Ski Vacation in Whitefish, MT

We traded our timeshare via RCI to Crestwood in Whitefish, MT for the week of January 9th - 16th, 2009. This is the second ski vacation we've taken using our timeshare. The first was in January of 2005 at Steamboat Springs, CO. We had invited others to come along since we have a 2 BR condo, but we were by ourselves.

We flew Delta Airlines via Salt Lake City to the Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell, MT. After a small struggle to not pay $125 to ship the skis (skis and boots count as only one piece of luggage!), we had a smooth flight with the exception that I had forgotten my book on the headboard of my bed! Luckily, I had packed Slan and Slan Hunter, which I polished off Slan from the 1940's on the way up. We checked in, where we were able to get $50/day lift tickets to Whitefish Resort, formerly Big Mountain. We also got 3 Nora Roberts books for Rasila and the Yahtzee game to play from the office. After a quick trip to the grocery store, we were ready for the week!

We skied Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Rasila got tired early Sunday and Rodney skied with a local named Greg from Kalispell in the afternoon and got some tips. It snowed about an inch (2.5 cm) on Saturday night of heavy, wet snow. We drove to the mountain every day but Saturday. I was worried it might be busy, so we took the Snow Bus from a parking lot around the corner. It was not crowded, so we drove ourselves every other day. We loved the food at Hellroaring Saloon and Eatery, and also took a free mountain tour Wednesday with a guide at 10:30 AM.

We met a couple, Rick and Sam, from Great Falls, MT in the hot tub Monday night and somehow talked them into joining us for snowshoeing in Glacier National Park on Tuesday. We rented snowshoes at Tamarack Ski Rentals for only $10 and drove over to walk the Apgar Lookout road. It was only 2 miles from the parking lot to the lookout, but we only made it probably a little over half way before turning back. It was kind of soft, melting snow and breaking a trail (there were only cross country ski tracks) was hard work! We still took almost 3 hours to go probably 2.5 miles. We rewarded our workout with a Famous Dave's BBQ "Trash Can Lid". It was devoured!

Rasila fell on "Over the Hill Gang" on Wednesday and sprained her knee, so Rodney skied by himself on Thursday. Even though it was not crowded, we only saw Rick and Sam once in the 3 days we skied in common. We did see them in the hot tub every night though! We also went and saw Marley and Me at the local theater Sunday night and ate out at MacKenzie River Pizza one night. We had tried to go to a Sushi place recommended by Rasila's father, but it was closed the night we went out to eat.

Whitefish was great and we'd like to return!