Big Sky Resort Blog

What better way to get excited for the Saturday Pond Skim than to revisit the fun from the past few years through photos!

We'll see you out there,

Dax

Today I was surrounded by soft snow, but the real treat was observing just how soulful and strong the ski community is that is attracted to Lone Peak.  This morning in the parking lot I ran into Mike Mannelin, straight from Alaska where he earned a backcountry guide certificate (congratulations) he was back to his MT spot to sneak in the final days to the season.  I mentioned I’d be booting up at 1 and so we agreed to meet later.  I had a request from a 20 year visitor to Big Sky, Andrew, from New York, who is a fan of this page and thought it would be fun to tag along for a ski day.
 
I checked out the US Adaptive National Championships in the morning, truly being inspired by these amazing athletes carving around gates, I could only dream of skiing their style while excelling above and beyond their disabilities.

For my turn at turns, I was in the base area at 1 to meet Andrew and there was Mike, ready to join us as planned.  We got to the top of Swift Current and skied to the Triple Chair.  I hadn’t been on snow for a few days so I wanted to get a sense of what these storms brought before heading to the top, so we pointed toward the Turkey Traverse to get a South Wall quick lap.  We were joined by Andrew, who was welcoming Mike back and before we knew it we were a foursome.  The snow was soft, the turns were familiar and the group was strong, before I had even started off the Turkey Traverse, Mike was already standing near the Triple Chair.

We settled into the Tram area, and it was a joyous homecoming for Mike; between the smiles of seeing their old friend back and the fun snow, it was a cool scene.  By now our group was growing bigger as I introduced Andrew to KP, and Jeff was there on his ski repair “lunch break”.  Next thing you know, Chad, a local photographer rolls up and offers his Big Couloir spot to the group and Mike and Jeff jump at it.  For Andrew, KP and I, we take the Liberty snow fence over the Yeti Traverse heading toward the Gullies. 

I had a tip from the morning that Crons was loaded and deep, but as it turned out the Gullies were skiing super smooth and creamy.  Andrew, who only gets to ski here a few times a year, but grew up with the instruction of former ski director Hans, put on a show with balance, ease on this terrain.  Once cutting to Crons, the first word that came from his mouth was “silky”, which I liked, because it was perfect, boot-top, wind loaded turns that were like first tracks at 2 in the afternoon.  With serendipity, Mike and Jeff finished on Cue Ball right as we got there.

We spun it back around to the Tram line, where once again, Mike was seeing all the familiar faces welcoming him back.  Now we had tasted the powder and had the permanent smiles on our face.  The next lap we followed KP’s lead for the belly of Marx, the conditions were prime for a top to bottom, something I can’t remember doing since February.  With that sustained pitch and never ending vertical, it could have been a top 10 run for me this season. 

I was to get back to the office, but with the new friends, the kind who had met an hour before but were tied together with shared powder, I left Andrew in the care of the locals for them to finish out their own ski day.

It’s really good skiing right now, I really hope you get to join me in finishing strong.

We’ll see you out there,

Dax

Hi everyone,

Holy cold smoke, winter is not over at Big Sky, 15 inches in the past 48 hours.  I haven't had a chance to ski it and write about it yet, but as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so check out the photos sent in by Lonnie Ball from Tuesday, March 30th.

Get here now!!!

We'll see you out there,

Dax

Editor's note:  We love guest submissions, this one came from William visiting from North Dakota, we really appreciate hearing how others enjoy Big Sky just as much as we do!

Sun, snow, food, family, high-speed quads, and goggle tans.  These were some of the highlights of my day at Big Sky on March 15, 2010.  I came to Bozeman to visit Montana State University, but what trip to Bozeman is complete without spending a day at Big Sky?  So at 8:00 am, we left our hotel for the amazing drive up Gallatin Canyon.  It was just about nine when we turned the corner and Lone Mountain came into view.  11,166 feet of pure awesomeness waiting for me!

