Big Sky, MT March 4-5, 2026

[tseeb]

It's an hour drive from Bozeman to Big Sky. This Porsche 912 may have been headed to Bridger or was just driving around looking cool.

I parked in row H and since Explorer gondola has replaced chairlift that used to be closer to parking had a long walk before loading gondola. I shared gondola with older British couple I'd parked next to who were trying to arrange baggage for flight they were taking soon to ski Revelstoke. I started with double-blue Calamity Jane, then next time up skied black Buffalo Jump which had good snow in N-facing trees. Lower down I took double-blue White Magic which was bad with firm snow, bare spots and bumps. I took one lap on Ramcharger skiing Hangmans which had good snow, some thin areas and about half of it was narrowed off by a racecourse. I went down to join Tony C and Liz and took a long covered belt lift to get back to gondola but had to return to Ramcharger as that was the lift they were closest to. The belt stopped once almost throwing me and other riders. Photo of me and Lone Peak which was only open to sightseers taken by Liz.

We met at top of Ramcharger and skied S-facing Ponderosa to Southern Comfort lift. But not only hadn't the sun through thin clouds not softened the snow there were some thin sports. After riding Southern Comfort I avoided Hangmans and the race course by leading them down Safari thinking Africa would be a better options but it looked like big firm bumps so we were stuck on a road. We went up Swift Current and skied Calamity Jane with me taking Huntley Hollow option. Next time up Swift Current we continued up to and skied Powder Seeker and twice Tony C and I took the Turkey Traverse, only highest one was rock-free, and found good snow in the bowl.

We went into the Iglu near the bottom on Powder Seeker. You could buy a beer for $14 ($12 N.A.) or champagne for $133-1500/bottle. We didn't buy anything, but I ate my Safeway pretzel bun ham and cheese at table outside there.

Entrance to Iglu, top of new gondola and bottom of new tram.

We moved to Madison side where we found good snow going from top of Madison to Lone Tree, then excellent snow on Lone Tree. Surprisingly a liftie we shared Madison with said Headwaters runs on weekend even though coverage looks marginal. See top of Headwaters chair above Madison.

It took about 100 steps from top of Lone Tree and somewhat exposed traverse to get to bowl in center that had excellent snow. First photo is signs at start of hike.

Tony Crocker in trees to looker left of Lone Tree Face that also had excellent snow. I found and skied a narrow line that made me glad I was on 15.9 radius Heads.

This is gully between bowl I hiked up to ski and Lone Tree Face trees. Tony Crocker said it had some on the best snow of the day and only required a step-up so I did it.

Garmin summary and map

 

[EMSC]

Big Sky is certainly big enough to keep you entertained for a day even with a lot of top terrain/lifts closed. That said, pretty disappointing in March have so many top lifts not open for skiing (tram, headwaters, etc...)

 

[Tony Crocker]

Liz and I arrived at Big Sky at least 1.5 hours after Tseeb. We had to wait for a freight train in Bozeman and a one lane section on Hwy 191. Liz also didn't bring her Ikon pass and had to get a new one at the ticket office.

Big Sky was conspicuously low tide vs. my three prior visits in 2001, 2006, 2013 and 2023. Nonetheless it skied much better than Bridger Bowl. The higher altitude snow preserves better, and since it's a much bigger mountain the absolute acreage that is north facing is far more extensive. That consists of the Ramcharger groomers, Powder Seeker terrain off that high traverse skier's right, and the majority of the former Moonlight Basin, now renamed Madison at its parking base and upgraded 8-pack chair.

Close view of the Gullies at center of the picture:

I've probably skied 3 of those in past seasons, now impassable aside from a very sketchy line looker's right.

The tram was closed to skiers. Marx, Lenin and Liberty Bowl are high but all face south and probably melt/froze, so likely dangerous on an overcast day like this. Despite temps around 30F Southern Comfort was still crunchy at 11AM. This told us to avoid steeper sun exposed areas like Thunder Wolf.

