Whitefish Mountain Resort

Trip Dates: February 2010 & December 2012

Our most recent annual snowboarding trip was in Whitefish, Montana.  Although Christine and I had spent a Valentine's Weekend in Whitefish back in 2010, most of the people in our group had never snowboarded there and it was near the top of everyone's list.  Whitefish is approximately 450km south of Calgary and it has 3,020 acres of skiable terrain.  You really have to love taking a trip to the United States.  The accommodations, the gas, the food, the alcohol, and even the lift tickets were all cheaper than they would be in Canada.  We were really worried about this trip however.  We had been watching the weather reports leading up to our trip and it wasn't looking good.  They just weren't getting any snow.  Every time I looked at the online webcams for the resort I could see more grass than snow.  Things weren't looking good until about a week before we were supposed to leave the skies opened up.  Whitefish got dumped on to the tune of about 3ft. of snow in less than a week!  We couldn't have been happier.  Although they didn't have a great base to work with it was more than enough snow to have an awesome weekend of riding.  We will definitely be back for another weekend of fun!  Here's a few pictures from our most recent trip as well as a couple from the first time Christine and I were down there.  

Whitefish Mountain Resort Trail Map

A very frozen Whitefish Lake

Rome thoroughly enjoying her first snowboarding trip

Whitefish as seen from the resort

Looking down into the valley

Me and Christine on the summit of The Big Mountain

The little shack we called home for the weekend in 2012!

The hot tub is always a must!

I spotted these Wild Turkeys running around near our lodge

Whitefish Mountain Resort is famous for a really neat phenomenon known as "snow ghosts".  As you can see in the following pictures it looks as though the trees are caked in layers of snow, but that is only partially true.  The science behind these ghostly trees is a heavy accumulation of ice, called rime.  The architects of the snow ghosts are the winds, fog, and clouds that frequently blanket the upper reaches of the mountain.   They make for really amazing scenery and pretty cool pictures.

Snow Ghosts

Even the chair lifts are covered in rime

Nath and Dan riding the lift

Ryan and Ashley on the chair lift

The Summit House.  Rime is accumulating on everything that isn't moving.

Rob on the summit

Me enjoying the view

We are even above the clouds

The summit chair lift

Mike getting in some turns

Group Shot.  We miss you Ben and Jess!

Great Northern Engine parked in downtown Whitefish