Some chairlifts close on Big Mountain

Big fat snowflakes were falling in the village at Whitefish Mountain Resort on Monday morning.

As the ski mountain trudges through a stubbornly warm and dry February and March, the sight of snow was enough to bring a smile to resort employees hoping for a turn in the forecast.

“I’m looking out the window right now thinking, ‘Yay, this looks more like winter,’” resort spokeswoman Riley Polumbus said.

A weekend of heavy rain on top of a relentlessly sunny prior week has left the lower elevations and south-facing ski slopes with thin coverage and even some bare spots.

Beginning Tuesday, the resort will temporarily close Chair 2 due to the conditions. Last week, the resort temporarily closed Hellroaring Basin because of thin snow coverage at the bottom.

“It’s going to be day-to-day,” Polumbus said about mountain operation decisions. “If it continues to snow, maybe we can open things back up.”

Chair 3 accessing the Fish Bowl terrain park will remain open.

To make up for the closed terrain, the Hellroaring lift crew was moved to the Bigfoot T-bar, which is now spinning daily. The resort also opened Chair 5 on Saturday to offer skiers laps at Ptarmigan Bowl.

The resort is still aiming for an April 12 closing day with no imminent plans to close any sooner, Polumbus said.

“At this point, we haven’t made any decisions,” she said. “We all know how fickle spring weather can be — so it’s day to day.”

She notes that the north-facing terrain and the Flower Point area has excellent coverage.

“And when it warms up, the off-piste is soft and fun,” she said.

The resort will host the Nate Chute snowboard races this weekend, the dummy derby on April 4 and the pond skim on April 11.