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Lifts & Terrain

Whitefish Ski and Snowboard Terrain With a massive 3,000 acres of terrain, Whitefish Mountain Resort looks awesome on a trail map. It is always an interesting experience to translate a ski trail map into reality. Some resorts pleasantly surprise you, some disappoint, and some do a bit of both. Whitefish delicately tip toes between pleasant surprise and disappointment. Have no fear though, the pleasant surprises outweigh the disappointments (most of which relate to lift infrastructure – see below).

The pleasant surprises include the superb beginner area, the super long, super groomed intermediate runs from summit to base area, the advanced terrain in the North Bowl Face/East Rim area (between Inspiration and Russ’s St)and the steep trees in Hellroaring Basin. On sunny days, the views out to Glacier National Park and beyond are awesome.

The major terrain disappointment is the Back Bowl area. Super flat from halfway down, the terrain in this area is sadly over-rated, which is a shame because the snow quality is so good back there.

All of the upper mountain terrain is lightly covered in gorgeous, classical ‘snow ghosts’, but with them comes a warning to all who venture off piste – beware of the tree wells. Don’t ski alone as the tree wells are deep and wide in some parts – particularly in Hellroaring Basin. Adds a bit of fun to the skiing mix!!

Whitefish Lifts Whitefish Mountain Resort is blessed with quality terrain but poorly placed and managed lift infrastructure. Whilst it’s certainly not a deal breaker and in fact might not matter to most (because let’s face it, there are enough lifts to get you up the hill at a decent rate of knots), the critic in me looks at it and thinks about what could have been.

Chair 1 (they have names but no one seems to use them) is the quickest quad chair we have been on, and it services the entire frontside of the mountain. Here’s where we say ‘Houston we have a problem’. The entire frontside of the mountain is massive (it would have to be close to 1,800 acres). There needs to be viable alternatives to Chair 1 to avoid the long cat track returns in order to start your ascent back to the ‘goods’ up top, and also to avoid that nagging feeling that your entire stay on the mountain has been spent sitting on only one or two lifts (chairs 1 and 8!!). The alternatives either don’t exist (North Bowl Face / East Rim area) or don’t ever run (Chairs 4 and 5).

Improvements to the lift system are afoot and involve extending the Chair 4 triple up to the ridge (something they shortened for some bizarre reason a few years ago) and moving the redundant Chair 5 triple to the excellent North Bowl area. This will alleviate some of the current deficiencies in the lift system and remove the need for that continual long return ride on bloody ‘Russ’s Street’ to the base area.

The other major gripe is the ‘staged opening of lifts’; 9.30am and 10am are way too late to open major lifts at a major ski resort.

On the upside, Chair 8 is well placed to avoid interfering with grizzly bear habitat, but gets you back to the frontside effectively. And beginners are very well serviced with three chairs (3, 6 and 9) plus a carpet conveyor.

A couple of T Bars also exist but are rarely turning. Oh well, what could have been..........

Lift Tickets Whitefish is all about a ‘Big’ mountain experience without the ‘Big’ mountain costs. Lift tickets are set at US$66 for a full day (2011/12) but there are great deals to avoid paying the full price. For the more experienced Powderhound, Whitefish’s US$79 eat, ski, sleep & repeat (food, accom and full lift ticket) special is unbeatable value (see the Whitefish lodging page for more detail).

For rank beginners, US$72 will get you 2 days gear rental, 2 days limited lift ticket and two ½ day lessons - great value!

Whitefish Snow and Weather Conditions The 300+ inches (760cm+) of snow a year tends to be cold and dry here on the Continental Divide. And whilst the sun does shine, don’t expect a Lake Tahoe like 300 days of sunshine a year – it’s just not going to happen. Clouds are part of the landscape here. Embrace their beauty. Skiing by brail is fun!

Whilst it is a bit chilly at Whitefish, it’s relatively low elevation means temperatures are not as cold as some of the higher elevation US ski resorts (i.e. like Colorado ski resorts). One thing you can certainly rely on at Whitefish is an accurate snow report and narrative. It tells it like it us – so refreshing for a big ski resort. It aligns with Whitefish’s mantra of ‘keeping it real’.

On the ski hill, snow amounts increase dramatically as one travels further from the base area. For example 4 inches of fresh snow on the frontside can easily equate to 10 inches of POW on the upper areas and backside.

