Some Big Mountain ski slopes opened Tuesday

The Whitefish Mountain Resort opened some terrain on the north slopes of Big Mountain on Tuesday morning (Dec. 9), resort officials announced Monday afternoon.

Chair One will carry skiers from the base area to the summit to reach the Whitetail and Caribou runs on the north side of the mountain, Clapp said. They can get back to the summit on Chair Seven.

Chair One will be used to haul skiers back to the village area.

"It's going to be fairly limited, but we're excited to gets skis on snow," said Donnie Clapp, the resort's public relations manager.

The ski area had 5 inches of fresh snow Sunday in the base area, but it still was not enough to open the south-facing slopes. The resort has a settled base of 18 inches of snow on top of the mountain and 6 inches in the village area.

"The front side has a lot less snow than the back side," Clapp said. "We're pretty close to being able to get people down the front side, but we're not there yet."

Clapp said the resort's management mainly wanted to offer season-pass holders some skiing opportunity.

We have a little over 7,000 people who have bought season passes and we felt we owed it to them to get something open as soon as possible, he said.

The resort is opening with a reduced ticket rate of $29 for skiers ages 13-69 and $15 for skiers ages 7-12. Skiers 6 and under and 70 or older ski for free.

The two operating ski lifts were open at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Clapp said there will be limited facilities open while the mountain terrain is only partially open.

The base lodge, the ticket plaza and the equipment rental shop will be open. There will be limited food and bar service at the Summit House.

Saturday's planned season opener for skiing had to be delayed because of limited snow at Whitefish Mountain Resort.

As of Tuesday, no opening date had been announced for Blacktail Mountain Ski Area west of Lakeside, which has gotten new snow in recent days.

"We're going to wait until we have some good quality snow before we open," said Steve Spencer, Blacktail Mountain manager.

He noted that last year started slowly, largely because of a "pineapple express" wind and rain storm that prevented the mountain from opening until Dec. 14. But conditions rapidly improved with steady snow for the remainder of the winter, Spencer said.