After buying our tickets, my mom and I jumped on Swifty for a swift ride up the mountain.  One of my favorite things about Big Sky is all the high-speed quads.  I don’t feel like I spend more time going up than coming down the mountain.  For our first run, we picked Calamity Jane.  It was a perfect example of Big Sky’s excellent grooming.  As much as I like pow skiing, getting first tracks on fresh corduroy is effortless and almost as fun.  

Later, we checked out Elk Park Meadows.  I still found some pow in my line, even though it had been a week since the last big storm.  Big Sky is so huge it is never impossible to find a stash of fresh snow. 

When it was time for lunch, we carried on another family tradition, lunch at The Pinnacle.  The cool building, sick view, friendly people, and outstanding food all help to make lunch a highlight of the day. 

In the afternoon, I decided to go by myself and check out the terrain park and some harder runs.  After meeting some friendly people on the chairlift, I dropped into the park.  The rails and jumps were perfectly maintained as usual, but after a couple falls I decided to head to the bowl.  The bowl is one of my favorite areas since there is no limit to what you can do.  I could spend all day there.  The South Wall snow was nice and buttery, but it was busy for a Monday.  One of the great things about Big Sky is that you can always find somewhere completely deserted.  For me, it was Shedhorn and Dakota.  The bowl over there had hardly been skied and I only saw a few people.  But 4:00 came too fast as usual, and it was time to leave. 

Before going, I had a lemonade on the Summit patio and thought about the day.  Whether I ski or snowboard, and whether it’s bluebird or dumping, Big Sky is a world class resort that’s hard to top.  And if I go to Montana State University, I will be seeing a lot more of it next season!

Shred4Life,

William B.
Age 18
Bowbells, ND

I hope you’ve been out experiencing the spring weather we’ve been enjoying, longer days, relaxed atmosphere, comfortable temps, this is what skiing is all about.

One of my favorite things about Big Sky is that we get snow really regularly, for a lot of seasons it can be every couple of days so the mountain stays nice and fresh, you couple that with the relative lack of skier traffic and our conditions consistently outperform any other place I’ve ever been.

But there’s another feature that isn’t often talked about between all the acreage, vertical and lifts we boast, and that is the fact that we truly offer skiing onso many different angles to the sun, there’s southern, eastern and northern exposures and when we do occasionally get in a period more than a few days between snow, we still have places for great turns when you know what to look for.

I had the opportunity to ski a couple of days with Peter visiting from Santa Fe and Doug from nearby Bozeman.  It was a pretty relaxing tour and we got to test the theory of the hunt based on local knowledge and time of day.

If it is warm one day and then cools overnight, you should take the next morning to take advantage of the great grooming and high-speed quads.  They are a real treat every day anyhow, then when you want to get off the groomers, aim for slopes that are north facing, places like the south wall in the Bowl, Rice Bowl and even Outer Limits off the Challenger chair. 

Then after you re-fuel for lunch, with the sun shining and the South Face is softening up, it’s best to aim for the sun, get all the massive terrain off the Lone Peak Tram like Liberty, Lenin and Marx.  It’s even a good idea to try several areas from these runs, for instance sometimes the rock ridges will hold shadows longer so check out the other side.  I've said it before here, but I enjoy skiing soft, creamy corn snow almost as much as ripping up fresh snow.

We’ve got plenty of more powder in our future for the next 30 days, but in the meantime I’m sure glad I get to ski at a place that offers such diversity to always offer up nice, clean, confident turns once you track them down on the mountain.

We’ll see you out there,

Dax

Occasionally it’s worthy to take a step back from all the great groomers, well-spaced tree runs or even the easily accessible steeps off of Challenger to boot up just to bag a big, epic run. 

We’ve got a few of them, but none more unique than the North Summit Snow Field that can only be accessed with the partnership of the Biggest Skiing in America interconnect ticket with Moonlight Basin using Big Sky’s Lone Peak Tram.  For lift served, and controlled terrain, this is consequential ,big mountain skiing that requires focus and respect for what the mountain can give you.

I got the invite to ski this run from “smooth turns Taylor” and I grabbed our very own “Vanilla Gorilla Chad Jones” to join in the adventure.  In Chad’s case, he had never been down this run before, so it was a great opportunity to show off a different side of the mountain with the benefit of having a Biggest Skiing in America Pass.

