Hopefully MarzNC will not be offended by a series of questions I have about this plan.
If that was likely, I wouldn't be posting here. I had plenty of experience with a co-ed online ski forum as an EpicSki moderator for the last five years it existed. Plus, I'm a born and bred New Yorker.
In general, keep in mind is that my trip planning is based not only on where I'd like to ski, but also the interests and travel situations for the my travel/ski buddies. A travel "crew" for sharing lodging and ground transportation is 2-6 people, including myself. My husband of 30+ years does not ski at all. These days, he has to put up with the fact that I'm not home much during the ski season.
The Planned Powder Chasing trip was planned around the interests of my friend who learned to ski as a young adult while finishing up a Ph.D. She's doesn't have budget constraints, but does have time constraints because of working full-time in the pharmaceutical industry. She has strong preferences related to lodging. Her husband is not interested in skiing. She reached a level to enjoy deep powder and steeps several years ago. Doing annual Private Ski Weeks at Taos and hiking the Ridge with a favorite instructor in recent years made quite a difference. That's in addition to other lessons for about a decade before that.
Warning . . . this got long.
1) I'll hazard a guess based upon age alone (projecting from my own recent age-based observations) that MarzNC is not comfortable on North Face CB, Schlasman's/Ridge at Bridger or Lone Peak at Big Sky. If that is true, the gap at the advanced intermediate level on all of these mountains is a big flaw, and the reason I've advised sbooker and family away from them. For powder, what you want is ungroomed advanced intermediate terrain, due to fewer rocks, delayed openings for avy control, etc.
Your age-related guesses are incorrect in some ways. Between semi-private lessons starting in 2013 at Massanutten, Bridger, Alta, Wolf Creek, and annual Taos Ski Weeks starting in 2018, I say I've become a "solid advanced" skier. That means advanced, but not expert. I'm skiing terrain I never expected to enjoy when I started skiing more regularly out west with adult friends about 15 years ago. Narrow chutes with rocks are not of interest. Have done a few entrances with instructors (Alta, Bridger) and that's enough. The instructors I've worked repeatedly are PSIA Level 3 with 20+ years of experience.
Becoming more fit after knee rehab in 2012 is another factor. I started doing year round ski conditioning and fitness training in assorted ways, including working with a personal trainer during the summer and/or fall. Blowing an ACL in June 2012 was not related to skiing at all. I opted not to do ACL reconstruction surgery. Bottom line is that I'm in far better shape than twenty years ago.
It's been a while since I skied with
@jimk or
@tseeb at Snowbird. I've improved a lot in recent years.
I prefer Alta to Snowbird, partially because I know all sorts of relatively short powder runs at Alta. Terrain in Catherine's is more my idea of good fun, as opposed to off a Devil's Castle traverse. I've skied in Supreme Bowl but often would rather do Rock 'N Roll to Cabin Hill than No. 9 Express.
4) Big Sky lodging prices have skyrocketed. That's why SkiTalk doesn't have Gatherings there anymore. So kudos to MarzNC if she found something reasonable. If staying in Bozeman, that's a quite tedious commute, and I suspect a hellish one on powder days.
Yep, finding lodging at Big Sky or even Meadow Village is not easy. The last trip we stayed in a 3BR/3BA condo in Meadow Village. Had enough people to keep the nightly cost per person reasonable.
Our reservations for the potential upcoming trip are at the relatively new Home2Suites by Hilton in Four Corners for the days we plan to ski Big Sky. Nightly rate without taxes is $165. Then we'd move to the GranTree Inn in Bozeman for skiing Bridger, where I've stayed before.
Being on Eastern Time is useful for ski trips out west. I'm a morning person in general. My ski buddy is not a morning person. But she (and Bill if involved) are quite willing to be up early enough to arrive at a resort parking lot an hour before lifts open. Waking up at 6am MT is easy during a 1-week trip for people living on Eastern Time.
As for terrain of interest . . .
Big Sky is in my personal Top Five list. I always combine Big Sky with Bridger. Have been five times (2012, 2013, 2019, 2023, 2024). I first skied Liberty off Lone Peak in 2012 during Diva West. Fair to say, I was having to stop every 3-4 turns and reset. Didn't have enough technique for steep terrain back then. During my last trip to Big Sky in Feb 2024, I could have skied Liberty essentially non-stop, but I stopped a few times to take pictures. I was with my primary ski buddy, Bill. Bill also was born and raised in NYC. He moved to Albuquerque decades ago. He's an old bachelor so free to do whatever he likes when it comes to being away from home.
