We packed in Bozeman and drove up to Big Sky, arriving in Moonlight Basin's parking lot about 10:30. FYI the latter is far more convenient for day skiers than Big Sky's day skier parking which requires a shuttle and longer walk to its base. And the Iron Horse at the Moonlight base is one of two lifts shared by both areas.
Temperature was a brisk 10F when we arrived and never got any warmer than that. The good news is that there was no wind anywhere we skied. Lone Peak was completely socked in all day, though the cloud layer was comfortably above Challenger/Headwaters if you wanted to ski steep terrain with good visibility.
It snowed some Sunday night in addition to what we had at Bridger Sunday afternoon, for a total of 6 inches at Big Sky and 10 inches at Bridger. At Big Sky's elevation the new snow was very fluffy, so you still needed to pay some attention to exposure for the subsurface affected by Saturday's warmup to nearly 50F.
I decided the sensible plan for day 1 was to survey the lower and mid-mountains of both areas and defer Lone Peak to the expected better weather of the next 2 days. So we started skiing down to Six Shooter, then to Lone Tree. Stillwater Bowl with Headwaters Chutes above.
Due to Moonlight's low skier density the run under the Lone Tree lift was mostly untracked.
After riding Lone Tree again we skied along Lookout Ridge and then into the Marshal trees.
To get an idea how quiet Moonlight is, here's the terrain park under Six Shooter at noon.
This is where I skied fresh tracks on the first run.
After riding Six Shooter there's a short walk up to the Headwaters lift. View of that with Three Forks in background.
We heard there will be a big mountain competition up there in a week or two. Locals said it's a scary ~25 minute knife edge hike up there with the similarly steep A to Z chutes on the other side.
We had planned to ski into Big Sky next, but a lap on Headwaters Bowl was too tempting to pass up.
View to Big Sky base and Andesite Mt. runs from the top of Challenger/Headwaters lifts.
We traversed skier's right to start with moderately pitched and lightly tracked Country Club.
As the pitch steepened Liz followed the broad Highway run, while I was tempted by the untracked above Little Tree despite the cliff warning signs. It was steep so I was hitting the subsurface but the snow was just deep enough to make the venture worthwhile. my only picture is from the bottom looking back up.
We skied to Big Sky's base and took Ramcharger up, expecting to eat at the top of the lift where I had a NASJA lunch in 2001. The old Outpost is no longer there, replaced by the Pinnacles restaurant built by the Spanish Peaks real estate development. Spanish Peaks real estate is at the base of the Southern Comfort chair, so they also converted that lift to a high speed quad. Spanish Peaks is now in bankruptcy, so the restaurant is closed but Big Sky expects to take it over and get it open again in a season or two.
We skied Ambush down to the base, ventured off trail a bit and were surprised to find hard snow as Ramcharger faces north. After lunch we had a more pleasant surprise skiing down Thunder Wolf. We skied the Mad Wolf moguls which were soft packed powder despite SE exposure.
We rode up Lone Moose and then Southern Comfort so Liz could see that side of Big Sky. We skied Africa down to the base, then took Swift Current up and skied over to Challenger. I expected to ski one of the Headwaters chutes back into Moonlight but they all close at 3PM.
So we skied the delightful Moonlight run, soft, north facing with nice pitch.
The Moonlight run is technically in Big Sky's terrain, though it ends near the top of the Iron Horse lift shared by the areas. In fact everything skier's left of the Challenger lift or above the BRT Road can be skied from the top of Headwaters with an easy return to Iron Horse if you have a Moonlight only ticket.
It was almost 4PM, about 5F and Liz' hands were getting cold, so we skied back to Moonlight Lodge and called it a day. We skied 7,100 vertical in Moonlight and 9,200 in Big Sky, about 3K of powder.
We spent some apres ski time in Moonlight Lodge with Eric Morrison, Moonlight's marketing director. The combined ticket we're using is marketed as "The Biggest Skiing in America" due to combined acreage exceeding Vail's. The reality is that few people actually buy the combined ticket for $103 and with Big Sky being the larger area including the Lone Peak tram, Moonlight gets shortchanged in skier visits. As it is now 2 lifts and a substantial amount of terrain are common to both areas. The topography is far more intertwined than Alta/Snowbird for example. Eric agreed with me that eventually various financial issues will get sorted out and the incentive will be compelling for someone to step in and merge the areas.
