In 2001 NASJA journalists at the Big Sky annual meeting had an opportunity to visit the Yellowstone Club in its formative stage. Most of the ski area had been built and the first 70 members had joined, but none of them had built houses yet. The thread above has additional posts from 2019 with links to more of the history.
The 25 NASJA members regrouped for a sumptuous lunch at the upper mountain Timberline Lodge, greeted by Marketing Director Charlie Callander, who was one year behind me in high school at Webb in Claremont.
In 2023 Liz and I were going to the Ski Hall of Fame induction at Big Sky, where an option was a tour of the Yellowstone Club by Scot Schmidt, who became their Director of Skiing after Warren Miller passed away. Liz was eager to do this but the tour had sold out immediately. I reached out to Charlie, who said he could arrange a visit if we were both in the area at the same time. There was one possible date, Mar. 23, which is the day Liz came down with COVID two days after I did.
Our schedules did not mesh in 2024 or 2025, but this year they did on March 6. We followed Charlie to the club, where our skis were immediately valeted to the snow and we were shown to a locker room to boot up. Charlie’s wife Melanie was skiing for the first time in 2+ years after recovering from ankle surgery and a knee replacement, so he arranged for Liz, Tseeb and me to ski with a guide Nathaniel in the morning.
Nathaniel has been at YC for 5 years, former taught skiing at Snoqualmie and Crested Butte and competed in freeskiing events. He also certifies instructors for PSIA, most recently at a regional event at Showdown where Tseeb and I had skied earlier in the week.
Maybe the COVID in 2023 was a blessing because we had 11 inches of reported new snow. Our warmup run was on Dreamcatcher down to the Lake Lift with a short sampling of trees along the way.
The Lake lift had a mechanical issue, but Nathaniel got on his radio and assessed it would not be long. In the meantime we went inside one of YC’s 9 Comfort Stations, which have free soup, cookies and this extensive candy collection.
Liz and I under one of a few Warren Miller paintings:
No one has personified the Warren Miller philosophy (If you don’t do it this year….) more than Liz in the past month.
View up Lake Lift from outside comfort station:
Had the delay been longer, snowmobile/snowcat transport was being set up to take people back to the frontside.
One of the early members, the Ching family, built their home near the base of Lake lift.
But they got tired of walking up the hill to the lift and paid to have its base lowered to an even level with their home. Now it was so close that some skiers would think it was a day lodge and knock on the door. Thus the “Chinese Takeout” sign at lower right. The crane is there to replace the wood shingle roof with metal. Insurers really don’t like wood roofs in locations like this.
We were on Lake lift in about 10 minutes. The top Mountain lift serves steep runs off the long Pioneer Ridge and a gladed backside. There was still room for us to put in some tracks on Shoulder under the Mountain lift.
Next we skied a fair distance down Pioneer Ridge, then off the back into the Gladiator glades.
Back up Lake and Mountain lifts, Tseeb and I skied Pioneer Bowl with Nathaniel.
Lower down he directed Tseeb and me into this untracked gully off Dropout.
Meanwhile Liz was scoring her own powder in Ching Forest.
By the time were back up Lake lift again, it was time to ski down to lunch. View of Andesite Mt.:
That is the south side of Andesite where many YC homes are built, along with some lifts to reach them. Sunset Blvd. is the broad groomer at looker’s left. The trail map shows the connections between Yellowstone Club and Big Sky. Liz and I passed by one of them during Thursday’s storm.
Here we are at the end of lunch:
Me, Liz, Melanie, Tseeb, daughter Eloise and Charlie
Melanie was delighted with her ski morning, but Charlie took her home after lunch. Liz skied a few runs with Eloise and her wife Abby, but got separated in those backside trees.
Tseeb and I wanted to ski one of the Pioneer Ridge chutes. As at Bridger and Big Sky, entries are sketchy this season even through snow was great once you dropped in. Looking down Pioneer Gully from First Notch entry:
We traversed to First Hourglass. Crosswise view to clouds on top of Lone Peak at Big Sky:
Tseeb skiing First Hourglass:
The view of First Hourglass riding Lake lift back up was in sun glare.
Looker’s left slope here is Stein’s.
I recall this was my favorite run here in 2001. Entrance is very sketchy right now.
Tseeb and I took one more powder run in the backside trees, general area of Marty’s Party.
It was past 3PM so Tseeb needed to get on the road as he was driving to relatives in Rexburg while Liz and I were only going as far as West Yellowstone.
Liz and I skied to the base via Quarterback Sneak, an interesting rolling blue run named in honor of Jack Kemp, one of the first Yellowstone Club members.
