Hello and welcome to News Now, I’m your host Taylor Inman. We’re going over the week’s biggest headlines and what’s coming up for northwest Montana.

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Winter is a full season away, but Flathead Valley skiers were left salivating Wednesday after Whitefish Mountain Resort recorded a rare August snowfall.

By noon, an inch of the white stuff had blanketed the upper 1,000 feet of Big Mountain.

A winter weather advisory was issued for the mountains of Northwest Montana through Wednesday evening. Locations above 5,000 feet in …

Hello and welcome to News Now, I’m your host Taylor Inman. We’re going over the week’s biggest headlines and what’s coming up for northwest Montana.

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Winter is a full season away, but Flathead Valley skiers were left salivating Wednesday after Whitefish Mountain Resort recorded a rare August snowfall.

By noon, an inch of the white stuff had blanketed the upper 1,000 feet of Big Mountain.

A winter weather advisory was issued for the mountains of Northwest Montana through Wednesday evening. Locations above 5,000 feet in Glacier National Park and the Seeley Swan region were expected to see 3 to 6 inches of snow.

Fresh snow coated Logan Pass on Wednesday afternoon, prompting park officials to close the alpine portion of Going-to-the-Sun Road between Avalanche Creek and Jackson Glacier Overlook. Officials said the road would reopen after conditions improve.

People visiting the park were advised to be prepared for raw conditions.

Valley temperatures were expected to plummet into the 30s overnight in Kalispell and Whitefish. The National Weather Service in Missoula warned residents to cover sensitive plants due to frost or freezing Thursday morning.

The high-altitude snow also temporarily closed the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. Park officials said in a release that the road closed due to inclement weather at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

More seasonable weather returns for the weekend, with high temperatures in the mid 80s running about 5 to 10 degrees above normal.

Labor Day is expected to be sunny and hot.

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A 26-year-old man from Oregon died after losing control of his vehicle on Managhan Lane near Kila on Tuesday, authorities say.

The motorist was headed southbound toward U.S. 2 about 11:20 p.m. when he failed to negotiate a curve , according to Montana Highway Patrol. The Toyota Sequoia barreled off the road and went airborne before crashing through a fence and eventually colliding with a parked Load King Bottom Dump trailer.

Emergency responders pronounced the 26-year-old, who was wearing a seatbelt, dead at the scene, officials said.

Speed is suspected as a factor in the wreck, authorities said. Road conditions were

reported as dry.

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Authorities on Tuesday arrested a 25-year-old Kalispell man in connection with bullet holes found on downtown businesses earlier this week.

Lewis Anthony Crooks faces pending felony criminal endangerment and criminal mischief charges. The 25-year-old, who remains in the county jail, was scheduled to go before a judge on Wednesday.

Kalispell Police officers temporarily shut down roads around the 300 block of South Main Street on Aug. 26 to collect potential evidence after the bullet holes were discovered.

Officials said detectives homed in on Crooks after hours of reviewing surveillance footage.

The incident remains under investigation and authorities urged anyone with information to contact Detective Shane Lidstrom at 406-758-7780.

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And earlier this week The body of missing mountaineer Grant Marcuccio, a 32-year-old man from Whitefish, was recovered from alpine terrain in Glacier National Park.

Glacier Park officials said in a media release on Monday that Marcuccio’s body was found by Two Bear Air at approximately 2 p.m. on Aug. 25. His cause of death is still under investigation, but traumatic injuries and location of the body are indicative of a fall, the release stated.

Two Bear Air spotted Marcuccio from the air. He was found one-third of a mile east of 8,413-foot McPartland Peak below the ridgeline between Heavens Peak and McPartland Peak. The area is west of Going-to-the-Sun Road on the parks' west side.

The body was transported to the Apgar horse corrals where Two Bear Air met the Flathead County coroner.

Marcuccio was last seen by his hiking party on Sunday, Aug. 18 at about 1 p.m. Marcuccio separated from his party to summit McPartland Peak alone and planned to rendezvous at a designated location. Rangers were alerted by the hiking party on Sunday evening that Marcuccio never made it to the rendezvous spot.

Two Bear Air and ground teams began searching on Monday, Aug. 19. Forest Service also flew over the area and dropped off ground searchers.

The climbing difficulty on McPartland Peak’s standard route is rated as class 3 with a pitch of class 4, according to the guidebook “A Climber’s Guide to Glacier National Park.” The route involves about 5,200 vertical feet of climbing with some "deceptively difficult" cliff bands, according to the route description.

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