Big snow heralds ski opener

Days and days of snow have piled up for big season openers at Whitefish Mountain Resort on Saturday and at Blacktail Mountain Ski Area on Dec. 10.

“Things are looking really good,” said Donnie Clapp, spokesman for Whitefish Mountain Resort. “We have a couple of people who have been working here for 20 years and they say these are the best conditions we’ve seen for opening day in a long time.”

As of Thursday, the resort had a settled base of 50 inches of snow at the summit and close to 30 inches of snow in the Village area.

And the snow continues to fly.

“We’re basically going to be skiing the entire mountain,” Clapp said. The only exceptions will be closures in Hellroaring Basin and the Gray Wolf and Bighorn runs on the back side of Big Mountain.

Clapp said he expects there will be people camping out on the mountain to be the first in line when chairlifts open at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

“We have people who camp out every year, and with the amount of excitement we have for opening day this year, I would expect we would have a record amount of people waiting in line,” he said. “They just want to be the first ones on the chair.”

The resort this weekend will have a more complete terrain park than it has ever had on opening day, with as many as six features such as rails and possibly a jump. The terrain park is located under Chair Three.

“It’s going to be pretty exciting,” Clapp said. “We always have a lot of people here on opening day. Even though it’s going to be busy, it’s not going to feel busy because we’ll have the whole mountain open ... People will be very well dispersed.”

Blacktail Mountain, meanwhile, is set to open on Dec. 10.

The ski area near Lakeside currently has a settled snow base ranging from 26 to 40 inches, and groomers have been out preparing for the entire mountain to be ready for opening day.

Blacktail’s traditional “Wake Up Old Man Winter Party” will be this Saturday night at the Docks in Lakeside, with live music and prizes.