King of the Mountain
On his 48th birthday on Monday, Jay Foster woke up and, like a lot of people in the valley, was stuck looking up at the white ski runs on Big Mountain.
The days of riding up Chair One and skiing down 3,000 acres are over, at least until next December.
On Sunday, Whitefish Mountain Resort called it a season.
As tradition would have it, The Big closed out with the festive pond skimming competition on a sunburst Saturday before skiers and snowboarders took their final turns on Sunday, many dressed in bathrobes and costumes and exchanging "Cheers!"
After all, this was the year of Viva La Nina, a winter beckoning back to seasons like 2007-08, with powder days, bluebird days and everything in between. (Of course, there were foggy days, too.)
The summit finished with 151 inches of settled base and the mountain overall had 355 inches of total snow this winter.
Viva La Nina, indeed.
And if anyone can say they appreciated this winter as much as possible, it's Jay Foster.
The retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel skied 124 days - missing only four - and had the second most productive winter for a Big Mountain season-pass holder in recorded history, totaling 4,735,888 vertical feet.
Foster won the resort's unofficial distance competition, beating regular top 10 vertical skier Fred Frost, who finished with 4,556,326 total feet. Third-place R.J. Brewer was the only other person to break the four-million mark, tallying 4,162,356.
Foster's season total is the second best since the the "Vert Program" started in 2003-04.
The best recorded season came in the program's first year when local Chris Chapman totaled 5,306,096 feet.
Keeping a tally of passholders' combined distance was started as a way to encourage being scanned at every chair, according to the resort's former head of public relations, Donnie Clapp.
The resort's system keeps track of scans and accumulates the distance a person has gone from top to bottom. Each morning throughout the season the standings are updated on the mountain's website.
In the early days, prizes were given out to winners - like a pair of skis - but since then the competition has turned into a rather informal contest. Or so people claim.
"The List" has become a fun measuring stick for regulars - Who's got the most vert in the family? Who's got the most at work? How many days will it take to catch you?
That's how Foster got interested.
Born in Missouri and raised in Oklahoma, Foster was visiting Whitefish the first year the vert program started and remembers hearing the buzz about "Chappy's" accomplishment.
"I remember thinking at that point, if someday I'll ever be able to live here, maybe I would like to compete in it," Foster said. "I'm a competitive person by nature."
The opportunity came in 2006 when he retired after a 20-year Army career that included tours in the first Gulf War, Desert Storm and Korea. Foster earned numerous decorations throughout his time serving like the Bronze Star Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.
But being skilled as a paratrooper and being skilled on skis is two completely different animals, as he says.
"It's just now that I'm having fun skiing the whole mountain," said Foster, who rarely skied more than a couple times a year until he moved here. "I didn't get started skiing until I was a senior in high school. I didn't grow up skiing and all that. I had cousins and friends who went every year to, like, Colorado. And I felt like I missed out. I'm still kind of making up for not getting to ski as a kid. So I still bring a child-like enthusiasm to skiing. And the better you get, the more fun it is."
Since he started skiing in earnest that first winter, Foster has skied over 100 days a season four times. He won the competition in ‘07-08.
"I wasn't so much in it for the prize. For me it was more like ‘Can I do it?' It was a quest the first time," he said.
Foster can now do the math in his head - from summit to chair one is 2,084 feet; to the base lodge it's 2,300.
Every day he went to the mountain this winter, he tried for at least 20,000 feet, hoping to reach a personal goal of 4,700,000.
By season's end, his current total would get him from Whitefish to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
And not just from skiing groomers all day.
"It's always a quest for good snow," he said. "Skiing only the groomers was what I did the first years. But to be able to be opened up to the East Rim area and the T-Bar area and the west bowl, I mean that's the best parts of the mountain.
Foster was able to reach his goal by using the same discipline he's had his whole life. It's not easy carrying yourself to the mountain almost every day, but it's worth it, Foster said.
"I can get excited about going to the mountain every day. Every day you can find good snow somewhere, even if it's only groomers or what have you. You can always find the good snow, somewhere on the mountain," he said.
On Sunday, Foster completed his record season with one final run down an appropriately named area - Inspiration.
"I always hate to see the season come to an end," he said.
"During the winter I know what I'm going to be doing every day, even when it's not great snow- you're on the mountain and breathing fresh air."
Monday morning Foster woke up, looked at the mountain, eventually went and cleaned out his locker, and took his dog for a walk.
After sitting around for a bit, he got online.
Just down the road in Lakeside, Blacktail Mountain said they were still open. And Foster had to see when the first chair started.
For more information on the history of the vert program, visit Foster's blog Northern Rockies View at www.northernrockiesview.com
Corrected: Blacktail Mountain is in Lakeside, not Somers as was previously stated.