Searchers continue to look for man missing near Whitefish Mountain Resort
The sun shines on Big Mountain Monday morning as viewed from downtiwn Whitefish. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot)
Search crews continued to comb the slopes near Whitefish Mountain Resort on Monday morning after a skier was reported missing over the weekend.
“They searched until after dark last night, and we are back at it this morning,” Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry told the Daily Inter Lake Monday morning.
It appears the skier, who is reportedly from the Flathead Valley, left the ski resort boundary near the Flower Point area on Saturday. Curry said Flower Point is a common spot for skiers to enter backcountry terrain in the Canyon Creek area. A groomed snowmobile trail runs along the Canyon Creek valley floor between Flower Point and the Skookaleel chutes. The trail begins in the North Fork area north of Columbia Falls and ends at the summit of Big Mountain.
Volunteers from the Nordic Ski Patrol and two different local search and rescue agencies were involved with the search. Curry said a helicopter from Two Bear Air was searching from above as well.
The search has been ongoing since late Saturday, and Curry said they planned to continue for the foreseeable future until the man was located.
“We will continue to look,” he said.
A brutal winter storm hit the area Saturday night into Sunday morning. More than a foot of snow fell on the slopes at Whitefish Mountain Resort overnight Saturday. On Sunday, gusts near 50 mph and wind chills near minus 30 were reported on Big Mountain’s summit. Monday morning the summit temperature was 1.