New runs at Whitefish Mountain Resort dedicated to local skiing legends
Chet Powell, right, and Whitefish Mountain Resort CEO Dan Graves take the first ride up Chair 8 on Saturday. (Photo by GlacierWorld.com)
Cassey Heitz, daughter of the late Jack Marcial, and her daughters Cadence and Evie catch a ride on Chair 8 at Whitefish Mountain Resort on Saturday. (Photo by GlacierWorld.com)
Chet Powell poses at the top of Chet’s ’Stache, a new run in the Hellroaring Basin named in his honor. (Photo by GlacierWorld.com)
Members of the Marcial family pose at the top of RadJack, a new run in the Hellroaring Basin named in honor of the late Jack Marcial. (Photo by Whitefish Mountain Resort)
Whitefish Mountain Resort opened the newly relocated Chair 8 on Saturday, after dedicating two of the newest runs in the Hellroaring Basin to local skiing legends.
Crews spent the summer and fall moving Chair 8 farther up Big Mountain, using a helicopter to hoist each tower into place. The resort invested more than $2 million to complete the relocation, part of a multi-year project aimed at improving access to the Hellroaring Basin and creating more opportunities in the area for intermediate skiers and riders.
Two of the new runs are named to honor skiing legends. Chet’s ’Stache is named after Chet Powell, who spent more than 40 years at the resort. RadJack is named for the late “Rad” Jack Marcial who helped popularize telemark skiing in the 1970s.
The bottom terminal of Chair 8 is now at Grand Junction, and the top is near the Toni Matt-Big Ravine split. A trip on the lift lasts about seven minutes and covers 1,082 vertical feet.
“We’re thrilled to complete this project because it allows guests to spend more time running laps in the Hellroaring Basin, while maintaining easy access to the front side of the mountain,” Whitefish Mountain Resort CEO Dan Graves said. “It also allows us to open the basin earlier in the season, since we won’t be waiting for snow to accumulate at the lower elevation where the bottom of the lift used to be.”
In addition to regrading sections of Hell Fire, the resort added six new runs to the basin in 2020. They are Wing and a Prayer (double black diamond), Short but Sweet (blue square), Pat’s Ride (black diamond), Lacy Lane (blue square), Chet’s ’Stache (black diamond) and RadJack (black diamond).
The run Chet’s ’Stache honors Chester “Chet” Powell, who spent more than 40 years at the resort, working his way up from ski patroller to director of mountain operations before going into semi-retirement in 2019. He continued assisting Whitefish Mountain Resort with the Hellroaring Basin project through summer 2021. The name of the new run is a nod to Powell’s impressive salt-and-pepper mustache.
The run RadJack is for the late “Rad” Jack Marcial, who helped popularize telemark skiing in the 1970s. Marcial, who passed away in 2018, moved to Whitefish in 1987 and his family has been part of the Big Mountain family ever since.
Powell and members of the Marcial family gathered in the Hellroaring Basin on Saturday and took first rides on Chair 8 before crowds flocked to the lift.
“This development has been a fun process and a great way to retire,” Powell said. “It’s been unbelievable to help out with such a big improvement to this skiing area.”
Jack Marcial’s daughter Tori Marcial said the new RadJack run allows her to share fond memories of her father with her own children.
“To see him memorialized on the mountain that he raised us on, it gives us an opportunity to remember him and share the place with friends and family,” Marcial said, adding that the new Chair 8 greatly improves access to the Hellroaring Basin.
Graves said the resort looks forward to continually improving the Hellroaring Basin and other areas of the resort.
“We can’t think of anyone better to celebrate with these new trails than Chet Powell and Jack Marcial, who have contributed immeasurably to the Whitefish skiing community,” Graves said.
