On a weekend when Whitefish Mountain Resort hosted its second Corn Cup, there was no corn snow to be found. Weather systems converged to pelt the resort with two feet of deep powder and conditions more akin to January than the final weekend in March.
Late Friday night, snow began to fall catapulting the resort past the 400-inch mark for total snowfall for the year. Weekend Pacific storms funneled right across the 48-degree parallel, bypassing both Fernie Ski Resort to the north and Big Sky Resort to the south. To the west, Schweitzer Ski Resort picked up 16 inches for the weekend, but far short of the snorkel-deep powder that pummeled the mountains outside Whitefish.
Saturday morning’s snow report counted eight inches of new snow. But with large flakes dumping fast, it was soon outdated. The Chair 7 reader board recorded snowfall as “Still rising.” Whoops and hollers echoed across the hill as skiers and riders grabbed face shots, snow spraying up overhead as they dove into thigh-deep pillows. As ten more inches fell during the day, every run yielded coveted fresh first tracks. Even runs that had been groomed overnight held deep powder. Flats had so much snow that skiers stayed right in narrow tracks for fear of slamming to a dead halt in the knee-deep thick blanket.
More snow greeted Sunday skiers, along with full parking lots and a lift line at the bottom of Chair 1. “Both days taken on their own doubled the typical skier counts for this weekend,” said Nick Polumbus, Director of Marketing. “This weekend really got us back to our roots with lots of passholders skiing.”
Despite the deep powder, over 40 competitors showed up to compete in the weekend’s slopestyle and superpipe Corn Cup.