Big Sky is Back, Baby!!!

When I first looked at the snow report this morning, it said that only 2 inches fell overnight.  A little while later, I checked and it said 3-6".  That meant that snow was picking up on the mountain now and we'd better get our act together and get out the door!

Laurie dropped Colin and I off at the mountain (what a luxury) and we scrambled to get our boots on and tickets applied.  With the range of 3-6 inches, I figured the higher snowfall would be found up higher on the mountain so we headed to the Lone Peak Triple via Swifty.  Our first run down underneath the triple confirmed that this was the right move.  The run we often take that cuts beneath the lift was filled with more like 8 to 10 inches of powder.  I'm constantly bewildered by the Big Sky reports and I'm sure it's not their fault.  Measuring these storms is crazy on this mountain with some areas piling up snow and windblown powder and other areas getting completely scoured.

Thankfully, we're learning many of the primo spots on the mountain for certain weather events/conditions.  It was pounding snow as we did three runs off the LPT chair but visibility worsened a bit so we knew what the right move was now:  HEAD TO CHALLENGER!!!

Okay.  I've skied this lift quite a bit now and it certainly has some of the best runs at Big Sky, especially on those windy days when you can't see at the summit or in the Bowl.  Today, Challenger's north runs were just plain SICK.  It must have been the prevailing winds or whatever but the trail Moonlight was better than I ever remember seeing it.  Soft, deep powder with no scratch underneath any more.  (Even more incredible was the upper section from just beneath the lift to the main trail Moonlight; I know I'd never seen this upper section like this before - powder bumps and nice steepness).

I had to laugh when I thought about the 3-6 inches that were reported.  This was 6-18 all over the place but you still had to pick the right runs.  

After our great run on Moonlight (Colin was loving it!), we just had to ski Bad Dog.  Very few people had skied here and it was virtually untracked 10-12 inches of powder.  I found myself giggling at these ridiculous conditions.  Here's a shot of me on Bad Dog:

The other amazing thing about today was that every run was the same.  Why?  Because very few people were there and the big storm going on was keeping the people that were here inside. Here's a typical view of the Challenger Lift today.  Lots of skiers, eh?

After two full runs on Moonlight/Bad Dog, we tried a run on Big Rock Tongue but the snow on parts of this was a little more challenging with some crunch underneath.  It must have been due to winds again but who knows...

Colin on the Big Rock Tongue

After lunch, we did a few more runs on Challenger and checked out Midnight twice and Moonlight again.  It was as good as before lunch because it wasn't getting traffic and it was still snowing hard.  I'm guessing that 3-5 inches fell during the day.

All in all, this was just silly fun skiing.  I was grinning from ear to ear and shaking my head all day...

Here's a quick video of Colin skiing underneath the Lone Peak Triple early on in the day: