Whitefish battles Whistler in 'Ski Town Throwdown'

Whitefish is set to battle online with Whistler, British Columbia in Powder magazine’s “Ski Town Throwdown.”

The magazine has set up a March Madness-type bracket with the top 32 ski towns in North America ranked as Nos. 1 to 8 seeds. In the first round of online voting, No. 4 ranked Whitefish faces off with No. 5 ranked Whistler, home of the behemouth Whistler / Blackcomb ski resort. Online voting on Powder Magazine’s Facebook page runs Nov. 14-15.

While there is no prize to be had, the marketing staff at Whitefish Mountain Resort has been priming voters for the past month with reasons why Whitefish is a better ski town than Whistler.

One reason they contend is that Whitefish is a more authentic town. Whitefish built the ski hill, while in Whistler, the ski hill built the town. Another reason — crowds, or lack there of in Whitefish.

“We measure acres per skier,” the Big Mountain marketing department noted.

Whistler on the other hand has 1.79 million skiers annually.

Cheap beer also set Whitefish apart from Whistler. Free beer at the Bierstube during Frabert on Wednesdays was compared to $18 pitchers of beer in Whistler with a 14 percent sales tax.

If Whitefish wins the first round, the city moves on to face No. 1 seed Rossland and Nelson, British Columbia.

To see the Ski Town Throw Down bracket go online to www.powdermag.com.