Skiing in Montana
I grew up skiing in Montana. For a California girl, this was rough stuff. I remember days we couldn’t go more than once down the hill before taking a break in the lodge for hot chocolate. Days when it was so cold, we’d wear handkerchiefs over our faces, and they’d become hard and crackly with ice. We’d even get frost on our eyebrows. I’m talkin’ cold.
Since those days, I’ve become a fair-weather skier. I like Springtime. I like 20 degree-35 degree days, thank you very much. And if I’m paying through the nose to do so, I’ll wait for those days or I won’t ski at all. But when we left Colorado to celebrate Christmas this year with my family in Montana, I decided to brave the cold that seems to seep across the Canadian border, because I wanted my kids to see and experience the mountain where I learned to ski—Big Mountain.
Except now it’s called Whitefish Mountain. And it’s really, really expensive. For a budget traveler, this is an issue. So my dad told me to bail on the now-tonier Whitefish and try Blacktail Mountain (www.blacktailmountain.com). We did. And we fell in love.
Picture this: It’s about nine years old, but it feels like a ski resort in a time warp, more like what my dad might’ve experienced, had he been skiing and not a poor farm kid at the time. Old guys talking you up, joking around with my kids, telling you you’ve found your new home mountain. I put my five-year-old in group lessons four times, and three out of four times, he was the only student (yes it was 8 degrees, but it was like private lessons for the price of group--$16—and it included his rental!) Kids 7 and under ski free. And for the rest of us, we paid almost half what we would’ve at Whitefish. 75% of the mountain’s runs are intermediate, which is perfect for families and most mere mortals. I felt safe enough to let my girls, 13 and 10, ski together on their own. The guys bumping chairs are happy, not resentful. And the views…from Canadian Rockies, Glacier Park, Whitefish Mountain (cough, cough), the Flathead Range, Flathead Lake right below (the biggest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi), the Mission Mountains…incredible. There’s also a terrific microbrewery in Lakeside, Tamarack Brewing Company (www.tamarackbrewing.com) where you can check out a Huckleberry Ale after a long day of skiing—and score some good food.
NOTE: Blacktail is open Wed-Sun, 9:30-4:30. Check for holiday hours/days.
Where to Stay: Blacktail is about a 30 minute winding-road-drive from Lakeside, Montana. In Somers, about ten minutes north of Lakeside (toward Kalispell), there’s a Best Western that was advertising Blacktail/hotel deals, and I drove by these adorable cabins in Somers (www.SomersBayCabins.com). Or there’s a ton of places to stay in Kalispell, which would make your hotel-lodge run about an hour.
Other Fun Things to Do: We weathered enormous snows and record cold temps by doing a lot of sledding (there’s a perfect sledding hill at Dry Bridge Park on 11th Street East and Woodland Avenue), and a stop at the public outdoor skating park in Woodland Park, which was about $5 per kid, including skates.
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