The thing about Big Sky is, it’s big! Looking out the window of our mountain view room in the Huntley Lodge, with Lone Peak looming high above, I got that same feeling of intimidation I had when I first set out at Whistler a few years ago. Perusing the trail map did nothing to assuage that feeling. (Although I was very pleased that Big Sky still believes in printed trail maps.) I had fully intended to take advantage of the free mountain tours that were offered daily in the mornings and afternoons, but I never seemed to be in the right place at the right time, so ended up exploring the mountain bit by bit with various skiing partners, some of whom had availed themselves of the tour. By the end of the week I had skied 42 trails off of 12 different lifts and felt like I knew my way around pretty well, so the intimidation factor was much diminished, at least for the blue and green runs. But there were still a lot of runs and one whole area that I didn’t get to, so plenty more to check out if I ever get another crack at Big Sky.
Speaking of blues and greens, I stuck mostly to those and found them to be sufficiently entertaining and challenging that I didn’t really feel like I needed to seek out the blacks, although Steve and I did manage one run through “The Bowl”, prompting flashbacks to Jackson Hole. Many of Big Sky's blues would qualify as blue/black or black at other resorts based on some of their steeper sections. But the snow quality was superb, and even late in the day only a few high-traffic spots felt skied off, in delightful contrast to practically any eastern resort.
Huntley Lodge was a great place to stay, slopeside in the main base area, with the Explorer lift right out the back door. Susan and I felt that the modest upcharge for a mountain view room was well worth it, given the views it afforded and the ability to assess the mountain conditions before we headed out. Our recently renovated room was clean, reasonably spacious, and fairly comfortable, although the climate control system was kind of weird.
The resort is somewhat short on restaurants relative to the number of people on hand. We quickly discovered that you had better make reservations early in the day to have any hope of getting seated at a normal dinner time. Given the vastness of the ski area, on-mountain facilities (restrooms and especially food) were few and far between, often necessitating a return to one of the base areas for lunch or when you needed a break.
I also felt that Big Sky’s reputation for being uncrowded has been a bit over-hyped. There are only two lifts (Ramcharger and Swift Current) that get you out of the main base area and the lines for those could be long, especially in the mornings when everyone was trying to get on the slopes. Once you’re off in the more remote areas, the situation improved, but certain routes could still be pretty busy. On the other hand, as we got farther and farther out, we did enjoy some beautiful runs that we had pretty much to ourselves.
Overall, I would have to rate Big Sky among the top two or three places I have ever skied, based largely on snow quality and variety of terrain. Definitely worth a return some day.