We started in the base are with a ride up Swift Current, this was a lunch break ski session, so it was around noon and at the top we rolled to the Triple Chair.  To our pleasant surprise at the top we noticed only a few people waiting for the next Tram, we wouldn’t even have a full cabin for skiing some of the most remarkable terrain in the U.S. in March, sure feel sorry for any skiers out there waiting in lines to ski.

From the top you do need to check in at the patrol shack to ski this run.  They’ll limit the amount of people they put in there, and after I describe the run, you’ll know why with a few constriction points.  But in reality the check-in is a great opportunity to visit with the experts on what the best routes are to take, as mountain conditions can change from day to day.  Kevin gave us a clear route and gave the thumbs up that the skiing was good.  If you get a chance for this run, I’d personally recommend your first trip through be with a person who has done it before.

You start with the snow field itself, definitely the easiest section of this route as it is wide and wind loaded and nice and smooth.  But your instincts to let them fly are balanced with the fact that you’re skiing above a 100 foot cliff that would not be a good route to find out accidentally.  The views are amazing with a clean look at Fan Mountain and the Madison Valley floor including Ennis Lake.

Proper big mountain etiquette as a group, and you should be in a group, is to tackle each section one at a time.  I started with the snow field, maneuvering to a safe vantage point until Chad slashed his way down on his snowboard, throwing up nice clouds of wind loaded snow with each turn.  Smooth turns Taylor, the gentleman, finished up the section as we got ourselves into position for stage two of this run. 

We opted for Rips, which is a tighter section requiring precise turns.  Here again it is not the skiing that will get you but the exposure, as you’re above maybe an 80 foot cliff.  Taylor went first this time, I got in second and Chad pulled up the last position. 

From here you have some choices to get down the last big rollover and into the powder apron below.  I marked on the map the route we took, but you can see you can travel further lookers left for alternate routes.

At the bottom, once through the crux rollover, its smooth sailing and the consequences fade away as you can now take big, aggressive wide turns out the bottom.  We ended this big run with a low angle groomer to the bottom of 6-shooter where at the top we could spin back around to the Big Sky base area.  This run is a pure, continuous 4,350 feet of vertical drop, the second most in the country.
 
I hope this story doesn’t scare anyone who might think this is all we have, really, we’re lucky in that we have an excellent balance and abundance of the big stuff for the adventurous and nicely cut groomer terrain on Andesite and the lower mountain.

There are many sides to skiing this area and I’m hopeful you get a chance to join us in finding them all, and you had better give yourself a few days, after all it is the biggest skiing in America.

We’ll see you out there,

Dax

When Scot Schmidt calls and asks if you want to go skiing, you kind of have to clear your schedule and sign up for the adventure.  His friends have been wanting to ski the Tram after being in the area for a few days and I was the lucky one to show them around.

He was joined by his friend Corbett and Brian, Brian is the founder of the X-Dance Film Festival that celebrates the best action sports films.   Brian hadn’t been to Big Sky since the 80’s and the base area wasn’t even recognizable.  He said when he skied here last, everyone looked up at Lone Peak, but it was only part of the scenery, not even considered as potential ski terrain back then.

Now that we’re celebrating our 15 year anniversary of the Tram, he was in the area and available to finally ski this epic terrain from this epic lift.  Scot’s an old pro with this big mountain terrain having been here to shoot Warren Miller films in the past.

We loaded up Swifty, then skied to the Triple Chair, this was a straight shot to the lift they all wanted to ski, no warm ups on Andesite cruisers for this crew, no touring the trees, it was all about the Tram.  I noticed from Bone Crusher that we had had some wind since skiing yesterday, wind is a natural element to any mountain environment and with some slopes it can really pull off the snow, but the beauty is that it can load and smooth terrain too.

Not knowing what effect the wind would have, I quietly whispered to a local for some advice, he grinned and said “center punch Marx”.  I glanced to watch his route from the top as he dropped in the Liberty snow fence and so we followed as a group to head toward the Yeti Traverse.

