Planning a ski vacation in Big Sky, Montana
I have been skiing since the extremely young age of four. At that age, I was a little annoyed by my parents, trying to teach me how to ski, but now, I sincerely appreciate it. During my travels all around the globe, I have met many people, claiming that they learned to ski later in life, and how they wish they started earlier.
Until last year, I have only been skiing in Europe, but once I moved to the United states of America, I had to find some nice ski resorts here. Apparently, one of the best ski resorts in the western part of the country, is situated in a beautiful state of Montana, and it is called Big Sky. The name sounds funny, until you see the place, and then you understand. It is just you, the mountain, and the sky, surrounding you.
So, since I am a very curious person, and I can also never say no to some good skiing, I decided to take a week long ski vacation in Big Sky ski resort. In this blog post, you can read more about my experience there. Hopefully, reading this entry will make you want to go there someday.
Big Sky Montana in cloudy weather still looks nice... but wait until you see the pictures when it is sunny!
Where is it and how to get there?
Big Sky ski resort is situated in the mountainous region of Montana, the state in the American west. It takes quite a long time to get there, and I think that is one of this ski resort’s many appeals. When I went there, I flew into the city of Billings, Montana, and from there, I had to drive for over three hours to reach the Big Sky ski resort.
Another option, that one of the skiers I met told me about, is to fly into one of the Idahoan airports. It is true that you will be flying into a different state, but, on the other hand, your drive to the Big sky ski resort will be much shorter.
I think an important factor to consider is also the price of plane tickets and the airport you will be flying from. For some of you, it might be much cheaper if you fly into Idaho, and for some of us, it was cheaper to fly into Montana.
You will have to rent a car, and I would strongly suggest you to get a car that has a four wheel drive. After all, blizzards are quite common in the area, and before you reach the Big sky ski resort, you will have to drive up a fairly steep hill, which is impossible to do if there is snow on the road and you do not have a four wheel drive.
A typical landscape on the drive to the Big Sky Montana ski resort. Does not look like very wintery, does it?
Where to stay?
Big Sky ski resort has no shortage of places to stay. You can either stay in a resort itself, or opt in for one of many places that offer ski in - ski out. If you choose the ski in - ski out option, you will eliminate the need to find parking for your car, and you will also not have to walk from the parking lot to the ski lift.
It is true that the ski in - ski out places are much more expensive than your regular place to stay, but just think about what you get for that price. In mu opinion, paying more money for a ski in - ski out option is totally worth it (And it must be true if I say that, since I am a budget traveller, and therefore I usually stay in the cheapest possible accommodation.)
This was the view from the balcony from our ski in - ski out accommodation. As you can see, the slope is right in front of it.
Unlike other ski resorts in the United states of America, that usually only have one ski in - ski out village, there are several different places at Big Sky resort, where you can stay and take advantage on the ski in - ski out option. The Big Sky web page has a map of places where you can stay, and you can also see their location on the mountain, and pick the one that suits your needs best.
Some of the places offer a garage as well, but since the car you will be renting, is probably going to be enormous, it will most likely not fit into the garage. But you can still store your ski equipment in there.
The cabin that me and my friends stayed at, accommodated ten people, and it had a hot tub, a game room, six (!) bathrooms, and an enormous living room. And whenever you looked out of the window, you had a view of the seemingly endless ski slopes, surrounding you.
The only downside of that cabin was that it was somehow difficult to remember how to ski back to it. For example, the one that we stayed in this year, was situated in the middle of a ski slope, and you only had to take one ski lift to get there.
To ski to the Big Sky cabin, we had to take a ski lift to the top of the mountain, ski halfway down and then take another lift to a different part of the mountain, and then look for a turn that was hidden in between the trees.
I will not lie, the way there was very scenic, but on my first day, I somehow freaked out about a thought that, if I get separated from my friends at the end of the day, I will most likely not be able to remember how to get back to our cabin all by myself. Well, since I am writing this now, it means that I survived to tell the story. Yay!
Best restaurants in the area
To be completely honest with you, me and my friends have not tried as many restaurants in the area as we wanted, simply because we decided to cook meals in our cabin. Our reasoning was that we already spent a lot of money on the cabin and the ski lift tickets, so we could save a little bit of money by cooking our own food.
Well, our plan worked for exactly two days. Because imagine getting home to the cabin, tired after a whole day of skiing (or snowboarding) and then having to cook a meal for multiple people? We wanted to avoid potential arguments, and we therefore decided to eat dinner in a restaurant for the remaining two days of our skiing vacation.