Today there were guesstimates of 800 (Charlie) to 1,000 skiers (Nathaniel) on the hill. There was not a sense of extreme emptiness, and sometimes there might be 5 people waiting to get on a lift. But once you spread out into 2,900 acres of terrain of course there’s lots of elbow room and moguls are essentially nonexistent. Peak visitation Christmas Week is about 2,500 per day, so I’ll hazard a guess that season skier days are in the 50,000 range. That would be similar to my favorite low density/good terrain areas Castle Mt. and Discovery.
One aspect where the low density impressed us was that groomers remained smooth all day and skied nicely on the shorter carving edge length of our powder skis. There was a small terrain park about halfway up the Lodge lift, and unlike Deer Valley snowboards are allowed though the proportion was probably under 10%.
We like to “see everything” so Liz and I rode the gondola up Eglise Mountain and made the last chair 3:45 on Great Bear lift. There are some black runs up there on the Silvertip chair, but Charlie said they are more wind exposed so the better advanced/expert skiing is definitely on Pioneer Mt.
The Great Bear lift serves top of mountain beginner terrain, reminded me some of Cinch at Beaver Creek. This was a logical addition as Pioneer Mt. has primarily fall line intermediate runs plus the advanced/expert terrain off the top. Overview of Eglise on our way out:
Liz about to head down, with Lone Peak view at right distance:
Notice the avalanche dog at right. Patrol was ready to sweep Eglise so we were on our way. Of course we still sniffed out some powder here and there, being careful to avoid too flat spots on the mellower terrain here. We skied 18,100 vertical, about half of that in powder.
Liz did some shopping in their store before we left. Pool and spa area near south wing of Warren Miller Lodge:
Last view of Lone Peak sunset from deck of the Warren Miller Lodge before we called for our car:
Recall from 2001 that Warren Miller was instrumental in the initial promotion of the Yellowstone Club and addressed our journalist group at breakfast. I never took an overview picture of the lodge but here is a summer view as you approach by car.
And here’s a view skiing down to it a decade+ ago.
We did take a picture driving in of the extension being built on its south wing.
Condos in Warren Miller Lodge can be as small at 1,500 square feet though that is rare. Listings do not include price. Google AI says:
Closer view of homes on Andesite on the drive out:
There is clearly an exterior architectural code, which Nathaniel said applies more strictly to homes built near ski runs. Nonetheless we saw this exception while riding the Lodge lift.
What Charlie did tell us was that the membership cap is 914 and that there are currently 875 members and about 750 completed homes. Since memberships are resaleable it’s possible that an equilibrium is being reached. However, the high and rising property values are not surprising since membership numbers are close to the cap.
The 25 NASJA members regrouped for a sumptuous lunch at the upper mountain Timberline Lodge, greeted by Marketing Director Charlie Callander, who was one year behind me in high school at Webb in Claremont.
In 2023 Liz and I were going to the Ski Hall of Fame induction at Big Sky, where an option was a tour of the Yellowstone Club by Scot Schmidt, who became their Director of Skiing after Warren Miller passed away. Liz was eager to do this but the tour had sold out immediately. I reached out to Charlie, who said he could arrange a visit if we were both in the area at the same time. There was one possible date, Mar. 23, which is the day Liz came down with COVID two days after I did.
Our schedules did not mesh in 2024 or 2025, but this year they did on March 6. We followed Charlie to the club, where our skis were immediately valeted to the snow and we were shown to a locker room to boot up. Charlie’s wife Melanie was skiing for the first time in 2+ years after recovering from ankle surgery and a knee replacement, so he arranged for Liz, Tseeb and me to ski with a guide Nathaniel in the morning.
Nathaniel has been at YC for 5 years, former taught skiing at Snoqualmie and Crested Butte and competed in freeskiing events. He also certifies instructors for PSIA, most recently at a regional event at Showdown where Tseeb and I had skied earlier in the week.
Maybe the COVID in 2023 was a blessing because we had 11 inches of reported new snow. Our warmup run was on Dreamcatcher down to the Lake Lift with a short sampling of trees along the way.
The Lake lift had a mechanical issue, but Nathaniel got on his radio and assessed it would not be long. In the meantime we went inside one of YC’s 9 Comfort Stations, which have free soup, cookies and this extensive candy collection.
Liz and I under one of a few Warren Miller paintings:
No one has personified the Warren Miller philosophy (If you don’t do it this year….) more than Liz in the past month.
View up Lake Lift from outside comfort station:
Had the delay been longer, snowmobile/snowcat transport was being set up to take people back to the frontside.
One of the early members, the Ching family, built their home near the base of Lake lift.
But they got tired of walking up the hill to the lift and paid to have its base lowered to an even level with their home. Now it was so close that some skiers would think it was a day lodge and knock on the door. Thus the “Chinese Takeout” sign at lower right. The crane is there to replace the wood shingle roof with metal. Insurers really don’t like wood roofs in locations like this.
