It's 7:30am on the last day of 2020. This is my 12th day at the slopes of this ski season, heading up to Whitefish Mountain. In the dark I get the car loaded up with gear and start the nearly hour drive. It's been really busy this holiday week -- lot's of cars with plates from Washington and California in search of a place to ski, and I expect today to be no different with the crowds. The drive up is dark, slowly getting lighter thru heavy clouds and snow is falling, and I've got the tunes cranked up with the Cowboy Junkies singing "Cheap is How I Feel". I have such a fabulous commute going to "work".
Today will be different, though. Sally gave me a Christmas present of new ski pants, which finally arrived the day before. These are Arc'teryx -- really good quality pants!! -- replacing my old baggy Costco pants. These were desperately needed in order to allow me ski up the hill. Last season, with great help from Sally, I invested in backcountry skis. Whitefish allows skinning up the hill on two designated routes, and this will be my first time up this season. Skin up; ski down. Avoid the crowded lift lines.
I've only done the Benny Up route so far, and today is no different. The Base Lodge is at 4700 feet and the summit is at 6790 feet, so 2090 feet gain over roughly 1.5 miles, with skis, ski equipment, and a backpack just to add some weight. The goal is to get up to the summit before the lunch rush, get a table inside and have a slice of pepperoni pizza -- my humble opinion is that this provides the most calories for the buck of any item on the menu. After the climb I don't care about quality calories :-)
I made it to the Spruce parking lot around 8:30 the lot was about 80% full. It's gonna be really crowded.
By the time I get the gear on and get started, it is about 9am. The Chair 6 lift line at the Base Lodge is busy. I'm going slow, making adjustments and taking a layer off, so about 20 minutes later I'm above Chair 1 and it's line is the longest I've ever seen (since I avoid going to ski on busy days). The chair opens at 9:30, so it's still another 10 minutes before that line will be moving.
The view going up. I'm roasting and sweating already. The route is easy to follow since a lot of people have already gone up. There are a fair amount of locals who go up and ski down before they go to work. There's about 5 inches of new powder, and probably only the ski patrol has enjoyed it so far.
The route crosses under the Chair 1 a couple times, and every chair is now occupied.
Getting near white out conditions heading up. I've got my bicycle tail light on the front of my backpack. There is a risk, especially with tourists on rental skis out of control, of a collision in bad visibility, so hopefully the light gives them a warning and not a target.
The final crossing under the lift. This is close to the top, and the steepest portions are behind me. I'm pretty coated in sweat by now, and the muscles are all tired. About 10 people passed me on the way; sadly I passed none.
The Summit House. I made it!
The end justifies the means. The skiing down was uneventful, except that my legs were really, really tired. I'm expecting if I do this once a week it will get easier and faster. It is an awesome workout for this old pour pensioner taking up a new sport.
