Big Sky Resort Blog

Who's ready to ski?

dax — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:13:00 -0500

Hmmm, winter is well on its way and off to a great start with a September 30th storm blanketing the base area with 5 inches with even more up top. Remember to watch this feature as we get ready for opening day on November 26th where we'll share all the secrets and stories from the mountain from a first person perspective.

We'll see you out there,

Dax

Ponds, Plake, Carvy Corn

ZachRitter — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:52:00 -0500

The last TWISI for the 08-09 season, it certainly finished with a bang, thousands of people flocked to Big Sky for the pond skim for a record closing weekend! We hosted Glen Plake, had perfect blue-bird conditions and the spring skiing was amazing.

I’ll combine a few days, because each one was a blast as I booted up Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We were hosting Glen Plake for a television show and he likes to ski big terrain, our first run of the day was the Big Couloir and after some turns in the Bowl, we all went zip-lining to fly through the tree tops. We hosted a party in the Whiskey Jack’s that was truly memorable while Plake signed autographs all through the afternoon and evening.

Saturday was even bigger, all the overflow parking filled up as we have officially created a “can’t miss” event with the Spring Run-Off. With tons of terrain open, the mountain spread everyone out and we skied off of TU, just to the right of 6th Gully. I had never skied that terrain before, but spring snow has a nice way of sticking to the steeps when we have the big, late snowfalls of the past 2 seasons. I got through clean and Glen was giving me advice on how to better keep my skis to the ground in exposed terrain. Quite honestly, lessons from Glen are appreciated and flattering, but I’m not sure standing above cliffs below a giant cornice is exactly the place to try “new things”. We finished the day slurping up springy corn on Elk Park Ridge, Congo and Blackfoot.

For the afternoon it was the big show to the double ponds, Chad hosted a spectacularly successful event and with the team of Lindsey, Chris, Jenny, Anthony and the MC talent of Brandon Bang, it couldn’t have went better or smoother while people were swimming in the icy waters under the blue sky. The terrain park crew really outdid themselves with two giant ponds (the second one was a step down from the first). They did an amazing job all season and definitely had their finest work for the crowds to ooh and ahh for the finishing event.

Glen even joined in the fun for a ballet act in the run-in, then to a successful skim across the first pond and a crowd pleasing flip straight into the second one. Following the pond skim action, the crowd went to the plaza for the live band, Politician, playing a solid show.

Sunday was more sunshine and we went toward the A-Z chutes and the Pinnacles as the sun would be softening up the snow to a perfect corn consistency. With the film crew in tow, we were greeted with amazing views and Glen took the time for photos and fist pumps to all the folks walking by. With the corn, we finished the season with a couple of Challenger laps, and you’ve heard me say before, I find spring snow to be a close second to deep powder, something about how well you can edge really ups the fun factor for me.

We finished with Logan joining us for some ballet lessons down Mr. K. I’ll be honest I did not take to it immediately, but I suspect Logan was enough of a natural that we should not be surprised to see him pull a few moves with his Tram friends next season.

We’d like to thank everyone for making it such a memorable season, I’m hopeful you enjoyed reading about our days on the mountain and hope you’re already making plans to join us next year for the biggest skiing in America.

We’ll see you out there,

Dax

Sun and Spring Snow

dax — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:28:00 -0500

Ahh, now is the time to be outside skiing, the sun is shining bright, the temperature is comfortable and the snowpack is the deepest it will be all season. After a season of making efforts to coordinate a ski with Jules from our accounting team, I actually made a meeting request to make sure today would be the day. Jules is enjoying his first winter in Big Sky having moved here from Westchester, PA. This guy is serious about skiing, getting out every day that he can. Just a short 10 years ago, I had a similar position to what Jules does today.

We started up Swift Current and the day was absolutely gorgeous, but don’t forget the sunscreen with the deep blue skies. We rolled to the Triple and took a South Wall bowl lap to get the legs warmed up. The snow was really nice to sink an edge into and we blasted down the run. We were watching people screaming down the gullies so we made that our next mission. The Tram line was jovial seeing many friends from Victor, to Barb (the newest Tram junky of the 08-09 season), Lee, Heiselman and on and on. It was all smiles while losing track of time visiting and before we knew it we were loading onto the tram dock and were on top of the world. Today was one when you could see the Tetons and a great look at Cedar. (see right)

We skied Otter Slide which was nice and chalky and completely clean, then off to upper Marx for the Gullies traverse. I took 2nd from the top and made the late season decision to try out 3rd gully to the bottom. As good as the top was, I couldn’t quite keep my rhythm and got myself constricted in the constriction, but that’s OK, I made my way through and we snuck off toward the Turkey Traverse for another South Wall route.

