Whitefish Mountain Resort is a
ski resort
A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North ...
in the
western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, located at Big Mountain in northwestern
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
. It is west of
Glacier National Park in the
Flathead National Forest
The Flathead National Forest is a national forest in the western part of the U.S. state of Montana. The forest lies primarily in Flathead County, south of Glacier National Park. The forest covers of which about is designated wilderness. It i ...
, from the town of
Whitefish, west of
Columbia Falls, and north of
Kalispell.
History
Winter Sports, Inc. (WSI) formed in 1947 as a public company of community shareholders, opened Big Mountain that It hosted the U.S. Alpine Championships in early March 1949,
where future
Olympic champion
This article includes lists of all Olympic medalists since 1896, organized by each Olympic sport or discipline, and also by Olympiad.
Medalist with most medals by sport Summer Olympic sports
Winter Olympic sports
A. Including military patrol e ...
Andrea Mead of
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
won all three women's titles at age sixteen.
The mountain originally had a single
T-bar
A surface lift is a type of cable transport for snow sports in which skiers and snowboarders remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularity by higher-capacity and higher-co ...
, which was replaced by
chairlift
An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs. They ...
s installed in 1960,
and 1968.
After sixty years, it was renamed "Whitefish Mountain Resort" by then the ski area had expanded to include ten chairlifts.
Olympic champion
Tommy Moe
Thomas Sven Moe (born February 17, 1970) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. An Olympic gold and silver medalist in 1994, he specialized in the speed events of downhill and super G.
Early years
Born in Missoula, Mon ...
(b.1970) learned to ski and race at the mountain, where his father was on the
ski patrol
Ski patrols are organizations that provide medical, rescue, and hazard prevention services to the injured in ski area boundaries, or sometimes beyond into backcountry settings. Many have technical-medical certifications, such as Outdoor Emergen ...
. Moe won the gold medal in the and the silver in the at the
1994 Winter Olympics
The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games ( no, De 17. olympiske vinterleker; nn, Dei 17. olympiske vinterleikane) and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, was an international winter multi-sport event held fro ...
in
Lillehammer
Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
.
The mountain again hosted the U.S. Alpine Championships in 2001.
That event is remembered for the failed comeback attempt, and life-altering crash, of
1984 Olympic downhill
Downhill may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Downhill'' (1927 film), a British film by Alfred Hitchcock
* ''Downhill'' (2014 film), a British comedy directed by James Rouse
* ''Downhill'' (2016 film), a Chilean thriller directed by Patrici ...
champion
Bill Johnson.
In May 2004, WSI conducted a 150-for-one
reverse stock split
In finance, a reverse stock split or reverse split is a process by which shares of corporate stock are effectively merged to form a smaller number of proportionally more valuable shares.
A reverse stock split is also called a stock merge. The "r ...
. Its stated purpose was to lower expense by reducing the number of shareholders to below the threshold that imposed public reporting requirements. At the time the transaction was proposed, 664 shareholders, or 72% of investors in the company, each separately held less than 150 shares. In total, these investors held a 2.5% equity (and voting) stake. The board expressed concern that the transaction might be viewed as coercive, but after review and outside consultation, decided the transaction was fair to the affected shareholders.
In December 2006, WSI conducted a 15-for-one reverse stock split, further reducing to about 50 remaining shareholders in order to provide a tax advantage as a
Subchapter S corporation. Again, all shareholders without enough shares to exchange for a post-split share were required to cash-out their stock. WSI's handling of the reverse split was criticized and resulted in animosity within the local community, where there were objections to the timing of the related announcements and the loss of a community connection to the resort by the
In early 2008, an
avalanche
An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain.
Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...
occurred in the Flathead National Forest, within hiking distance of the back side of Big Mountain and killed two skiers on Later that year, the resort discontinued summer lift access for winter season pass holders, granting several free lift tickets In September of that same year, the resort reversed the decision and announced that 2008–09 winter season passes would again convey unlimited foot-passenger lift access for
Lifts and runs
The mountain is separated into three faces. The front side is primarily serviced by the Big Mountain Express high-speed quad and has the most skiable terrain. A second high-speed quad, the Swift Creek Express (formerly the Glacier Chaser), services beginner and intermediate terrain. The front side has seven of the mountain's eleven chairlifts.
The backside of the mountain is serviced by the Big Creek Express, also a high-speed quad. The backside has more tree skiing terrain, and additional terrain can be accessed by T-Bar 2 on weekends and during select holiday periods, as well as Flower Point (a used triple chairlift acquired from Kimberley Resort in British Columbia), and East Rim (a triple chairlift relocated from the Glacier View alignment), which services the eastern front side and East Rim.
The western aspect of the mountain contains the Hell Roaring basin. Serviced by Hellroaring (a triple chairlift), Hell Roaring basin is the most advanced skiing on the mountain with cliffs, vertical chutes, and tight tree skiing. The intermediate ''Hellfire'' trail is the longest on the mountain; it runs from the summit to the base of Chair 8. On some days the clouds at Whitefish Mountain Resort are low enough that skiers can literally ski above the clouds.
Lifts
*Whitefish currently has 14 operating lifts.
The vertical drop of the
ski area
A ski area is the terrain and supporting infrastructure where skiing and other snow sports take place. Such sports include alpine and cross-country skiing, snow boarding, tubing, sledding, etc. Ski areas may stand alone or be part of a ski resort.
...
is , with a summit
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
of and a base of . The average annual
snowfall
Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
is .
The ski area is about north of
Glacier Park International Airport
Glacier Park International Airport is in Flathead County, Montana, United States, six miles northeast of Kalispell. The airport is owned and operated by the Flathead Municipal Airport Authority, a public agency created by the county in 1974.
T ...
and south of the
Canada–US border.
References
External links
*
YouTube- 1949 U.S. Alpine Championships - men's downhill
Ski Map.org– trail maps – Whitefish Mountain
{{Montana Ski areas navbox
Buildings and structures in Flathead County, Montana
Ski areas and resorts in Montana
Tourist attractions in Flathead County, Montana