Close view of Big Couloir:

The Iglu was installed next to some stunted trees.

West end of Iglu with new tram behind it and unloading station of new gondola left background.

This central location makes it easy for sightseers to use the tram (only ones allowed today) and visit the Iglu.

View of the peak and North Summit Snowfields (large diagonal line of snow on looker's right of peak):

A local said that route is closed to skiing because the narrow passages below, Rip's and Great Falls, are too sketchy. I skied North Summit Snowfields with Patrick via Great Falls in 2006 and with Liz via Rip's in 2013.

Tseeb's step-up and high traverse led to the skiable line in the center of this picture.

The two laps I took on Lone Tree had great snow but exhausted me enough that I opted for a cruiser down to Madison 8 next. The one I chose was not fully groomed because it was too thin lower down.

Big Sky reports 79% open by acreage. There are scattered closed or sketchy runs like the one above in various locations one might not expect from prior visits.

The predicted storm was delayed so no new snow reported this morning though it is snowing now. But the revised forecast calls for up to a foot by tomorrow. So I'm planning on a short day today, anticipating a much better one Friday. Wednesday I skied 18,500 vertical.

 

[tseeb]

No skiing pictures with my SUV looking like this at end of day. 13" new reported Friday morning. Maybe half of it fell during day on Thursday.

We parked at Madison Base. Madison 8-pack chair had moderate to big line that did not go down much during 'lunch lull'. I moved to Main Village area just before 1 after skiing a lot of powder on Lone Tree Face about 8x. I had an incident with a snowboarder who pushed me when we were both moving through powder to get himself more room to avoid trees. At the lift I told him "Next time push the tree, not me". He said he was very sorry. I shared the lift ride with him and his friend. No harm, so no foul?

Swift Current also had a moderate line, Ramcharger was shorter. I took one lap into Southern Comfort skiing trees in Freemont's Forest before new snow got too thin and I exited to Pomp and skied powder along edge. I also found a lot of powder on edges of runs off Swift Current and repeated Buffalo Jump where I'd found good snow on previous day. I rode Powder Seeker once but found Turkey Traverse was closed (as was hike to left above Lone Tree) due to avalanche control and visibility on Powder Seeker run was poor. They were allowing skiers to take tram to top of Lone Mountain for $25 unlike previous day, but visibility would have been a problem.

Many amazing lifts at Big Sky. It would be nice to see Vail spend like this at Heavenly and Kirkwood. Big screen over lift is like what you see in sports arenas. Following photo is with bubble that they have along with heated seats on three main chairlifts. The two others are 8-packs.

I had some trouble returning to Madison Base where I'd parked. First, I received call to join remote meeting with my sister's caregivers that delayed me a while. Then I thought I could get to Madison riding Expert-Only Challenger lift but ended up at and rode slow and flat Pony Express to get to long Cinnabar run to parking lot. Traffic going downhill from Big Sky to Town Center was going 12-13 mph for a while so my less than 10 mile drive to AirBnB took a while. My day's Garmin reports.

Lone Tree runs

Main Village area tracks

We went to Riverhouse BBQ for dinner, not too far down highway from Town Center where we are staying. I had brisket that included hard to see piece of cornbread with jalapenos. Tony and Liz had BBQ sampler that included fried chicken which you can order as a 3-piece with side dinner plate until it runs out for $7.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Liz and I left Moonlight soon after its liftline grew to 10 minutes. We stuck to cruisers as Friday is going to be obviously much better. So I toured Liz to the areas we didn't ski Wednesday: Elk Park Ridge to Thunder Wolf, the Deep South boundary to Yellowstone Club property and the Lewis and Clark lift going down to the Montage hotel at Spanish Peaks. Returning to Swift Current via Hangman's, we then skied Crazy Horse in the accumulating snow over intermittent moguls.

On the return to the Moonlight side we skied Park Avenue, a blue run in the new snow without moguls below, a nice finale and hopefully a preview of Friday. Total vertical was a modest 15,300.