Skiers relish in best preseason of the decade

Whitefish Mountain Resort’s 77th opening day may be Thursday, Dec. 5, but for many ambitious skiers and boarders, they’ve been taking to the slopes since mid-November – no chair lift required.

All it took was skins and skis, splitboards or snowshoes and a little extra grit to relish in what’s been the best preseason on Big Mountain in over a decade, thanks to La Nina delivering 74 inches of snowfall to Big Mountain thus far.  

As of Dec 1, almost 4 feet of snow had settled on the summit.  

On the northern end of the Whitefish Range, Stahl Peak was sitting at a snow depth a touch lower at 42 inches. Across the valley, the Flathead River Basin’s SWE level is at 125% of the 30-year median while the Kootenai River Basin is at 140%.  

“With all this snow, we've noticed an increase in the number of folks breaking out their touring skis and splitboards to skin up the mountain,” said Chad Sokol, spokesperson for the resort. 

While the resort has been thankful for those that have followed the uphill policy, they have had to issue several reminders via email and social media to stick to the east route, uphill and downhill, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. 

Following uphill policy is especially important prior to opening day, Sokol said, as the resort has had snowcats traveling the mountain and ski patrollers detonating explosives for avalanche mitigation. 

“The uphill policy is at skiwhitefish.com/uphill and we hope everyone will take some time to review it. We can't emphasize this enough. It's for your safety and ours,” Sokol said.  

As the operations teams continue to put in the work assessing conditions up until opening day, people are encouraged to check the resort’s snow reports for the latest information on which lifts and routes will be open come opening day – although some amount of terrain on both the front and back sides of the mountain is a sure bet.  

As for Nordic skiers, Glacier Nordic Club had already groomed nearly 25k of the upper northern Big Mountain trails as of Nov. 27.  

“The early snow is exciting but please be aware of the early season hazards that persist. The ground still isn't frozen in some places, there are lots of areas with minimal snow coverage, uneven trail surfaces and hidden rocks. Our core purpose in grooming right now is to prepare and establish a packed base,” the Nordic Club reported Dec. 2.  

Off the mountain, Nordic trails at Whitefish Lake Golf Club, Round Meadow and Meadow Lake in Columbia Falls have not been groomed as the ground was not fully frozen underneath the snow. 

"We need a couple more big snow falls and colder temperatures, but it is still early, so we are doing our snow dance,” said Glacier Nordic Club Executive Director Jennie Bender. 

For now, the Glacier Nordic Shop will be open part-time for skiers to take rentals elsewhere. Memberships can also be purchased at the shop and online, which supports grooming and operations. 

There is preliminary grooming at Blacktail nordic trails in Lakeside, and the new LOGE in Essex, formerly called Izaak Walton Inn, has already groomed their trails.  

 A family prepares to snowshoe up the east route on Big Mountain on Dec. 1. (Kelsey Evans/Whitefish Pilot)
  

    Whitefish residents pack up after a great preseason day on Dec. 1. (Kelsey Evans/Whitefish Pilot)
  

    Dogs are happy to join for the uphill venture during Whitefish Mountain Resort's preseason. (Kelsey Evans/Whitefish Pilot)
  

    Departing from base lodge on Dec. 1. (Kelsey Evans/Whitefish Pilot)