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Wyoming & Montana 2019-20: Jackson Hole, Grand Targhee, Big Sky, Red Lodge, etc.

marzNC

Angel Diva
I’m so excited they got so much snow recently, and hope for more!! I’m heading to Bridger Bowl/Big Sky this coming Thursday for a few days before heading to diva West at Jackson Hole and Targhee. Very pleased that I should be able to add 3 new mountains to my list as I’ve only been to Big Sky so far out of the grouping. :yahoo:
Fun! A little advice for Bridger parking . . . like always it pays to arrive early. It's a collection of dirt lots. Instead of turning right into the top open level, can be better to keep going around past the buildings to end up at the closer to the other end of a section. It's less of an uphill walk that way. Also closer to the bar that's in a separate little building.

There is a school bus type shuttle for the parking lot, but I'm not sure whether that runs midweek.

If it's a powder day, don't be surprised if there are lots of families with school age kids. Bozeman schools and many employers are "powder friendly" when it comes to going skiing during/after a good storm.
 

MsWax

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
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!
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
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!
Have you looked at any of the Big Sky trip reports from the last couple seasons? Note that the lifts have changed, which does make a difference.

Big Sky is so huge, it's really hard to answer your questions quickly. For me, I think of Big Sky as a "3-day resort," meaning I would ideally want to have three full days to fully explore all the lifts and various sections. That's as an advanced skier who isn't interested in steep, narrow chutes like the ones on all three sides of Lone Peak. Those would take another couple days to get a proper introduction.

Big Sky has a very good free mountain host tour. Highly recommend doing one on the first day. These days have to pick which areas, either "south" or "north." I think north includes Moonlight while south starts with Andesite. I can have a great time on Andesite alone for a couple days without getting the least bit bored. I think it has more terrain than Cannon by itself.

As for Lone Peak, the tip I got from a very experienced mountain tour the first time I was at Big Sky was to use the steepest section of the Lone Peak Bowl as a test. You ride up Powder Seeker (used to be a slow triple), then traverse as far out as possible. It's much steeper the dropping in near the middle of the bowl (it's a huge bowl). What she said was that if that terrain felt okay, then Liberty would be okay.

Let's see what @Skisailor has to suggest. Might be helpful if you mentioned your family's experience and ages of the kids. She's skied in the northeast, but has been out at Big Sky as a full-time instructor for a while. Not sure she's seen your posts about skiing in New England.
 

MsWax

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Have you looked at any of the Big Sky trip reports from the last couple seasons? Note that the lifts have changed, which does make a difference.

Big Sky is so huge, it's really hard to answer your questions quickly. For me, I think of Big Sky as a "3-day resort," meaning I would ideally want to have three full days to fully explore all the lifts and various sections. That's as an advanced skier who isn't interested in steep, narrow chutes like the ones on all three sides of Lone Peak. Those would take another couple days to get a proper introduction.

Big Sky has a very good free mountain host tour. Highly recommend doing one on the first day. These days have to pick which areas, either "south" or "north." I think north includes Moonlight while south starts with Andesite. I can have a great time on Andesite alone for a couple days without getting the least bit bored. I think it has more terrain than Cannon by itself.

As for Lone Peak, the tip I got from a very experienced mountain tour the first time I was at Big Sky was to use the steepest section of the Lone Peak Bowl as a test. You ride up Powder Seeker (used to be a slow triple), then traverse as far out as possible. It's much steeper the dropping in near the middle of the bowl (it's a huge bowl). What she said was that if that terrain felt okay, then Liberty would be okay.

Let's see what @Skisailor has to suggest. Might be helpful if you mentioned your family's experience and ages of the kids. She's skied in the northeast, but has been out at Big Sky as a full-time instructor for a while. Not sure she's seen your posts about skiing in New England.

Thanks! We'll be out there for 5 days of skiing, which hopefully is enough time to explore everything. We 100% plan to do a mountain tour on our 1st day, but even those aren't until 10:45am, so any tips on where to start are appreciated. We'll be staying at the Shoshone condos, so we can just head out to the slopes from there (I think).

@Skisailor As for skiing ability:
Me - I like to consider myself advanced, but I've never skied out west. I'm comfortable on any black/double black slope in the east, and enjoy glades if the tree spacing isn't too tight.
DH - Snowboarder. Can do any trail (including tight trees) that isn't icy.
11-year-old - Best skier in the family. He's always in control, and wants to ski big and hard stuff.
9-year-old - Better skier than me, not quite as strong as older brother, but can certainly hold his own.
6-year-old - He's a great skier, but does not like ice. He's almost at my level of control on steeps, but struggles a little in powder (probably because we don't get much practice in it in the northeast).