We decided to go all the way to Exit Chute and then cut that hard right to the final turns above the Jay Walk. At the top we decided that we had better work our way back to our offices, but I was completely surprised to find really creamy, winter powder on that section. It was so good I had to call Jules in for a change of game plans to do it one more time. We spun around and Jules took the lead off the traverse. This guy is charging way bigger lines than anything I would have considered doing 10 years ago, he’s already skied the Big Couloir in his first season, something that might have taken me five years to muster up the courage. I like his aggressive style, perfect complement to this mountain and its lines.

I took him to my favorite finish which is Rice Bowl to Buffalo Jump, as expected, we found more powder on the north facing wall of steeps through the trees and then were greeted with spring time softening cream for the kickers in Buffalo Jump.

There are only five days left on this season, you’d be crazy not to finish strong, I know I plan to.

We’ll see you out there,

Dax

Awesome! Totally Awesome!

ChadJones — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:11:00 -0500

This week has been a whirlwind of powder, sunshine and more powder. Starting on Saturday night and on into Sunday we received upward of 20 inches on the upper mountain and the snow just hasn’t stopped falling. As of Thursday night we have received what I estimate to be close to 4ft in the past five days and more is expected overnight. Is there such a thing as too much snow? Absolutely not, but I can tell you that everyone that has been skiing here for the past week, including myself, has turned into zombies with Jello for legs after tearing through feet after feet of new snow.

Tuesday was an incredible day with good friends, great snow and a little sunshine. The forecast had been calling for only an inch overnight, but lone peak got lucky and got about 10 inches. I spent the day on Challenger with skiers Kyle and Chris, along with fellow boarders RC and Cameron. We headed straight for Outer Limits (which was untouched) and then above the Moonlight Cliffs. With RC in position taking photos I went first and boosted a nice sized drop straight into thigh deep snow and immediately tumbled down the run out. Next, Cameron dropped the same cliff that I just ate it on and rode away smooth, making it look much easier then I did. Up next was Chris who without hesitation launched the cliff straight to an epic faceplant. The powder was so deep that Chris was all smiles even after going face first into the snow upon landing a 20ft+ drop.

We stayed over on challenger for the remainder of the day, riding up an empty lift and skiing down empty powder runs. It was a very relaxing powder day as there was no pressure to ski something before others got to it simply because there was too much snow and too few skiers. We ended the day with a run down the Pinnacles, which is an absolutely breathtaking run do to the incredible rock formations from top to bottom. I often think of the Pinnacles as a fun run due to the views, but not necessarily for the deepest snow as it sloughs out a lot. But today was different, the snow was deep from the get go as I watched the guys make nearly waist deep turns around upper set of pinnacles. The snow was good enough that I decided to take one of my favorite lines on the mountain, the short but super narrow chute at the bottom skiers left of the Pinnacles. After a sketchy second of commitment the chute opens open into a powder field above Upper Morning Star where you can make some hero turns and comfortable slow yourself down.

Wednesday I was totally worn out from consecutive powder days and met back up with RC to get some powder shots. We strayed away from the usual stomping grounds off the tram for another day on challenger. We had received another 5-8 inches overnight and the cliff hucking was back on. We went back and got a few more shots of the Moonlight cliffs then cruised the trees and meadows near Midnight and Moonlight. You couldn’t have asked for a better day; empty slopes, sunshine and waist deep pow. Unbelievable! We ended the day on a high note riding Little Tree, which was riding better than I have ever seen it, and into the open powder below.

