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How does Whitefish look?
- Thread starter AnnKH
- Start date
sibhusky
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks for the page, @Christy!
Was there the last two days. We are not 100% open yet, but close. Everything I was on was in good shape, but you can still see bushes on some trails. I finally got over to the new Flower Point area today, up until now I'd been hearing conditions were iffy. The entire length of the new Ridge Run was ungroomed, but snow quality was excellent and coverage was decent. If you like terrain on your groomers, that's the current condition. Definitely not ballroom. Great vistas. Lot of nice looking treed areas skier's left the entire run. Apparently most are hitting them, because once I left the little saddle area, not another skier was on it. I thought I'd missed a sign!
We are expecting another six inches before Christmas, and I'd think they will be making the effort to get Hellroaring open for the holidays.
Was there the last two days. We are not 100% open yet, but close. Everything I was on was in good shape, but you can still see bushes on some trails. I finally got over to the new Flower Point area today, up until now I'd been hearing conditions were iffy. The entire length of the new Ridge Run was ungroomed, but snow quality was excellent and coverage was decent. If you like terrain on your groomers, that's the current condition. Definitely not ballroom. Great vistas. Lot of nice looking treed areas skier's left the entire run. Apparently most are hitting them, because once I left the little saddle area, not another skier was on it. I thought I'd missed a sign!
We are expecting another six inches before Christmas, and I'd think they will be making the effort to get Hellroaring open for the holidays.
AnnKH
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
And you've gotten snow since then! It looks like we've picked a fantastic year to go back out west. If one can believe the forecast a week out, it looks like we'll have snow and decent temps. We're intermediate skiers, so we'll mostly stick to groomers. Definitely looking forward to trying out Flower Point!
We skied Saturday, at a tiny place in Minnesota. We've had more rain than snow this fall, so it was our first chance out. A good chance for a gear/clothing review before hitting the big slopes.
Sib, I loved your Local's Guide! Just looking at your wonderful photos of so many places I recognized made me even more anxious to get out there.
We skied Saturday, at a tiny place in Minnesota. We've had more rain than snow this fall, so it was our first chance out. A good chance for a gear/clothing review before hitting the big slopes.
Sib, I loved your Local's Guide! Just looking at your wonderful photos of so many places I recognized made me even more anxious to get out there.
AnnKH
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I just saw this, and just about wet my pants! Comfortable temps, and snow, snow, snow!
Next weekend we'll get home just in time to watch our favorite football team, the NDSU Bison, play for their 4th straight National Championship. Many of our friends are going to Frisco, Texas for the game; we decided to go skiing instead. It looks like we made the right choice!
Next weekend we'll get home just in time to watch our favorite football team, the NDSU Bison, play for their 4th straight National Championship. Many of our friends are going to Frisco, Texas for the game; we decided to go skiing instead. It looks like we made the right choice!
AnnKH
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks for thinking about me!
First off, I want to repeat what I say every time I go to Whitefish - the staff there are the BEST! Every single employee we dealt with was cheerful, helpful, and made us feel like their goal in life was to make sure we had a good time. When I'm on vacation, I want people to take care of me, and that's exactly what I get at Big Mountain. I love the attitude there, and never worry that something will be screwed up.
We arrived on the train Sunday night, about 20 minutes early (10:30 pm). Our shuttle was waiting for us - and I was glad I wasn't the one driving up the mountain! We unpacked and settled in as quickly as we could, and collapsed into bed. Oh, we stayed at Kintla Lodge, slopeside - fantastic! We had groceries delivered prior to our arrival (another convenience provided by the resort).
Even though we were tired, we were first in line to get on Chair 3 Monday morning. We skied over to 1 and 2, but the line was so long at Chair 1 that we went to 2. Good thing - after one run, we all needed to shed layers, and after 2 runs we decided to rent powder skis. Our Minnesota carvers were making us work WAY too hard! Best decision ever, and I wish we'd done it right away - we paid for the extra effort to ski those first runs all week in sore legs.
Monday afternoon we took a private lesson - one of my sons snowboards, but we got an instructor who does both, so we were able to be together for the lesson. We are not fantastic skiers - we're very comfortable on blues, and a little black, but we aren't very aggressive (or thrill-seeking) skiers. The instructor was great, and helped us all improve our technique. Money well spent.
I crapped out about 2:30 - my legs had turned to jelly. I regretted every wall sit I didn't do in the last 2 months! That's what I get for being an overweight, lazy old woman. The last run back to the condo was a struggle. We are a bit affected by the altitude out there - I know Big mountain isn't very high as mountains go, but we live at 800 feet, so we definitely feel it, stopping to catch our breath a lot the first day. By Day 3 we're completely acclimated.
Monday was exhausting, but exhilarating! Our plan was to sleep in the next day, but my son Bryan was raring to go by 9:30, so I joined him. My sons are 20 (twins). Tuesday's conditions were interesting - the snow was still heavy, even though it had stopped snowing early. Our legs were sore from the day before, so we didn't ski too hard. There was hardly anyone out there after Monday - we never waited in line for any lift the rest of the week. That made it easy to find each other! No matter what time we each headed out for the day, we ran into each other at the summit - either in the chalet or getting off the lift. Bryan and I quit early, and relaxed in the hot tub - should have done that the night before. We returned our rental skis, and went back out for a couple more runs at the end of the day, feeling MUCH better!
Wednesday it got warm. We shed even more clothes, and stayed mostly on the back side, when the front got icy and rough. We loved the Flower Point chair! Bryan discovered "One Grand Parade", which is a delightful and relaxing way to head home, when Toni Matt was like an ice rink. I ran into our ski instructor in the chalet, and commented on how we appreciated the easier skiing that day. He described the snow on Tuesday as "unfriendly", which seemed to sum it up.