From the top I now knew why he was grinning.  A run that just 24 hours earlier was full of bumps was now perfectly smooth and loaded up with chalky, white carvy snow.  This is a double black diamond run, but it was skiing with the consistency of Mr. K, the turns were effortless and the crew was kind enough to let me drop in first.  About half way down I slowed up a bit to glance how the others were doing and of course Schmidt came flying by me arcing perfect super G turns through the soft snow.  I didn’t have to wait long while Brian and Corbett smoked by for their top to bottom Marx lap. 

At the bottom it was all smiles and the call was made for another one, this time I thought I had better stop and get a few photos to prove how amazing the South Face was skiing.  Look at that famous Schmidt schmear turn.  

For the third lap we eyed Lenin and saw the familiar look of the center loaded up and smooth.  Scot led the way, then Brian showed me how it was done, Corbett went next and I ran tail gunner as we skied another giant, long run that was perfectly wind groomed.

Between laps on the Triple Chair Brian said, almost to himself, that the run just kept getting better, with the way the wind was blowing he was right, every time we'd ski it we had fresh tracks, almost within 30 to 45 seconds from your run, the wind would re-smooth the surface as if you had never been there. 

Big Sky gets snow, it gets sun, we have clouds and the wind can blow, but this mountain is so big that you’re always able to find that perfect spot where conditions line up just right.  Today it was all about the South Face, where will it be tomorrow?  We hope you join us and find out!

We’ll see you out there,

Dax

The powder sure lasts a long time around here, I had the opportunity to ski with a family visiting from our sister resort area in Sunday River, Maine. 

The Burke family had been here before, but it was about 7 years ago, before there was a Moonlight Basin, before the Village Center, before many of the new places to eat around the mountain.  They’ve skied all week and yet I knew we still had places left to explore.  You can’t possibly cover everything in only a week, I’ve been here years and I still find new places to explore, plus we found powder!

I caught up with Greg, Heather, Ian and Aspen for lunch as they were getting a chance to ski the biggest skiing in America for the day.  Before I caught up with them they had achieved the epic ski run off the north side of Lone Peak called the North Summit Snowfields, the only way to get into this run is with a Biggest Skiing in America ticket as you ride Big Sky’s Tram and ski down Moonlight’s terrain. 

Well, since they bagged this big run before I caught up with them, we decided we’d go up and explore the Dakota area, a place that didn’t exist seven years ago.  We got there from the Tram via Liberty Bowl.  It gave me the perfect opportunity to ski the right edge of this massive run.  Since early December the belly of this bowl has been filled in but the edges sometimes only come around after the February and March snows.  As it turned out this line was really good skiing and clean, probably around 3-4 inches of soft snow with a few pockets that would crawl up to boot top.  

After skiing the line, we took a right toward the Kircher cliffs to ski the Dakota Bowl.  Even though all this terrain is in bounds and lift accessible, there was plenty of great snow to be found and the sun was poking out enough to keep our cheeks warm. 

From the bottom we loaded the Dakota Chair and at the top I asked “who wants to follow me and get lost in the woods?”  I was only half joking considering much of the Bavarian Forest is still unfamiliar to me with its massive amount of choices and lines.  Naturally this Maine family was all about the adventure and they followed me down through the ski gate.
 
 We stopped more often than usual to regroup, but what we found in here were a lot of untouched lines with 6-8 inches of powder. 

You actually can’t get lost, you just find moments where you don’t know where you are, but all fall line leads to the Hippy Highway that takes you to Shedhorn.   The beauty is now with the Dakota chair you can spin multiple laps to begin learning more of what’s out there, I picked up a few new things today.

The family visiting was pleased with their week at Big Sky and Greg commented on how genuinely blown away at the size of the terrain here.  Ian, a senior in high school is contemplating his next step and maybe become a Bobcat at Montana State University, his parents assured me he’s a great student, but I had to wonder if they were thinking his education time might be more on the mountain and less in the classroom.  As an MSU alum myself, it’s safe to say most of my lessons learned were outside and clicked into skis, what did you learn today?

We’ll see you out there,

Dax