Tseeb and I stayed Saturday night in Great Falls. The shortest drive from there to Bozeman is via Hwy89 which goes over a 6,900 foot pass where Showdown ski area is located.
There was almost no traffic on the drive though the parking lot was about half full when we arrived around 10AM. It seems amazing the area was founded in 1936 in such a remote location.
The parking lot was above the day lodge and ticket office, with an icy path to get there. View up the easiest looker's right side of the mountain:
I was not optimistic about conditions, as Montana snowfall east of the Continental Divide has been lean this season. However Showdown has reported 149 inches vs. 81 at Discovery (how is @q faring this season?) and 79 at Great Divide. So the mountain pass location must enhance the snowfall some. They claim 255 inches average, which I'm inclined to believe relative to those other areas. There is no snowmaking, so there were some thin patches in high traffic areas but also no slick manmade subsurfaces.
More of a surprise were surface conditions, majority winter snow when we started skiing. Grooming was excellent, particularly for a mom-and-pop area like this. Primary exposure is east, with the longest Prospector chair (1,332 vertical per liftblog) somewhat southeast. Most of the groomers softened in the afternoon so we have been lucky to get a first day warmup situation. High was expected to be 36 vs. 32 on Saturday according to one of the lifties. It was occasionally breezy. Hall-O, one of the frontside groomers:
King's Ridge was the longest groomer skirting the southern boundary down to the Prospector lift. It's flat on top then steeper near the bottom, espeicially on nthe Second Thought branch which we skied twice. Five black mogul runs drop off King's Ridge into Ruby Gulch. These are sheltered NE facing with good winter snow. Tseeb on Good Luck here:
Glory Hole:
We saw more people on the first of these runs Dynamite, which faced more east so we tried it later when it had softened. The sun had also exposed some rocks at the top, one of which put a dent in one of my skis that I got repaired today in Bozeman.
From Glory Hole and above you can ski to a Prospector mid-station, which gives you half the vertical in about a third of the chair length, following the path in this picture.
We alternated those black runs with front side groomers and finished with 14,900 vertical about 2:30. I followed a couple of locals along the Golden Goose northern boundary to Meadows an a path to the parking lot.
Showdown's overall scale is most similar to Maverick among the Montana areas I've skied. It's probably doing well in a season like this when the other places east of the Divide are marginal. Tseeb's day at Bridger had far less pleasant conditions, though a partly cloudy day after the warmup is not what you want to see.
Leonard at Castle had recommended White Sulphur Hot Springs, so we stopped there from 3:30 - 5:00PM.
There were two of these outdoor pools maybe about 100F plus a very hot smaller one inside through that hot pool sign, maybe about 106F so I only went in that one waist deep.
Above the outdoor pools was this mural.
There was a list of hidden items in the mural of which we found less than half.
Showdown was my second and last new ski area on this road trip. The low elevation Oregon places I had originally planned to visit are mostly closed now after last week's rain over thin bases.
There was almost no traffic on the drive though the parking lot was about half full when we arrived around 10AM. It seems amazing the area was founded in 1936 in such a remote location.
The parking lot was above the day lodge and ticket office, with an icy path to get there. View up the easiest looker's right side of the mountain:
I was not optimistic about conditions, as Montana snowfall east of the Continental Divide has been lean this season. However Showdown has reported 149 inches vs. 81 at Discovery (how is @q faring this season?) and 79 at Great Divide. So the mountain pass location must enhance the snowfall some. They claim 255 inches average, which I'm inclined to believe relative to those other areas. There is no snowmaking, so there were some thin patches in high traffic areas but also no slick manmade subsurfaces.
More of a surprise were surface conditions, majority winter snow when we started skiing. Grooming was excellent, particularly for a mom-and-pop area like this. Primary exposure is east, with the longest Prospector chair (1,332 vertical per liftblog) somewhat southeast. Most of the groomers softened in the afternoon so we have been lucky to get a first day warmup situation. High was expected to be 36 vs. 32 on Saturday according to one of the lifties. It was occasionally breezy. Hall-O, one of the frontside groomers:
King's Ridge was the longest groomer skirting the southern boundary down to the Prospector lift. It's flat on top then steeper near the bottom, espeicially on nthe Second Thought branch which we skied twice. Five black mogul runs drop off King's Ridge into Ruby Gulch. These are sheltered NE facing with good winter snow. Tseeb on Good Luck here:
Glory Hole:
We saw more people on the first of these runs Dynamite, which faced more east so we tried it later when it had softened. The sun had also exposed some rocks at the top, one of which put a dent in one of my skis that I got repaired today in Bozeman.
From Glory Hole and above you can ski to a Prospector mid-station, which gives you half the vertical in about a third of the chair length, following the path in this picture.
We alternated those black runs with front side groomers and finished with 14,900 vertical about 2:30. I followed a couple of locals along the Golden Goose northern boundary to Meadows an a path to the parking lot.
Showdown's overall scale is most similar to Maverick among the Montana areas I've skied. It's probably doing well in a season like this when the other places east of the Divide are marginal. Tseeb's day at Bridger had far less pleasant conditions, though a partly cloudy day after the warmup is not what you want to see.
Leonard at Castle had recommended White Sulphur Hot Springs, so we stopped there from 3:30 - 5:00PM.
There were two of these outdoor pools maybe about 100F plus a very hot smaller one inside through that hot pool sign, maybe about 106F so I only went in that one waist deep.
Above the outdoor pools was this mural.
There was a list of hidden items in the mural of which we found less than half.
Showdown was my second and last new ski area on this road trip. The low elevation Oregon places I had originally planned to visit are mostly closed now after last week's rain over thin bases.
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award by claiming 2,000 vertical when the real number is 1,500.