It's been a fun trip up here to Idaho and Montana.
The snow conditions were better than Tahoe, but still troubled.
Schweitzer had much of the mountain closed, but the girls did enjoy their lessons while there.
It's a big place, with an awkward access road like Grand Targhee.
The owners are trying to develop it further, and Sandpoint is a growing town that could support it.
Like many assets that have very low cost basis, and have not been sold in a long time, there is no economic imperative to maximize returns there.
So prices are very reasonable compared to most other ski areas.
Whitefish has gotten developed more, and is slowly turning into a trendy town, as witnessed by a quite nice, and crowded sushi restaurant we had dinner at.
The mountain there is a bit steeper than many others, at least to me, and without soft fresh snow, is quite challenging.
Locals were saying that for both places, the snow was the worst in ten years, which is by odd coincidence, the last time I was in the upper Rockies.
We did enjoy a wonderful scenic drive from Sandpoint to Whitefish, which is a little traveled route, and apparently a US highway, if not an interstate.
Helpfully there was a Costco along the way, where we fueled up, and bought lift tickets.
We brought a huge amount of gear on this trip, and simply navigating around with all that, and packing that has taken a bit of effort.
However its difficult to go on an equipment heavy hobby trip like skiing without all the stuff.
I skiied 3 days at Schweitzer, and 3 days in Whitefish, taking a day off on the last day, as a winter storm warning rolled in with poor visibility, high winds, and (finally) snow.
Too little, too late. Sigh.
My knees were ok, but not great. They started aching after a couple of hours typically. So I used a lot of ibuprofen this trip.
But the surgeon and the rehab facility did good enough work to get me back out there, even if very gingerly and slowly.
And we did get to ski together a few times as a family, when the girls were not in lessons.
They have gotten fairly comfortable on green level runs, and at controlling their speed, and turning.
But everyone is eager to get home and see their family, friends, and pets.
Hopefully the weather will be cooperative tomorrow; we have a storm watch in effect til 11am.
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