Trip Report By Bill Vahary

 

 

Check out trip photos from Bill Vahary!

 

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Whitefish Montana – February 2 – February 9, 2008

 

The day before we left the ground was covered with ten inches of snow.  Planes were delayed and “cancelled” was the word of the day.  Trip day opened with sun and pleasant weather except for the prior days delay.  Our flight left two hours late causing luggage worries with two more flight legs ahead.  By Denver we were back on schedule for an 8:30PM Kalispell arrival.  The Grouse Mountain Lodge shuttle greeted us on arrival followed by another miracle.  Our luggage (meaning skis) arrived safely.  And thus the adventure began.

 

Sunday was called an epic ski day by the locals who came out in droves.  Today was the day to ski.  Everyone saw the snow ghosts.  The trees were literally covered root to top with heavy snow forming bizarre shapes.   Ed Eickenberg kept calling them squirrels.  Not sure what that meant.

 

We had a good number of new members on this trip.  They included Paul Bailey and Jean Swee.  Jean is an excellent skier.  We were just hoping Paul could keep up.  The Johnson’s – Gary, Marilyn and Elizabeth joined us.  I have known Gary and Marilyn for many years and was glad they could make it.   Liz is another great skier letting her dad keep up.

 

Nan Donleavy joined us for her second trip.  She had quite a year skiing with Whistler, Vale, and Whitefish to her credit.  Whitefish had one thing on all those places.  I thought I heard Nan say, “It sure was foggy….”.  After the first epic day we learned what epic fog really was.  They measured the fog by the number of chairs you could see in front of you while on a lift.  Four chairs is almost like a sunny day. Three chairs is like skiing in the evening.  Two chairs is like skiing at night.  One chair is skiing at night with dark glasses.  No chairs is like skiing with your eyes closed.    The ski ambassadors recommended singing or counting out loud to keep up your rhythm and let people know where you are.

 

Dave Rademacker, Roger Gingrich, Tom Kaskubar and Norm Jennings showed everyone how to ski in the fog.  Or did they just go for coffee?  It was said that they all skied the Hellroaring Basin runs.  Tom kept trying the get Roger to sing and go first so they knew where he was or ????.  The trail map had an unusual warning that people should ski this run very, very quiet like Elmer Fudd.  Seems loud noises may wake the grizzles who make a home on that trail.

 

Ken Etcheson, Wanda Carmack, Barb and Charlie Luthy joined us from Canton.  Ken and Charlie spent the days cruising the groomed runs and having a good time in the snow.  In fact there was so much snow that Charlie was heard to say, “How many trips have you been on when you wished it would stop snowing”.  Hard to believe in a place that got seven feet of snow the week before we got there.  Wanda, Barb, and Bill Vahary ventured into town on the last day.  Bill learned how shopping should be done.  The group found a nice local place called Buffalo’s to eat lunch.  Wanda wants everyone to ask her what the famous purple dressing was.

 

Mark McIntosh and Connie Griffin used the trip as a real vacation with a lot of varied activities.  Connie was even able to get two very successful ski days in on her recovering ankle.   

 

One last mention should be made about the Whitefish Resort and Grouse Mountain Lodge.  These were the most helpful, kind, and service orientated group you will ever have the pleasure of dealing with.  A few stories will help illustrate.  Marilyn rented her skis.  She put them out front and as luck would have it they were gone when she got back.  She called Gary and explained the situation on her way back to the lodge.  The rental place told Gary they will show up and proceeded to get a new set for Marilyn.  Try that at Vail and see what happens.  On the way to the airport Ed noticed that his cell phone wandered off.  I let the bus driver know what was happening.  We called the lodge and asked if they would check out Ed’s room.  In the mean time we went through security.  Ed checked back with the lodge to find out that they sent the shuttle back with the cell phone.  Of course passing it from one TSA agent to another was kind of funny, but Ed got the phone back.  It was my job to watch Ed.  Sorry Fran. 

 

The lodge worked with us on shuttles to the slopes.  We were able to just ask and they adjusted return times to be more convenient for us. 

 

The mountain was not huge, but I think everyone really enjoyed the snow and sincere helpful attitudes.  Each night SKI and Dave Durdell organized a happy hour with SKI contributing to our drinks.  One night there was an organized cheek dart contest.  I won’t describe this activity, but it did require some sort of skill. I hope we will come back in a few years.

 

Last quote from Roger.  He said, “I can’t remember any better snow conditions anywhere”.  Of course Roger can’t remember a lot of things, but this seems like a good way to remember a great trip with epic sun, epic snow, and epic fog.  Many thanx to Dave Durdell for putting this SKI trip together.  You can’t guess the number of hours it took and the many problems that were overcome.  Helping with the winter trips is rewarding and a good place to help your fellow snow sports people.   Any volunteers?