Whitefish, Montana
Whitefish Ski Resort in beautiful Whitefish Montana isn’t talked about often but tends to appear in every “Best Places to Ski” article to you can find. Each year I chase snow and Christmas villages where I can spend my holidays…. and ski! Having been to Glacier National Park in the summer before (and loved it) when I found that nearby Whitefish, MT was an option for a Christmas ski trip I jumped at it. As advertised, the town of Whitefish organizes itself as a great little Christmas village. There are plenty of great food options I discuss a little further down, and we stayed at the Hidden Moose Lodge which I highly recommend.
Getting there: Flying into Kalispell, renting a car (get 4x4), and getting into Whitefish are all very easy and actually affordable given the prices of some other Rocky Mountain Ski destinations.
Lodging: We were going to stay at Whitefish Lodge on the lake but ended up going with the Hidden Moose Lodge. For us, we made the right decision. Whitefish Lodge is a huge place with a solid restaurant, huge yet cozy lobby, and it’s all right on Whitefish Lake. But the Hidden Moose is a cozy spot with only a dozen or so rooms run by the Taylor family who cook you a delicious breakfast each morning and serve you beer or wine each evening either around their amazing hearth, at the outside firepit, or in the hot tub. We enjoyed getting to know perfect strangers on the lodge’s comfy couches sipping some local Moose Drool beer. From the lodge it’s a very short drive to the mountain, and also a very short drive into town for dining, shopping, etc.
Where to eat: Before you leave Kalispell get some BBQ at the Desoto Grill. Once in Whitefish, we had an excellent dinner just a short walk downhill from the Hidden Moose at a place called the Last Chair. We also had an excellent Mexican dinner at Jalisco Cantina. If you don’t think that’s possible this close to Canada, you are wrong. The drinks, service, and food were all awesome at Jalisco. We also had a good meal at Tupelo’s right in downtown Whitefish with some solid cocktails and listened to some live jazz. A meal at Whitefish Lodge is probably also necessary, and we had ourselves a fancy Christmas dinner there with just the right amount of scotch.
What to do: Besides skiing of course, you can do some cross-country skiing or hiking (perhaps snowshoeing) if you go into Glacier National Park which is actually open in the winter (You will need a pass or have to buy one at the gates.) It was pretty inhospitable this Christmas with minus-5 degree temperatures (F), a strong wind, and snow. The long and beautiful Lake McDonald, which has greeted us before as a blue-green sheet of glass in the summer was now an angry, white-capped, 4-foot swelling monster. And still incredible to take in. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see any mountains because of the weather and the Going to the Sun road is closed off after Lake McDonald Lodge (which is closed in the winter). But my biggest recommendation is without a doubt: Ice Climbing. It’s probably best if you have some rock-climbing experience, but Joel at Whitefish Vertical will take you out either way. We went to a frozen waterfall called Serenity Falls just outside Marion, MT. We cut our teeth on a 25ft small set of frozen falls and then rappelled down a 50ft set of larger falls to climb back up and really test ourselves. I can’t recommend Joel highly enough. He is so very safety conscious, and calm and patient. Nothing like your typical loud, over-energized outdoor guide replete with bad jokes. Instead, Joel is efficient, quiet until needed, and a great teacher and guide.
All in all, I would go again, and maybe be ready to get on and off the mountain depending on the weather throughout our trip instead of setting aside definite skit days. The Hidden Moose, the town of Whitefish, and Glacier National Park will bring me back here again.
Skiing: I don’t know when again I will take so long to get to the skiing part of the trip for a blog post. But I found why this mountain isn’t as highly touted among all skier levels as some other destinations: The weather. In fact, I learned a new term while there which is “Socked in”. This basically means the clouds/fog are so thick on the mountain you can’t see anything; It’s as if you are holding a sheet of white paper in front of your face. The snow and “fog” blend together seamlessly and anything beyond 10ft of you just disappears. You can’t see trail signs, let along the actual trails. It makes for some pretty nervous skiing at my intermediate level. The first day we got warmed up on some green near the mountain village and then ventured out to the top of Lift #1. We came down Toni-Matt which is listed as the easiest way down from the top, but I had to take off my skies and walk at one point just because the visibility was so low. Later we instead went down on Russ’s Street and found it to be clearer weather which allowed us to play back there in the area around Lift #7 for the day. On the second day, both Russ’s and Toni-Matt were completely socked in and after a very sketchy run out of the clouds we called it a day after only half a day on the mountain. Nobody in this area talks about the weather much, and especially not snow (they just call a snow day Tuesday, basically) but I have a feeling this Socked In state comes and goes on the mountain on the various mountain sides at various times. After we left the mountain early, we heard another lodge guest hint that it cleared up at 3pm. Given that the lifts close at 3:30-4pm we didn’t miss much.