Date: December 26th
Snow Report: Didn't document but it was good.
Traveling companion: Daddio
So there is no snow in Washington. Nope, no snow really. And since I'm so poor I really have to save my pennies and go when the snow is good. So really I haven't had much to say about the skiing conditions of these wonderful Washington resorts :( . BUT what I can tell you about is my Christmas ski times at the Whitefish Mountain Resort in...well where else but Whitefish, Montana. It use to be called Big Mountain...still Big Mountain to me ;).
Classic WMR picture. You can see Whitefish Lake (the shape truly does look like a fish).
Normally a day lift ticket for WMR is $71, that's about average for a resort of Whitefish's caliber BUT the real way to do it is go to the Costco in Kalispell, where you can get 2 tickets for 104 bucks. So essentially that's 50 bucks a ticket! Steal of deal AND you get to go into Costco and eat free samples. Another great thing about these tickets is that they don't have an expiration date for the season, so you get options (what girl doesn't like options?). That means you and a friend can each use a ticket on the same day or you can use them on 2 different days of the season. Use one in December and then come back and shred in March. Very nice.
The first day I went was the day after Christmas with my pops, the daddster, the old man, or Daddio as I'll refer to him in this blog. We weren't sure what to expect as far as snow conditions and crowds. It had been snowing Christmas Eve and Christmas so we knew it would be somewhat good but we also knew that the mountain needed a lot of snow. When we got up there we were a bit surprised on how short the lift lines where. We thought surly everyone would have the day off and would want to be shredding. But maybe everyone was still digesting turkey OR maybe it was the new addition of the Flower Point lift that caused the peeps to spread out a little and make everything less crowded in general.
That's right folk, for the 2014-2015 winter season the WMR has added some new lift terrain. Flower Point is located on the backside of the mountain (the North Side) and is also referred as Chair 11.
You can reach Chair 11 by taking Goat Haunt and then cutting skiers right or you can take the Bigfoot T-bar. Hopefully the lifties are a bit more educated now, cause when Daddio and I were trying to find it by accessing the T-Bar the T-Bar dude seem completely baffled. When asked his response was something like, "I don't know, we haven't been allowed up there yet". I don't blame the dude, it was all just part of the adventure.
I had been to Flower Point lots of times but I had always had to hike up there. People have been skiing that terrain for decades, it's just this year that they put in an actual lift. Is it a good thing? Wellllll, yes and no. It use to be only a handful of people would go up a day so you where almost guaranteed some fresh turns. Now that it's open up to lift riders it gets tracked out fast (as we found out this day). BUT still, you can find great powder in the trees still and by opening up that terrain spreads out the skiers make the rest of the mountain less crowded in general.
Daddio and I ate the top of Flower Point. We only ski the skull and crossbones kind of runs.
At the top of Flower Point you can easily access the Canyon. Now this is true backcountry.
The Canyon, note the orange rope. Do not shred it screams.
Since adding Chair 11 the mountain has put up extra rope and caution signs telling people not to head down into the Canyon. It can seem really tempting but it is not controlled by ski patrol and avalanches are very real back there. Since a lot of the terrain on Chair 11 is essentially blue runs I can see how ski partol would be concerned that some intermediate skiiers getting a bit confused and heading down into the back country (not knowing that there is no lift taking them back up). But they did a good job of putting up signs and ropes letting people know not to venture any further, so I doubt it will be an issue.
So how was the actually shredding that day??? It was great. No super killer powder (that would come later in the weekend) but it was all so soft. Powder pockets were abound and the groomers were the perfect consistency of smooth and velvety (thesaurus word for soft). Like I mentioned before, the lift lines were short and it was just a great day to be out there with my pops.
Whitefish Mountain Resort truly is a well-rounded mountain. Tons of terrain, lots of wonderland beauty, and they make efforts to make it affordable. I know there are a lot of Northwest resorts to choose from and honestly I could say a nice word about every single one of them. But all I'll say is that WMR should be on your list of mountains to hit while you're on your life adventures.
Ok welllllllllll, stay hydrated and watch-out for tree wells. It's only January and I can't wait to see where this winter leads!
