Feb. 16, 2008 Montana Snowbowl Pow-day

  I had the opportunity to ride Montana Snowbowl by Missoula on  sunday 2/16 and it was twice as good as I had expected it to be.  In my opinion Snowbowl is to Missoula what Mission Ridge is to Wenatchee. Holiday weekend and I never waited more than 90 seconds to board either double chair.  All the locals that I chatted with were very friendly and quite knowlegable, even the eight-year-old ski racers, whose population was well represented.

  I was expecting variable spring conditions and instead delighted by a full on powder day,  up to a foot of cold pow. pow virtually everywhere, especially upper mtn runs, and lee sides of ridges.  Just enough cloud cover to keep the snow cold and light besides at the baselodge.  The bar/pizza place was awesome with home-cooked food at very reasonable prices inside a beautiful lodge.

   Hiked out of bounds to the little cornice drop west of the upper mtn lift.  That was very nice.  Also hiked up to the point 6 although that ended up being the only crappy run all day.  Took a core shot.

   All in all a great experience at a cool local hill with long, steep runs during all around great midwinter conditions. 

Thanks for the report.  Jill and I skied there  a couple years ago and had a nice experience.  There are quite a few small local areas around Montana that provide great terrain and reasonable lift tickets, especially for us "senior citizens". 

We got a great day in at Discovery, Feb 15th. I guess they got 9 " on wednesday night. So the locals said thursday was very good. We were out there for the Montana Snowkite event. But it wasn't windy, so it was nice to get some solid sking instead. Although Discovery's backside is nice and steep, it doesn't even come close to Alpental terrian. My skis weren't to impressed with there 40" base.