Picture this: You wake up on a beautiful winter morning, check the snow report and learn an overnight storm has delivered several inches of fresh powder at Whitefish Mountain Resort. You grab your skis, head to the mountain, take a chairlift to the summit and — gasp! — someone has cordoned off your favorite runs with bright red rope and bamboo!
Let's take a moment to talk about terrain closures, avalanche mitigation, and why you should never, ever duck those ropes.
First, it's important to understand that terrain closures are for your safety! Sections of the mountain may be closed at any time for a variety of reasons, but one common reason is avalanche mitigation.
After heavy snowfall, we know everyone wants to claim first tracks and enjoy those surfy pow turns. But fresh snow can be prone to sliding, and it takes time for our ski patrollers to mitigate the risk of avalanches, which can be deadly. This work involves careful surveying of snow conditions as well as explosives, which are used to deliberately trigger avalanches and stabilize the snow surface for guests to ski and ride on.
That means if you duck the ropes and ski in closed terrain, you're putting yourself at risk of being buried in an avalanche and potentially skiing in the vicinity of a live explosive! The risk simply is not worth the brief reward of skiing a few extra turns.
Please know we reserve the right to revoke lift tickets and suspend season pass privileges for anyone caught skiing or riding on closed terrain. It brings us no joy to do this, so please exercise patience and understanding as our patrollers work hard to deliver a safe skiing experience.
Finally, please understand that when you exit the marked boundaries of the resort, you are entering backcountry terrain where natural and human-caused avalanches can occur. The resort does not conduct avalanche mitigation on those slopes, so you must be prepared to self-rescue in the event of an emergency. Always check the Flathead Avalanche Center's daily avalanche forecast and carry a beacon, shovel and probe in the backcountry.