Date(s) Skied: Jan 21 - Jan 22
Resort or Ski Area: Big Sky, Montana
Conditions: Snowed all day Saturday, Bluebird all day Sunday. Fresh powder both days
Trip Report: Left Breckenridge on Friday morning about 4:30am and drove up to Bozeman, MT to visit family. Got in around 3:30, took us about 11 hours. We had reservations up at Big Sky for Friday and Saturday night (Epic Pass got us free skiing for every one night lodging). We decided not to head up Friday night and we still got our 2 passes for free which was very accommodating. We got to spend Friday night in Bozeman and check out the town.
Woke up Saturday morning around 7:30 and headed up to Big Sky. The ride in was beautiful. We checked into our hotel around 8:30 and picked up our vouchers. We had a group of five plus three dogs. Made for an interesting hotel stay but we packed them up with some blankets and left them in the truck. Got up to the mountain around 9:30, got our tickets and our friend Pete overheard someone mention a dog in a green jacket was roaming the parking lot (That's our dog, Zeus.) We asked them what was up and he said that two dogs were running around the lots a black one and a red one. Apparently Apollo wanted to come skiing, he broke through the screen of the cap on the bed of the truck. The retriever couldn't fit through. We had to run back and round them up.
After this fiasco we finally ended up getting onto the first lift Swift Current High Speed Quad around 10. We took Jay Walk down to the lone peak triple which brings you right into the Bowl. From here you can see The Gullies which is really big mountain skiing, steep chutes all around. (see pics) First run down through the bowl was sick, forgot what it was like riding in actual powder (about 10 fresh inches). Needless to say we were pretty stoked. From the bottom of the Bowl we cruised through Magic Meadows and ended up over at Challenger. We rode Challenger three or four times and found some really good snow in the woods which we kept going back for.
After we hit those woods we headed back to Base Area and took the Swift Current High Speed Quad to Lone Peak Triple and decided to take the Lone Peak Tram to the top (elevation 11,166ft). It was snowing pretty hard at this point, visibility was nill at the top so unfortunately we didn't get the views of the mountain ranges surrounding us like Tobacco Root or Gravelly Range. From the top we took Liberty bowl down, pretty icy and windblown at the top but turned into nice powder about a quarter of the way down. Pitch was pretty steep. We went and hit Screaming Left which held a lot of snow..this was a lot of fun.
Took Shed horn life and came across Duck Walk to Stump Farm. My girlfriend and I split up from the other three boys here and they took Stump Farm down while we cruised along Lobo which brought us to meet all back down at the base area. It was about 3 at this point maybe a little after so we called it and headed back to the car to fire up the grill, drink some PBR's and let the dogs run around.
That night we ended up going back up the Mountain to SnoBar..a party that Big Sky hosts once a year, it was an outdoor bar with some raging techno music. We hung out for a bit and then headed down the access road to Black Bear a local bar where we got good food and drinks back in the hotel room around midnight.
Next morning woke up and checked out. I don't know how they missed our dogs and two extra people but we paid about $30 bucks a person for nights lodging and 2 free days of skiing for me and vdk03. Not a bad deal. My girlfriend and her boyfriend decided not to go up today so it was just the three of us. Big mistake in our opinion, it was snowing all night long and dumped another fresh 10 inches of snow. We got up to the lifts about 9 again which turned out to be perfect timing. Took the quad up and down to the lone peak triple. The Bowl was absolutely untouched at this point. About 3/4 of the way up they must have just dropped the rope. We were some of the first to shred the phresheez.
This was a blast...we were hooting and hollering. We hit the Bowl twice and stayed to left the second time around to get to Challenger and hit the glades on the way there.
We rode around Challenger for awhile, hitting the glades underneath (Magic Meadows). The view from the top of Challenger is pretty cool. If you drop of the back of this you end up in the Moonlight Basin resort..would need another ticket to get back up. After this we ended up heading down to the base area and taking the quad up again towards Pack Saddle glades down to the Shed Horn Lift...we did a little traverse loop across the entire mountain it seemed. We rode the Dakota lift and from there we rode down and hit Screaming Left again which still had so much snow. Took Screaming Left to Sunlight and back down to Shed Horn. Besides Screaming Left this side of the mountain didn't seem to hold the snow like over by the Challenger. More windblown. Went around the corner and saw the line for Shed Horn was a ways up the hill. We were surprised we hadn't waited in a line since we got to Big Sky on Saturday. We cruised up this and then took Stump Farm (the trail I missed out on previous day) which didn't seem to get touched very much so we had great snow in there mixed with steep terrain which was a lot of fun.
Our legs were pretty wiped after this and that was the end of our day. We took it easy down Middle Road and winded back down to the base area. Fired up the grill for another days cookin' and made some killer stir fry with teriyaki chicken.
Headed back down to Bozeman to relax for another night. It was an awesome weekend at Big Sky...next stop is Jackson Hole or Targhee on the way home. They've been getting some snow, JH is only about 4 1/2 hours, leaving tomorrow around 5am to get down there. TBC.....
