Whitefish Mountain Resort

Big Mountain (WMR) is a great hill if you can get used to its downfalls. It gets really foggy, quite often. If your a skier who only skis groomed runs, youre better off staying on the lower section of the mountain. At the top, Visibility can be so bad that you cant see where to get off the lift until your a couple feet away. Also more of a personal annoyance (doesnt affect the skiing much) is the development. I heard theyre tearing down Ed and Mully's (a great on hill restaurant thats been there forever) to build condos. Really pisses me off. It's like they are trying to turn the mountain into Montana's Vail. Also the lift setup is weird. Two of the lifts on the front side barely ever run. And Chair 1 is the only lift that reaches the top of the mountain from the village. It can get really crowded on pow days, or holidays. Hellroaring basin, the best skiing on the mountain, requires that you take an old slow triple chair halfway up the mountain, then ride back down the frontside back to the main chair to get back to the basin. Also there is really not very good nightlife in the village. You gotta drive to town for that. A resort that many like, but alot of people dont, because of its problems.

A very large mountain with a very large variety of terrain.  Has some steeps/cliffs/trees to rival Jackson Hole, and plenty of large groomers.  In many ways reminds me of Steamboat except with more steeps and less people.  Tons of treeskiing (watch for treewells - they seem to be a bigger issue here than in some resorts such as Snowbird/Alta).  Abundant snowfall which can be wet or dry depending on the day.  While most of the mountain faces south, the abundant fog can protect the snow quality.  If it has been sunny recently, the backside, while smaller, faces north and keeps the snow quite well.  Not too many long or steep mogul runs the week I was there.  The week I was there it snowed at least 1-2 inches every day ( 1 day it snowed 5 inches), and 4 out of the 5 days there was very poor visibility (stay near the trees on these occasions!).  The mountain is very uncrowded - even on Saturday the longest liftline was about 5 minutes on a day where it had been snowing all week.  If you are looking for powder, be sure to check out the treeskiing accessed by the T-Bar, only open on weekends!  Very inexpensive compared to many other resorts, my lift tickets were $59/day bought through my hotel.  Very easy to get to - about a $20 and 20 minute cab ride from Kalispell airport to the town of Whitefish, which is a 20 minute free SNOWBUS ride to the mountain.  It runs every 30 minutes to/from the mountain.  I stayed at the Downtowner - a "nice enough" hotel with cable tv, hot tub, bagel bar for $70/night.  The big plus about the Downtowner is that the whole center of Whitefish, with multiple bars/restaurants/shops is 1 block away, as is the SNOWBUS stop.  Many of the other hotels in town are much farther from the action. 

Overall, a great resort, which I hope to return to in the future!

Big Mountain is a great ski area. I lived in West Glacier, and then in Whitefish and skied here often. I was used to East coast skiing (I’m from Vermont) so I was thrilled by the massive dumps this mountain gets. They are famous for their “snow ghosts” – which are trees so covered in snow they look like some kind of marshmallow creatures! There’s bowl skiing and tree skiing galore and the views down to the Flathead are spectacular. The funny thing is it’s a hidden gem. Most people come to this area in the summer (Glacier National Park is abut 35 mins away), but rarely do they make the trek in the winter. Most people think of Big Sky when they think of Montana skiing, but I like Big Mountain better. It’s less “resorty” and has more of a local flavor. Big mountain has some difficult terrain with challenging steeps (they earn the Double black rating), and a lot of long trails that will keep you on the mountain, not in the lift line. Whitefish is also a great little town with lots of nightlife and restaurants. It’s really an outdoor enthusiast town, so no matter what season you go, there’s always some event happening on the mountain or around the area. I like the Great Northern chair which brings you to some of the most fun terrain! After you’re done skiing, hit up the Dire Wolf Pub on your way back into town!  Truby’s is good for high end pizza or pasta too.

