Fernie or Whitefish

Schweitzer has some great trees (almost the entire backside is gladed), and you can do Schweitzer and Fernie (3 hours from Schweitzer) without a 7 hour drive. I'm going there right before Christmas and I've been to Schweitzer before. Schweitzer is kinda a gem because there really are never any crowds.

Knock...knock..Hello, Asland?  ...Hello?

 

Aren't you forgetting something called Red Mountain?  I'm sure it was an oversight. It's got all of what you just described and it's a hell of a lot closer than Revelstoke.  Don't get me wrong, I love Revelstoke and talked about heading up there myself in another thread here 2 weeks ago.

 

We're going to Spokane ourselves on 2/1.  We skied Red in 2003 for the week and it was fantastic.  This time we're going to stay in Nelson to ski WH2o for a few days.  Maybe do a day trip to Red.  Then we're going to probably head to Schweitzer for a few days.

 

I think we ruled out the trip up to Revelstoke.  We'll hit that maybe next year if we can find reasonable air into Kelowna.  Schweitzer sounds like it could be a good target for a La Nina trip this year.

 

Here's some old mojo from our trip to Red.  Transferred from slides, back in my pre-digital days:  http://www.skiswami.com/  

Red Mountain and Whitewater (which installed a new lift for this season) are the obvious easy choices (don't forget your passports).  There is a thread I just saw recently (etiher here or on TGR) on driving from Red to Reve that you should check out.  I used to live in Spokane and have skied all the areas you are considering.  I would suggest skiing Red, Whitewater, Fernie and Schweitzer if you want to do a loop. A bigger loop would be going up to Reve and then hit Big Mt. in Whitefish, MT on the way back, then Snowbowl in Missoula and Schweitzer on the way back to Spokane.

 

Big Sky is a long way from Spokane, especially in the winter.  Red, WW, Reve and Fernie all have great slackcountry skiing, and the Canadian off area policy is more relaxed..  When you leave WW you will need to take the ferry to cross the Columbia River, so be sure you know the ferry schedule, or you may end up stuck for a while.

Whitefish should definitely be in the mix if you're hitting Fernie.

http://www.skinet.com/ski/resorts/whitefish-mountain-resort

Yeah I say Schweitzer, and Fernie.  Skip the long drives.  Those 2 are plenty entertaining if you've never been there.

Have done this road trip, so lets start in Spokane:

 

lst stop 2hrs north Red Mt. pretty decent cruisers on piste for the wife and kids, really good tree skiing for you and plentry challenging.  Check their website, nice places to stay.    OR

 

lst stop north/east to Schweitzer,   good resort except for fog, can get mighty foggy on the front side at times, good lodging slopeside, cat skiing avail, great park, excellent beginner area and lots of groomers that wife will love, long and smooth off Stella Chair.  On slope lunch on backside at the bottom of Stella 6 pack chair is really good, baked potatoes with whatever you want.

 

2nd  Fernie about 2 hrs from Schweitzer, great lodging slopeside.  I loved Fernie some really great tree skiing in Lizard Bowl, good powder, long runs but in my opinion it would be harder here to keep the family together.  If you are a bump skier theres a lot of really good steep bumps

 

3rd day drive to Invermere and ski Panorama.   this resort has awesome condos right on the snow either huge hut tubs and pools, the kids will love it.  4,000 foot vertical intermediate groomers every where and not crowded.  Wife and I loved it, wide open great grooming and go as fast as you want.  For you Taynton Bowl, short easy ski/hike out the ridge and plenty of expert tree and off piste for your.

 

NEXT:  Depending on how you go up and come gack can stop in Whitefish and ski there, open groomers galore and some good off piste in the glades if snow is good.  Or you can hit Whitefish on the way up and Schweitzer on the way back to Spokane, either way.

 

Really thinks with wife and 2 kids, I would scratch Revelstoke and Kicking Horse and stick to Schweitzer etc.  Want feedback on Whitefish, ask Sibhusky she lives there.   Red, Panorama, Fernie and whitefish all have excellent websites so you can take a look.   If you don't want to drive a lot.   There is nothing wrong with a day at  49 Degrees North (good glade skiing), Silver Mt. powder skiing at 2 in the pm.

 

Anyway just my 2 cents worth.  Have a great time Pete

Revelstoke lacks the necessary beginner and intermediate terrain for a family vacation. Much of the vertical is low elevation (the base is at 1600 feet above sea level) so early season can be boney and the lift system is not well set up for upper mountain skiing as you either ski the upper 2000 vert. or go almost all the way to the sometimes boney bottom. Revy does have steep groomers but you must slow down and cross a switch back cat road about every 500 vet. feet. It is worse than Blackcomb in this regard and the cat road often has skiers on it because it is just about the only the easy way down the mountain.

 

From Spokane, Red and Whitewater would be my Canadian choices. If you time it right with the snowfall, Red is considered the best tree skiing in Canada and Whitewater, although small, gets the most snow of just about any ski resort in Canada.

