When I got the trail map, it states:
The Biggest Skiing in America
• 5,750 acres, 250+ named runs on four mountains
• 4,350 vertical
• Lone Peak Summit: 11,166 ft.
• Madison Base Area: 7,400 ft.
• 400 inches of snowfall
• 32,795 skiers per hour lift capacity
The daily grooming and lift schedule read on January 8-10: 277 trails open and 22 lifts open. Jill and I plus two ski buddies from Seattle skied for 3 days and it was fantastic. We received free lift tickets good to January 12 with our Snoqualmie Gold season passes. We parked in one of the free parking lots overnight and moved to a paid parking lot during the day. The shuttle is like Crystal’s but has a step to allow us older folks easier access to the seating area. You can pay $25 to park next to the Summit Hotel and have easy lift access. When Big Sky and Moonlight merged, the upper statement became marketing number one.
During our 3 days of skiing, we had 3”, 6” and 3” of fresh snow and cloudy with temps in the 15-25 degree range. We learned from a couple of locals and one guest that the amount of snow can double or triple the daily overnight amount depending on the aspect and the wind. For example the posted 6” of new snowfall overnight was 12” in the area below the Challenger lift.
There is no place in America where I have seen access to double black diamond terrain like this. It’s hard to explain the exposure in The Bowl and Headwaters terrain. The Lone Peak tram gets you to the top of Lone Peak at 11,166’. The Headwaters lift is accessed by climbing 50 yards above the trees above the Six Shooter lift. Once off the Headwaters lift, you start climbing along the ridge where the chutes get steeper and narrower as you climb. A few lines stop at a rock band that required a traverse out. I saw one skier on a branch of Alder Gulch stop at the end of the snow at a rock band that was not skiable. His buddies got him over to the exit route. Our days of really steep are history, but watching other folks descend these trails was impressive. We had a great time cruising on the groomers at both Big Sky and Moonlight. Big Sky’s a wonderful area.
