Turner Mountain Ski Resort
The mountain is known for its fall-line powder skiing. Libby is located along the western portion of U.S. Route 2 in the Kootenai Valley between the Cabinet Mountains to the south and the Purcell Mountains to the north.
Turner is 22 miles north of Libby that once was a mining and logging town. In the late 1930s, an enthusiastic group of Libby skiers formed Kootenai Ski Club (later Libby Ski Club) in order to develop a ski area. In the 1950s they started a plan to develop Turner Mountain into a ski area, and it was opened on New Year's weekend of 1961. The summer after the first season, a T-bar was added.
Turner Mountain Ski Area is volunteer-run and managed by a nonprofit organization called Kootenai Winter Sports Ski Education Foundation, Inc..
The resort received funding from the City of Libby Economic Development Fund to develop a new lodge facility. It was completed in February 2006.
The T-bar to the summit, over a mile (1.6 km) in length, debuted in 1961. It was succeeded by a double chairlift in the fall of 2001.
References
- ^ Williams, Dick (January 4, 1962). "Continent's highest T-bar for Turner Mountain skiers". Spokesman-REview. Spokane, Washington. p. 15.
- ^ "Turner Mountain Ski Area Lift Pictures, Libby, Montana". libbymt.com. Archived from the original on 2019-07-02. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
- ^ "In Montana, a nonprofit, mostly volunteer-run resort with some of the country's best skiing". Washington Post. Oct 30, 2019.
- ^ "About Turner". skiturner.com. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
- ^ "Turner Mountain Ski Area, Libby, Montana". ibbymt.com. Archived from the original on 2020-05-13.