We were on Lake lift in about 10 minutes. The top Mountain lift serves steep runs off the long Pioneer Ridge and a gladed backside. There was still room for us to put in some tracks on Shoulder under the Mountain lift.
Next we skied a fair distance down Pioneer Ridge, then off the back into the Gladiator glades.
Back up Lake and Mountain lifts, Tseeb and I skied Pioneer Bowl with Nathaniel.
Lower down he directed Tseeb and me into this untracked gully off Dropout.
Meanwhile Liz was scoring her own powder in Ching Forest.
By the time were back up Lake lift again, it was time to ski down to lunch. View of Andesite Mt.:
That is the south side of Andesite where many YC homes are built, along with some lifts to reach them. Sunset Blvd. is the broad groomer at looker’s left. The trail map shows the connections between Yellowstone Club and Big Sky. Liz and I passed by one of them during Thursday’s storm.
Here we are at the end of lunch:
Me, Liz, Melanie, Tseeb, daughter Eloise and Charlie
Melanie was delighted with her ski morning, but Charlie took her home after lunch. Liz skied a few runs with Eloise and her wife Abby, but got separated in those backside trees.
Tseeb and I wanted to ski one of the Pioneer Ridge chutes. As at Bridger and Big Sky, entries are sketchy this season even through snow was great once you dropped in. Looking down Pioneer Gully from First Notch entry:
We traversed to First Hourglass. Crosswise view to clouds on top of Lone Peak at Big Sky:
Tseeb skiing First Hourglass:
The view of First Hourglass riding Lake lift back up was in sun glare.
Looker’s left slope here is Stein’s.
I recall this was my favorite run here in 2001. Entrance is very sketchy right now.
Tseeb and I took one more powder run in the backside trees, general area of Marty’s Party.
It was past 3PM so Tseeb needed to get on the road as he was driving to relatives in Rexburg while Liz and I were only going as far as West Yellowstone.
Liz and I skied to the base via Quarterback Sneak, an interesting rolling blue run named in honor of Jack Kemp, one of the first Yellowstone Club members.
Today there were guesstimates of 800 (Charlie) to 1,000 skiers (Nathaniel) on the hill. There was not a sense of extreme emptiness, and sometimes there might be 5 people waiting to get on a lift. But once you spread out into 2,900 acres of terrain of course there’s lots of elbow room and moguls are essentially nonexistent. Peak visitation Christmas Week is about 2,500 per day, so I’ll hazard a guess that season skier days are in the 50,000 range. That would be similar to my favorite low density/good terrain areas Castle Mt. and Discovery.
One aspect where the low density impressed us was that groomers remained smooth all day and skied nicely on the shorter carving edge length of our powder skis. There was a small terrain park about halfway up the Lodge lift, and unlike Deer Valley snowboards are allowed though the proportion was probably under 10%.
We like to “see everything” so Liz and I rode the gondola up Eglise Mountain and made the last chair 3:45 on Great Bear lift. There are some black runs up there on the Silvertip chair, but Charlie said they are more wind exposed so the better advanced/expert skiing is definitely on Pioneer Mt.
The Great Bear lift serves top of mountain beginner terrain, reminded me some of Cinch at Beaver Creek. This was a logical addition as Pioneer Mt. has primarily fall line intermediate runs plus the advanced/expert terrain off the top. Overview of Eglise on our way out:
Liz about to head down, with Lone Peak view at right distance:
Notice the avalanche dog at right. Patrol was ready to sweep Eglise so we were on our way. Of course we still sniffed out some powder here and there, being careful to avoid too flat spots on the mellower terrain here. We skied 18,100 vertical, about half of that in powder.
Liz did some shopping in their store before we left. Pool and spa area near south wing of Warren Miller Lodge:
Last view of Lone Peak sunset from deck of the Warren Miller Lodge before we called for our car:
Recall from 2001 that Warren Miller was instrumental in the initial promotion of the Yellowstone Club and addressed our journalist group at breakfast. I never took an overview picture of the lodge but here is a summer view as you approach by car.
And here’s a view skiing down to it a decade+ ago.
We did take a picture driving in of the extension being built on its south wing.
Condos in Warren Miller Lodge can be as small at 1,500 square feet though that is rare. Listings do not include price. Google AI says:
Closer view of homes on Andesite on the drive out:
There is clearly an exterior architectural code, which Nathaniel said applies more strictly to homes built near ski runs. Nonetheless we saw this exception while riding the Lodge lift.
What Charlie did tell us was that the membership cap is 914 and that there are currently 875 members and about 750 completed homes. Since memberships are resaleable it’s possible that an equilibrium is being reached. However, the high and rising property values are not surprising since membership numbers are close to the cap.
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I wonder how the two compare for size, ski layouts, real estate, and membership requirements?