Thanks for any insight you can provide.
 

contesstant

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Now if the crazy winds we've been having would just stop blowing it all away!
Same here! Bonus is it often keeps Strawberry from opening for an entire day, so I beeline for that side of the mountain first thing the next morning :becky:

We'll be at Targhee next weekend-let's make some turns!
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Thanks! We'll be out there for 5 days of skiing, which hopefully is enough time to explore everything. We 100% plan to do a mountain tour on our 1st day, but even those aren't until 10:45am, so any tips on where to start are appreciated. We'll be staying at the Shoshone condos, so we can just head out to the slopes from there (I think).
I like to start on Andesite. That means taking the Ramcharger 8-pack as the first lift. Check the trail map and pick a blue route to the base of the Thunderwolf lift. If you want a more mellow start, take Ponderosa and ride up Southern Comfort lift. Pomp and Lizette are very fun mellow bump runs. But don't be fooled by the trail map. They are a lot longer than you might imagine. Elk Park Meadows also looks a lot smaller on the trail map than it is. I wouldn't recommend skiing them before the mountain tour. Stick to Elk Park Ridge for a warmup run.

I think your family would be fine on any of the Andesite blues, probably the blacks too after you are a little warmed up and have a feel for the snow conditions. Note that Andesite is more protected from the wind and a nice peak when there is low visibility on the upper mountain.

It's useful to know how to get to Silver Knife. It's a pretty steep groomer towards the bottom but nothing to worry about. You won't find Cannon-style ice. Silver Knife is the best way to reach the building with Lone Mountain Sports, the independent ski shop in Big Sky village. There is a nice cafe on the top floor of that building. From Silver Knife, it's ski in/out. Nice place for a sit-down lunch if that's of interest one day.

Do not ride Explorer unless you want a long rest. It's a slow ride.
 

bsskier

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
We had good snow today at Big Sky. About 6” on Andesite according to patrol. DH claimed Moonlight got 8”+. Sun popped out around 2pm so took Powder Seeker up and ran Ski Time and Gun Mount. We’re supposed to be colder tomorrow with a high of 17, sun is on the way Monday.
 

sibhusky

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Whitefish is at 118% of normal snowpack and snow depth at the mountain is the deepest for this date in the last 24 years. (According to the ski area.) Three feet in the last 7 days. I only skied one of the powder days this week, but it was great fun. I wore myself out, tho, and was too exhausted two days after to ski much on the next visit. (Out of shape. Hope to be better by February.) Next attempt will be Sunday.
 

sibhusky

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Fernie, Schweitzer, and Whitefish are all reporting snow depths over 110" inches. Whitewater is at 107". Mt. Spokane is at 95". Castle, Silver, 49 Degrees North are in the 80's. Other area resorts are below 75", with Great Divide down around. 36".
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Is anyone skiing Big Sky this coming Friday the 24th? A few divas will be there ahead of diva west in Jackson Hole, and we were thinking about doing the headlamp night skiing. However, there is a flat cost for up to 7 people in a group, so it’s much more reasonable per person if you have closer to that total number. There are 3 of us so far, anyone else interested? We probably won’t do it unless we can get a few more people to commit. Unfortunately Big Sky will not join smaller groups together.

https://bigskyresort.com/mountain-sports-overview/lessons-programs-and-racing/headlamp-night-skiing
 
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marzNC

Angel Diva
Looks like a good forecast for Grand Targhee this week. The folks attending Diva West should have a good time on their day trip.

OpenSnow forecast for Grand Targhee as of 1/28/2020
Screen Shot 2020-01-28 at 3.11.20 PM.png
 

MsWax

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
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!

@Skisailor , @bsskier , any other Big Sky regulars...I'm still looking on feedback on trail progressions for blacks and trees, as well as snow conditions in the bowls if anyone wants to help me.

I've watched some YouTube videos of some 6-year-old kids skiing off the tram (Marx I think, maybe via the Yeti traverse), and they were about the same level as my 6-year-old, but I don't know if the conditions were particularly good when they did that, or if that's how they regularly are. I'd love ski off the tram, but don't want to put anyone in situation they can't handle.