From BC, how do you cross back into Montana?  Wasn't the border crossing north of Whitefish closed?  I'm sure there's a way north from Spokane, I'm just not familiar with the route.

 

I'll throw out some other options - Island Lake Lodge and their cat skiing operation.  An old colleague of mine is working up there now and I've heard it's an amazing place: http://www.islandlakecatskiing.com/  Also, Silver Mountain is a pretty cool place and they have a water park for the kids and cool family vibe.  They may or may not be open during the week.  

 

Big Sky and Moonlight Basin are great, and I definitely recommend a trip there.  However, from Spokane it seems a bit far.

 

I know one border station was closed, but to the best of my knowledge Roosville is still open.

Eastport in ID is still open as well.

As for pools at Whitefish resort itself, I am aware of none at the base of the mountain in the normal "hotels". Apparently there is a pool at Sherpa, which is more of a condo. That access is shared with other lodging properties. There are a number of hotels in town with pools. You'd need to hop the Snowbus to get to the mountain. Some of the hotels offer their own shuttle service. If you want some nightlife and a better choice of restaurants, town is the place to be.
Edited by sibhusky - 11/13/10 at 4:14pm

The most "open bowl" is Ptarmigan Bowl, but it is not the vastness of bowls in Colorado.

The snow is usually a cross between "Cold Smoke" that blows away out of the resort in no time and the wetter snow of say, Washington or Oregon. It stays put without being heavy. It is helped in this regard by the large number of overcast days here. Sure we get sun and are famous for beautiful "inversion days", but the normal weather is overcast. And sometimes the "overcast" is what you are IN.

Grooming starts out wonderful in the AM, but you have to realize that if it's snowing, it's not going to be "groomed" after four or five inches. They don't groom midday. If corduroy is really important to her, go to Deer Valley. Here, there are certain trails that grooming starts after close of day the day before. Then there are some they groom right before we open. Those trails are usually the green runs. If it's been snowing since close of day the day before, those groomed runs could be covered with a foot of snow. Then, to many, they are not really "groomed". This is 3000 acres you're talking about and keeping all the groomed runs immaculate for the opening of the day would be really really tough. Since I ski here all the time I know which runs are likely to be in the "best" groomed condition as we open. Now, if it's not snowing, then of course, there is a large collection of runs that are groomed daily. There is another group of runs which are groomed say, twice a week. There are runs which are almost NEVER groomed and they are likely to be moguled up. Then, of course, there is the huge amount of "off piste" stuff, which is never ever groomed. Not all of that is on the map, but can be pointed out to you by the Ambassadors if you take a tour (free daily, I think it's 10 AM and 1 PM or something like that). I'd highly recommend a tour, especially if the first day you get there you have fog. Fog when you know where you're going is one thing. Fog on an unknown mountain for someone who needs groomers (most of us go to the trees) is another thing entirely. We talk about the NC "ski instructor" who was supposedly Level 3, who had to TAKE THE CHAIR down because she was freaked out about the fog. Yes, if you go on certain runs during a dense fog, you can become disoriented. I'm embarrassed to say it happened to me last year. (I KNEW BETTER THAN TO BE ON THAT SLOPE, TOO!) YOU ESPECIALLY DON'T WANT TO BE ON WIDE OPEN BOWLS IN THE FOG.

Cold depends entirely on when you are coming. We can get bitterly cold days in December and January. Read my signature line below. It's never stopped me.

As always, pics here.

If you are staying in nelson to ski whitewater www.skiwhitewater.com check out the The Mountain Hound Inn for great rates, $49 single, $59 Double, $69 Double with quad occupancy.  Quiet hotel downtown, next to all the gear shops with a laundry mat to wash all your stinky gear.  Great place to stay for someone that doesn't want a hostel but is on a budget. 

FWIW...I prefer Whitefish over Schweitzer.  However to me, they have a very similar feel to each other.  But still, since you haven't been to Schweitzer, and Schweitzer is on the way to Fernie, just go there.

Lots of good advice above.

 

In terms of logistics, Big Sky, like Revelstoke, is too far if Spokane is the gateway airport.  If you push distance, do it for someplace that just an hour or two beyond another place you are skiing.  Like Whitewater if you go to Red Mt. or Castle Mt. (one of my favorites) if you go to Fernie.  With regard to Island Lake cat skiing, look for the last minute 35% off deal I got last season. 

 

Get a map out and figure the driving distances of the places within reasonable range (Red, Whitewater, Schweitzer, Silver, Whitefish, Fernie, maybe Castle).  If you only have one week you'll need to choose no more than half of the list or you'll run yourself ragged with kids.   

 This implies the kids are very young, below skiing age, so perhaps be even more conservative about the logistics and choose no more than 2 different lodging sites within one week. For example if you're based in Fernie, you could daytrip to Whitefish or Castle less than 2 hours distant. Going to interesting and remote destinations like this, I wouldn't be happy skiing just half days for a whole week.  You perhaps need to determine which areas on that list have daycare, or find someone to take care of them at home if they are too young to ski.  Better than paying airfare for them IMHO. 

