Big Mtn. snow totals down, but visitors up

Whitefish Mountain Resort shut down its lifts Sunday, marking the end of a ski season that was defined by a pesky El Nino weather pattern that offered skiers plenty of sun and Glacier Park views, but not much snow.

The resort tallied just 173 inches of snowfall on the season, a little more than half of the mountain's annual average and far below recent totals. Last season, it snowed 298 inches on the summit, and the year before that it dumped a record 426 inches.

El Nino, a warming of the tropical Pacific, is to blame for the low snow year as the weather phenomenon tends to push moisture south of here. The last major El Nino event was in 2004 when the resort closed in mid-March due to a lack of sufficient snow coverage. It snowed 176 inches that year, but warm temperatures in February melted much of the snow accumulated in December.

The low snowpack this year was evident Sunday as costume-clad skiers and boarders were diverted around a few bare spots on the lower flanks of the mountain and in the Chair 2 area. The resort had closed a few runs earlier in the week, including Inspiration below Russ's Street.

"[The season] was terrible," said Chris Miller, who tallied 40 days on the slopes this year. "It hasn't really snowed in 12 weeks."

And by most accounts, Miller is right. The resort picked up a considerable amount of snow early in the season and boasted an 80-inch snowpack by the end of December — one of the deepest in the country at the time. Yet, almost in sync with the new calendar year, measurable snowfall became scarce. Between the beginning of January and closing day, about 80 inches of new snow was measured at Big Mountain's summit.

Despite the meager snowfall measurements, most skiers soaking up the sun on Sunday were feeling OK about the season overall.

Jordan Bowlin, who skied 56 days, said it was a decent year that featured a lot of ups and downs.

"We could have used some more powder, but overall it was pretty good," he said Sunday at the resort.

His friend, Austin Miller, was upbeat, too, saying every ski season is a good season.

Kalispell resident Tony Hoerner said the snow wasn't as great as in past years, but that the resort's grooming efforts were worth commending.

"The groomers stayed on top of it as much as they could," Hoerner said. "The days when there was no snow, it was nice to have it groomed, and maybe there would be a little skiff on top of that. The backside was always great."

Resort spokesman Donnie Clapp said a positive about a low snow year is that grooming operators get to prep runs that would be overlooked in a typical winter.

"The groomers get to take pride in making laps all the way around Ptarmigan Bowl," Clapp said. "They get to runs like Heep Steep and Kodiak more often. A low snow year also means our groomed runs have to be in exceptional condition."

While the lack of fresh snow may have put a damper on powder days, the resort still experienced an above average year for skier visits and an average year for lodging reservations.

"Despite a struggling economy and less-than-ideal snowfall totals, this season brought the second highest non-season-passholder visits in our history," Clapp said. "It was second only to 2007-2008, and up more than 8 percent compared to both the 10-year normalized average and the 2008-2009 season."

Passholder visits were down only 1 percent compared to last season.

Clapp said that although passholder visits were strong through February, they did trail off in March when "hoped for snow didn't materialize."

The resort will open for the summer season in mid June.