Temperature was a brisk 10F when we arrived and never got any warmer than that. The good news is that there was no wind anywhere we skied. Lone Peak was completely socked in all day, though the cloud layer was comfortably above Challenger/Headwaters if you wanted to ski steep terrain with good visibility.
It snowed some Sunday night in addition to what we had at Bridger Sunday afternoon, for a total of 6 inches at Big Sky and 10 inches at Bridger. At Big Sky's elevation the new snow was very fluffy, so you still needed to pay some attention to exposure for the subsurface affected by Saturday's warmup to nearly 50F.
I decided the sensible plan for day 1 was to survey the lower and mid-mountains of both areas and defer Lone Peak to the expected better weather of the next 2 days. So we started skiing down to Six Shooter, then to Lone Tree. Stillwater Bowl with Headwaters Chutes above.
Due to Moonlight's low skier density the run under the Lone Tree lift was mostly untracked.
After riding Lone Tree again we skied along Lookout Ridge and then into the Marshal trees.
To get an idea how quiet Moonlight is, here's the terrain park under Six Shooter at noon.
This is where I skied fresh tracks on the first run.
After riding Six Shooter there's a short walk up to the Headwaters lift. View of that with Three Forks in background.
We heard there will be a big mountain competition up there in a week or two. Locals said it's a scary ~25 minute knife edge hike up there with the similarly steep A to Z chutes on the other side.
We had planned to ski into Big Sky next, but a lap on Headwaters Bowl was too tempting to pass up.
View to Big Sky base and Andesite Mt. runs from the top of Challenger/Headwaters lifts.
We traversed skier's right to start with moderately pitched and lightly tracked Country Club.
As the pitch steepened Liz followed the broad Highway run, while I was tempted by the untracked above Little Tree despite the cliff warning signs. It was steep so I was hitting the subsurface but the snow was just deep enough to make the venture worthwhile. my only picture is from the bottom looking back up.
We skied to Big Sky's base and took Ramcharger up, expecting to eat at the top of the lift where I had a NASJA lunch in 2001. The old Outpost is no longer there, replaced by the Pinnacles restaurant built by the Spanish Peaks real estate development. Spanish Peaks real estate is at the base of the Southern Comfort chair, so they also converted that lift to a high speed quad. Spanish Peaks is now in bankruptcy, so the restaurant is closed but Big Sky expects to take it over and get it open again in a season or two.
We skied Ambush down to the base, ventured off trail a bit and were surprised to find hard snow as Ramcharger faces north. After lunch we had a more pleasant surprise skiing down Thunder Wolf. We skied the Mad Wolf moguls which were soft packed powder despite SE exposure.
We rode up Lone Moose and then Southern Comfort so Liz could see that side of Big Sky. We skied Africa down to the base, then took Swift Current up and skied over to Challenger. I expected to ski one of the Headwaters chutes back into Moonlight but they all close at 3PM.
So we skied the delightful Moonlight run, soft, north facing with nice pitch.
The Moonlight run is technically in Big Sky's terrain, though it ends near the top of the Iron Horse lift shared by the areas. In fact everything skier's left of the Challenger lift or above the BRT Road can be skied from the top of Headwaters with an easy return to Iron Horse if you have a Moonlight only ticket.
It was almost 4PM, about 5F and Liz' hands were getting cold, so we skied back to Moonlight Lodge and called it a day. We skied 7,100 vertical in Moonlight and 9,200 in Big Sky, about 3K of powder.
We spent some apres ski time in Moonlight Lodge with Eric Morrison, Moonlight's marketing director. The combined ticket we're using is marketed as "The Biggest Skiing in America" due to combined acreage exceeding Vail's. The reality is that few people actually buy the combined ticket for $103 and with Big Sky being the larger area including the Lone Peak tram, Moonlight gets shortchanged in skier visits. As it is now 2 lifts and a substantial amount of terrain are common to both areas. The topography is far more intertwined than Alta/Snowbird for example. Eric agreed with me that eventually various financial issues will get sorted out and the incentive will be compelling for someone to step in and merge the areas.