The first restaurant that we tried, was called Olive B’s Big Sky bistro, and it was situated a walking distance from our cabin. The food was decent, and it offered some typical western dishes, including the bison chili.
The second restaurant, Buck’s T4 lodge, offered a more upscale dining experience, and therefore higher prices. This restaurant was not situated in the ski resort area. In fact, it took us almost half an hour to drive there, but since we read only good things about this restaurant in various online reviews, we decided to give it a try.
The menu at Buck’s T4 lodge offers some pretty unique dishes, and the meat is freshly caught. If you are more adventurous, you can try a bison steak. I was too big of a chicken to try it, so I opted for the trout with herbs and butter lemon sauce and mashed potatoes with basil on the side. It was delicious and worth every penny of almost thirty dollars.
Souvenir shops
You can find some pretty cool souvenir shops in the Big Sky resort area, including booze, Christmas tree ornaments and clothing. While not the cheapest, these souvenirs certainly are very unique. And you need a reminder of the places that you visited, right?
I found some of the coolest souvenirs in a very surprising place - in the restaurants on the ski slopes! Well, as much as I wanted to buy some of the things they were selling, I simply could not justify bringing the souvenirs back to our cabin, and possibly losing an hour of skiing time. Or, even worse, I could fall and the souvenir would break. So I bought my souvenirs in a souvenir shop that was situated right next to our cabin.
Renting your ski equipment
Most American people prefer to rent their ski equipment. And I can understand that, because having to transport all the skiing equipment by a plane can be a real hassle. Me and my friends decided to rent our ski equipment in a store, called Big Sky ski rentals. They offered ski boot measuring, that was included in the price, and for five days of skiing, we paid ninety dollars per person for the equipment. Pretty cheap, especially if you consider the high quality of the gear that they were offering.
Keep in mind that you can only rent skis, poles, ski boots and helmets, but you have to either bring the rest of the equipment with you, or buy it there (which I would not recommend, because it is simply too expensive).
If you do not own skiing clothes and goggles, ask some friends - maybe you can borrow the ski clothes from them. Or, if they do not ski, ask them to ask their friends. I am sure you will eventually find someone that wears ski clothes that will fit you. That way, you will save about five hundred dollars by not having to buy your own skiing clothes.
How much does everything cost?
Well, during my two years of living here, I have figured that ski vacations in the United states of America are never cheap. And unlike in Europe, it is cheaper to buy your ski lift tickets in advance here. If you buy them less than a week before your trip, it will be much more expensive. In Europe, you can just show up on the same day and buy the ski lift tickes - they will cost the same as if you buy them online in advance.
It is also cheaper if you purchase multi - day ski lift tickets. For example, a daily lift ticket will cost you one hundred and thirty nine dollars. I know, I told you it is expensive. But wait until you read about how awesome the slopes are! If you purchase a two - day ticket, you will pay two hundred and sixty nine dollars, and a weekly lift ticket will cost you seven hundred and eight dollars.
There is also an option of buying a half day lift ticket, but it is almost as expensive as the full day lift ticket, and therefore it does not really make sense to purchase it. All I can say is that I am so glad that I have a well paying job, otherwise I would never be able to afford to ski here, and I simply cannot survive without skiing.
All about the Big Sky’s slopes
Unlike some other ski resorts that I have been to, the slopes at Big Sky ski resort are very compact, as opposed to, for example, Breckenridge ski resort in Colorado, where the ski slopes are scattered across several mountain peaks.
Do not get me wrong, Big Sky ski resort is not a small resort. In fact, it offers more than one hundredski slopes, and even if you are staying there for a longer period of time, you will not get bored, because there is just so many different slopes for all skill levels, that you can try.
I am really looking forward to ski at Big Sky ski resort in Montana some time in the near future.
If this is your first time at Big Sky ski resort, I would strongly suggest you to get a map. This way, you can get an idea about where on the mountain are you, and it makes it easier to find where you want to go, rather than just asking the lift employees for directions.
Like I have already mentioned, Big Sky offers more than a hundred ski slopes, and I really enjoyed doing the blue and black ones. The ski slopes that I loved the most, are the following:
Swift bear. This is a green run, and it is perfect for the warm up in the morning. Once you do a couple of runs on the Swift bear, you can head over to the Forbidden forest. This is a blue run, and it is basically an obstacle course inside a little forest. You can ski over bridges, through tunnels, and jump over little moguls. I think that some parts of this run should be considered a black slope, because they are quite demanding even for advanced skiers. But nevertheless, this is a super fun run.
