- Joined
- Oct 29, 2016
- Posts
- 527
I skied Big Sky for the first time this week while in the area for work. I only got to ski one day after some travel delays but I still had a great trip. No new snow but it had snowed a few inches almost every day over the last week. Lots of choppy snow and some windblown. Overall I like Big Sky but it wasn't quite as good as i thought it would be. My 3 things held it back:
- The best skiing was off the tram but the tram has 30-60 minutes lines. They desperately need a 2nd or new lift to the summit.
- Most of the lifts were low vertical and/or had long flat sections
- It wasn't crowded like i70 Colorado but it was crowded for a remote ski area. Not sure if this is the Ikon effect or typical. I get the sense that big sky is growing rapidly in terms of visitor numbers.
- Groomers B-. I didn't get a lot of time to ski groomers, but those I did were fairly flat or short. Thunder wolf had some good long options. Swifty and six shooter had some groomers with steep sections but only for short stretches.
- Bumps and advance terrain A- Dakota, Shedhorn had a lot of good bumps. Lots of good short steep elsewhere. Thunder Wolf had some good bumps that I didn't get a chance to ski. Powder chaser was ok but very short.
- Expert level steeps: B: Lots of good steep lines off the tram or with hikes. The only expert runs that I could easily access were off Challenger. Lots of the hikes seemed like a lot of work for short and rocky descents but I hope to explore these more in the future.
- Crowds B. Most lifts had zero lines but chairs were full. There were a exceptions like six shooter had a 5 minute wait and Shedhorn had no wait and only 20% if chairs occupied. And the tram line is a huge downer.
- Size A: Big sky is top 5 big in N America. The only downside is a lot of the acres are flat roads/traverses or unskiable rocks.
- Overall: B+