And finally today, Thursday April 2nd. In the words of Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times At Ridgemont High: Awesome! Totally Awesome! I made it back to the peak for another day of Tram laps. With so many faces and aspects on Lone Peak, usually some areas are super deep and others may be a little wind/sun affected, but today everything was DEEP. The skiing was quite honestly what I would expect to find after being dropped off by a helicopter deep in the Canadian Rockies. The line was short so a did a few Gullies laps and found consistent thigh deep snow with the occasional waist deep turn, but dropping into Crons I was making some turns that nearly buried me. I met up with fellow employee and Lone Peak ripper Dan and we made a discovery that I cannot speak of, but let me tell you it was on the south face and it was crazy deep. I then met up with Craig for a few more laps in the afternoon. It had been snowing so hard that runs I took earlier in the day were even deeper and fresher now. We busted down the south face then to Rice bowl for some extra deep lower mountain turns then met up with everyone’s favorite ticket checker Benny A for a final waist deep Challenger lap to end the day. If you haven’t been skiing Big Sky this week I feel sorry for you, because it has undoubtedly been the best skiing of the year. We only have ten more days left in the season, but there’s plenty of snow on the mountain and even more on the way so get up here while you can.

Shred the Gnar,

Chris.

Still Winter at Big Sky

dax — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:08:00 -0500

I hope you’ve been enjoying all the different voices writing about all the snow at Big Sky, I figured after all these years of writing, it’s time for others to have the fun. But today was just too deep to sit back in silence any longer.

I rolled into town late last night following a fun Saturday ski afternoon at another Montana ski hill near Helena, but before I had left I snaked a bunch of powder days when the snow was flying Monday through Wednesday. It’s always amazing to me when we’re buried in snow on the mountain that often the rest of the state is dry and wide. With no snow for miles outside the windshield, as I got within 15 miles of Big Sky the big flakes were piling up and I knew Sunday was back to winter in Big Sky.

I joined Jodi, a new local who is just learning to ski powder. We began with a Rice Bowl that had loaded in with 18 inches of fluffy, light white stuff. I toured her through the trees to Bufallo Jump where we found even more powder. We rolled back up Swifty and took the Triple to ski Never Sweat, this was where I experienced my first face shots of the day.

With the winter storm pounding around us, we made the strategic decision to stop by Pinnacle at the top of Andesite for some delicious hot chocolate, it gave us all the energy we needed to ski the loaded up snow in Crazy Raven to the creamy moguls of Mad Wolf. In here the face shots were slapping me turn after turn and I needed to time out my breathing to avoid snow inhalation. Jodi was doing great working her way down through the soft, new snow.

We caught up with Craig and Courtney for our final run down Congo at 4 p.m. This mountain is simply too big to be really tracked up and sure enough we found more untouched snow at the end of the day, knee deep was the consistent coverage and it rolled up the legs in between the trees.

It’s been snowing while I’ve written this and sure it’s late in the season and we’ve had a lot of powder, but it would be a sin to not start making plans to ski this week, just think of the fresh memories you’ll have to take you through the upcoming spring and summer.

We’ll see you out there,

Dax

Spring Storm

ChadJones — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:42:00 -0500

Wow,

What a day. I arrived in town last night to warm wet weather and went to sleep last night in Bozeman to pouring rain. Que supreso, when I woke up to all this white stuff frozen to my car. As I drove towards Big Sky the snowfall increased and so did the coverage, as I began my work day the snowfall continued to pile up outside.

At noon I had the privilege of heading out to the hill with a photographer, granted not a great day for photos but a pretty great day for making turns. We began our day on Ponderosa hoping for a few breaks in the clouds, instead we found shin to knee deep turns all the way down and very little wind.

A trip up SoCo led us to Tippy’s as we headed back towards the front-side. More knee deep turns as we ducked in and out of the trees. The trees were nice, they added some protection from the wind and a little contrast to the snow on the ground and in the air.

We moved to Swifty for a different look and headed up. The top was a full on winter storm, with low visibility, lots of snow and a bit of wind. We moved to Rice Bowl and Crazy Horse for some more deep stuff.

A quick lunch in Whiskey Jack’s was had to try and wait for clearing clouds and a photo opportunity. As we left the restaurant, the base area was pleasant and the snow had let up. We ventured back out and stepped onto Swifty to take another gander. As we neared the top it became evident that the storm was still in full effect. We headed towards Morning Star to move out of the weather and had some great powder turns down the hill.

We didn’t shoot many pictures but we made some great turns despite the storm. I can’t wait for tomorrow.

Chad

Killin' it New York Style

ChadJones — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:23:00 -0500

As I sit down to write this reflecting on the past few days, all I can say is wow! Saturday and Sunday were wonderful sunny days punctuated with some ominous snow clouds rolling through.

Monday brought us some wind but with it, the prospect of snow and now as I type these words, the snow has arrived. I spent the day riding with my buddies George (Big G), George (Little G) and Chase from New York, shreddin' the mountain.

