Every ski resort features a unique index of trail names that speaks volumes about the people, the culture and the history of the mountain, paying tribute to a ski area’s founders, immortalizing a hair-raising avalanche or perpetuating an inside joke with a tacit wink.
At Whitefish Mountain Resort on Big Mountain, there are 105 marked trails and dozens of “unofficial” trail names bestowed by ski patrollers and locals to help denote and navigate the mountain’s 3,000 acres of terrain and 2,353 feet of vertical drop.
But too often skiers breeze by the posted signage in search of powder, ticking off the colorful names of their favorite ski runs without taking time to consider their provenance.
There comes a point during every seven-minute chairlift ride to the summit of Big Mountain when conversation among friends inevitably turns to route selection, and to the untrained ear, the volley of suggestions that erupts can sound like a foreign tongue and require translation.
The options vary from straightforward — Anthill to East Rim to Moe-Mentum to Russ’s Street to Chair 1 — to downright lyrical — Backdoor of Evan’s Heaven to Buckle Your Boot to Moose’s and down Over the Hill Gang.
Knowing the trail names of the local ski area is a right of passage for any devotee of mountain culture, and the history of Big Mountain’s downhill denominations is especially rich, in part because they pay tribute to scores of people who helped shape the mountain over the last seven decades.
When Big Mountain opened for business on Dec. 14, 1947, it had a single T-bar, which was replaced by chairlifts in 1960 and 1968. Today, the area has 11 chairlifts, two T-bars and a magic carpet servicing the mountain’s three main faces.
As the mountain expanded through the years, the newly christened terrain needed names, often divined by ski patrollers to orient themselves in the event of an emergency.
“They serve a practical purpose, but you can still have fun with them,” Riley Polumbus, spokesperson for Whitefish Mountain Resort, said during a recent tour of the ski area. “For as much terrain as we have here, you need a lot of names to distinguish all of the various features. And a lot of them have fascinating backstories.”
Take for example “Buckle Your Boot,” which denotes a bright cliff band below “Evan’s Heaven.” Longtime ski patroller Randy Gayner was perched below this vantage point while other members of the patrol conducted avalanche control directly to the west of East Rim during the first season it was opened to skiers.
“We were on ‘Perspiration Point,’ which they called ‘PP Point,’ and we were watching Randy across the way so that we knew which chutes to bomb,” longtime operations manager Chester Powell said. “He reached down to buckle his boot and triggered a pretty big avalanche.”
Gayner recently recalled the story to his daughter, Teal, who is working on the Big Mountain Ski Patrol for her first time this winter.
“It was the year they’d opened East Rim and put in Moose’s and Easy Street to get back to the bottom, but we didn’t really know the routes yet,” Gayner said. “I was over at Buckle Your Boot to scope it out for Chester and John (Gray) while they threw bombs. I reached down to buckle my boot and the pressure from leaning over caused the whole apron to slide.”
Gayner was uninjured, and after he regrouped, he heard someone calling for help. He radioed over to Powell and Gray that he thought a skier might be stuck in the North Bowl area below where they were preparing to bomb.
“It turns out a guy named Ed had skied under a closure and got cliffed out in what we now call ‘Ed’s Chute,’” Gayner said. “He was hiking back up when the whole chute slid and washed him down the cliff band. He was buried up to his neck and pinned against a tree down below. He was lucky that we heard him yelling.”
Indeed, many of the avalanche chutes on the mountain are named after former patrollers who conducted control operations, and sometimes took an unexpected ride — “Brian’s Chute,” located skier’s right of “North Bowl Chute,” or “NBC,” named after ex-patroller Brian Manning who was swept down in an avalanche.
Likewise, “Connie’s Coulee” is named after Connie Rudie (nee Kuenther), a former patroller who was partially buried in an avalanche while skiing out of bounds in this classic West Bowl run, prior to the addition of the Hellroaring lift.
“Gray’s Golf Course” in Hellroaring Basin is named after John Gray, a ski patroller for 33 years before he retired in 2005 as chief of the patrol. Gray favored this densely treed area, which was originally called “The Golf Course” by locals, a namesake that corresponds with Gray’s fondness for golfing, as well as the deep tree wells that resemble cups.
“Whitey’s” is named after former patroller Cindy White Cameron, who was tragically killed in a car accident in 1998. Her husband, Chuck, and son, Daniel, survived the wreck, and Chuck, who also worked as a patroller, named the run in her honor.
