Big Sky 2020-2021 season pass options and pricing has been announced: https://bigskyresort.com/seasonpass
Four season pass options and Ikon.
Four season pass options and Ikon.
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Northern Rockies/Alberta Big Sky 2019-2020
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TS
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Looks like the addressed the no-tram pass issue pretty well (i.e., the complaint that one had to buy a full lift ticket if you wanted to use the tram with a non-tram pass).
Looks like more and more resorts are adding the features of programs like Ikon and Mtn Collective to their season passes. Took a few seasons to work out the kinks but it might attract a few more folks to our sport.
I skied Tuesday through Thursday and the conditions weren't very good. It was a challenge finding soft snow anywhere. Wednesday was especially brutal with numerous lift closures throughout the day due to insane wind gusts.
Wet snow fell overnight, so perhaps softer turns will be easier to find?
Love our weatherman. Tonight’s forecast 1-3”
Looking good for today.
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Was there skiing last Thursday thru Saturday. First time, can't say enough good things. My wife and I both loved it. We were there for the warm spell and the weather and views were gorgeous, got her to do the tram the first day and she skied down Liberty Bowl instead of tramming it back down. What a lady, only her 2nd time skiing out west and she crushed it!
The mountain is ridiculous, has something for everyone. After no wind on Thursday I went back up the tram first thing Friday morning to beat the rush and holy crap it was windy up there. Coming out of the south and wind flying up the back side runs. I followed a few guys down Marx and around into the Gullies on the front side. My goal was to ski Gullies 1 and I did, haven't been that terrified in awhile. Run wasn't that hard, technically, but in hard wind groomed snow if you fall you're going down 1,000+ feet. That part was scary.
Kudos to the free ride / extreme skiing competition going on by the Lone Tree lift Fri-Sat. We skied that lift quite a lot since snow held up well back there and watching the 15-18 yr olds fly down a bunch of cliffs was impressive.
By Saturday the snow had turned to shit across most of the mountain. Still had a great day and got 30k of vertical in since didn't lose an hour waiting on the tram. Bummer not getting any new snow, but it's luck of the draw taking one trip out west. 6" the day we left (Sunday) then looks like 1-3" forecast turned into nearly a foot this past day. Should have been there Mon-Wed!!!
The mountain is ridiculous, has something for everyone. After no wind on Thursday I went back up the tram first thing Friday morning to beat the rush and holy crap it was windy up there. Coming out of the south and wind flying up the back side runs. I followed a few guys down Marx and around into the Gullies on the front side. My goal was to ski Gullies 1 and I did, haven't been that terrified in awhile. Run wasn't that hard, technically, but in hard wind groomed snow if you fall you're going down 1,000+ feet. That part was scary.
Kudos to the free ride / extreme skiing competition going on by the Lone Tree lift Fri-Sat. We skied that lift quite a lot since snow held up well back there and watching the 15-18 yr olds fly down a bunch of cliffs was impressive.
By Saturday the snow had turned to shit across most of the mountain. Still had a great day and got 30k of vertical in since didn't lose an hour waiting on the tram. Bummer not getting any new snow, but it's luck of the draw taking one trip out west. 6" the day we left (Sunday) then looks like 1-3" forecast turned into nearly a foot this past day. Should have been there Mon-Wed!!!
QFT! The bright moonlight may indicate some sun will shine too.
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Crazy that Bridger only got 1". It appears the forecast for the next week is quite cold and snowy! Love it.
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TS
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Well, we can get the 20-21 thread started tomorrow. Last turns on Swifty today.
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A great powder day to end the lift served season.
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- Apr 20, 2018
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So just to close the loop on this - we ended up staying 5 nights at the Wilson Mariott Residence Inn during February.
My observations
It's a very new hotel, having opened only in the late summer/fall, and many of the kinks are not worked out yet. Examples of that included
- Elevators out of service - I only saw one day where are all 3 operated. Most of the time 2 of the three were working.
- Breakfast - things like waffle makers were out of service the whole trip. It's nice high quality food but it maybe they need to figure out the spacing better. Breakfast ends at 9am, which is early for resort/vacation location. They have some problems with guests loading up and taking stuff back up to their rooms, so there are no 'to go' boxes, even for leftovers.
- Shuttle bus - this is the big one to me. I picked this based off the idea that we could just hop on the bus to Big Sky each day. Unfortunately, for a big hotel, they only have one small 14 seat vehicle, which makes a run up to the mtn every hour, and you need a voucher to ride it uphill. If you are unable to get a voucher from the front desk, you have to drive, sort of defeating the whole point of staying somewhere with a shuttle. Additionally, going back to the hotel has a line, and at peak times, you won't be able to get on the bus, and will have to wait for the next one typically 30-60 min away. 3 our of the 4 days I skied there there was some kind of shuttle glitches, so on the last day, I just gave up and drove rather than waste time dealing with it.
- Dog friendly - very much so! if that matters to anyone. This is rare in ski country.
- Great hot tub, very large. Kids used the big pool too, but its not always open.