Thanks so much.
 

Skisailor

Angel Diva
@Skisailor , @bsskier , any other Big Sky regulars...I'm still looking on feedback on trail progressions for blacks and trees, as well as snow conditions in the bowls if anyone wants to help me.

I've watched some YouTube videos of some 6-year-old kids skiing off the tram (Marx I think, maybe via the Yeti traverse), and they were about the same level as my 6-year-old, but I don't know if the conditions were particularly good when they did that, or if that's how they regularly are. I'd love ski off the tram, but don't want to put anyone in situation they can't handle.

Thanks so much.

I’ll try to get back to you after work today. It sounds like you will have a lot of fun on our terrain. As far as conditions go, the glades are almost always very good and the trees are generally not tight. You’ll love them.

The peak is impossible to predict. It can change from day to day and even hour to hour. So that always has to be a game time decision. It can be very forgiving in good conditions and extremely difficult with tough snow or bad visibility. It’s also likely that the conditions will change as you descend due to the vertical involved.
 

bsskier

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Is anyone skiing Big Sky this coming Friday the 24th? A few divas will be there ahead of diva west in Jackson Hole, and we were thinking about doing the headlamp night skiing. However, there is a flat cost for up to 7 people in a group, so it’s much more reasonable per person if you have closer to that total number. There are 3 of us so far, anyone else interested? We probably won’t do it unless we can get a few more people to commit. Unfortunately Big Sky will not join smaller groups together.

https://bigskyresort.com/mountain-sports-overview/lessons-programs-and-racing/headlamp-night-skiing
I flew out that day @MissySki otherwise I’d have joined you.
 

bsskier

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@Skisailor , @bsskier , any other Big Sky regulars...I'm still looking on feedback on trail progressions for blacks and trees, as well as snow conditions in the bowls if anyone wants to help me.

I've watched some YouTube videos of some 6-year-old kids skiing off the tram (Marx I think, maybe via the Yeti traverse), and they were about the same level as my 6-year-old, but I don't know if the conditions were particularly good when they did that, or if that's how they regularly are. I'd love ski off the tram, but don't want to put anyone in situation they can't handle.

Thanks so much.
Unapologetically, I don’t ski off the tram, but I know what @Skisailor speaks is truth. The conditions up there are in constant flux so I’m of no help with regard to timing your runs up there. I tell my posse if they want to ski off the tram, to consider going with an instructor first and each of them were thankful they did because, even with their solid skills, the instructors knew the lay of the land. Speaking of guides, booking an instructor on day 1 to help steer your group to the best experience might be an awesome way to get to the goods for a 5 day trip vs progression suggestions. As for black runs and trees, we have lots, but so does Moonlight and many of their tree runs are absolutely magical. @marzNC posted a nice summary of runs that you’re group will love as well on Andesite. The Bowl characteristics have changed this year, but it’s still a ton of fun in there especially after a good snowfall. I did want to also mention that Shoshone is a pretty good location to lodge. Units are older although some have updated kitchens. It’s a short walk to the lifts which is really beneficial. You won’t need a vehicle if that was a concern. The concierge - black hat cowboys will take you where you want to go or the free shuttle will too. Most of all, have fun!
 

MsWax

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Unapologetically, I don’t ski off the tram, but I know what @Skisailor speaks is truth. The conditions up there are in constant flux so I’m of no help with regard to timing your runs up there. I tell my posse if they want to ski off the tram, to consider going with an instructor first and each of them were thankful they did because, even with their solid skills, the instructors knew the lay of the land. Speaking of guides, booking an instructor on day 1 to help steer your group to the best experience might be an awesome way to get to the goods for a 5 day trip vs progression suggestions. As for black runs and trees, we have lots, but so does Moonlight and many of their tree runs are absolutely magical. @marzNC posted a nice summary of runs that you’re group will love as well on Andesite. The Bowl characteristics have changed this year, but it’s still a ton of fun in there especially after a good snowfall. I did want to also mention that Shoshone is a pretty good location to lodge. Units are older although some have updated kitchens. It’s a short walk to the lifts which is really beneficial. You won’t need a vehicle if that was a concern. The concierge - black hat cowboys will take you where you want to go or the free shuttle will too. Most of all, have fun!

Thanks for the feedback. I love the idea for a guide, but can't stomach the nearly $700 it would cost for just a half day!
 

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