“Cal’s Country” is named after Cal Tassinari, a former ski patroller and mountain manager who helped introduce avalanche education and snow safety to the Flathead Valley and Whitefish Mountain Resort. Tassinari died of cancer in 2004.
“Hogan’s” is named after Steve Hogan, a former patroller who died of suffocation at the bottom of Fault 3.
Other names are more tongue in cheek. “Window Pane” off of Flower Point refers to the hallucinogens some locals enjoyed while skiing the gladed squares of this aspect, while “Evan’s Heaven” is named for Gene Evan, the former patrol director and star of “Cool Winter,” the classic vintage film about Big Mountain. An avid backcountry skier, Evan pioneered lines in this area when it was still out of bounds.
“Space,” the rocks located between “Schmidt’s” — named for Mark Schmidt, who broke his leg there — and “Elephant’s Graveyard” — because the snow is so deep you could bury an elephant — refers to the space you leap into after hucking the cliffs. “PMS,” or “Paul Moffatt’s Stash,” is on the backside near “Caribou Trees” and refers to longtime Whitefish local Paul Moffatt.
The animal names on the mountain’s north side were named by Steve Spencer, the co-founder of Blacktail Mountain Ski Area and longtime operations manager at Big Mountain. “Black Bear,” “Marmot,” “Bighorn,” “Graywolf,” and the like were all Spencer’s creations.
“One Grand Parade” is a newly cut run on Flower Point named after Norm Kurtz, who dedicated his life to Big Mountain and is also credited with creating the Whitefish Winter Carnival and its signature parade. Likewise, “George’s Gorge” is named for George Prentice, who helped found the ski area in 1947 along with Ed Schenck, after whom “Ed’s Run” is named.
“The names helped us isolate little areas of the mountain,” Powell said. “But I’ve been here 40 years and I still hear names that make me wonder, ‘Where the hell is that?’ There’s just so much terrain out there.”
Here’s a snapshot of 10 runs at Whitefish Mountain Resort and the legends they’re named after:
1. Toni Matt: The ski pioneer and champion racer was a World War II pilot and member of the 10th Mountain Division who famously won a top-to-bottom race of Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington.
2. Cal’s Country: Cal Tassinari, a former ski patroller and mountain manager who introduced avalanche education and snow safety studies to the Flathead Valley and Whitefish Mountain Resort. Tassinari died of cancer in 2004.
3. Buckle Your Boot: Longtime patroller Randy Gayner was scouting a blasting operation on East Rim from this formerly out-of-bounds vantage point when he leaned over to buckle his boot and triggered an avalanche. What happened next is a story in its own right, and led to the christening of “Ed’s Chute.”
4. Russ’s Street: Also known as Easy Street, the “interstate” of Big Mountain is named in honor of Russ Street, a local businessman who was a major shareholder in Winter Sports Incorporated and an early pioneer of the Whitefish Winter Carnival.
5. Whitey’s: Cindy White Cameron, a former patroller who was tragically killed in a car accident in 1998. Her husband, Chuck Cameron, also worked as a ski patroller and named the run in her honor.
6. Evan’s Heaven: Gene Evan, former ski patrol director and star of the 1971 film “Cool Winter,” who frequently hiked out to this formerly out-of-bounds area to ski its deep stashes of powder.
7. One Grand Parade: Norm Kurtz not only dedicated his life to Big Mountain as a dish scrubber, bartender, snow-plower, snow reporter, and general manager, but is also credited with the creation of the Whitefish Winter Carnival and its signature parade. Check out Kurtz’s book, “Chair One,” for more Big Mountain history.
8. George’s Gorge: This technical, bermed backside run is visible from Chair 7, and is named in honor of George Prentice, who helped found the ski area in 1947. Along with Ed Schenck, Prentice was instrumental in drumming up stockholders to finance the resort. He retired in Whitefish and skied until shortly before his death in 1993, at age 84.
9. Connie’s Coulee: Connie Rudie (nee Kuenther) is a former patroller who developed an affinity for ducking the ropes and skiing this west bowl classic back when it was out of bounds. During one such occasion, in 1978, she was partially buried in an avalanche and needed rescuing.
10. Gray’s Golf Course: John Gray was a ski patroller for 33 years before he retired in 2005 as chief of the patrol. He favored this densely treed area, which was originally called The Golf Course by locals. Its namesake corresponds with Gray’s fondness for golfing, while its deep tree wells resemble cups.