This year we had the pleasure of spending the holidays in Bozeman and Big Sky, Montana. It was great to see family (including a gorgeous 8 month old niece that inspires us to do outrageously stupid things in her honor) and we got to play in a few new spots up on the mountain at 7, 510 feet in elevation.
Now, numbers are mentioned in order to impress you, so here are some impressive numbers for the Big Sky Resort: The ski terrain consists of 3,812 acres with 150 named runs covering over 85 miles on 3 different mountains. The Lone Peak Tram is a 15-person, 4-minute enclosed ride that rises 1,450 vertical feet over a distance of 2,828 feet and deposits passengers literally at the summit of Lone Peak where the elevation is 11,166 feet (for skiing, it's an impressive elevation, but on the list of the highest mountains in Montana, Lone Peak actually comes in at 67th). At any rate, Big Sky boasts the "Biggest Skiing in America" meaning it's got a hell of a vertical drop
(4,350 ft.)... 3,640 feet of which you could ski in one run without stopping (if you take the Liberty Bowl to the Mountain Mall at the base, we're talking about a 6 mile continuous ride down the mountain). They average 400 inches of snow per year (30 of which we witnessed in the couple of weeks we were there---sweet freshy pow-pow!) and 60% of the resort is "advanced" or "expert" terrain. The lift capacity allows for 23,000 skiers to zoom up the mountain PER HOUR and 0-1 is the number of minutes we ever waited in line for this experience.On the chairlifts, in the hot tub, and throughout the bars, we met people from Florida, New Jersey, Chicago, Nashville, New Hampshire, Connecticut, North Dakota and a bunch of fellow Montanans (who were arguably the rowdiest). We enjoyed great snow and fun gigs with great staff and we can't wait to do it all again in March. Have we mentioned that we love our job?
Cheers to you, and Happy New Year!--Tumbledown House