So grab your gear (and our annual ski area roundup) because there are loads of new runs, lifts, terrain parks and special attractions in need of your immediate attention.
Surf’s up!
Whitefish Mountain - that’s Big Mountain to us old-timers - is buzzing with early season activity.?The mountain is serviced by nine lifts, as well as a magic carpet and T-bars.
Daring skiers and boarders should check out the Fishbowl terrain park. They’ve replaced last year’s super pipe with two huge hip jumps. The terrain park also features a couple of 40-foot kickers. Big Mountain offers two smaller terrain parks for beginning and intermediate skiers.
If it’s not high-flying action you’re looking for, the mountain also has some great groomers such as Inspiration and Toni Matt. They’re big, wide, bright runs with smooth lines. Stop in at the resort’s
$12 million lodge for some great dining. The lodge is only two years old and this year management has upgraded all the menus.
Lift tickets are $61. Seniors ski for $49, teens ski for $54 and kids ski for $32. For more information, call (406)?862-2900 or find them on the Web at www.skiwhitefish.com.
Big Sky
Big Sky Resort certainly lives up to its name. It is by far the biggest resort in Montana, and also the most expensive.
So if you’re willing and able to shell out $78 for a day’s skiing, you will gain access to 3,812 acres of skiable terrain, with 21 lifts to take you there. The mountain, Lone Peak, also averages a huge amount of snow each year, 400 inches.
And the longest run on the mountain lets skiers cruise for up to six miles, going down the second largest vertical drop in the United States, 4,350 feet.
Still not satisfied? Throw down $93 for the day and gain access to Moonlight Basin, a separate resort that shares some trails and lifts with Big Sky. That cranks up the total area to 5,510 acres, making it the largest ski area in the United States.
The mountain also has some improvements this year, including an expanded tube park, now called the Family Fun Park. This has tubing lanes, a magic carpet and some terrain park features. It costs far less to just gain entrance to this than the whole mountain, with kids 10 and under paying $10 and a $15 fee for those 11 and older (10 and under is free for the actual mountain).
They have improved their ski school as well, which is now offering woman-only classes and telemark skiing lessons.
For more information, call Big Sky at (406) 995-5900 or check out the Web site at www.bigskyresort.com.
Blacktail Mountain
Blacktail Mountain, on the shore of Flathead Lake, is open for its 11th season. The family-friendly resort offers a variety of terrain from beginner to advanced. It’s also unique in that it is an “upside-down” ski area. Visitors arrive at the top of the mountain and ski down.
On its 1,000 acres, the ski area boasts three lifts, an abundance of intermediate runs and a terrain park. But whether you plan on sliding down its 24-foot step-down rail or the bunny hill, Blacktail can accommodate you.
The resort expects a “big, wet snow year.” And it’s sticking with its budget-friendly bargains. Fifth-graders ski for free and the resort is offering a “Thrifty Thursday” deal, with $25 passes every Thursday.
Day passes are $36. Teens are $25, and kids and seniors ski for $16. Kids 7 and under ski for free. The mountain is open Wednesday through Sunday most of the winter, and open every day during the Christmas season. Call Blacktail at (406)?844-0999 or check the Web site at www.blacktailmountain.com.
Bridger Bowl
Big changes are in store for Bridger Bowl this year - for the expert skiers, that is.
For the first time in 30 years, the mountain is adding a new lift called the Slushman’s Chair to take skiers and snowboarders up to a new ridge section where there will be no marked trails, no grooming and no roads.
To get the chance to go up the Slushman’s, skiers will be required to have avalanche transceivers. Partners and shovels are also recommended.
This expansion adds 311 acres to the mountain, giving it 2,000 skiable acres, serviced by eight lifts, over a vertical rise of 2,700 feet. The top elevation is 8,800 feet, but the lift drops folks about 100 feet down for optimal unloading.
Because of its location, Bridger also gets great snow. The mountain is right next to Bozeman, sort of their version of Snowbowl, and gets pounded with an average of 350 inches a year.