- Game room is excellent. Laundry facilities are excellent too.
- WiFi is kind of slow, even if you have Mariott status, and are supposed to get their 'enhanced' internet speed. I think its so crazy lame than hotels charging $300-400 a night think internet is some kind of amenity they can charge extra for, when a $70 Motel 6 will give you fast/better wifi for free. We ended up just running the kids Kindles off the SO's hotspot.
- The local organic grocery store, Roxys, is across the parking lot, and handy with a good selection of most everything, but understandably on the pricey side.
- We had dinner at Lone Peak Brewery, River Smokehouse, and Alberto's (a Mexican place). They were pretty much all as you would expect for ski town eating. I'd go back to any of them. Even if you make reservations, expect to wait.
- Gas is cheap, which was handy since we drove from Boise (400 miles, but an easy 6 hour drive in clear weather). Flights into BZN were running 2-3k for our whole group, so we flew into BOI for $500 for the group round trip. That's not a low/zero risk proposition, especially since you may not know what kind of rental car you'll really get, but we go the 4x4 SUV we ordered, and it was cheap at BOI, so it all worked out.
- I enjoyed the intermediate level skiing there, the kids found it a touch more challenging than they'd prefer.
Thank you for sharing your observations as people ask me about the Wilson. One 14 seat shuttle isn't enough capacity for a hotel the size of the Wilson located near a ski resort. Did you share your comments with Marriott Bonvoy?
I am not a Marriott apologist and don't know who their ISP is in Big Sky, but local internet is painfully slow locally and has fairly frequent interruptions.
Sounds like you had a good visit.
To be clear Aubergine posted his impressions of the Wilson and deserves the kudos. I have never stayed there as i live near by. If you ever do the flight to Boise though, remember that there a number of smaller ski areas on the ID/MT border that get decent snow and smaller numbers of people skiing. A good way to break up the drive and see rural MT.
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TS
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A couple of thoughts on the closure . . . I took a chance by taking my planned trip this past weekend. Left Saturday morning, after seeing the hopeful post from Big Sky of remaining open. Kind of frustrating to see the signs up Sunday morning saying "today's the last day". Was glad that they at least remained open on Sunday for a final day of skiing.
1) The folks who have the most right to be bent out of shape are the ones traveling to Big Sky on Sunday who learned after they were in flight or there that it had shut down. From the folks I talked to, the decision had basically been made Saturday night. Would have been nice if they had emailed/called folks with reservations on Sunday to warn them not to come, even if they hadn't made a public statement.
2) The resort was definitely flexible in a good way. I ended up being able to rebook my flight two days earlier, so left Monday morning (had planned to ski two more days). The charged me only for one day of lodging/skiing (resort property). The fair thing - yeah, I didn't get prorated airfare. They are keeping lodging open for a week so folks who can't rearrange flights can stay.
3) Talked to one insider who said one of the reasons they closed was that once Colorado closed they figured everyone there would come up to ski if they remained open. If that's true (and it may be, although obviously the optics of remaining open were bad) would have been to prohibit any new ticket sales - i.e., if you have a BS season pass, or had already started your trip, you could stay there and ski, at least for a few days. Anyone already there either has Covid or will be exposed to it from others already there, especially in the lodging; IMO the lifts (other than the tram) seem like far less likely places to transmit.
Anyway, a shame all around, although clearly far bigger shames than a lost month of skiing. I thing BS did a pretty good job on a rapidly evolving situation.
1) The folks who have the most right to be bent out of shape are the ones traveling to Big Sky on Sunday who learned after they were in flight or there that it had shut down. From the folks I talked to, the decision had basically been made Saturday night. Would have been nice if they had emailed/called folks with reservations on Sunday to warn them not to come, even if they hadn't made a public statement.
2) The resort was definitely flexible in a good way. I ended up being able to rebook my flight two days earlier, so left Monday morning (had planned to ski two more days). The charged me only for one day of lodging/skiing (resort property). The fair thing - yeah, I didn't get prorated airfare. They are keeping lodging open for a week so folks who can't rearrange flights can stay.
3) Talked to one insider who said one of the reasons they closed was that once Colorado closed they figured everyone there would come up to ski if they remained open. If that's true (and it may be, although obviously the optics of remaining open were bad) would have been to prohibit any new ticket sales - i.e., if you have a BS season pass, or had already started your trip, you could stay there and ski, at least for a few days. Anyone already there either has Covid or will be exposed to it from others already there, especially in the lodging; IMO the lifts (other than the tram) seem like far less likely places to transmit.
Anyway, a shame all around, although clearly far bigger shames than a lost month of skiing. I thing BS did a pretty good job on a rapidly evolving situation.
I am not sure what the deciding factor on closure was, but even in advance of the CO ski areas closing there were lots of people arriving from WA once schools closed and businesses were encouraging "work from home." Bridger, BS, YC and RL all closed within 24 hours of each other. The smaller ski areas in MT are still open such as Teton Pass and Discovery.
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