Grand opening

The best opening day in decades. That’s

what thousands of smiling skiers and snowboarders said as they

waited through long lines at Whitefish Mountain Resort, anxious to

get back above the inversion and into the deep powder.

More than 3,500 skiers stormed the

resort on Saturday — doubling Big Mountain’s five-year average for

skier-visits on opening day.

“It was the most positive opening day

I’ve ever been a part of,” resort spokesman Donnie Clapp said. “It

really set the tone for the rest of the season.”

There was hardly a glitch with resort

operations, Clapp said, noting they were able to open Chair 1 more

than 15 minutes early for the hordes of skiers in line — including

some who camped out to get first chair.

“The early opening is something we had

planned on, and we followed through with it,” he said.

The entire mountain was open from top

to bottom, except for Hellroaring Basin and the T-bar-2 area. The

T-bar had plenty of coverage, maybe too much. It was snowed in

earlier this fall, and lift-maintenance crews were unable to get it

ready in time for opening day.

Some off-piste areas with good coverage

right off the bat were Elephants and Haskill Slide, the Nose on the

East Rim, and low-elevation treed runs like Wood Lot and Bad

Medicine. These runs now have a very good base coverage for the

rest of the season.

Conditions changed somewhat by Sunday,

when cold weather descended on the Flathead and created stiff and

chunky snow on popular runs like Big Face and Good Medicine. But

the inversion was even more spectacular on Sunday, with incredible

fata morgana mirage effects on the Swan and Mission ranges.

Clapp said Hellroaring Basin should be

open “much earlier than normal” if the snowpack continues to grow

at the same pace. Ski patrollers were in the area this week

performing avalanche-control duties.