorado-type ski resort to the Lawrence area. However, during the past three seasons Klammer has found himself fighting to remain open.
"If I can't make a go of it this year, I probably won't open again," Klammer says.
As ski slopes go, Mont Bleu is a long way from Grenoble. Wallet Klaner thinks he can make the steep climb to Mount Blanc.
Klammer is the owner of Mont Bleu, a small recreation area southeast of Lawrence, which offers skiers to practice their skills on a 1,500-foot slope. But Klammer hasn't started this year because of financial problems.
Several attempts to get financial backing have failed, but Klammer isn't giving up. He says the root of the problem is that bankers don't understand the problems of operating a seasonal business.
Mont Bleu's season could run from mid-November to February or March if the weather and financial institutions cooperated. But since Klammer took control of the business three seasons ago, Mother Nature and the banks haven't worked together. Late winters and banker banks don't bed well for a ski resort in Kansas.
But Klammer dreams of success.
"but rather dearest to me since
    it can see fantastic things for this place," he says, as he
Signs, which once displayed a few helpful hints to the avirian skier, now lay in the corne collecting
Story by Lynn Kirkman Photos by Eli Reichman
talks of redecorating the lodge, installing a lift to replace the tow rope and improving the retail shop.
Making Klammer's dream come true probably will take a little doing. The slope is deserted except for a handful of sledders. And the lodge isn't open for business, either. Mice dart about tables topped with upended chairs. Water from melting snow drips from the lodge ceiling onto the concrete floor.
"I don't know where those leaks are coming from," Klammer muses as he perches on a ladder to investigate the source of the trouble. "I thought I'd patched them all last summer."
In fact, Klammer a good deal of the past summer getting Mont Bleu ready for winter. He purchased 26 pairs of skis and bindings and 43 pairs of boots to be rented to skiers. He replaced some of the underground pipe that forms the snow-making system and raised the electrical wires along the tow rope. He and his wife even refinanced their Kansas City, Mo., home to clear past debts from the ski venture.
But at the last minute there were complications. The banker he had been working with left the bank and at Christmas Klammer learned that no additional loan money would be available.
So Klammer has undertaken a public relations program to let the public know of Mont Bleu's slight. He has mailed copies of a letter explaining the financial problems to about 1,300 former customers, hoping to raise money by selling season passes and advance one-dav fees.
Response to the appeal hasn't been as good as Klammer hoped, but he isn't discouraged.
"People take their time about doing something like (bus). He says, 'There are plenty of skiers around—buy a ski pass.'"
"The bank's kind of pulled the rug out from under me," he tells them. "I'll be hoping to be open next weekend or the weekend after that. I'll lose $4,500 to $6,000 if I don't open this year."
But Klammer's estimate of interest in skiing in Kansas may be justified. He was often interrupted by visits or phone calls from potential customers who were trying to set up a hotline of hitting the slopes. To each, he gave the same story.
Klammer may be living on hope, but he grew up with asking. He reminisces about his boyhood in Minnesota where his parents lived. "I remember being very good," he says.
Klammer moved to Kansas City in 1961, and his association with Mont bleu goes back to the days when the resort opened in the early 1960s. He knew the former owners and helped them out from time to time with publicity. The business doubled its revenue in one year. The owner thinks his efforts were at least partially responsible.
Hopping to repeat his early success this year, Klammer spent ahead 100 to advertise MONT Bleu in local and national markets.
"The banks don't understand how it is when you operate a seasonal business," he explains again. "It doesn't have to snow for us to open, but it does have to be cold. The warm weather can kill us."
"And you can't expect to make a profit if you can't run."
Mont Bleu can offer skiing even when the rest of the area is without snow because of its snow-making facilities. Klammer emphasizes that the snow isn't artificial—only man-made.
The snow is created with a system that mixes water and air pressure to form droplets that fall as snow. It's the same composition as natural snow. Klammer says, "We'll see it whenever the weather is cold enough to forestall melting."
"It's a tiring job," he says about manufacturing weather. "Sometimes I've made snow all night long—stayed up till 4 a.m., and then gone back to Kansas City and worked all day."
An SBA loan, however, would take time. Klammer says an official told him processing the papers would take two or three weeks. Add that to the week or two when the season is gone for this year, and the skiing season is gone for this year.
"You know," he says as he gives an impromptu ski lesson in the lodge kitchen. "I'm probably a distant relative of Franz Klammer, the Olympic skier. The name's just not too common."
However, the name hasn't impressed the banks Klammer has contacted about providing funds for this season's opening. But Klammer isn't discouraged by the rejections and says he plans to see more banks this week. He also has looked into the possibility of getting help from the Small Business Administration.
"By February, people are tired of snow," he says,
"and they start thinking about warm weather. We need to open right away to make a go of this season."
Walter Klammer has dreams of a resort that would make the head spin, but those brilliant dreams are not just in his mind.
Before long, Klammer says, he'll probably know whether there'll be a 1978 season at Mont Blue. If he succeeds with the bankers on this round, he'll take time off from his regular job to operate for the rest of the week.
"It a matter of finding the right person at the right bank," he says. "Probably a 50-50 chance."
"But if it fails, I'm not going to die. I'll go on to something else."
Endless hours of work have been spent by Klammer fixing up little nooks and crannies, while preparing for the current ski season. However, with no bank loans, Klammer now finds himself waiting and wondering.