For the Beginner Just about every lift in Whitefish has an access or ski run suitable for most beginners. The dedicated beginner terrain is around the base area, where progression is well catered for on a range of beginner runs. For beginners looking to progress, Chair 1 will get to the Summit House and onto Russ’s St and Toni Matt, which although marked intermediate, will be manageable.

Intermediate Ski and Snowboard Terrain Whitefish is an intermediates’ paradise. Long thigh melting groomers streak down in all directions from the summit. Inspiration, Corkscrew and The Big Ravine are super fast and wide for maximum afterburner. Ditto for all the intermediate runs off Chair 2.

Back Bowl terrain serviced by Chair 6 will disappoint the better intermediates, but will keep lower intermediates and those transitioning from beginner very happy. Moe Mentum below East Rim is a nice roller through the forest. Hellfire is the longest run on the mountain and will give intermediates a great look at the advanced terrain in Hellroaring Basin, plus it is a fast rolling hoot after the Grand Junction.

For Kids The base area with its chair lifts, conveyor lift, easy terrain and excellent day lodge facilities is the place for kids and families. For a change of scenery and to show the kids the snow ghosts, take Chair 1 to the summit and either pick your way slowly down Toni Matt to the base, or download on the chair – too easy.

Parks & Pipes Two series of table tops, rails, ramps, jumps and other bone-busting apparatus are serviced by Chair 3 near the Upper Village. If staying in Morning Eagle you can watch concussions and broken limbs happening live as you sit in the rooftop hot tub!

Whitefish Skiing for the Advanced Some excellent advanced skiing exists at Whitefish. On the frontside big open faces dappled with the odd snow ghost like Big Face, Ptarmigan and Good Medicine are good early. Big Face runs nicely into the light glades around Chair 4 near Powder Trap and Langley. This is probably the longest vertical fall line section of advanced skiing on the mountain. Anywhere between Inspiration and Russ’s St from the Summit is great fun. North Bowl Face into the bottom of Elephants Graveyard and (if you’re up for it) into the tight trees and then open rocks of Haskill Slide gives a very nice vertical. Some of the off piste in this area is quite complex though, so keep your wits about you in poor visibility, particularly in the East Rim and Cal’s Country areas. For a nice easy groomed black run try Moose in the East Rim area.

Some of the best overall skiing and boarding on the hill is undoubtedly in Hellroaring Basin. The Glory Hole is the obvious run, but whilst good first thing, it gets skied out pretty quick and is actually quite short. Better options are skiers left and right of the main Picture Chutes (all are doable in good snow) and the great trees in Gray’s Golf Course and The Back 9. An excellent option is to enter Hellroaring Basin via Connies Coulee, keep your speed up at the bottom, cross Glory Hole and traverse across to massive slope below the Picture Chutes. Unless you intend to drop a line into the steep tight trees below it, avoid getting sucked into Highway to Heaven off the Glory Hole. It is a long tedious journey that should be re-named Highway to Hell. That might involve re-naming Heaven’s T bar (where the ‘highway’ ends) to Hell’s T bar – sounds good!

For bumps hit Black Bear under Chair 6 at the summit. To keep the last ¾ of the run to the bottom interesting, veer skiers left into the forest near the bottom and make your own trail through the very low angle whoops, yips, snowy branches (face slaps as opposed to face shots!) and tree wells to the chair.

Expert Ski and Snowboard Terrain Expert terrain isn’t all that obvious at Whitefish, but it does exist. Steep tight trees abound in the Hellroaring Basin and will challenge most people. Some of the lines through Teepee and The Back 9 area would rate as double black in a lot of resorts. The double black Picture Chutes have some gnarly cliff sections but are probably over-rated and are do-able by most advanced riders. The toughest terrain (steeps/cliffs) is undoubtedly around East Rim/First Ck between Russ’s. Wait for some good visibility. You can scoop it out from Russ’s St near Bigfoot T Bar and Moose down below.

For the Powderhound Skiing midweek at Whitefish will ensure freshies are available for days after it has snowed. There is a huge amount of terrain in Hellroaring Basin and in the North Bowl Face area that stays in good nick simply due to the lift set up requiring lengthy rotation times.

Going out of bounds (just) will guarantee powder on Hellroaring Peak. Just ski down the intermediate Hell Fire, and before it descends skiers left into the valley, stay right and skin, boot pack or crawl on your hands and knees up to the radio towers (we don’t condone crawling on your hands and knees as it is incredibly undignified, but desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures!). You ski down via some fun trees and drop back onto Hell Fire to get back to the lifts.