Just got back from an amazing Wednesday-Friday trip at Big Sky during the first week of February.
We spent three days skiing leftovers of the 3 foot storm from a few days before we arrived. Fantastic conditions on every single run.
I put together a video montage of some of my GoPro clips:
More info:
Day 2: Even after we called it a day yesterday, we sat in the hot tub and watched more snow falling over Lone Peak and it’s beautiful tree lines. Which gave us an idea… Surely, even if it stops snowing, there must be some powder stashes in the trees, right? Right we were!
We started the day by heading straight to Powder Seeker chair, and then lapping the bowl for three amazing runs. (The bowl had been closed all yesterday and possibly even the day before, so this included days of fresh snow!) Once Powder Seeker started getting bumped up, we headed over to Moonlight Basin. There, we were on a mission to find a few of the locally recommended tree runs, namely White Bark and Single / Double Jack. This area of the mountain takes a few lifts to get to, so we didn’t get quite as much skiing in here as we hoped. There’s also a bottle neck from the mountain’s design at the Six Shooter chair, and this is where we experienced the only lift lines of the entire trip (a total of about 8 minutes, for one lap up) before everyone else packed it up and headed inside for lunch. In any case, we did eventually find that White Bark tree run. For an intermediate-advanced skier like myself, it was absolute tree skiing perfection. Perfectly spaced, perfectly pitched, and did I mention perfect?
For my money, it’s one of my all time favorite tree runs. I just wish it was easier to get to! (Maybe that’s part of the allure…)
Anyway, the snow was still plenty soft and deep in the trees, so we spent all day seeking out more of the same. Of note, we had a great time in tons of tree runs, with a few standouts being:
We made a mistake and got stuck waiting on the tram for an hour, before bailing and instead lapping Big Horn, Elk Park Ridge, and other blue groomers as quickly and efficiently as we could. We even made our way to the Southern Comfort and Lewis & Clark chairlifts, where we had a blast lapping casual trees like Lizette’s and Freemont’s Forest.
We made a mid-day pit-stop near the Spanish Peaks clubhouse, at an après bar who specialized in… $30 pints of beer and $200 bottles of Champagne. Not quite the Gatorade Vending machine we were looking for, but I made the most of it by downing an awesome choice off the “value” menu – a $31 brisket sandwich.
We finished the day heading over to one the last unexplored parts of the mountain – the Shedhorn chairlift. And there, we were met with what might have been the best snow conditions of the trip. The unnamed bowl between Upper Sunlight and the Shedhorn Lift Line was chalky, wind-buffed perfection.
I have several pics on my blog: https://slopelab.com/big-sky-weekday-trip-report/
We spent three days skiing leftovers of the 3 foot storm from a few days before we arrived. Fantastic conditions on every single run.
I put together a video montage of some of my GoPro clips:
More info:
- Trip Dates: January 31 – February 4, 2023
- Ski Days: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
- Day 1: 2 inches, snowing all day
- Day 2: 0 inches, mostly cloudy
- Day 3: 0 inches, bluebird
Day 2: Even after we called it a day yesterday, we sat in the hot tub and watched more snow falling over Lone Peak and it’s beautiful tree lines. Which gave us an idea… Surely, even if it stops snowing, there must be some powder stashes in the trees, right? Right we were!
We started the day by heading straight to Powder Seeker chair, and then lapping the bowl for three amazing runs. (The bowl had been closed all yesterday and possibly even the day before, so this included days of fresh snow!) Once Powder Seeker started getting bumped up, we headed over to Moonlight Basin. There, we were on a mission to find a few of the locally recommended tree runs, namely White Bark and Single / Double Jack. This area of the mountain takes a few lifts to get to, so we didn’t get quite as much skiing in here as we hoped. There’s also a bottle neck from the mountain’s design at the Six Shooter chair, and this is where we experienced the only lift lines of the entire trip (a total of about 8 minutes, for one lap up) before everyone else packed it up and headed inside for lunch. In any case, we did eventually find that White Bark tree run. For an intermediate-advanced skier like myself, it was absolute tree skiing perfection. Perfectly spaced, perfectly pitched, and did I mention perfect?
For my money, it’s one of my all time favorite tree runs. I just wish it was easier to get to! (Maybe that’s part of the allure…)
Anyway, the snow was still plenty soft and deep in the trees, so we spent all day seeking out more of the same. Of note, we had a great time in tons of tree runs, with a few standouts being:
- Lone Creek Gully: An awesome natural half-pipe that’s extremely unique.
- Blue Room: More of a mogul run than a tree run, but still fantastic conditions
- Congo: An awesome blue tree run
- Dogwood/Lost Frontier: A short pitch of blue trees, which we lapped at the end of the day because it’s so near the Moonlight Lodge and our condo
We made a mistake and got stuck waiting on the tram for an hour, before bailing and instead lapping Big Horn, Elk Park Ridge, and other blue groomers as quickly and efficiently as we could. We even made our way to the Southern Comfort and Lewis & Clark chairlifts, where we had a blast lapping casual trees like Lizette’s and Freemont’s Forest.
We made a mid-day pit-stop near the Spanish Peaks clubhouse, at an après bar who specialized in… $30 pints of beer and $200 bottles of Champagne. Not quite the Gatorade Vending machine we were looking for, but I made the most of it by downing an awesome choice off the “value” menu – a $31 brisket sandwich.
We finished the day heading over to one the last unexplored parts of the mountain – the Shedhorn chairlift. And there, we were met with what might have been the best snow conditions of the trip. The unnamed bowl between Upper Sunlight and the Shedhorn Lift Line was chalky, wind-buffed perfection.
I have several pics on my blog: https://slopelab.com/big-sky-weekday-trip-report/
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