Olympic and World Champion skier Phil Mahre will be the guest of honor at the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation’s annual Hellroaring Ski Heritage Days March 18-19 in Whitefish.

The Heritage Days event was conceived as a celebration of the Flathead Valley’s rich and colorful skiing history, and as a fundraiser for the new Ski Heritage Center Museum of Skiing and the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation.

“In the first two years we saw amazing growth in this event, so we’re definitely going even bigger and better this year!” said Tim Hinderman, executive director of the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation. “It’s a great opportunity for people to actively partake in the festivities by dressing up in old ski outfits and bringing along old ski equipment, and to raise money for the new ski museum and the ski foundation at the same time.”

Mahre, whose biography includes Olympic and World Championship gold medals as well as three overall World Cup titles, will preside over the Hall of Fame induction ceremony and reception on Friday, March 18, at Grouse Mountain Lodge.

A social hour begins at 6 p.m. with the dinner and induction ceremony at 7 p.m. Tickets are $35 per person and available at Glacier Bank in Whitefish and Kalispell, or online at fvsef.org.

A Ski & Lunch event with Mahre is planned at 9:45 a.m. Friday. Tickets are $100, and only 20 tickets will be sold. Ticket information is available online.

Saturday activities will take place at Whitefish Mountain Resort and include a ski-a-thon, retro ski race, “Nice Day” run dedication, vintage outfit contest and Toni Matt Promenade. A full schedule is available online at fvsef.org.

Inductees for the 2016 class are Steve Spencer, Bill Martin, Jim Barrier and Tim Grattan.

• Bill Martin was elected to the Winter Sports Inc. board of directors in 1957 and in 1982 became the president and chief executive officer of Winter Sports, the company that operates Whitefish Mountain Resort.

During his tenure, a master plan for the expansion of the ski area at Big Mountain was completed and approved by the U.S. Forest Service. The first phase was accomplished under his direction with the addition of Chair 7 and the Summit House. Martin retired from the Winter Sports board with more than 40 years of service.

Throughout his life, Martin has promoted skiing as a lifetime sport that should be accessible to all. He strongly believed an introduction to skiing offered children a lifetime of enjoyment in the sport.

Martin was a founding member and former president of the Kalispell Ski Club where he helped develop the learn-to-ski program and the annual ski swap, making skiing more affordable and accessible to families. He also served as president of the Northern Division and vice president of the U.S. Ski Association.

Martin resides in Kalispell.

• Jim Barrier started skiing at Lookout Pass while growing up in Mullan, Idaho. In 1954 the family moved to Kalispell, where Barrier and his brother Bill became standout junior racers at Big Mountain and competed throughout Montana and the western United States.

Barrier continued to excel as he advanced through the regional and national ranks and peaked when he finished third in the combined competition at the prestigious Harriman Cup in Sun Valley, Idaho. Subsequently he became the first Montanan to be named to a U.S. Olympic Ski Team, competing at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California where his best result was 16th in the giant slalom.

He suffered a setback in 1960 when he broke his leg while competing for the Montana State Bobcats. After recovering from his injury, he went on to ski for the U.S. Army Ski Team, becoming their top racer.

After retiring from ski racing he worked for Head Skis, where he helped develop the Head XR-1, Head’s first all-fiberglass ski. He then joined Durafiber Co. in Carson City, Nevada, where he helped developed the revolutionary hollow-core skis as well as graphite golf clubs and pole-vaulting poles. He ultimately took his creativity to the Kaiser company where he held patents for numerous composite materials.

Barrier died of cancer at age 60 in 2000.

•Steve Spencer started his full-time ski career in 1967 when he signed on as a ski patroller at Big Mountain. The following year joined the Ski Patrol at Aspen, Colorado. Then his ski career was interrupted when he was drafted into the Army, where he served as a medic in a surgery unit based in Okinawa. After his discharge in 1971, Spencer returned to work with the Ski Patrol on Big Mountain.

In 1972 Spencer began spending his summers as a commercial fisherman, first in Puget Sound and ultimately in Bristol Bay, Alaska. He spent winters ski patrolling and summers alternating between fishing and building new lifts at Big Mountain, including Chair 3 in 1975, Chair 4 in 1978, Chair 5 in 1982 and Chair 7 in 1985. He became the Big Mountain operations manager in 1981.

In 1995 Spencer left Big Mountain and started the approval process for the development of Blacktail Mountain Ski Area near Lakeside, which opened in 1998. Blacktail provides a popular ski alternative to skiers from throughout the Flathead Valley and beyond. Spencer continues to oversee the operation at Blacktail Mountain along with his wife and daughter.

•Tim Grattan was born in Kalispell and raised in Missoula. He started skiing at Big Mountain Resort during high school. Grattan attended the University of Montana on a football scholarship and joined ROTC.

In 1960, his ROTC commission in the Army Infantry took him to Berlin, Germany, where he was present when the Berlin Wall was constructed.

In 1963 Grattan re-enlisted and was deployed to Southeast Asia where he was a strategic adviser to a 500-man unit in South Vietnam. He continued his military career as a ROTC instructor at Eastern Washington University in Cheney until he resigned his commission in 1969.

Grattan’s real estate career began in Bellevue, Washington, in 1969, where he worked in sales until 1971. Then his fond memories of skiing at Big Mountain drew him back to Whitefish, where he ventured into real estate development when he purchased the Lion Mountain property in 1972. He went on to acquire the Grouse Mountain property in 1975, where he constructed Grouse Mountain Lodge and the South Course addition to the Whitefish Lake Golf Club.

Grattan helped organize the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation in 1973. In the ensuing years, he served on the Glacier Park International Airport board of directors, was president of the Whitefish Rotary Club and helped start the Flathead Valley Convention and Visitor Bureau. He also served on the Winter Sports Inc. board in the 1980s and 1990s and was instrumental in the expansion of skiing on Big Mountain during those years.

He lives with his wife in the Grouse Mountain community.

The Ski Heritage Center Museum of Skiing is being developed by the Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation at the historic Mountain Trails Saddle Club facility adjacent to the Stumptown Ice Den ice arena.

The target opening date is Thanksgiving this year. Once completed, the Ski Heritage Center will include a museum and hall of fame, and serve as a gathering place for locals and visitors to learn about the fascinating history of skiing in the region.

 For more information or to volunteer, contact Hinderman at 406-885-2730, or visit www.fvsef.org.