Whitefish deserves kudos for its candid morning snow reports. Here’s what I read when I woke up Monday.
The considerable crowd at lower right is waiting for chair 2, the only non beginner lift open until chair 1 is de-rimed.
I returned to the mountain at 1PM and first took a run on chair 2 while the initial rush to chair 1 cleared. I then rode 1, with this typical view illustrating Whitefish’s nicely spaced trees, ideal in powder on my previous visits though not today.
I skied Gray Wolf to backside chair 7, then skied Moementum and Russ’ Street to the base.
At 2PM my day improved dramatically. First by sheer luck I shared a chair 1 ride with local resident Lono. I had showed him around Mammoth in April 2017 and he was eager to return the favor on his home hill.
More importantly the sun came out so the dire warnings of the noon reports were far more pessimistic than the reality. Most of the groomers softened rapidly and so opened shortly.
Lono first led me on Hell Fire. This view back shows how Connie’s Coolie has been thinned to allow more direct fall lines.
Former public relations manager Riley Polumbus led Liz and me in there in 2013.
At Grand Junction Lono pointed out this view of the future location of chair 8 out of Hellroaring Basin.
The current chair 8 tops out near the top of chair 2 but the future exit will be on the Toni Matt run just above the top of Big Ravine.
By the time we resumed skiing chair 1 groomers they were nicely softened so we tore them up. Lono favored steep drops into the afternoon sun like Heep Steep and upper Big Ravine. Here is Lono on a rare photo stop.
Panoramic view on Toni Matt:
I was just following so I can’t say everywhere we skied, but 18,600 vertical is quite impressive for a day that didn’t start until 1PM. In the parking lot Lono showed me a friend’s repurposed vehicle.
On Tuesday Liz and I met Lono at 10AM. Tuesday was heavy overcast all day. The overnight grooming was nearly all excellent, decent skiing right away and gradually softening over the day.
Lono led us to No Name, which drops steeply to the base of chair 5.
This relocated chair facilitates lapping its steep runs, including steep NE facing chutes like First Creek.
We skied to backside chair 11, also new since our 2013 visit. Ridge Run was the only groomer we skied Tuesday with rock hard frozen granular snow, hard to explain. Lono says if runs are groomed in late afternoon when soft but then freeze overnight with no later groom, this can be the result.
While the mountain was under cloud all day, the lakes had some sunny breaks. Here Flathead Lake is illuminated at distance.
This is the closer Whitefish Lake.
Lono lives on the far shore of Whitefish Lake and hosted us for an excellent shrimp dinner Monday night.
We skied Hogan’s, a chair 7 run and Big Ravine with Lono before he left at 1PM. On our own, Liz and skied one more each on Hellroaring and chair 7 plus several frontside groomers before departing for Missoula at 2:45. We skied 21,900 vertical.
Whitefish had the only adverse weather/conditions of our extended road trip. The mist/rime/crust was a bit anomalous because Whitefish has a higher base and has overall lower rain frequency than Schweitzer, Red Mt. and Fernie. During my first trip in 2003 I added an extra Whitefish day at Fernie’s expense due to rain effect at the latter.
Liz chose the right day to take a break. She dropped me at the mountain about 9:45AM. I had neglected to read further updates:6:00 AM report":1tlckouh said:
7:40 AM report":1tlckouh said:
8:40 AM report":1tlckouh said:
By 10:15 I had chatted with the chair 1 lifties who thought it would be at least noon, so I had Liz pick me up. I could work on my month end snow report until chair 1 opened. Here’s the view of the idled chair 1 at center.9:40 AM report":1tlckouh said:
The considerable crowd at lower right is waiting for chair 2, the only non beginner lift open until chair 1 is de-rimed.
12:00 PM report":1tlckouh said:
12:30 PM report":1tlckouh said:
I returned to the mountain at 1PM and first took a run on chair 2 while the initial rush to chair 1 cleared. I then rode 1, with this typical view illustrating Whitefish’s nicely spaced trees, ideal in powder on my previous visits though not today.
I skied Gray Wolf to backside chair 7, then skied Moementum and Russ’ Street to the base.
At 2PM my day improved dramatically. First by sheer luck I shared a chair 1 ride with local resident Lono. I had showed him around Mammoth in April 2017 and he was eager to return the favor on his home hill.
More importantly the sun came out so the dire warnings of the noon reports were far more pessimistic than the reality. Most of the groomers softened rapidly and so opened shortly.
Lono first led me on Hell Fire. This view back shows how Connie’s Coolie has been thinned to allow more direct fall lines.
Former public relations manager Riley Polumbus led Liz and me in there in 2013.
At Grand Junction Lono pointed out this view of the future location of chair 8 out of Hellroaring Basin.
The current chair 8 tops out near the top of chair 2 but the future exit will be on the Toni Matt run just above the top of Big Ravine.
By the time we resumed skiing chair 1 groomers they were nicely softened so we tore them up. Lono favored steep drops into the afternoon sun like Heep Steep and upper Big Ravine. Here is Lono on a rare photo stop.
Panoramic view on Toni Matt:
I was just following so I can’t say everywhere we skied, but 18,600 vertical is quite impressive for a day that didn’t start until 1PM. In the parking lot Lono showed me a friend’s repurposed vehicle.
On Tuesday Liz and I met Lono at 10AM. Tuesday was heavy overcast all day. The overnight grooming was nearly all excellent, decent skiing right away and gradually softening over the day.
Lono led us to No Name, which drops steeply to the base of chair 5.
This relocated chair facilitates lapping its steep runs, including steep NE facing chutes like First Creek.
We skied to backside chair 11, also new since our 2013 visit. Ridge Run was the only groomer we skied Tuesday with rock hard frozen granular snow, hard to explain. Lono says if runs are groomed in late afternoon when soft but then freeze overnight with no later groom, this can be the result.
While the mountain was under cloud all day, the lakes had some sunny breaks. Here Flathead Lake is illuminated at distance.
This is the closer Whitefish Lake.
Lono lives on the far shore of Whitefish Lake and hosted us for an excellent shrimp dinner Monday night.
We skied Hogan’s, a chair 7 run and Big Ravine with Lono before he left at 1PM. On our own, Liz and skied one more each on Hellroaring and chair 7 plus several frontside groomers before departing for Missoula at 2:45. We skied 21,900 vertical.
Whitefish had the only adverse weather/conditions of our extended road trip. The mist/rime/crust was a bit anomalous because Whitefish has a higher base and has overall lower rain frequency than Schweitzer, Red Mt. and Fernie. During my first trip in 2003 I added an extra Whitefish day at Fernie’s expense due to rain effect at the latter.