Event & Trip
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February 24 - March 02, 2019
Whitefish, Montana
Whitefish Montana Ski Trip |
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Coordinators: Jim Habeck & Wayne Jastremski |
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Click on the small pictures to view the full-size photos |
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| Recently
32 intrepid ULLR skiers left all of Minnesota’s snow behind, heading to
Whitefish, Montana, looking for snow with mountains under it instead of
just hills. Things got off to a bit of a rocky start with icy
roads and plowed-in driveways slowing things down as we were getting to
the airport. We all did make it on time, only to get to practice
unloading and then reloading the plane so they could fix a strut.
Pleased that the plane was fixed, we headed out to Whitefish while our
skis all headed to Salt Lake City! This gave the folks at
Kalispell the opportunity to learn how to do batch lost luggage claim
tickets, while the intern tried to figure out how our group grew by
one. Eventually we got things squared away, even our wayward
skis, and headed for the hotel. We got settled in, had some hors
d’oeuvres, heard from a hotel and mountain rep, and had some
dinner. Then it was off to bed with visions of blue skies, nice
temperatures, and perfect snow. Monday we woke up to grey skies, very cold temperatures, and icy snow. So what’s a person to do? Get bundled up and head for the slopes. Because of the cold and wind, the main lift to the top was closed Monday and Tuesday, but we cruised the blues on the lower section, which still dwarfed anything we’ve got in the Midwest, and, to warm up, had a chili fest at lunchtime. Wednesday the weather broke and the entire mountain opened up. Most headed to the back side where the 5” of new snow was soft as a cloud and there was no wind. We even had a peek of sun in the afternoon. More of the same for Thursday morning, and then it started snowing in the afternoon and didn’t stop until Friday. Reports were powder up to a foot deep so light that you didn’t even feel it. Other activities for the week included snowshoeing, cross country skiing, Nancy’s Montana television debut, shopping and pie in town, and even some hitchhiking when Lee figured out that cross country skiing was much easier down the mountain than going back up. Many good restaurants in town were sampled, and Barb’s tower of zeppelins caused quite a stir at Ciao Mambo. We had a couple minor trips to the clinic, and one run in with a particularly nasty heat pack, but doctor dreamboat took good care of us. Our hotel turned out to be really nice, with big rooms, good food, and wonderful staff – especially the bus drivers. All in all a great week of fun with some adventure thrown in. Then there was the flight home. On time, smooth, and we got home really early – enough said. Already looking forward to more of the same next year. |
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