Another plus, for those experts wanting to get to the fresh stuff in the backcountry, is that the new chair has inspired a new boundary policy for Bridger. There will be marked Forest Service gates allowing for backcountry access from the ridge, though Bridger will provide no ski patrol and will not be doing avalanche reduction.
So venturing off the ridge means skiing at your own risk.
For more info call Bridger at (406)?587-2111 or check them out on the Web at www.bridgerbowl.com.
Discovery
Some ski mountains are just foreboding, sending novices running for their cars before the boots are even on. Not Discovery Ski Area outside Philipsburg.
The focus at Discovery is providing something for everybody, from the first-time skier to the proficient backcountry bomber.
The back side of the mountain is made for the expert, with no groomers, plenty of trees and some steep chutes. But on the front side the kids can play, and the novices won’t break their legs. And this year Discovery has added a new terrain park. It will be 2 1/2 acres with three rails and two jumps, to be changed intermittently throughout the season.
“What we are really focused on is being an all-around ski area for everybody,” said Ciche Pitcher, director of resort operations.
Besides the new park, Discovery is also refinishing its bar, so sitting down with a cold one after a long day of trying really hard to stay vertical can be all the more comfortable. Pitcher said he hopes the new bar is “a little more fun for people.”
Discovery has 2,100 acres of skiable terrain and 67 runs serviced by six lifts, three doubles and two triples. The mountain’s summit is at 8,150 feet and there’s a vertical drop of 1,670 feet.
For more information, call the resort at (406) 563-2184 or check out the Web site at www.skidiscovery.com.
Fernie
To get to Fernie, up in British Columbia, don’t expect to be making a day trip, unless you plan on leaving at 4 a.m. But a weekend getaway may be well worth it for all that snow. Last year, Fernie got plowed with 37 feet, more than even Whistler Mountain, according to spokeswoman Paula Worthington.
The place is also huge. It has 2,504 acres of skiable terrain, 113 trails, 10 lifts, 2,816 vertical feet skiing and their longest cruise will take a skier 3 1/2 miles.
“It’s spread across five alpine bowls,” Worthington said. “You could spend five days exploring.”
The only downside to the mountain is the price, but fortunately for those Americans making the hike across the border this winter, the exchange rate is in your favor. An adult lift ticket costs $74.95 Canadian.
Resort-goers will find some improvements while they shell out to ski, including more parking, more snowmaking, and upgrades in lodging options.
The town itself is less ritzy than one might expect with such a large resort located only three miles away.
“It still has this really cool little mountain town feel,” Worthington said. “A lot of people compare it to Whitefish.”
For more information, call (866) 633-7643, or check out the Web site at www.skifernie.com.
Lookout Pass
Located on the Montana-Idaho border, Lookout Pass offers two terrain parks and enough skiable slope to keep everyone happy. One park is packed with rails and boxes, including the tail section of an airplane. The other has a 1,111-foot quarter-pipe and eight huge hits - the size of dump trucks.
Lookout Pass has tripled its size in the past four years, and the newest expansion under the nine-month-old North Star lift opens up powdery tree skiing on the north side of the mountain. Experts and powder hounds, check out the Purgatory and Hercules on that new terrain. This year, Lookout has doubled the size of its rental shop and has stocked it with the latest in shaped skis. It’s also built a new deck on the Summit Café.
The ski area is open Thursday through Monday and every day during Christmas vacation. Lift tickets are $29 on weekdays and $32 on weekends and holidays. There are also discounts for kids, students and seniors.
Call Lookout at (208) 744-1301 or visit www.skilookout.com.
Lost Trail Powder Mountain
Lost Trail Powder Mountain is located about 90 miles south of Missoula on the Idaho border. Its 1,800 skiable acres offer a variety of intermediate and advanced groomed runs. The mountain is serviced by five chair lifts and three surface lifts. For those looking for something a little more daring, the resort plans to offer three different terrain parks for every ability level.