Dead goat is my favourite double black diamond run. Double black diamond slopes are the most demanding ones, and in most cases, the area is not even groomed, so do not attempt this one as a beginner. My thighs were burning like crazy at the end of this run, but it was totally worth the pain!
I find it funny how some of the black runs have not - so - calming names. Well, I guess they are trying to warn you what awaits you if you decide to do them. Another one that I liked, was called Screaming left, and I seriously almost screamed when I saw how steep and demanding it is. It took me quite a while to reach the bottom, because this was one of the most demanding slopes that I have ever done.
Yeti traversewas a double black diamond, that could easily be labeled as a regular black. The name is just a little bit deceptive - we did not see any yetis on it. I am sorry for ruining your dreams.
This was the view from the bottom of Yeti traverse. Now imagine the view at the top!
And last but not least, The hanging valley. This run was nearly vertical, hence the name ‘hanging’. And to make It even more challenging, this run was not groomed, and there were big ice patches in the middle of it. Once you reach one of these ice patches, you have to slide down on the sides of your skis - SLOWLY - otherwise you will risk falling and stopping at the bottom of the slope. Ouch!
A few tips for an unforgettable ski vacation at Big Sky
Book accommodation as far in advance as possible. Chances are that the rates will be lower if you book in advance, and you will also avoid stress when finding out that all the cheaper options are already booked and you will have to pay for the most expensive lodging.
You can book accommodation directly on the Big Sky resort website (www.bigskyresort.com), you can try checking AirBnb or, for bigger groups, check out a website, called VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owners). VRBO is basically a platform where individuals rent out vacation homes, such as cabins, unlike AirBnb, where people mostly just rent out rooms.
Unlike, for example, Breckenridge ski resort in Colorado, Big Sky resort in Montana is not situated at a very high elevation and therefore you will not have to deal with annoying high altitude affects, such as fatigue and trouble breathing. But your ski vacation can still be unpleasant if you are not well prepared, so here are some tips.
First of all, wear sun block! You might think that sun is only strong in summer, but that could not be further from the truth. Sun can be equally damaging to your skin in winter. Also, I know some people that think it is absolutely unnecessary to put sunblock on your face in cloudy weather. The sun rays can also get to your skin through the clouds. You can but one of these travel - sized sunblocks for your face and simply keep it in your ski jacket and reapply it every few hours.
Drink enough fluids. It is easy to forget that you are thirsty when you are having fun. But it is extremely important to keep yourself hydrated. I recently discovered the awesomeness of the so - called hydration backpack. You can fill it with water or any other drink of your choice, and just sip it through the straw that is included in the backpack.
Eat granola bars between meals. Skiing (well, or snowboarding) is an activity that requires a lot of energy. And therefore, it is extremely important that you eat food that will give you the much needed energy. Granola bars, or other kinds of energy bars, are a great snacks for in between meals. And they fit in your pocket, so you can bring a few to the ski slopes with you.
Only ski on slopes that are appropriate for your skill level. If you are an absolute beginner, do not attempt to ski blue or black level ski slopes. And even if you are an advanced skier, start with skiing a few green level slopes to get yourself familiarized with the terrain, and refresh your knowledge from last year. As a beginner, you should not go on double blue levels or black levels on your first day. Once you get comfortable, maybe at the end of your second day, or on your third day, you can try a blue slope or two.
Take advantage of ski instructors on site. Every major ski resort in North America offers an advantage of having ski instructors, which will maximize your learning curve. And you do not have to hire an instructor for the whole day - some of them also offer half day coaching. While having a ski instructor can be expensive - some prices range up to one hundred and fifty dollars per day - it is a great thing to consider if you are looking to improve your skill level.
And remember, no alcohol on slopes! I know many people who drink a beer or three during lunch when they are skiing. All good, if your alcohol tolerance is good. You do not want to get drunk, stumble down the mountain and possibly break something. Or even worse - you might hurt somebody else. So reserve the drinking for the end of the day to celebrate a successful day on the slopes.
A short conclusion…
Skiing in the United states of America is so much better than skiing in Europe (sorry, European ski slopes, I still like you, but you are not among my top three places to ski anymore). And Big Sky ski resort in Montana is my second favourite place I have ever skied at. And that should speak for itself, since I have been skiing since I was four years old. Despite the expensive ski lift prices, treating yourself to a ski vacation there will result in a time that you will definitely remember for the rest of your life.
