While interdimensional travel may not technically be feasible, a ski lift ride in Northwest Montana certainly feels a lot like a portal to a brighter, bluer dimension. Chiefly in its ability to spirit one high above the dimmer, grayish parallel universe that so often characterizes winter on the floor of the Flathead Valley. A journey through an atmospheric inversion never fails to delight, with its layer of warmer air camping out at higher altitudes, which not only makes for pleasant skiing temperatures, but turns the surrounding mountain ranges into snowy archipelagos in the ocean of chilled fog trapped below. Meanwhile, swirls of snow crystals are free to swirl in the breeze and sparkle brilliantly in the unchecked sunlight above the cloud banks. By 8:30 a.m., colorful throngs of snow sport enthusiasts had formed at both Chair 1 and Chair 4, who’d either made or eaten breakfast in the parking lot to save precious morning minutes in their quest to be among the first to lay tracks in a different facet of spacetime on opening day of the 2024/2025 downhill ski season at Whitefish Mountain Resort.
For more photos, see the gallery.