Later that trip Bill and I had plenty of fun in making powder turns on the Moonlight side. On the last ski day we confirmed that the snow was terrible off Dakota and then headed back to Moonlight. With the new lift over there, should be shorter lift lines. I've explored Big Sky enough to know where to find leftover good snow.
For Bridger, I'm not interested in hiking the Ridge. I would ski off Schlasman's during a lesson if my instructor thought it was worth it. I started wearing a beacon in-bounds a few years ago. All of my instructors were pushing the idea. My instructor has been a Ridge Guide for decades. First worked with him after a recommendation from nolo of EpicSki. He's over 70 and semi-retired but happy to do a lesson for me and my friends if he's in town and not off skiing elsewhere.
Only been to CB once, in March 2024. So far, that was the only season I got an Epic Local pass. CB is one of Bill's favorite mountains. I got a good introduction to terrain off the upper mountain T-bars early on during a Full Day Lesson with a long-time Level 3 instructor. We lucked out and arrived shortly after a powder storm.
5) CB is not a good place for powder. Snowfall is modest and the North Face would be a scary place with lots of hidden rocks just below a coating of new snow. Monarch is smaller than any of 9 places I mention in the interior Northwest below.
That's why I'm not committed to head to CB. My ski buddy who is working hasn't been there, but she knows Bill likes CB, both mountain and town, a lot. It's an easy drive for him from Albuquerque. She's done quite a few trips that involved him too. In fact, her first experience skiing deep powder was with Bill at PowMow in 2014 during a Diva West.
Flying to DEN non-stop is easy. From my home airport, RDU, I can't get a non-stop flight to any other airport in western ski country. Bill is willing to pick us up at DEN and take us back for our flights home. His ski car is a Kia Telluride these days. He's going to CB no matter what because making last minute changes to a trip plan doesn't work for him.
We'd warm up skiing Monarch for a couple days on the way to CB. Discovered the Lodge at Poncha Springs, which is family owned and 10 min closer to Monarch than a motel in Salida. Lodging at CB will be at the Old Town Inn in town. I shared a good 2BR/2BA condo near the resort in 2024. But we wanted to book lodging that could be cancelled with no penalty relatively close to the arrival date. Also needed a place that would work for Bill for a solo trip.
If we do decide to head to CB, I'll set up at least one Full Day lesson for the three of us. If the instructor I worked with before isn't available, I'll get a recommendation from her about who to work with. It would be a combination of guided "adventure skiing" and powder technique instruction.
3) I usually send along links to my TRs when contacting a ski area in May for snow data that I have skied in the current season. I did not do that for Big Sky in 2023 because the
comments in response to my TR here were overwhelmingly negative.
Except for this Planned Powder Chasing Trip experiment, I don't plan trips out west with much consideration for snow conditions. Meaning, the dates are set months in advance that work for me and my friends who are interested. We go and enjoy the ski trip, regardless of snow and weather conditions. I've been lucky to catch a few deep powder storms (Alta in Apr, Grand Targhee in Mar, Taos in Feb, Wolf Creek in Dec) and I've been skunked with unexpected low snow conditions (Alta in Mar, Taos in late Feb).
If I'm going somewhere new mid-season (Feb-Mar), I don't care about snow conditions at all. For Tamarack, Brundage, Bogus Basin, and Brian Head in March 2025, Bill and I had the best snow at Bogus and Brian Head after my intermediate friends went home. It was more important that they had fun staying at Tamarack and also enjoyed Brundage greens. What I learned on that trip was that I'd like to go back to Idaho. A future trip will be that much easier to arrange in terms of travel planning because of the experience we gained. Overall, it was a really fun trip for all of us.
@Tony Crocker : thanks for the questions and comments. Writing stuff down is how I process best. For planning ski trips, most of the time I'm in the "I know what I know" stage of learning but sometimes I've gone past that into "I don't know what I know."
). Will have to figure out the appropriate gateway city/airports if skiing in France; otherwise, Zurich.
, but it does have good storm and tree skiing.)
I have constructive suggestions.