Welcome to Yellowstone Country. Big Sky is Your Extreme Family Experience. Are you up for it?
The Montana Vibe
You know you’ve arrived in Montana USA when the first thing to see are two large moose drinking down at the river as you drive along the highway. Driving towards Big Sky town there’s a good chance you’ll see between two to 100 snow mobiles ridden in groups or by a solo rider, with many parked out the front of gorgeous timber riverside cabins and homes. What a lifestyle!
Big Sky Snow Resort
As North America’s third largest snow resort, there is a good reason Big Sky doesn’t get talked about excessively (shhhhhh, it’s the kind of place you want to keep to yourself). Big Sky retains that authentic Montana feel, while maintaining a fleet of 40 chairlifts including multiple state-of-the-art heated bubble chairlifts, new rope tow and a brand new Lone Peak Tram that lifts visitors up to Lone Peak’s 11,166 feet with a vertical drop of 4350 feet.
Access to Lone Peak is now included in your lift ticket and you can access the tram via a green run from Swift Current 6 lift. Be prepared to line up for 20 minutes or so if it’s busy (go to the loo, no loo at the top!) as the lift limits the number of passengers for safety reasons and to preserve the ski experience on the summit.
Terrain
Big Sky’s terrain is divided into 50% beginner and intermediate and 50% advanced/expert over four separate mountain areas and has an annual snowfall of 400 inches or 10 metres. Despite a vertical drop of 4350 feet, It is interesting how many younger children are skiing what looks to be more challenging terrain than you might see at many other international resorts. You’ll read why below…
For first timers, Big Sky has four long magic carpet beginner areas at the base. The uphill travelator is an undercover tunnel so even in heavy snow conditions learners get to stay warm and dry.
Hire a Guide to Familiarise Yourself
On the first day of your Big Sky holiday we recommend hiring a guide to show you around. This place is so VAST, with 5850 acres across the four mountains, you can ski or ride here for the next decade and still find unexplored terrain. Our Argentinian guide, Pedro has done 41 seasons back to back between Northern and Southern Hemisphere snow resorts and this is his second season in Big Sky. “I love the freeride vibe Big Sky has. Terrain can be rugged, steep and challenging with steep trees, chutes and hikes to some gullies. One of the coolest things about this mountain is that you can ski 270 degrees so you can choose where to ski where conditions are better for that day. Headwaters and Challenger are my favorite lifts for this type of terrain. It’s such a huge place with all kinds of challenging terrain including lots of blue and black tree runs. My favorite area is the Lone Tree chairlift where you will find really long glade runs that kids can’t get enough of. Another fun thing for young kids Big Sky has is an Adventure Map. This has special areas to explore and when you find the places on the map you get stickers”.
Lone Peak
Tasked with a mixed age group aged 11 to adults, Pedro took us on a few groomers and powder runs, constantly assessing our ability, experience and attitudes in a variety of conditions. Big Sky put in the Lone Peak tram during the 2023/24 snow season, transporting skiers and riders to 11,166 feet. Once at the summit, the options are a black diamond descent or a sightseeing return down on the tram. It might sound daunting to try but for confident and capable kids there are safe routes down. “Lone Peak mountain, as rugged and steep as it might look, has an easier way down, which is a run called Liberty Bowl, a steep ungroomed black diamond. To get to it you have a series of switchbacks known as the Yeti traverse making it easy to navigate the first few meters of the mountain. Conditions can vary a lot depending on weather and time of the season so I highly recommend hiring a guide to show you where and when is the best time for this type of adventure”, advises Pedro.
Liberty Bowl
Pedro guided our eleven year old daughter down from this elevation with so much care, it made the descent seem easy. He then spent the afternoon showing the sixteen year old and eighteen year old boys around the mountains, from a few more tram runs, challenging hikes on the North face to chutes. Followed by leftover powder tree runs after the previous night’s snowfall that hadn’t been skied out yet.
Bowls
Big Sky has wonderful bowls accessible to a range of abilities, from Liberty Bowl to Stillwater and Deepwater Bowls (black diamond). These last two are accessible by double or triple black chutes that require ski patrol to sight your ability before they can sign you off to be here. This is not to say children can’t be in these bowls, many hard-core youngsters have these bowls set firmly in their sights and do it with their parents.
Dan Egan runs three day courses open to intermediate + skiers and Andrew from Wanaka, New Zealand was lucky enough to take part. Andrew chose Big Sky Resort as a destination because it was not overly commercial, while having incredible mountains and all the facilities on the mountain that you need. Andrew knew Dan Egan by reputation, once Andrew signed up to receive Big Sky Resort newsletters, he saw Dan was running this particular course fortuitously while his family was going to be there. “It’s not a technical course, it’s a three day course for ages 15+, focusing on the mental side of skiing. Becoming more aggressive, shaking the doubt out of skiing and freeing yourself up from your critical mind”. Over the three days Dan slowly builds the group towards the final day by taking the group down the Liberty Bowl then checking if everyone is capable of going to the next step. “The progression is about removing the mysteries, you get a full briefing the first morning and eat dinner together the second night. We discussed letting go of negativities and conquering your fears. On the final day everyone heads up the tram and drops off the North summit triple black, but you’re not freaked out as you’ve been up that tram before”. Andrew’s course had an assortment of ability levels in the 30 to late 60s age group, including one snowboarder”. He’s confident kids 15+ could do this course, he really couldn’t speak highly enough about it.