We went everywhere, but mostly the parks and I have to say what an amazing job our park crew has done this year. The terrain park crew keeps it fresh and new in all four of our parks and they are in the process of a Swifty park redesign.

The New Yorkers really know how to wear me out, and numerous runs through the park will certainly do it to these old bones. Luckily I have taken on the role as photographer and videographer so while carrying the gear I can avoid hurting, or more importantly embarrassing myself, on the features.

We started at 9am and took a warm-up on some smooth carvy groomers. Half a run down Ponderosa was enough to loosen the legs of the crew so we quickly headed to Ambush park where Little G and Chase scoped the hits. From there it was a quick trip through the rails and to the Big Kahuna, the huge hit at the bottom of Ambush. We all took turns testing our speed, which as it turns out, is significant, but what a sweet jump.

We moved to Swifty Park for a rail and jump session and then hit Crazy Horse for some fun wall hits and the bobsled run. After lunch at the Pinnacles we hit the Ambush Park again where Little G and Chase honed their skills on the hits and went big.

A decision was made to take a non-park run so we headed to Wardance and found some great snow in the trees on the steep pitch. The New Yorkers killed it. Big G parted ways to do some mogul skiing on Crazy Raven and the rest of us hit the parks again.

As the 3 o'clock hour neared the snow arrived in force and we decided another Rice Bowl to Crazy Horse run was necessary. A park run and a quick break led us to decide on Wounded Knee as the last run of the day, another good choice for some stashes. We finished with knuckle bumps in the base a called it a day.

It’s always super fun when George and his crew come out for a visit and I can't wait until next year when they return for some more action and adventure. What a great way to spend the last few days sun, fun, friends and snow.

See you on the slopes.

Chad

A Quick Taste of Freedom.

ChadJones — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:52:00 -0500

“I’m about to drop into TU!” my friend Jeff yells to me through the phone as I sit on Swifty. I look up and see a few faint specs above the cornice far lookers left of the gullies. I wish my buddy luck in his venture down one of Big Sky’s steepest and most exposed routes down Lone Peak and hang up the phone. A few seconds later I see Jeff drop in over the ridge, make about 4 high speed risky turns and then with a puff of smoke he goes down just above the rocks. His ski pops off as he continues to slide. Luckily, Jeff keeps his composure and is able to grab his ski and stop himself from sliding into the sheer, rocky face below. He gets himself together and weaves his way through the constriction at the bottom of TU and I meet him at the Triple chair. Unfazed, Jeff laughs about his close-encounter with Lone Peak’s rocky steeps as we make our way to the Tram.

We walked onto the first tram that came down and boarded it with a large crew of Tram Line regulars including Shane and Nate. A group of about five of us headed down the typical route for a day with no tram line: Otter Slide to Marx to Gullies and out at Crons. The wind had been blowing around the snow from the previous storm, filling in the tracks and giving the powder a new life. I lapped the Gullies three times with the same loosely defined crew and then decided to test out Lenin. Lenin was just as carvable as the gullies and offered consistent snow conditions from top to bottom.

That was yesterday; today I met up with Big Sky employees Eric, Dan and Jason in the tram line. They were headed to the Dakota Bowl and asked me if I would like to join them, and of course I did. We cut across the top of Liberty and entered through the gate. The top of the bowl was a little windblown but fun nonetheless. Towards the bottom the snow became nice and soft, allowing us to really open up our turns. We then cut skiers right below the Kircher Cliffs where we found some nice pockets of powder and Dan even busted a line through a narrow little chute. After our trip out to Dakota I split with the crew and went up for some more tram laps. The clouds and snow rolled in just as I was getting back up, creating some rather extreme conditions. A took a few laps riding up in empty tram cars and then coming down Marx and the Dictator Chutes. After four runs on the upper mountain I admitted defeat to Lone Peak and headed back to work; worn out and completely satisfied.

See you out there,

Chris

Powder, Powder, Powder

dax — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:58:00 -0500

If you’re like me you start your day with a call to the snow phone; and when I heard the friendly voice say a foot of snow overnight, you know that is a better jolt to the system than a cup of coffee. For us desk jockey’s occasionally the snow doesn’t fit perfectly within our meeting schedules, so my first order of business was to move a few meetings around and I cleared a couple of hours before lunch. Brandon was doing the same thing, even making calls from Ramcharger and before we knew it, our skis were pointed down Congo for our most important task of the day, skiing powder!