Lots of pics/vids. Will post em up later.
Resort or Ski Area: Big Sky, Montana
Conditions: Snowed all day Saturday, Bluebird all day Sunday. Fresh powder both days
Trip Report: Left Breckenridge on Friday morning about 4:30am and drove up to Bozeman, MT to visit family. Got in around 3:30, took us about 11 hours. We had reservations up at Big Sky for Friday and Saturday night (Epic Pass got us free skiing for every one night lodging). We decided not to head up Friday night and we still got our 2 passes for free which was very accommodating. We got to spend Friday night in Bozeman and check out the town.
Woke up Saturday morning around 7:30 and headed up to Big Sky. The ride in was beautiful. We checked into our hotel around 8:30 and picked up our vouchers. We had a group of five plus three dogs. Made for an interesting hotel stay but we packed them up with some blankets and left them in the truck. Got up to the mountain around 9:30, got our tickets and our friend Pete overheard someone mention a dog in a green jacket was roaming the parking lot (That's our dog, Zeus.) We asked them what was up and he said that two dogs were running around the lots a black one and a red one. Apparently Apollo wanted to come skiing, he broke through the screen of the cap on the bed of the truck. The retriever couldn't fit through. We had to run back and round them up.
After this fiasco we finally ended up getting onto the first lift Swift Current High Speed Quad around 10. We took Jay Walk down to the lone peak triple which brings you right into the Bowl. From here you can see The Gullies which is really big mountain skiing, steep chutes all around. (see pics) First run down through the bowl was sick, forgot what it was like riding in actual powder (about 10 fresh inches). Needless to say we were pretty stoked. From the bottom of the Bowl we cruised through Magic Meadows and ended up over at Challenger. We rode Challenger three or four times and found some really good snow in the woods which we kept going back for.
After we hit those woods we headed back to Base Area and took the Swift Current High Speed Quad to Lone Peak Triple and decided to take the Lone Peak Tram to the top (elevation 11,166ft). It was snowing pretty hard at this point, visibility was nill at the top so unfortunately we didn't get the views of the mountain ranges surrounding us like Tobacco Root or Gravelly Range. From the top we took Liberty bowl down, pretty icy and windblown at the top but turned into nice powder about a quarter of the way down. Pitch was pretty steep. We went and hit Screaming Left which held a lot of snow..this was a lot of fun.
Took Shed horn life and came across Duck Walk to Stump Farm. My girlfriend and I split up from the other three boys here and they took Stump Farm down while we cruised along Lobo which brought us to meet all back down at the base area. It was about 3 at this point maybe a little after so we called it and headed back to the car to fire up the grill, drink some PBR's and let the dogs run around.
That night we ended up going back up the Mountain to SnoBar..a party that Big Sky hosts once a year, it was an outdoor bar with some raging techno music. We hung out for a bit and then headed down the access road to Black Bear a local bar where we got good food and drinks back in the hotel room around midnight.
Next morning woke up and checked out. I don't know how they missed our dogs and two extra people but we paid about $30 bucks a person for nights lodging and 2 free days of skiing for me and vdk03. Not a bad deal. My girlfriend and her boyfriend decided not to go up today so it was just the three of us. Big mistake in our opinion, it was snowing all night long and dumped another fresh 10 inches of snow. We got up to the lifts about 9 again which turned out to be perfect timing. Took the quad up and down to the lone peak triple. The Bowl was absolutely untouched at this point. About 3/4 of the way up they must have just dropped the rope. We were some of the first to shred the phresheez.
This was a blast...we were hooting and hollering. We hit the Bowl twice and stayed to left the second time around to get to Challenger and hit the glades on the way there.We rode around Challenger for awhile, hitting the glades underneath (Magic Meadows). The view from the top of Challenger is pretty cool. If you drop of the back of this you end up in the Moonlight Basin resort..would need another ticket to get back up. After this we ended up heading down to the base area and taking the quad up again towards Pack Saddle glades down to the Shed Horn Lift...we did a little traverse loop across the entire mountain it seemed. We rode the Dakota lift and from there we rode down and hit Screaming Left again which still had so much snow. Took Screaming Left to Sunlight and back down to Shed Horn. Besides Screaming Left this side of the mountain didn't seem to hold the snow like over by the Challenger. More windblown. Went around the corner and saw the line for Shed Horn was a ways up the hill. We were surprised we hadn't waited in a line since we got to Big Sky on Saturday. We cruised up this and then took Stump Farm (the trail I missed out on previous day) which didn't seem to get touched very much so we had great snow in there mixed with steep terrain which was a lot of fun.
Our legs were pretty wiped after this and that was the end of our day. We took it easy down Middle Road and winded back down to the base area. Fired up the grill for another days cookin' and made some killer stir fry with teriyaki chicken.
Headed back down to Bozeman to relax for another night. It was an awesome weekend at Big Sky...next stop is Jackson Hole or Targhee on the way home. They've been getting some snow, JH is only about 4 1/2 hours, leaving tomorrow around 5am to get down there. TBC.....
Lots of pics/vids. Will post em up later.
