Big Mountain caps season with nearly 500,000 skier visits
JULIE ENGLER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 9 months, 2 weeks AGO
Ryan Economy successfully crosses the pool at Whitefish Mountain Resort's pond skim on Saturday, April 5. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Julie Engler covers Whitefish City Hall and writes community features for the Whitefish Pilot. She earned master's degrees in fine arts and education from the University of Montana. She can be reached at [email protected] or 406-882-3505. | April 9, 2025 1:00 AM
Whitefish Mountain Resort’s 2024-25 ski season saw great snow initially, an early spring and then a second winter when March served up a couple legit powder days. The mountain received a total of 282 inches of snow during the season.
March 22 was the deepest day, with 6 inches falling overnight and 5 inches during the previous day.
Total skier visits tallied about 497,000 for the season, shy of the 2022-23 record of just over 500,000. A skier visit is counted each time a lift ticket, season pass or frequent skier card is scanned for the first time on a given day. Guests and passholders who skied on multiple days this season accounted for multiple visits.
“Early-season snowpack enabled us to open lots of terrain when we fired up the chairlifts in early December,” said Whitefish Mountain Resort Public Relations Manager Chad Sokol. “Several storms overdelivered throughout the winter, bringing us incredible deep powder days. And spring snowfall carried us all the way through to a bright and sunny closing weekend.”
Closing weekend revelers were treated to true spring conditions. Super sunny skies coupled with a decent base of snow made for some spread-the-mayo turns and sunglass tans.
Now that some skiers’ thoughts turn to the uphill, Sokol offered a reminder about the post season rules.
Fourteen days after the operating season, the East Route is the only approved route for uphill and downhill traffic from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. No route restrictions are in effect before 8 a.m. and after 4 p.m. Details are on the snow report and at skiwhitefish/uphill-policy.
“We're thankful as always for our guests and passholders who make Whitefish Mountain Resort a magical place to ski and ride," Sokol said. "We hope to see everyone again soon for downhill mountain biking, zip line tours, alpine slides and other summer activities on Big Mountain.”
Season passes for the 2025-26 season went on sale last week. The cost for an adult season pass, if purchased before the end of September, is $780, which is $31 more than last year.
Those in the market for a season pass should be aware that the new resort tax at the Big Mountain Resort Area District takes effect on June 1, so passes purchased after that will cost 3% more.
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