Resorts and skiers eager for opening day

Whether you’re tuning your ski setup this weekend or hiking into the backcountry before the lifts officially open, the anticipation leading into the ski season is palpable in the Flathead Valley.

“People are psyched,” said Ed Docter, owner of Tamarack Ski and Lake Shop.

At Tamarack, located inside the Montana Tap House in Whitefish, skis and snowboards are piling up ahead of opening day. Docter on Friday said he’s got about 40 sets waiting to be mounted, tuned or waxed, with another 70 ready to be picked up.

“Nobody likes to do it early,” Docter said half-jokingly. “The week before the season is nuts.”

The hype for the upcoming ski season has been maximized by a La Niña weather forecast. Climatologists have backed off somewhat on the intensity of the La Niña, but the slopes are still expected to see more snow than the El Nino brought in the last two seasons.

“I can’t wait,” Docter said.

WHITEFISH MOUNTAIN RESORT

Above the Tamarack ski shop, the snow-ghost haunted hills of Whitefish Mountain Resort will be the first in the area to open its lifts this season, with first chair set for Wednesday at 9 a.m.

Spokesperson Riley Polumbus on Friday said the resort’s north side has accumulated about 30 inches already and is looking forward to the snow forecast this weekend.

“We hope to see a couple storms ahead; some flakes in the forecast,” she said. “Luckily for us, we have quite a bit of acreage on the north side of the mountain and that’s the first to open.”

Some skiers and snowboarders have already hiked the mountain to check conditions and make a few turns, she said.

“There’s always a huge interest in that here, obviously if we have the snow,” Polumbus said. She said hikers are encouraged to get familiar with the uphill policy and approved routes before skinning uphill.

Compared to area resorts, Big Mountain lives up to its name, taking up 3,000 acres with 105 marked trails below the 6,817-foot elevation. Average snowfall is about 353 inches.

The mountain has scheduled the usual lineup of winter events, including a torchlight parade and rail jam set for New Year’s Eve; the Tommy Moe and Wednesday night race leagues beginning in January; a three-part Fishbowl Slopestyle Series in February and the end-of-season dummy derby, brewfest and pond skim scheduled across the first two weeks of April.

Polumbus is also pumped for the mountain’s second-ever Women’s Ski and Ride day, which features lessons, demos and an après ski event to top off the day. The event is set for Dec. 17.

“Speaking from experience, finding other women to ski with is always a fun thing and initiating this at the beginning of the season might help make some new friends to ski with,” Polumbus said.

A single-day adult lift ticket at Whitefish is priced at $76 this season.

BLACKTAIL MOUNTAIN

The local ski hill in Lakeside has also been accumulating fresh powder over the last few weeks. On Friday, general manager Steve Spencer was driving a snow groomer across the Blacktail trails when he took a call from the Inter Lake and noted the snow already falling from the storm predicted for this weekend.

“We’re excited. We’re just waiting on this storm that’s going on right now and it’s coming down,” Spencer said.

Blacktail is set on 1,000 acres overlooking Flathead Lake, the Mission and Swan mountain ranges and distant views of Glacier National Park from its 6,780-foot elevation. The average annual snowfall is about 250 inches.

Blacktail hasn’t set an official opening date yet, but Spencer expects the season to start around mid-December.

“We never set an opening date,” Spencer said. “We’re all natural snow so we have to wait until it gets built up a little more. Our season pass holders are chomping at the bit.”

Blacktail opened on Dec. 17 last year, and Spencer said the mountain will set an opening date in the coming weeks.

Crews spent the summer completing maintenance on the lifts and in the trees, preparing for what’s expected to be better snowfall than the region has seen after two years of the El Niño weather.

“It’s all north slope up here, so when we get snow, we keep it,” he said.

A single-day adult lift ticket at Blacktail is priced at $40 this season.

New to the resort this year is the Blacktrail Race Development Team, which focuses on advancing high school skiers and snowboarders in their competitive careers.

“I feel that the ski industry has got an inherent obligation for ski racing,” Spencer said. “It’s done a lot for the industry and it’s a good thing to support.”

The Blacktail team will train alongside the Montana Alpine Race School, a recently-formed member of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, which is the governing body of Olympic skiing and snowboarding. The Montana Alpine Race School brings elite riders from around the state to hone their skills on the slopes. This winter, those potential future Olympians will be blazing down the slopes at Blacktail.

TURNER MOUNTAIN

Farther off the beaten path, Turner Mountain near Libby offers a relaxed atmosphere with just one lift, a glaring lack of crowds and welcoming vibes from the local ski community.

“Everybody knows everybody at Turner,” said Bruce Zwang, a board member for the Kootenai Winter Sports Ski Education Foundation. The foundation operates the mountain, which is run almost entirely by a core of 40 volunteers. “Even newcomers become locals very quickly to us.”

Turner is located in the backwoods-area known as the Yaak, 20 miles north of Libby. It’s essentially a stand-alone mountain with 22 runs down a south-facing slope, which holds more black diamond runs than intermediate and beginner runs combined.

Located near the lowest elevation of the Montana, Turner’s summit reaches 5,952 feet and offers a 2,110 vertical drop. The mountain defines itself as “steep and cheap,” with lift tickets at $37.

“We’re a small area and we’re very inexpensive,” Zwang said. “We rarely have any crowds or lift lines, so you can still be spending the day skiing powder and keep doing that even into the next day.”

The mountain is open only on weekends, but skiers and snowboarders can actually rent out the entire mountain during the week. Zwang said making the mountain available to rent brings more funding in and keeps the stoke going through the week.

“They’re a good shot in the arm for us to be honest,” Zwang said of full-mountain rental days. “It’s a good revenue stream because it’s adding another day in the week that we wouldn’t be open.”

Turner is open daily for the holidays between Dec. 26 and Jan. 2. An opening date hasn’t been set yet, but Zwang said the mountain is shooting for Dec. 16.

“I think we have a unique niche, so to speak,” Zwang said. “Most areas have a large population of skiers on hand. We’re still reasonably quiet. It’s a very friendly, very relaxed atmosphere.”

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.