Avalanche Courses
A terrific place to do some avalanche education, Big Sky is host to a series of BSAFE avalanche courses provided throughout the season. Learn group dynamics, and decision making in Avalanche terrain, learn how to do stability tests and interpret, record and share data and stay safe in the mountains. Do it as a family or join the group . Email ADVENTUREQUESTMT@AOL.COM or 406-599-4008 to book.
Women’s Courses
Big Sky hosts a women-specific weekly program called Calamity Janes, aimed at helping women develop new skills on all terrains. These are half day group lessons based out of the Madison base area over six weeks. Head to www.bigskyresort.com/lessons/master-the-mountain for more info.
Adaptive Sports
Eagle Mount Adaptive sports organisation has teamed up with Big Sky to elevate your adaptive skiing experience. Established for over 40 years, this organisation has agreements with Big Sky providing priority lift lines, adaptive-certified ski instructors and guides, multi-week programs and cross country ski lessons. Visit eaglemount.org for info.
Apres Ski
Many snow resorts might have apres-ski but we hadn’t experienced apres ski this authentically European-style in the USA like this before. Down in the Mountain Village Plaza between 3pm to 6pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday, this place goes OFF with a DJ, dancing, jumping around and drinks. Dress warmly. Head to www.bigskyresort.com/events/music for extensive info on music and the apres scene.
Kids
A great place to take the whole family, the children are well-catered for at Big Sky. Come and construct S’Mores (marshmallows, chocolate and biscuits) next to the fire in a forest clearing out the front of the Huntley. Buy a ticket to ride the Ramcharger 8 Wednesday to Saturdays and experience a lightfilled forest atop Andesite Mountain. It’s a fun thing to do as a family if you can stay up that late after skiing (5pm-8pm). www.bigskyresort.com/winter-activities/enchanted-forest.
Accommodation
There is a wide variety of accommodation options, ranging from AirBnb to ski-in, ski-out from independently owned to resort-managed with the full range of pricing. One thing to note, if you’re staying at the Huntley hotel, the Summit Hotel or any of the condos and rental properties booked through Big Sky directly they can also help you book family activities. These include The Enchanted Forest walk, Nordic skiing, Headlamp night skiing and the Solace Spa at the Huntley, Snow-go biking (a bike with a ski at the front and the back) and dog-sledding, available 20 minutes from the Big Sky snow resort base.
They can also help you with activities located further away, such as snow mobiling and snow coach tours in Yellowstone just one 1 hour away. If you’d like to try snowmobiling but want to stay locally, Summit All Terrain, just 20 minutes from Big Sky offers snow mobile ‘show up and ride’ experiences or pre-programmed GPS scenic rides on Polaris snowmobiles . Renters must be 25+ and all drivers must be 18+, 2 hour or full day rides available. It’s a great way to enjoy the views of Lone Mountain, Spanish Peaks, Sphinx Mountain and Taylor Peak. Visit www.summitatr.com for more info.
Dining
Dining can be booked at Everitt’s 8800 restaurants for an a la carte lunch or dinner. Montana Dinner yurt – take a snowcat up the mountain (ride on top or on the inside) to the yurt – French onion soup and bread and dinner is Filet Mignon with pepper corn sauce, garlic mash and sauteed vegetables, toblerone dessert chocolate fondue for $229 adults, $189 for kids.
Sleigh ride dinner at Lone Mountain Ranch, a 13 minute drive from the Big Sky base area. family style prime rib dinner $160 per person. Potato and Leek soup, sourdough with honey butter. Main course is salt and pepper crusted prime rib, smoked turkey pot pie, creme fraiche mash potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and bacon and garlic butter roasted vegetables with an apple Huckleberry Cobbler a la mode as dessert.
Yellowstone National Park
You can tell immediately this Western corner of the iconic Yellowstone National Park comes alive as a summer destination. Signage along the highway tells travellers trout fishing, wildlife tours , photography tours and wildlife tourism are the bread and butter of these towns.
It’s a ‘Three Dog Day’
Winter is also an important time for West Yellowstone tourism and a popular thing to do is spend a couple of nights in West Yellowstone and go snowmobiling for a day or two. You can dress as warmly as you like but riding an open vehicle, like a snowmobile for 60 miles (100km) in a single day requires a level of ‘dressing warmly’ you may not have thought possible. With heavy duty jackets and gloves provided you will ride all day and it is common to have a ‘3 dog day’, seeing wolves, coyotes and foxes as well as come up and close to bison and moose. Choose self-drive or guided tour options but renters need to be 25+, riders 18+ and it is recommended to hire a guide for the full experience.
Location: Big Sky, Montana USA
Famous for: Specular scenery, black diamond chutes, proximity to Yellowstone National Park
Elevation: 7,500ft (base area) to 11,166ft (summit)
Lifts: 40
Ski School/s: Yes
Terrain Park: Five, including new dedicated rope tow for 2025
Pass: Ikon Pass + Mountain Collective
Accessible travel: Eagle Mount Adaptive Sports
Best for: Families, fans of early afternoon apres-ski, snowboarding allowed at this resort.