Now you have to have a pool too? So much for not needing any fancy stuff...
Maybe you should have gone to Tremblant!

Whether Big Sky fits your needs or not, I don't know, but I'm a bit puzzled why you would ever have a plan which included driving 450 miles across Idaho and Montana in the heart of winter with 2 young kids in the car? I know it's I-90 and I've never been on that road, but looks pretty remote between Spokane and Big Sky to me. You want to drive that in the dead of night?

Sure, it's all hysteria if the weather turns out great on all your travel days, but I don't think your weekly travels to Whiteface can be compared to what this kind of travel could bring. I've done plenty of winter driving and have successfully planned and driven several trips with wife and kids from my abode to Tremblant (500 miles). But I can stay home an extra day if a storm arrives on departure day. As you know, the Northway could close for 2 days following a big storm, and it has.

Unless there is a huge reason to drive that far in the winter, I'd try to minimize travel issues on a trip like this. It could snow at Logan on departure or return days. Same at Spokane. Same at whatever airport you're changing planes at. What will you do if a storm suddenly hits as you head back to Spokane? Miss your flight? So much for scoring a deal on airfare!

Sorry for the rant, but I'm headed there myself on 2/1 with 4 guys and no way in hell I'd PLAN and book ahead for a 450 mile trip to Big Sky. I pray the night before my early a.m. drive to LGA, that we don't get any black ice on the LIE. If you want to ski Big Sky, fly to Bozeman or somewhere closer than Spokane.

Uhmmm, you may have to decide to be a little flexible on the pool idea, IMHO. Great if you find one in Fernie, or Whitefish though because I wouldn't want to plan on driving further than that.

Final thought >> It's a La Nina year. This is ground zero for epic nukage in 2011. You, me, we want to be skiing it, YES? Not stuck in a ditch filled with it, YES? Good luck!!

I've done I-90 many times in the dead of winter while my daughter was racing. It can be exhausting, even with studded tires on AWD car. And I wouldn't attempt it with anything less. From Spokane, I think you'd have three passes to get through as well. Homestake, Fourth of July, and Lookout. Truly too much with kids.

Helpful additional info that the kids are precocious skiers.  I had one of those, but nonetheless stamina is severely limited at 3 and I would be looking for a place that will take that kid in a ski program.  I remember my kids really liked having a swimming pool at ski resorts too. 

 

The Spokane accessible areas I like a lot for skiing, but would not have been my choices with kids that young.  I do recall seeing this place on the road at Fernie with the big indoor waterslide: http://www.ferniestanfordresort.com.  I suspect you can find a hotel in Sandpoint with pool too.   I think Schweizer plus Fernie is ambitious enough for your lodging on a one week trip with kids that young.  Based in Fernie you can daytrip to Whitefish or Castle if you want to see more areas.

 

Drive distances:  Spokane-Schweitzer 2 hrs.  Schweitzer-Fernie 3 hrs.  Fernie-Whitefish 2 hrs.  Fernie-Castle 1.5 hrs.

 

I agree Big Sky is ridiculous given that you're committed to flying to Spokane and there are so many closer choices, nearly all of which get more snow than Big Sky. 

 

And the Spokane-based ski areas are among the very most enhanced based on past La Ninas.  Not only is their snowfall likely to be higher, it's less likely to rain (which can be an issue with the low altitude of these places) with the colder temps.

Both Fernie and Whitefish Resort are nice.  I think Fernie has much better expert terrain, but both have plenty for the youngins.

 

If you go for Fernie, Lizard Creek Lodge is ski in/out and has a nice pool http://www.lizardcreek.com/feature.html 

 

I usually stay at the Grouse Mtn Lodge in Whitefish.  It's not on the hill, but it has a shuttle and a pool.http://www.grousemountainlodge.com/ 

 

Just curious. Where have you skied out west before this trip?

 

Relative to other destinations, what really stands out is the quality of tree skiing at Red, Fernie, Whitefish and Schweitzer.   Steep open bowls means above timberline.  These places are low altitude, so not much of that.  Fernie has the most of that group, but the bowls are more intermediate and the tree shots tend to be steeper.  If you like the more open terrain that's another reason to try Castle Mt. while you're in the neighborhood.  Here's a TR with pics from Castle last season: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=8635

 

All of these places have a lower proportion of groomed runs relative to acreage than typical destination resorts.  I'd guess Whitefish has the most and Red the least.  Quality of the groomed runs is fine, but skiers who won't go off trail will be repeating runs more than at other places.  Is the older kid skiing ungroomed terrain yet, and if so how challenging? 

 

Just saw the western ski list, definite affinity for steeps.  Red is the most consistently steep, followed by Castle, Fernie, Whitefish, then Schweitzer.  Red plus Whitewater is a trip you would like a lot, not sure that works for the rest of the family though, not many groomers at Whitewater.

As for a childcare place on the mountain, naturally there is one: http://www.skiwhitefish.com/kids_center.php