KALISPELL (AP) -- Steve Lautenbach had company recently, and after more than six months of solitude, it was downright exciting.

''I saw a grizzly bear and cub today, right in front of my cabin,'' the winter caretaker of Many Glacier Hotel said on April 14. ''I was shoveling out my car. It's the first year the bears have been out so early.''

There aren't many signs of life around Many Glacier Hotel in the winter, so when Lautenbach came 12 feet from being face to face with mama and baby bear, it was an adrenaline rush, and maybe a little bit unsettling.

''I'm kind of worried about getting back to my house now,'' he said during a telephone interview from the historic hotel.

Lautenbach stays at the Many Glacier chalet, not far from the main hotel. His plan was to keep an eye on the bears and make sure they were on the opposite side of the hotel before he made a dash for the chalet.

Watching & shoveling

Keeping an eye on bears and other wildlife, watching over the hotel's 200-plus rooms and shoveling snow (lots and lots of snow) occupy much of the lone winterkeeper's time. Seven months -- Lautenbach arrives around Oct. 1 and leaves at the end of April -- is a long time, though, so there are ample hours for pastimes such as ice fishing, skiing and building snow caves tall enough to stand in.

''I love it,'' the 36-year-old native New Yorker said. ''It's really a unique job, and I stay very busy. I like being outside.''

A month before Lautenbach heads to Many Glacier for the winter, he stockpiles enough food to fill two large freezers at the hotel. For fresh fruits and vegetables and other must-have items, he periodically skis to the entrance gate near Sherburne Dam, about seven miles away, where a friend meets him with the precious perishables.

''I put it in my backpack and come on back,'' he said. ''It's a good day trip.''

Honey, do

His employer, Glacier Park Inc., provides a detailed project list in the fall of odd jobs such as refinishing bathrooms, fixing furniture and minor repairs that need to be finished by spring.

Every Monday, he conducts a ''hotel walk,'' checking each room. He also does a ''ski around,'' checking for exterior damage that time and a relentless Mother Nature put upon the aging inn.

''The wind blows every day,'' he said. ''And when it snows, any crack it can come through it does, one snowflake at a time.''

Shoveling snow out of the rooms is a task that's repeated again and again, all winter long.

''This year I've shoveled a lot of snow,'' he said. ''This is absolutely the most snow I've seen here. Last year it was to the bottom of the third floor. This year it's the bottom of the fourth floor.''

Lautenbach shovels out his car once a week, too; otherwise it would be buried come spring.

It's the end of his third winter at Many Glacier, and while he's alone, he's not disconnected from the outside world. Two satellite dishes allow him to watch TV and use his computer, but he said he'd rather be outside skiing or building a snow cave.

He has access to the National Park Service radio system, and is required to make a phone call once a day to GPI's engineering office. That way, he said, if he doesn't call one day, someone will know something's happened to him.

Shades of 'The Shining'

The solitude doesn't bother him. And he's circumspect about long-standing rumors that the hotel is haunted.

Are there ghosts at Many Glacier Hotel?

''If I say yes, then I'm crazy,'' he said. ''If I say no, then I'm a liar...''

Lautenbach said he's had ''a couple of experiences'' but declined to offer any details.

Fire alarms have sounded in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, but usually they're triggered by mundane forces such as excessive wind, perhaps. Most recently, he figures the spring runoff somehow is tripping the alarms.

Built in 1914 and 1915 on the east shore of Swiftcurrent Lake, Many Glacier was one of several park lodges built by Great Northern Railway to lure tourists to the West.

Lautenbach has been documenting his life at the historic hotel in a video he's calling ''Glacier Haven: Story of a Winterkeeper.'' He has nearly finished the project and eventually hopes to show it at independent film festivals. From scenes of dark, eerie-looking hallways to a bluebird day out on a frozen Swiftcurrent Lake, his video clips show a surprising amount of variety in his daily life.

Lautenbach is no stranger to the grandeur of national-park lodges. A decade ago, he was just out of the Navy and needing a change of pace when he took a cross-country bus trip from New York to Yellowstone National Park, where he worked first at Old Faithful Inn and later as assistant manager of Old Faithful Snow Lodge.

Six years ago he went to work with GPI, the private firm that manages Glacier Park's hotels. The first two years he worked as a seasonal summer employee, then spent a year as housekeeping manager at Many Glacier and two years in the same capacity at Lake McDonald Lodge.

When Lautenbach leaves Many Glacier at the end of the month, he will settle back into East Glacier Park, the hub for his job as preventive maintenance manager for all seven of GPI's facilities.

Right now, Lautenbach is waiting for the plows to come, and they're late this year. Last year they came along around March 19; this year, as of April 14, he still hadn't seen them.

There's a lot of snow to move before Lautenbach can drive away with the still winter-laden hotel in his rear-view mirror. But he has time. He's not particularly anxious to leave.

''It's been a very good winter,'' he said. ''I wouldn't mind if they didn't come through until the end of May.''