First stop on the big ski trip

Big Sky = Big Crowds but little snow

I am off on the big ski trip of 2022.

• Bozeman/Big sky to visit my son Ryan.

• Blacktail Mountain (near Whitefish) to visit and ski with my cousin Lael and her husband Darrel.

• Schweitzer Mountain

• Revelstoke - Canada

• Purcell Mountain Lodge, also Canada - a week of backcountry skiing

After several water freezing misadventures in the camper I have upped the anti by installing custom skirting, reinsulated some water pipes and added custom insulated widow coverings. So far no freezing problems, certainly much nicer to use the plumbing rather than function out of camping water jugs.

After a two day drive from Minneapolis I arrived in Bozeman. No events but just so tired I elected to park in front of Ryan’s apartment and drive up to Big Sky the next morning, Friday. Big Sky now has a dedicated parking lot for campers that is not a bad walk to the lifts. Ryan is working a full time job (thanks for paying into social security), so for this trip I have to join the masses and ski the weekend with Ryan. So Friday I am on my own. Nothing really changed at Big Sky from years past with two big high speed lifts at the base. Of course I took the wrong one to get over to the far lookers left to ski Shed Horn and Dakota. These seem to have best skiing with the shortest lines. So I just went straight down to suck it up and stand in a 20 minute line to get on the correct chair.

However, the snow conditions were bad…I mean really bad. So many people I’m nervous about getting hit and runs scrapped as clean as a Howie Mandel haircut. (He is bald, I was going to reference Yule Brenner or Kojak but then you know how old I am.)

Looking up at the control central light board showing lift status I see that the Dakota lift is closed? Odd, I asked the lifty why. Answer, “no snow”. OMG, March and a lift is closed because they don’t have enough snow! Not looking good. I go up to take a look around, maybe I can find a decent groomer up higher. Nope, big rock piles in places I have never seen rock piles before. Some rocks in the middle of mainstream runs. I went down and back to the camper. Two runs and done. The insanity of scheduling a ski resort vacation far in advance and hoping for good snow is now seared into my mind. More on that later….

Some friends were coming to Big Sky the next day for one day then heading home to Minneapolis. I suggested a Hike instead, however, everyone was ready to ski so off we went Saturday morning. More misery, even more crowded. It is always more fun to ski with friends but even their great company could not mask the fact that the skiing was awful. So by early afternoon we gave up and went to the base area. It was a sea of humanity. I will say that Big Sky has improved their base area casual dining/cafeteria so we were able to find a table and enjoyed a late lunch and great company. Highlight of the day.

The Dad & Ryan plan for next day was to do some backcountry locally. We decided on Bee Hive Basin, a trail area close to big sky that is also a well know backcountry spot. It is essentially a long glaciated valley that winds up for 5 plus miles. The slope is moderate, not really offering anything much to ski unless you go up the either of the sides in an appropriate place.

Ryan in Beehive Basin

Me at the wilderness sign

After a couple hours I could sense my energy tank beginning to deplete and suggested to Ryan we need to make our move to a pitch that seemed worth skiing. This is where our lack of guiding/terrain selection skills surfaced. We spied what looked like a nice pitch, maybe a bit steep but hopefully a good option would surface after we got higher. Nope. Just got steeper and steeper. The conditions were safe from an avalanche perspective but I still didn’t want to ski something steep. First time backcounty skiing for several months. Of course my young strong son kept charging up and now we are maybe at a 35 degree pitch. Sorry to say this old man is just not strong enough to do uphill kick turns on that pitch. I melted down, had to take the skis off and fought to avoid tipping over backwards. Trying to put on skis in deep powder with your boot foot sinking down to your crotch. It was ugly.

I finally got the skis on but now I’m spent, just need to get off this pitch. Of course Ryan wants to go up another 100 yards and I need to ski down and get out of his path. We had our little father son chat about safety and terrain selection. I hacked my way down windblown powder and Ryan went up another 100 yards. He eventually came down in equally poor snow. Good thing no one captured this on video, it was not Warren Miller ski movie worthy. I have a renewed respect and appreciation for guides and those who have excellent local terrain knowledge. It is too much work to skin up and not have a good run down.

Ryan certainly could have continued on to try again but I was cooked. We did manage to get in a few mellow turns going down the valley.

On to Blacktail Mountain, near Whitefish.