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Ski Season Comes to a Close

By Beacon Staff

Ski areas across the U.S. and Canada suffered a scarce La Nina winter, but not in Northwest Montana where records were broken and two local ski areas are proclaiming a “victory” season.

The sad news is that it’s coming to an end.

Whitefish Mountain Resort is closing on Sunday, April 8. The final weekend’s colorful tradition includes the annual Pond Skimming event on Saturday starting at 2:30 p.m. Registration is still open but filling up fast, according to resort spokesperson Riley Polumbus.

Blacktail Mountain, open Wednesdays through Sundays, is also scheduled to close April 8, but the ski area could stay open longer if interest is there, general manager Steve Spencer said.

Turner Mountain in Libby is tentatively scheduled to remain open on Saturdays indefinitely.

The return of a La Nina weather system led many to believe that this winter would be a lot like last year, when record-breaking snowfall arrived across the West. Instead, several resorts had delayed starts to the season, including Whitefish Mountain Resort, because of snow scarcity, and for some regions it stayed that way.

The number of visits at resorts in Colorado, the biggest skiing state in the U.S., is estimated to be down 7.4 percent, according to Colorado Ski Country USA.

The period between December and February was the fourth warmest on record for the continental U.S., according to a regional climate center spokesperson quoted in a recent Associated Press story.

Yet, Northwest Montana avoided the malaise.

Whitefish Mountain Resort had a record-breaking powder day and 13 feet of snow in two months. Blacktail Mountain had “several” days that saw 20 inches of fresh snow. Both Big Mountain and Blacktail officially reached 300 total inches of snowfall recently.

“I think overall you’ll see that the skier visits were down for most of the country and that’s where we’re kind of standing out in the crowd a little bit this year,” Spencer said. “We have had a very good year.”

Blacktail, in its 14th year, had a record attendance this winter, Spencer said. The ski area opened on time thanks to a snowpack that was aided by a 35-inch overnight dump on Nov. 15, Spencer said.

On Big Mountain, there was seven feet of snow in January and six in February.

“Obviously it was a slow start but I think we made up for it,” Polumbus said.

One of the highlights of the season came on Feb. 26 when a record 20 inches — 17 of it overnight — blanketed Big Mountain in a 24-hour period. That’s the most dating back to at least 1996, Polumbus said.

Early estimates show total skier visits will be about average, she said.

“Last year was pretty epic,” she said. “Considering the way we started off, the fact that we played such good catch-up this year, that’s pretty good.”