After a long drive from Sun Valley the prior day, Liz and I did not get up the hill at Whitefish until close to 10AM. Being President’s Day it was uncharacteristically busy. The key Big Mountain Express lift had a 5-10 minute line all day until 3PM or so. Whitefish got about 7 inches of snow over the previous 3 days. With the holiday there was no deep powder, but snow in general was soft as there’s a lot of acreage and skier density is mostly low even on a peak holiday like this. The vacationers tended to be mostly intermediates also, so there was a lot of loose snow in the trees and on the steeper ungroomed terrain.
Whitefish overlooks its namesake lake with the much larger Flathead Lake also in the distance.
Consequently Whitefish like Schweitzer and Big White is famous for chronic cloud and fog. From town in the morning the only thick clouds visible were on the top of the ski mountain. By noon the clouds rose to be more of a high overcast with occasional sunny breaks. The cloudiness is overall a positive for snow preservation on a mountain with quite a bit of south exposure. Also if you’re going to be skiing on a foggy day there are few places one would rather be than in the Kootenays with their renowned tree skiing.
There was some reluctance to develop the mountain at Whitefish due to the exposure but local founder Lloyd Muldown had observed the clouds and fog over many winters with very good backcountry ski conditions. He used to say, “Let’s climb up that big mountain and ski there today,” and thus the name “Big Mountain” stuck and became the name of the ski area until just a few years ago.
Liz and I took our first 2 runs off the north facing backside. Here are the Black Deer trees.
About 11:15 at Summit House we met Marketing Director Riley Polumbus who came to Whitefish 2 years ago from Steamboat. She is a telemark skier and we did another backside run on Marmot and nearby trees.
We next skied to the Bigfoot T-bar, which only runs on weekends, so I had never been there on my previous visit in 2003. The backside of that is all tree skiing in Window Pane and Stumptown down to the backside Big Creek chair.
We headed down for lunch via Hellroaring Basin, Whitefish’s most advanced terrain. Riley led us through Connie’s Coulee, which is gladed and west facing with perhaps the fluffiest snow of the day.
Whitefish is also known for its snow ghosts on the upper mountain.
We called this one the “Snow Bunny.”
After lunch we skied Inspiration to Big Face.
By now it was about 2:30 and Riley needed to depart. Liz and I took another Hellroaring run, this time on the longest sustained pitch. We took the most open line of Gray’s Golf Course.
The Picture Chutes are to skier’s left but have a blind entry through trees and local guidance might be advisable for the first time there.
Lower down in Hellroaring Basin in the trees.
Our last run to the top we took Inspiration and dropped into the North Bowl trees. This is a prime powder area, quite steep, and you need to work your way gradually skier’s right to maintain good tree spacing. No pics in here as the light was not great late in the day. We had time for just one more cruiser on Swift Creek before 4PM closing. 18,400 vertical, a very good day. We were impressed by how well the snow was holding up at the end of a busy holiday weekend.
Whitefish overlooks its namesake lake with the much larger Flathead Lake also in the distance.
Consequently Whitefish like Schweitzer and Big White is famous for chronic cloud and fog. From town in the morning the only thick clouds visible were on the top of the ski mountain. By noon the clouds rose to be more of a high overcast with occasional sunny breaks. The cloudiness is overall a positive for snow preservation on a mountain with quite a bit of south exposure. Also if you’re going to be skiing on a foggy day there are few places one would rather be than in the Kootenays with their renowned tree skiing.
There was some reluctance to develop the mountain at Whitefish due to the exposure but local founder Lloyd Muldown had observed the clouds and fog over many winters with very good backcountry ski conditions. He used to say, “Let’s climb up that big mountain and ski there today,” and thus the name “Big Mountain” stuck and became the name of the ski area until just a few years ago.
Liz and I took our first 2 runs off the north facing backside. Here are the Black Deer trees.
About 11:15 at Summit House we met Marketing Director Riley Polumbus who came to Whitefish 2 years ago from Steamboat. She is a telemark skier and we did another backside run on Marmot and nearby trees.
We next skied to the Bigfoot T-bar, which only runs on weekends, so I had never been there on my previous visit in 2003. The backside of that is all tree skiing in Window Pane and Stumptown down to the backside Big Creek chair.
We headed down for lunch via Hellroaring Basin, Whitefish’s most advanced terrain. Riley led us through Connie’s Coulee, which is gladed and west facing with perhaps the fluffiest snow of the day.
Whitefish is also known for its snow ghosts on the upper mountain.
We called this one the “Snow Bunny.”
After lunch we skied Inspiration to Big Face.
By now it was about 2:30 and Riley needed to depart. Liz and I took another Hellroaring run, this time on the longest sustained pitch. We took the most open line of Gray’s Golf Course.
The Picture Chutes are to skier’s left but have a blind entry through trees and local guidance might be advisable for the first time there.
Lower down in Hellroaring Basin in the trees.
Our last run to the top we took Inspiration and dropped into the North Bowl trees. This is a prime powder area, quite steep, and you need to work your way gradually skier’s right to maintain good tree spacing. No pics in here as the light was not great late in the day. We had time for just one more cruiser on Swift Creek before 4PM closing. 18,400 vertical, a very good day. We were impressed by how well the snow was holding up at the end of a busy holiday weekend.
