Big Sky - 03/06

Day 4 at the biggest resort. We finally got temps back into the high teens in the morning and near freezing in the sun by the afternoon. Also was able to get back to wearing the more normal layers for skiing which made breathing easier. We made our way all the way over to the Lone Tree Triple in the Madison area for some very nice (guess what?) bumps. But, it was a little too rocky for our tastes and eventually made our way back to the Moonlight Basin Area. Before leaving Madison, we went to the base and had lunch in the biggest yurt I've ever seen. Inside, a full Montana-style bar and nice restaurant. Good food! Once back to Moonlight, we found the run of the day: Big Rock Face off the Challenger chair. The overnight winds blew in a bunch of snow for some very smooth, fast, steep runs. Too bad the chair is a long slow speed double. We finally couldn't take it anymore and returned to our favorite bump runs in Big Sky proper. They're getting firmer and bigger, but still a hamster wheel of fun.

Still no crowds. This is the biggest private ski area I've ever been to. It will be interesting to see what the crowds are like on the week-end. So far, a fantastic ski vacation.

For those that aren't familiar with Big Sky, Everett Kircher bought the area in 1976. It became part of Boyne Resorts which is managed by Kircher's kids as Everett has passed away. John Kircher resides and runs my home mountain, Crystal. Boyne has slowly bought up the adjoining ski areas and private ski clubs that bordered Big Sky including Spanish Peaks, Moonlight Basin, and Madison making the area huge. The private Yellowstone Club for the ultra rich also borders Big Sky, but is still all private. I have to say, Big Sky is an extremely well managed resort and a beautiful area.

There's a big gap between the huge expanses of beginner and intermediate groomers and advanced terrain at Big Sky. The low snow year is a contributor, but after wide smooth groomers, there's some low angle bump runs in the trees, then the next step is steep, narrow, chutes that people with normal self preservation brains would stay away from. Many of these are un-skiable or un-accessible due to lack of snow. Today we sampled some of the steeps that are accessible. Accessible via Rock Gardens. But, below every rock garden lay steep chalky snow covered with a dusting of "new" blown in from the now-exposed talus on the other side of the ridge. Best runs of the trip so far off Challenger and Lone Tree Triple (it's a quad - ??). Only downside - those chairs are long and slow. Finished off the afternoon with more bumps-in-the-trees silliness, aka shit-eating-grin fun.