Snowbowl closes Friday due to power outage

Skiers and snowboarders looking to take advantage of new snow at Montana Snowbowl brought by a winter storm hitting western Montana will have to wait until Saturday.

Montana Snowbowl north of Missoula announced they're closed on Friday due to a power outage.

"The entire mountain is experiencing a power outage currently," Snowbowl posted on its Facebook page Friday morning. "Northwestern Energy is making their way up to where the outage occurred. We will update as soon as we have more information."

Shortly after, Snowbowl posted that NorthWestern had not yet identified the source of the outage, and the mountain would not be operating Friday.

"We hope to be fully operational on Saturday at our usual opening time. Please check the snow report in the morning," the post said.

Snowbowl reported 6 inches of new snow at the base area and 9 inches at the summit in their Friday morning report.

A strong winter storm hit western Montana overnight Wednesday that's expected to continue through Saturday. Wind gusts over 80 mph were recorded in the mountains north of Whitefish and just outside Glacier National Park on Thursday.

North of Missoula, a wind gust of 79 mph was recorded on Point Six, a mountain peak just outside Snowbowl. The ski hill was closed Thursday due to high winds.

A mix of rain and snow was expected to continue to fall through Friday and into Saturday, becoming mostly snow by Saturday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

Winds calmed Friday, but could pick back up Saturday, with gusts up to 28 mph predicted.