skiing the steeps in spring

In Late Spring, Montana’s Big Sky is Wide Open

By Dana Green, 4-17-06

As a kid, I had a dream I had Disneyland all to myself. It was just a few friends and I, greedily riding the Matterhorn over and over. No lines, no people. Just us.

Well, that’s a little like the feeling I had skiing Big Sky last weekend. The Ugg-booted, fur-wearing crowds were mostly gone. In late spring, it’s just you and a few friends – riding the Matterhorn (or in this case, the tram to 11,150-foot Lone Peak) over and over. That’s a dream if I ever had one.

With our own ski hill closed for the season, we decided to drive to Big Sky on a whim. With a fatter budget, the monster resort can squeak out one extra week out of the season than the rest of Montana’s smaller, family-run ski areas.

Big Sky’s terrain is unparalleled in Montana: 17 lifts, about half of them high-speed, accessing more than 3,500 acres, with knee-shaking couloirs that are inbounds. There’s a little hiking, and you have to have your avalanche gear ready (probe, shovel and transceiver), and sign out with patrol. But it’s right there off the tram.

Now, with their partnership with their new neighbor, Moonlight Basin, the terrain has almost doubled. With a Lone Peak day pass to both areas, you can hop off Big Sky’s Challenger lift, ski Moonlight Basin’s incredible cliffs for the afternoon, and traverse back into Big Sky in time for happy hour at the base.

If you are doing this in the height of winter, you are battling the out-of-town hordes. But few of the traveling elite are going to book that week-long ski vacation in April. When the wealthier among us move on to oiling up those $6,000 road bikes and planning their summer trips, that’s the time when Big Sky reverts back to the locals.

My annual salary is probably the same as what a rich person spends on ski clothes each year. But by April, we were able to find free vouchers to both ski areas at our local ski shops. And they were practically giving away rooms at the massive lodge at Big Sky. There’s usually a deal to be found for bargain hunters if you wait till the end of the year.

Of course, you’re taking a chance that the snow won’t be there. We dodged a few rocks, some of them bigger than others. But it was a great snow year at Big Sky. On Saturday, we skied warm spring slush. And when a sneaky spring storm moved in on Sunday, we were able to ski a few inches of fresh powder on closing day. Not bad for the last day of the season.

Next spring, I’ll be dreaming again of having the Matterhorn all to myself. From Missoula, it’s only a four-hour drive. It’s good to know normal folks can enjoy world-class terrain in their own backyard – with a little patience and a late storm or two.

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