A couple of months ago, my wife and daughter and I decided to ski Montana and/or Fernie and Castle over spring break. We picked the region for its low-hassle factor, with an abundance of quality skiing in resorts with comparatively-affordable lift tickets, low skier density, free parking not far from the lodges and lifts, tolerance of brown bagging, reputations for good vibes, etc. (Big Sky obviously excluded.) Additionally, we decided to try our best to play everything by ear in order to chase the most favorable conditions and forecasts. Finally, being sick of the high fares, unpredictable performance, and inconvenient schedules of the airlines, and being tired of car rentals with lousy tires, we decided to drive our Outback with snow tires.
We left on the morning of March 18. There had not been recent snow in the region and the forecasts did not yet suggest snow was likely. However, full sun and warm days and cold nights were predicted at Whitefish for Monday to Wednesday, and the snow report made it clear that a good melt-freeze cycle had started on Big Mountain’s south-facing front side, so we headed for Whitefish.
The drive out took about 20 hours, rather than the predicted 18, because even though it was sunny and in the teens, I-94 was closed across ND due to persistent ice and wind. Instead, we took I-29 north to Grand Forks. The median, shoulders, and ditches of I-29 were littered with abandoned toppled semis and passenger vehicles, some of which had clearly been rolled.
At Grand Forks we turned west again on U.S. 2 which we took all the way to Whitefish. U.S. 2 crosses some beautiful and desolate countryside, particularly across the high plains of northern Montana.
The route is also interesting because it follows the old Great Northern rail line (currently BNSF’s Northern Transcon and Amtrak’s Empire Builder) from St. Paul to Seattle. The rail line was in sight along most of our route.
In fact, while exploring the town of Whitefish, we found this tag by Black Daze, an artist that has painted a number of legitimate murals around our corner of Minneapolis.
After sleeping in Wolf Point, MT we made it to Whitefish by mid afternoon on Sunday the 19th.
For the next three days, we explored and skied Whitefish Mountain Resort in abundant sunshine. We quickly learned to ski chairs 5, 7, and 11 in the mornings. Chairs 7 and 11 face mostly North. Chair 5 faces mostly East but is high on the mountain where temps were staying cool.
Most of the terrain off of all three of these chairs offered decent winter snow conditions to the extent it was very much worth skiing the steep terrain off all three lifts and in some of the trees off of chairs 11 and 7.
By 11:30 or so, the front side softened up nicely and we were in corn snow heaven during the afternoons of all three days. At about 3pm each day the snow got a little wet, but not sticky, mostly on the most sun-exposed pitches on the lowest 3rd of the mountain. Each day it was very much worth our time to ski till the lifts closed. As you can see from the pictures, crowding was not an issue. The vibe on the hill was low-key, laid-back, and very friendly. I’d love to come back and explore Whitefish again sometime earlier in the winter. I think it is an underrated mountain, and I wonder if, at least for those comfortable skiing somewhat tighter trees, it might track out at a somewhat leisurely pace on a powder day.
On Thursday March 23 we decided to head south to Lost Trail and Discovery to chase the predicted snow rather than sticking with our tentative plan to head up to Fernie and Castle where it had also clearly warmed up, but colder, cloudier weather without snow was in the forecast. Before we left Whitefish for the 3.5 hour drive to Darby, MT, we hiked the Lion Trail on the outskirts of town.
We left on the morning of March 18. There had not been recent snow in the region and the forecasts did not yet suggest snow was likely. However, full sun and warm days and cold nights were predicted at Whitefish for Monday to Wednesday, and the snow report made it clear that a good melt-freeze cycle had started on Big Mountain’s south-facing front side, so we headed for Whitefish.
The drive out took about 20 hours, rather than the predicted 18, because even though it was sunny and in the teens, I-94 was closed across ND due to persistent ice and wind. Instead, we took I-29 north to Grand Forks. The median, shoulders, and ditches of I-29 were littered with abandoned toppled semis and passenger vehicles, some of which had clearly been rolled.
At Grand Forks we turned west again on U.S. 2 which we took all the way to Whitefish. U.S. 2 crosses some beautiful and desolate countryside, particularly across the high plains of northern Montana.
The route is also interesting because it follows the old Great Northern rail line (currently BNSF’s Northern Transcon and Amtrak’s Empire Builder) from St. Paul to Seattle. The rail line was in sight along most of our route.
In fact, while exploring the town of Whitefish, we found this tag by Black Daze, an artist that has painted a number of legitimate murals around our corner of Minneapolis.
After sleeping in Wolf Point, MT we made it to Whitefish by mid afternoon on Sunday the 19th.
For the next three days, we explored and skied Whitefish Mountain Resort in abundant sunshine. We quickly learned to ski chairs 5, 7, and 11 in the mornings. Chairs 7 and 11 face mostly North. Chair 5 faces mostly East but is high on the mountain where temps were staying cool.
Most of the terrain off of all three of these chairs offered decent winter snow conditions to the extent it was very much worth skiing the steep terrain off all three lifts and in some of the trees off of chairs 11 and 7.
By 11:30 or so, the front side softened up nicely and we were in corn snow heaven during the afternoons of all three days. At about 3pm each day the snow got a little wet, but not sticky, mostly on the most sun-exposed pitches on the lowest 3rd of the mountain. Each day it was very much worth our time to ski till the lifts closed. As you can see from the pictures, crowding was not an issue. The vibe on the hill was low-key, laid-back, and very friendly. I’d love to come back and explore Whitefish again sometime earlier in the winter. I think it is an underrated mountain, and I wonder if, at least for those comfortable skiing somewhat tighter trees, it might track out at a somewhat leisurely pace on a powder day.
On Thursday March 23 we decided to head south to Lost Trail and Discovery to chase the predicted snow rather than sticking with our tentative plan to head up to Fernie and Castle where it had also clearly warmed up, but colder, cloudier weather without snow was in the forecast. Before we left Whitefish for the 3.5 hour drive to Darby, MT, we hiked the Lion Trail on the outskirts of town.
