Whitefish Piles Up Snow

Whitefish Mountain Resort, formerly known as Big Mountain, may be headed for a winter for the record books. Daily snowfalls averaging four inches since opening Dec. 8 piled up the powder in wind-drifted holes you can sink into thigh-deep. Storm after storm dumped snow before the holidays, just in time to open the resort's famed Hellroaring Basin. The resort has seen far beyond one-third of its annual snowfall to date. Holiday crowds hit the resort so hard that the lift from the new daylodge garnered a 45-minute line. Other high-speed lifts had smaller lines, or none at all.