Great Bear Ski Valley — Attraction in Sioux Falls Township

Looking for a quick getaway from winter's doldrums that's local to Sioux Falls South Dakota? Here it is.

Great Bear Ski Valley and hiking Park has a fair number of amenities for a local ski park. The hill isn't big but it still is challenging for most skiers. From beginners (lessons available for Skiing, Shredding) to intermediate and somewhat advanced down-hill'ers, this is a terrific park. There is even some terrain dedicated to hikers and Telemark skiing. I guess one could even snowshoe here?

Even if you are an expert skier, this property is nice just to get some turns or a little vertical in until you can get out to a larger property. The hill even offers a tubing alternative for those that do not care to ski or board or just want something different.

The food is typical cafeteria style offerings but one is not allowed to bring in foods/drink from outside. The hours and pricing is pretty decent and I suggest that you check for specials on their site for occasional half priced events. Great news, this is one of the few venues that offers military discounts!

Additionally they have rentals of skis, boots, poles, headgear, Snowboards, tubing tubes and they sell a number of accessories (goggles and the like) in case you forgot yours. The Skiing equipment is decent considering it's rental gear. Most is pretty up to date gear.

I liked the night time skiing as the hill and the beginners area were well groomed and well lit up. So for a local or a quick getaway spot, give this a try this (or any) winter. I probably should have mentioned this from the beginning, the staff here are very nice and helpful folks. They answer questions repeatedly and patiently and that's hard to do hundreds of times a day/night. The hill is mostly staffed with High School and some college folks so experience isn't always up there but the desire to help mostly is.

I would like to see the Beginners Carpet lift given some much needed TLC. The on/off sections are barely adequate and potential dangerous bottle-necks occurred while we were there. Also on occasion, the on ramp part wasn't covered by staff so newly arriving folks had zero direction/help and had to figure it out. Other than...

It's a fun place for an outing but it has a couple of problems. The GOOD: Staff were friendly, snacks and hot drinks weren't priced too high, the open slopes were well groomed. The BAD: We went on a busy day and they were not equipped to handle the demand for rental equipment. We had to wait for about an hour to have access to equipment. Another part of the main slope could have been opened but was not yet well groomed. The UGLY:

1. Lift line management needs major improvement and it could be done so easily. There are two long lines that feed into the only lift they have. It is an old 4 seat lift. However most chairs went up with an average of 2 people per chair. This means that the line took twice as long as it should have. There was no singles line. They could have massively improved efficiency on a busy day by having a singles line and a ski school line. Ski school always gets priority, and a singles line could feed into the open seats.
2. They need better signage. The lift was stopped very frequently because people didn't understand that if they were in groups of three, or adult with young child, that two people needed to go on the left side of the chair. Like I said, this is old chair design and has a center post.
3. People congregated at the top of the hill on either side of the chair exit. Often people were across the entire exits/access to the slopes. They need signage to get people off of...

An excellent family friendly ski area. The staff is extremely helpful and friendly. The customers were so helpful. Small town recreation. If you were looking for a Colorado type ski resort, this is not the place as they are very small but there are not many mountains in Sioux Falls. They gave us a free day because they close down for a winter storm on our second and last day. They found out we were from Texas and went out of their way to take good care of us. It was such a family friendly place that I would’ve had no problem leaving my child there without major adult supervision. It was filled local kids that were watched over by staff and local parents. I was completely and totally shocked when I realized that all the local kids just leave their rented ski gear outside at the racks. The other kids that work there would literally go out and clean up and put up all the equipment left outside the end of the evening. I saw very few local children turn their stuff in. I’m guessing parents don’t know. That makes me sad as the owner didn’t think twice about cleaning up after them when I said some thing. But they definitely have repeat customers.

I wish them the best of luck and hope we get to come visit...