With knee deep turns on still completely untouched powder bumps, it was effortless and silky snow in the trees with the occasional face shot at the bottom of the cream filled troughs. We loved the skiing and quite honestly we could have spun 5 more laps of the exact same run with each one getting to choose another untouched line, but we wanted to take advantage of this meeting by tipping the steepness factor.

The best place to do that when time is limited is the Challenger chair and we decided to check out the north side of the biggest skiing in America with a run down Cold Springs. The snow was piling up to the boot tops and above and I watched patiently at the top as Brandon worked his way from top to bottom of this fun run.

We spun up Headwaters and crossed the gate back to Big Sky for some untouched turns at the left side of Country Club, then over to Moonlight (the ski run) and into the Midnight Trees. The trees on Challenger was where it was at, (see the photo), it was consistently soft and fresh and hardly touched by noon. I tried to air next to the Outer Limits cliffs but the take-off turned into nothing more than super-light snow that kept me on the ground. Brandon followed suit but ended up veering right to be creamed with chest deep snow rolling up his jacket.

We stayed on Challenger with the snow so good and took a BRT North into the trees for more powder turns before we finished to get back to our shared conference call, I’d say we planned this day perfectly, how was your day in the office?

Oh, it’s not too late if you missed out on today, the weather service is calling for another 10 inches on top of this 18 inch storm cycle, just remember to time your breathing while the snow is floating around your face, I’ve got the good fortune to get to show some folks around Big Sky, I think they’ll be impressed.

We’ll see you out there,
Dax

Tales of a First Tram Experience

ChadJones — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:30:00 -0500

So in the last ‘The Way I Ski It’ I said that the little British Snow Reporter had not yet mastered the Peak. I wouldn’t say ‘mastered’ is quite the right word yet, but I am very proud to say that I skied the Tram for the first time this weekend!

I was riding up Swifty and Paul, who I was skiing with that day, said that it would be a perfect opportunity to try out the top of the mountain. I couldn’t really argue; it was a beautiful blue-bird day, the wind was minimal and there was still plenty of snow left from the big powder dump we had a few days before. Still, I have to admit I felt a little trepidation at the prospect; I mean, this is what I’ve been trying to work up to all season.

We headed up the Triple and skied down to the Tram line, where we ended up just behind a couple of other Big Sky locals. I got chatting to Jodi from Accounting and found that, same as me, it was her first time up to the Peak. So there was not one, but two Tram virgins on the ride up to the top!

Upon exiting the Tram car, the view was both breathtaking and intimidating: the scenery was absolutely spectacular, with the sky so clear you could see all the way to the Tetons, but at the same time I saw that the only way to go was down. Straight down. And to me, it looked a long way. Jodi and I both stood wondering why we had decided to do this, with the guys telling us we really had nothing to worry about. A few deep breaths later, I resolutely stepped into my skis.

Liberty Bowl is one of the easier runs off the Peak – I admit now that it really isn’t any steeper than the Bowl, it’s just longer and, to a first-time Peak skier, it’s a little scarier to get to. I made my way down the first part very slowly and carefully, with Paul very patiently staying not too far ahead of me as I tried to persuade myself that it really wasn’t all that bad. I fell once near the top – possibly more due to nerves than anything else – but once I got into the swing of things I found that far from being the traumatic challenge I had been anticipating, I was actually really enjoying myself. The snow was perfect for me, a few inches of tracked powder to give me the confidence that if I fell could stop, and enough to give my legs a pretty good work out! The slope was long and wide, with plenty of space to stay clear of the few other skiers around. Once she got going, Jodi looked awesome skiing down to the left of me, while I took my time making turns down the middle of the run, working up my speed as my confidence increased.

By the time I reached the bottom, my legs were pretty tired, but oh was I happy that I’d made it! Paul and I then proceeded along Sunlight, which true to its name had been basking in the sun all morning and had some lovely buttery snow all the way down to Shedhorn. We rode the chair back up, and headed back around on the Duck Walk. Calamity Jane was fun to speed down on our way back to the base area, and I swear we hardly saw another soul the entire way down.

Once back in the base area, I decided I deserved a drink to celebrate my achievement, so we sat out in the sun on the deck of the Carabiner for a well-earned beer.

Bring on the next day I can get out and try to conquer the Peak again!

Jenny