Thursday we felt like we were back skiing in Minnesota! Cold and windy, and the lower front side was nothing but ice. Chair 1 was brutal, but we were all dressed for it - we never got cold. The back side was beautiful - even the chair ride was comfortable, and the wind was only an issue at the bottom of the Ant Hill. We heard several people complaining about the snow conditions, but they stayed on the front side! For dumb. The temperature continued to slowly drop all day, but the flip side is that it got colder because the insulating clouds disappeared - and the views were spectacular! For a bunch of flat-landers, the mountain views never get old. I couldn't believe we spent 4 days at Big Foggy, and never saw fog!
It was our best ski vacation yet! Our sons are Juniors in college, and won't get 3-week Christmas breaks forever, so we made the most of it. I wish we had the time and money to go back every year; our last trip was in 2009.
We got back on the train early Friday morning, home late that night. Then Saturday we got to watch our favorite football team, the North Dakota State University Bison, win their 4th National Championship in a row! Had we not been skiing, we would have been in Frisco, Texas, for the game. Hubby and I both went to NDSU, and now our sons go there. The seniors on the team have more Championship ring than losses, with a record of 58 - 3 over four years. Go Bison!
First off, I want to repeat what I say every time I go to Whitefish - the staff there are the BEST! Every single employee we dealt with was cheerful, helpful, and made us feel like their goal in life was to make sure we had a good time. When I'm on vacation, I want people to take care of me, and that's exactly what I get at Big Mountain. I love the attitude there, and never worry that something will be screwed up.
We arrived on the train Sunday night, about 20 minutes early (10:30 pm). Our shuttle was waiting for us - and I was glad I wasn't the one driving up the mountain! We unpacked and settled in as quickly as we could, and collapsed into bed. Oh, we stayed at Kintla Lodge, slopeside - fantastic! We had groceries delivered prior to our arrival (another convenience provided by the resort).
Even though we were tired, we were first in line to get on Chair 3 Monday morning. We skied over to 1 and 2, but the line was so long at Chair 1 that we went to 2. Good thing - after one run, we all needed to shed layers, and after 2 runs we decided to rent powder skis. Our Minnesota carvers were making us work WAY too hard! Best decision ever, and I wish we'd done it right away - we paid for the extra effort to ski those first runs all week in sore legs.
Monday afternoon we took a private lesson - one of my sons snowboards, but we got an instructor who does both, so we were able to be together for the lesson. We are not fantastic skiers - we're very comfortable on blues, and a little black, but we aren't very aggressive (or thrill-seeking) skiers. The instructor was great, and helped us all improve our technique. Money well spent.
I crapped out about 2:30 - my legs had turned to jelly. I regretted every wall sit I didn't do in the last 2 months! That's what I get for being an overweight, lazy old woman. The last run back to the condo was a struggle. We are a bit affected by the altitude out there - I know Big mountain isn't very high as mountains go, but we live at 800 feet, so we definitely feel it, stopping to catch our breath a lot the first day. By Day 3 we're completely acclimated.
Monday was exhausting, but exhilarating! Our plan was to sleep in the next day, but my son Bryan was raring to go by 9:30, so I joined him. My sons are 20 (twins). Tuesday's conditions were interesting - the snow was still heavy, even though it had stopped snowing early. Our legs were sore from the day before, so we didn't ski too hard. There was hardly anyone out there after Monday - we never waited in line for any lift the rest of the week. That made it easy to find each other! No matter what time we each headed out for the day, we ran into each other at the summit - either in the chalet or getting off the lift. Bryan and I quit early, and relaxed in the hot tub - should have done that the night before. We returned our rental skis, and went back out for a couple more runs at the end of the day, feeling MUCH better!
Wednesday it got warm. We shed even more clothes, and stayed mostly on the back side, when the front got icy and rough. We loved the Flower Point chair! Bryan discovered "One Grand Parade", which is a delightful and relaxing way to head home, when Toni Matt was like an ice rink. I ran into our ski instructor in the chalet, and commented on how we appreciated the easier skiing that day. He described the snow on Tuesday as "unfriendly", which seemed to sum it up.
Thursday we felt like we were back skiing in Minnesota! Cold and windy, and the lower front side was nothing but ice. Chair 1 was brutal, but we were all dressed for it - we never got cold. The back side was beautiful - even the chair ride was comfortable, and the wind was only an issue at the bottom of the Ant Hill. We heard several people complaining about the snow conditions, but they stayed on the front side! For dumb. The temperature continued to slowly drop all day, but the flip side is that it got colder because the insulating clouds disappeared - and the views were spectacular! For a bunch of flat-landers, the mountain views never get old. I couldn't believe we spent 4 days at Big Foggy, and never saw fog!
It was our best ski vacation yet! Our sons are Juniors in college, and won't get 3-week Christmas breaks forever, so we made the most of it. I wish we had the time and money to go back every year; our last trip was in 2009.
We got back on the train early Friday morning, home late that night. Then Saturday we got to watch our favorite football team, the North Dakota State University Bison, win their 4th National Championship in a row! Had we not been skiing, we would have been in Frisco, Texas, for the game. Hubby and I both went to NDSU, and now our sons go there. The seniors on the team have more Championship ring than losses, with a record of 58 - 3 over four years. Go Bison!
AnnKH
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Our instructor described Tuesday's snow as "unfriendly". Piled on top of sore muscles from the day before, it made for a lot of work. Wednesday and Thursday were gorgeous on the back side - especially considering that the conditions at the bottom on the front are more what we are used to.
I wish we could afford to go every year!
I wish we could afford to go every year!