Im going to list all the great runs for you. Starting out from chair 2, on the smaller part of the front side, there is limited advanced terrain but some very good cruisers. not very much vertical though. on an extremely busy powder day, which isnt often, i ski in the trees on this mountain to stay away from the crowds. chair 2 never has a lift line. Going up chair 1 to the summit, there is many options. starting with the front side. there are three incredible cruisers on the front side. Inspiration, Big Ravine and Tony Matt. Big Ravine may be the best cruiser ive been on, top to bottom, no ones ever on it for some reason, you can really fly on this run. Inspiration is about the same. For pow on the front side, i usually go to evans heaven or good medicine first. good medicine is a fairly steep run littered with trees, making it very fun to ski in. Evans heaven is pretty tightly treed and steeper than good medicine but watch out for the small cliffs and rocks. the entire chair 4 area is pretty deserted on most days. even though its got some nice tree and steep skiing. Big face and Ptarmigan bowl are excellent pow runs, IF you can get there before it gets tracked out. these are 2 of the popular pow runs for vacationers, as they are easy to see from chair 1. they are both moderatley steep wide open bowls. The Elkweed and Haskill slide area is pretty popular with locals as powder really piles up here. again, moderatly steep tree skiing. Haskill slide is a expert run, fairly steep, with some sizeable cliffs. biggest cliff on the run is probably about 20 feet. Back to the summit drop into North Bowl Face, schmidts chute or elephants graveyard.North bowl face and scmidts are 2 of my favorite runs on the mountain on a good day. pretty steep, tight trees on schmidts and some cliff on north bowl face. no bigger than ten footers though and avoidable.elephants is steep and treed. moe mentum is a good blue run that goes through the valley between North bowl face and east rim face. East rim face  is a fairly mellow black. still a bit steep for most intermediates but nothing they couldnt get down, this is kindof the backout slope for skiiers and riders who couldnt find the guts to drop into the hardest terrain on the mountain on the other side of the ridge. First you have First Creek. Steep and rocky. steepest parts of this run are probably approaching the 45 degree mark. most of the run is above 40 degrees though. Moving onto North Bowl Chute, or NBC. This gets my pick as the resorts most challenging run. Very steep, littered with trees and cliffs. the biggest cliff is probably 50 feet or so. this run has a sustained pitch of about 40 to 45 degrees, with parts id say are about 50 degrees or more. this is not a run you ski on if you dont have full confidence, or do not know what lies below. i would recommend a ski down moose which is below the ridge or a ski down first creek to check out the terrain and pick a line. there are many options for lines on thsi run, but many of them get very tight. Probably my favorite run on the mountain when im in a thrill seeking mood. Beside NBC is East Rim which is almost equally as challenging.not quite as steep, a little less tight, but not by much. use extreme caution on this one as to the far right, there is a massive cliff that if you ski off, it wouldnt end good. Another great run though. the last good run on the front side is Dons Descent. Very tight trees, and very steep. probably about 45 degrees or more. this is a glade skiiers paradise. that does it for the front side. on to the backside. about half the vertical of the front side but it has much better snow conditions as its north facing. Gray wolf, silvertip, goat haunt and whiteli are the good cruisers on this side. stay away from caribou and georges gourge. both very flat runs. Kodiak, Black bear and marmot are all fairly steep mogul runs. The hardest run on this side, and possibly in the top five hardest of the resort. its a little chute with a few trees a small cliff on low snow and steep. 45 degrees for almost 800 vertical feet. very fun run on powder days. a lot of slow skiers that are cruising gray wolf, from which bighorn drops off, usually stop around the drop in rim to watch, which can get very annoying. thats it for the backside. now to Hellroaring Basin. only one cruiser here, hell fire. which is the longest trail at the resort. the rest of the runs are advanced and expert. the main advanced run through the basin. it drops in pretty steep, but is mostly a tree skiing run with a mellow pitch down to chair 11. Connies Coulee and Teepee are very fun tree skiing runs which are quite steep also. about 40 degrees maybe a bit more. the trees on connies coulee are very tight at the top, then open up about halfway down for some very fun powder turns on pow days. teepee is about the same, only it doesnt open up. very tight trees on a sustained pitch plus snow equals great fun. moving on to sling shot. fairly steep. maybe 35 to 40 degrees. open tree skiing. its a pretty good run for intermediates looking for a thrill. Beside sling shot is Picture Chutes. Probably getting my pick as second favorite run on the mountain as well as 2nd most challenging. very steep. maybe 45 to 50 degrees. places may be even steeper than that. its got some pretty big cliffs to look out for. maybe 50 feet at the biggest. very fun run. Grays Golf Course and The Back Nine are both wide open bowl skiing type runs at the top, that filter down to very tight trees. Overall id say hellroaring basin is the best side of the mountain, becuase it is not crowded. I have been skiing big mtn for about 10 years and i gotta say, it has very underrated extreme terrain. ive skiied killebrew, jackson hole and other famous extreme  terrain, and big mtns got the terrain to keep up with them. i love big mtn