Lost Trail is open Thursday through Sunday most of the season. And it remains one of the most affordable ski areas in the region, with day passes for $34. Kids ski for $24 and seniors ski for $10. Kids 5 and under ski for free. Call Lost Trail at (406)?821-3211 or go to the Web site at www.losttrail.com.
Maverick Mountain
One of the cheapest ski resorts in Montana lies tucked away three hours south of Missoula.
Maverick Mountain is not your normal ski resort; in fact it’s not really a resort, but more of a community ski hill.
But the skiing is good when the snow is good. Maverick, with 24 trails and 250 acres, serviced by one double-chair lift, and 2020 vertical feet of skiing, still has one trail that provides continuous skiing for 2 1/2 miles.
“We’re a small ski area with a big mountain,” said Randy Schilling of Maverick Mountain. “We’re going against the grain in the ski industry.”
Maverick has been around since the 1930s and hasn’t tried to change much.
“We’re sort of the way skiing used to be,” Schilling said. “It’s a community ski hill.”
The area is small, but when the snow is good, it stays good. The mountain’s base elevation is around 6,800 feet, with a top of 8,820, so it’s cold enough to keep the snow it gets in the winter months. Even in November, when Missoula was getting rain, it was starting to snow at Maverick.
However, with no snowmaking capacity, a bad year can mean no skiing.
“We’ve had as much as 20 feet and as little as 3 feet,” Schilling said.
Maverick is one of the least expensive ski options in the state, at $27 for weekends and holidays and $19 during the week.
Expect a three-hour drive to get to Maverick, located down in Polaris, but it might be worth it just for the scenery.
For more information call Maverick at (406) 834-3454, or check out the Web site at www.skimaverick.com.
Montana Snowbowl
Only eight miles from Missoula, Montana Snowbowl is the hometown mountain for the Garden City’s skiers and boarders. This year, Snowbowl has opened up two new runs. They aren’t officially named yet, but one was known by locals as “the outhouse run.”
The Bowl is still a great place to find some good tree skiing. With 2,600 feet of vertical terrain and 300 inches of snowfall annually, the mountain has a lot to offer if you like steep, challenging runs. There’s also enough beginner and intermediate terrain to keep most folks happy.
Snowbowl also offers two lodges. One is at the base. The other is the Grizzly Chalet, located halfway up the mountain.
Day passes are $38. Students and seniors ski for $35 and kids ski for $17. Call Snowbowl at 549-9777 or check out the Web site at www.montanasnowbowl.com.
Moonlight Basin
Despite rumors to the contrary, Moonlight Basin is open this season.
“We just had difficulty with Lehman Brothers for a short period of time,” said vice president of Moonlight Russ McElyea. “And we’re working through that and things are a lot better.”
The rumors circulated after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September. The resort is open now, with three or four new trails.
Moonlight shares some lifts and part of Lone Peak with Big Sky Resort, but is in fact its own entity, providing a cheaper alternative next door. But it is also a big add-on to Big Sky with lift tickets available that allow skiers access to both resorts for $93.
“So if you buy a Lone Peak Pass, you have access to 5,500 skiable acres, which is the most in the United States,” McElyea said.
Along with Big Sky, Moonlight has a huge vertical drop, 4,166 feet, and also gets dumped on, receiving an average of 400 inches per year. The mountain gives skiers access to 1,900 acres over 92 trails for $55.
Moonlight Basin has “the most in-bounds extreme skiing in the United States,” McElyea said. “You can ski terrain at Moonlight that you cannot ski in-bounds in any resort in the United States.”
McElyea said that people can hike to ski this sort of terrain at other places but that at Moonlight, a lift will take skiers there.
For more info call Moonlight Basin at (406) 993-MOON or check out the Web site at www.moonlightbasin.com.
Schweitzer Mountain
If you’re looking for big hits and rails, the three-hour-plus drive to Schweitzer Mountain in Idaho is worth it.
