The Way I Ski It: Big Sky Resort's Blog

 
Rider George Matelich and skier Liam McEnroe revel in the fresh pow this morning

USUALLY THE SKI SKINNY is a weekly affair, posted each Thursday or Friday in anticipation of a weekend on the slopes.  But weather has shifted dramatically since the last Skinny, and we think it warrants an extra update.  
 
Last week and this weekend, conditions were spring-like, to say the least.  But this morning we woke again to winter in Big Sky, and we’re in full-on powder mode with eight fresh inches of snow last night and temperatures in the 20s.

This comes in addition to another seven inches in the last 48 hours and puts Big Sky at over 20 inches of snow in the last week.  And with Tram access intermittent over several of the last ski days, many of those 20 inches have stayed untouched.  That means lots of fresh tracks on fluffy pow off the top of Lone Peak, where temperatures stay colder even on spring-like days. 

On Friday, we suggested you stick to your all-mountain skis.  But today, we’re changing our tune:  find the fattys in your quiver and hit the powder mountain-wide.

-  Greer

Get the skinny on all things snow with the weekly Ski Skinny on The Way I Ski It.  It’s a special conditions report with intel on snow quality, where to head on the hill, and expert advice on what to pull from your quiver to get the most out of your day on the slopes.  Fatty pow skis or groomer go-tos?  Get the skinny here.

Sun and warmer temperatures?  Spring skiing is here.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG at Big Sky, and spring skiing is in full swing.  With warmer days and breezes hitting the mountain mid last week, you’ll need to be in-the-know to find the best snow pockets.

If you’re looking for powder, stay up top for the best conditions – the heart of The Dictators and The Gullies are smooth and carvy.  The go-to stash in Rice Bowl is also skiing nicely, with deep pockets throughout.

While the forecast is calling for snow all this weekend and next week, temperatures are staying warm.  That means grab your all-mountain skis and hit the Tram for colder temps and drier snow. 

-Greer

Get the skinny on all things snow with the weekly Ski Skinny on The Way I Ski It.  It’s a special conditions report with intel on snow quality, where to head on the hill, and expert advice on what to pull from your quiver to get the most out of your day on the slopes.  Fatty pow skis or groomer go-tos?  Get the skinny here.

WITH 5,532 SKIABLE acres, Big Sky Resort and Moonlight Basin make up The Biggest Skiing in America.   But a big claim like that is about more than just stats.  It’s about expanse and variety. It's about elbow room and attitude. It’s about an entire experience.

Nothing exemplifies this more than the North Summit Snowfield – the expert run off of 11,166-foot Lone Peak that requires a joint Biggest Skiing in America lift ticket, signing out with Ski Patrol, and some sizeable cojones to descend.   It’s the kind of big, gnarly skiing you only find in the backcountry or cat skiing – but accessible by the Lone Peak Tram.

Just last week, my friend Katie and I were North Summit virgins.  We both have hundreds of Big Sky ski days under our belts, but when you’re exploring as much terrain as Big Sky offers, there’s always something left to discover.  

For us that was the North Summit, so we enlisted the help of Moonlight ski patroller Pete Owens and North Summit vets Lyndsey Owens and Chad Jones.  Newbies are encouraged to bring a guide for their first trips down to reduce the possibility of taking a wrong turn off the side of a cliff, and we had recruited the best.

It was a bluebird day, the snow was smooth and wind-buffed, and we braced ourselves for a heart-pounding descent.  As longtime local Meg O’Leary describes it, the North Summit Snowfield is like an extreme version of a run on Marx, then First Gully, then Lenin, all in succession.  Meg famously guided now avy-certified Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake down the snowfield last winter.  I yelled to Katie as we made the steep traverse to our entry point - If Jess and Justin could do it, so could we!

And we did – following Pete to make powdery turns down the sheer face before sidestepping and traversing to more of the wide-open steep and deep.  And while maybe we didn’t rip it like a hardcore ski pro, or even like Jessica Biel, this terrain was straight out of a Warren Miller movie: for our turns on the North Summit Snowfield, we all felt like ski celebrities.

This, I thought, is the Biggest Skiing in America.

-  Greer 

Katie Grice and Pete Owens pause during a traverse on the North Summit Snowfield


Chad Jones and Lyndsey Owens make turns down a narrow chute on the North Summit


Greer descends smooth, wind-buffed powder.


North-facing snow stays soft for Lyndsey Owens

BLUE SKIES and falling snow were on a perfectly rotating schedule last week, hitting Big Sky with multiple bluebird powder days - the ultimate in ski conditions.  With comfortable temperatures and calm breezes, the peak was smooth and carvy this afternoon. Lenin was chalky up top and progressively softer towards the bottom, making for spring ski conditions from Upper Sunlight down. 

For the best turns this weekend, break out your all-mountain skis and enjoy another gorgeous blue sky weekend.  Then get ready for more powder - snow will start falling again on Sunday night and stay steady throughout the week. 

 -  Greer

Get the skinny on all things snow with the weekly Ski Skinny on The Way I Ski It.  It’s a special conditions report with intel on snow quality, where to head on the hill, and expert advice on what to pull from your quiver to get the most out of your day on the slopes.  Fatty pow skis or groomer go-tos?  Get the skinny here.

Chamberlin Rail Jam 2012 at Big Sky Resort from Big Sky Resort on Vimeo.

ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENTS usually dominate Big Sky’s live music scene, and venues like Whiskey Jack’s are known for killer bluegrass (the Big Sky Big Grass festival has hosted Grammy winners Peter Rowan and Sam Bush), and solid Montana country and rock.

But last weekend, Big Sky went electronic and hip hop when The Crystal Method and Atmosphere rocked two packed outdoor shows at The Chamberlin Rail Jam. 

Skiers and riders caught big air on a custom built terrain park, then hit the concerts while Ullr delivered fresh powder for hitting the slopes.  Check out the video to see a whole new side of Big Sky.

-  Greer

ANOTHER SNOWY WEEK, with nearly a foot in the last seven days and 40" over the course of the storm cycle. That means it's been snowing consistently every day for the last three weeks, delivering over three feet of powder.  Is there any left to ski?  Big time. 

For tram skiers, everything on the peak is skiing great, with fresh tracks up for the taking.  Lower down, you'll find a cool creamy cover with untracked snow on much of Upper Morning Star and in parts of The Bowl.  With a little hunting off-piste on Andesite, you'll find untouched snow no problem. 

That means it's a Powder Ski weekend - hands down. And keep them close at hand all week - the NOAA foecast is calling for a perfect mix of more snowfall and bluebird days.  After snow all day today and Saturday, Sunday and Monday will reveal blue skies before more powder falls early next week.

-  Greer

Get the skinny on all things snow with the weekly Ski Skinny on The Way I Ski It.  It’s a special conditions report with intel on snow quality, where to head on the hill, and expert advice on what to pull from your quiver to get the most out of your day on the slopes.  Fatty pow skis or groomer go-tos?  Get the skinny here.

Tim Cowie rips fresh tracks.

THIS WEEKEND BIG SKY is rolling out the Fast Pass program, where guests can reserve a timeslot for a walk-on ride up the Lone Peak Tram.

With an average of 2,000 skiers per day spread out over 3,832 acres of the Biggest Skiing in America, Big Sky skiers know that waiting in lift lines isn’t an issue. 

The one caveat has been the Lone Peak Tram, where arriving at the peak with a mere 14 other skiers for endless fresh lines on a powder day makes a couple of tram cars well worth the wait.

But even a wait that’s worth it is too long for Big Sky, and the Resort is working to mitigate wait time with the new Fast Pass program.  With a free Fast Pass, guests can reserve one Tram timeslot per day, making sure they get one walk-on experience for Big Sky’s most iconic views and expert runs.

This, is a Big Deal. 

Since the Tram was built in ’96, the only way to guarantee a walk-on Tram has been to join Ski Patrol or set your alarm for first chair, racing to the Triple and then Tram to hopefully grab an early car.  Every other walk-on was just dumb luck – Dave Stergar being in the right place during a wind-hold on the Triple, William Bryan landing 8 freak walk-ons during a random Wednesday.

Now, no one needs to leave a Tram lap to chance.  And the program won’t compromise unscheduled Tram laps either -  Fast Pass timeslots will take up 1/3 of available Tram capacity, ensuring both Fast Pass holders and skiers without a reserved timeslot will be able to get on the Tram quickly and efficiently.

The program is taking a pilot run during weekends throughout this March, when guests can show their season pass or lift ticket at a Fast Pass window to reserve a timeslot from 10:45am through 3:00pm, running in 15-minute increments, weather depending. 

So hit the Tram this weekend – Fast Pass or no, you’ll reach 11,166-feet in record time.

-  Greer

How does Fast Pass work?  Check out this video and these FAQs. Need more details?  See the official press release.

IT'S A COMMON misconception that Big Sky’s Snow Reporter job is the plushest in town – picturing a hung over  twenty-something rolling out of bed at 5 am, checking a yardstick in his backyard, calling the snow phone with the report, and then calling it a day would make anyone envious for that kind of easy, low-responsibility job.  But getting out the conditions report for 3,832 skiable acres is a long and involved process – one that starts at 4pm the evening before and doesn’t end until well into the next day.  And the Snow Reporters?  Late night at the Black Bear or no, they’ve got to be up at 4am and ready to put in a full 8 hour day.

4:00pm:  The morning snow report begins the night before with Big Sky’s Ski Patrol crew.  As the mountain is closing, Ski Patrol calls the Snow Reporter desk and leaves a message with the day’s high and low temps, the wind conditions, and the snowfall.  This information is used in the weather section of Big Sky’s following day report.

4:00pm – 8am: The grooming crew takes to the slopes to begin the long task of grooming and shaping the slopes.  As they work throughout the night, groomers also the keep tabs on the weather and snowfall. 

4:55am: Groomers measure overnight snowfall and base depth at the scientific Lobo station.  This location has been used for 35 years and provides an accurate mid-mountain snowfall total.  The upper mountain is too dangerous to measure this early considering avalanche control work yet to be done.

5:00am: Groomers call or radio the Snow Reporter with the overnight snowfall totals, base, and any relevant weather information.  The Snow Reporter then faxes the overnight totals, terrain openings, weather, and other resort info across the country and updates bigskyresort.com for the early risers. Numerous other websites, from Snocountry to Travel Montana, are updated with this early information, and then thousands of other sites scrape the information while we all sleep.  This is all done before 6 a.m. but usually closer to 5:30a.m.

5:15am: The Snow Reporter updates the snow phone with the collected information.  This is the early phone update and it will be updated several more times throughout the morning and day. 

5:45am: Groomers drop off a report of their groomed runs at the base area for the reporter to pick up and add to our report and grooming map. 

8:00am: Patrol calls in with snow conditions from the top of lone peak and the snow reporter makes any necessary updates to the snow report and snow phone.

8:00 am – 12:00pm: As the Snow Safety team and Patrol gather for their safety and control runs they will call or radio the reporter with any snowfall updates.  Many times Big Sky will receive several inches of snow between the time of the original report and when the chairlifts start turning.  When it’s snowing hard, the patrol and reporter will remain in contact with updates throughout the morning, especially when reports come in like knee deep, thigh deep, or waist deep off the south face, when perhaps only 4-6 inches fell mid-mountain.

In between all of these steps, the Snow Reporters are calling radio stations and local businesses, faxing and emailing out reports, creating and distributing grooming maps, and updating the report on multiple different platforms and outlets.  We'll spare you the gory details, but when it comes down to it, snow reporting is a complex position that involves many elements beyond the actual snow phone.  It’s a process that requires constant communication between the mountain operations teams and the crew inside spreading the messages. 

We often joke that it truly is impossible to accurately measure snow when it comes to a mountain that is the biggest in America and faces every direction on the map, and the snow reporters always try to report a range of snowfall that gives a sense of snow all over the mounatin.  But no matter what the report says, with 400 inches of snow a year and such a variety of terrain, you're sure to find great conditions - any day at Big Sky.


-  Greer

Check out Big Sky's daily snow report and sign up to receive morning email updates on the latest conditions.

Follow Big Sky Resort on Facebook and Twitter (@BigSkyResort)for up-to-the-minute updates on snow conditions.