My family and I are headed to Big Sky over Presidents Day week, and would love some trail tips from people familiar with mountain. Specifically, I'd love to know:
What are the easiest blacks? Is there a good trail progression for working up to some of the more challenging trails?
What are the easiest glades/tree trails? Is there a good trail progression for working up to some of the more challenging trails?
Are there any trails to avoid?
My oldest is dying to ski Lone peak, and I want to be sure if we (mostly me) try it, we'll be able to do it.
Thanks!
The easiest blacks: For the most part, if it’s black, it’s ungroomed. In fact some trails are rated black that are actually a blue pitch but they get their black designation because they have trees and/or bumps. There is one black trail that is often groomed - Elkhorn (on the Moonlight side). But there are blues on the Big Sky side that have steeper pitches. This is an artifact of the fact that Big Sky and Moonlight Basin were once separate ski areas with their own unique designations.
So the upshot is that a black is often a black because it is off piste. The easiest black is probably the middle of The Bowl off the Powder Seeker chair. Take the turkey traverse but don’t go very far before diving in. It will be obvious. Go where the majority of skiers go. The Bowl gets steeper and steeper as you go around. A nice feature of the Powder Seeker chair is that there are frequently groomed runs to the looker’s right of the chair: Upper Morningstar, Never Sweat and Ski Time. So the group can split between those who want to ski groomed vs ungroomed and then meet at the chair.
However, if you want steep groomed, many of the blue runs off Swift Current or RamCharger chairs contain black pitches within their rolling terrain. The front side blues off RamCharger are generally steeper than those off Swift Current.
A great warmup run is the 2 1/2 mile long rolling green run called Mr. K. (off Swift Current).
There are no trails to avoid.
But do be aware that Ambush (off RamCharger) and Elk Park Ridge (off Thunderwolf) are popular blues and are some of the only trails with man made snow on them. So they tend to get scrapy by the end of the day. They can be glorious early on though. Hit them in the morning if you want to ski them.
Glades: There are so many wonderful glades at Big Sky it’s hard to know where to start. A fantastic easy intro glade is Lisette on the back side of Andesite Mt. off the Southern Comfort chair. Slightly longer and steeper is Pomp to skier’s left of Lisette.
Other glades to seek out on the Big Sky side include Blue Room, Congo, Ambush Glades, Tango Trees and Soul Hole. But there are many many more. A great easy bump run without trees is Africa.
The wide open Elk Park Meadow off Thunderwolf Chair is a delight depending on snow conditions. It’s an open meadow with a few tree islands. So many possible lines! You can dip your toe in via the Elk Park Ridge groomer and if the snow seems good, go for it.
The Moonlight side is known for its glade skiing. Easiest are Whiskey and White Witch (off Lookout Ridge via the Lone Tree chair). Others off note are Single Jack, Shaftway, Marshall and Big Tree Cutoff. But there are many many more.
Lastly, we can’t talk glades without mentioning the Dakota Territory. This is a vast area of tress of varying density on a generally blue pitch below Liberty Bowl on the south side of the mountain. No trip to Big Sky is complete without visiting this area.
Will definitely try to get a group together again next time I’m there though, would love to try the experience out.