Schweitzer’s premiere attraction is its terrain park, The Stomping Ground, which was named the best terrain park in the Pacific Northwest by Powder Magazine. It features a 12-foot A-frame wall ride, as well as an array of jumps, rails and boxes. Schweitzer also offers a beginner park for the less daring.
But don’t think that’s all the area has to offer on its 2,900 acres. For those looking for steep, fast runs, be sure to check Siberia Run and Pucci’s Chute in the Outback Bowl. Schweitzer also has smooth, mellow groomers for the whole family.
At the end of the day, Taps Bar is the place to be. They have brand-new pool tables and new big screen televisions.
Schweitzer is open seven days a week, and offers night skiing Fridays, Saturdays and holidays. Lift tickets are $59. Student and senior tickets are $48, and teens ski for $42. Kids 6 and under ski for free. Call Schweitzer at (208) 263-9555 or have a look at their Web site and interactive mountain map at www.schweitzer.com.
Silver Mountain
Cross over Lookout Pass and the snow just gets deeper. That’s just how it is.
So Idaho’s Silver Mountain is where to find those powder stashes, along with 1,600 acres of skiing strewn across 73 trails on two peaks, Kellogg and Wardner.
But what makes the resort unique is what you find in the lodge after you’re done on the mountain.
“What I think makes us unique this year is the water park,” said John Williams, Silver Mountain’s marketing director. “It’s not just a little indoor hot tub.”
The park actually has a wave pool, so once you get off the slopes, you can jump right on a surfboard. Besides the FlowRider Surf Wave, there are water slides, a lazy river, a splash deck and an area to play water basketball.
The water park just opened this summer, but the mountain itself has improvements, including more glade skiing after some tree-thinning, making it easier to get to the powder stashes.
To get on the mountain from the village, it’s a 20-minute gondola ride to access the slopes. Once on the mountain, skiers will have access to 2,200 feet of vertical skiing, with the longest run measuring 2 1/2 miles, all serviced by seven lifts including the gondola and magic carpet.
It’s $49 for an adult lift ticket, but if you plan on being there often, there’s the Silver Edge card for $55 that gets you the first day and every fifth day free.
For more information call Silver Mountain at (800) 204-6428, or check out the Web site at www.silvermt.com.
Turner Mountain
If you’re just out to ski some gnarly terrain and not looking for those fancy amenities you’d expect from those big Colorado resorts, then a weekend at Turner Mountain is probably for you.
“It’s a small-town atmosphere,” said Turner Mountain president Bruce Zwang. “A big day for us is 200 people.”
Its motto is “steep, deep and cheap,” so the trip 190 miles from Missoula to a mountain tucked away in northwestern Montana may be worth the trip, with lift tickets for adults priced at $30, and 70 percent of the runs designed for advanced skiers.
There’s only about 450 acres of terrain to ski, but with so few visitors to the resort every year, lift lines and crowded trails are nowhere in sight at Turner.
“If it’s a powder day, you’re skiing powder well into the afternoon,” Zwang said.
And there’s another catch: They’re only open three days a week, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so if it snows a lot during the week, the powder will be deep and waiting on Friday morning to be torn up.
The summit elevation at Turner is 5,952, but there’s still a vertical drop of 2,110 feet and 20 different runs, all serviced by one central double chairlift.
For more info, call the resort at (406) 293-2460, or check out the Web site at www.skiturner.com.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)
Arno wrote on Dec 23, 2008 9:51 PM:
" And for those who would like some info on this little place I like to go in the southern Bitterroot: "Lost Trail Powder Mountain sits atop the Continental Divide on Highway 93 where Montana and Idaho meet. With over 300 inches of snowfall every year, these still undiscovered slopes await your visit. Open Thursday thru Sunday, with extended hours during holiday periods, this family owned-and-operated jewel offers a ski and snowboard experience from yesteryear." http://www.losttrail.com/ "
Rob Amrine wrote on Dec 19, 2008 8:36 AM: