Big Sky Resort

Screw you Boyne for messing up a perfect mountain.
Ah Big Sky. Every destination resort skier’s dream: massive scope, nauseatingIy steep vertical relief, deep snowpacks… empty runs. It’s in Montana — the friendliest state in the history of states. It’s young and aimed at those who have a large disposable income — one would expect it to have all the amenities of Jackson Hole and Aspen only without the crappy attitude. It should have everything! Titularly it does have everything!
At 5800 acres — it’s massive. I was bushed crossing from one side to another, and runs have to average two or three miles in length. Even the easy greens are exciting things, with stunning views of the great Gallatin Canyon, the Spanish Peaks, and, of course, the focal point that is Lone Peak’s glacial horn. One doesn’t tire of the views or the exhilaration that comes with skiing such a gorgeous landscape — a landscape that goes on and on and on into an in-​bounds forever dreamscape. It’s one-​and-​a-​half Mammoths placed right next to one another. There’s no way for a regular to ski this whole mountain in a single season (and if they can, they clearly have nothing else to do with their lives). The expert terrain, much of it requiring guests to sign-​in with ski patrol so that they can track their progress or lack thereof, is like helicopter skiing… only without the $ 2k price tag. This is a skier’s paradise. But this review is not going to focus on the ski mountain itself (see below if you are looking for that). Instead, I am going to review how Boyne Resorts operates this mountain — which should earn five stars by default, but is docked to three because of several missteps.
Big Sky is masquerading as a world class resort when, in the service and amenity area, it isn’t (unless you own in one of the private club subdivisions… then life is mote satisfying). Shock and awe, I know, but there are a few reasons why my knee-​jerk five star review is docked down to three. Granted, the terrain and locale are still incredible enough that the grievances I am about to list are truly fading into the background, but upon reflection they are a large enough disappointment that I have to put them out there so that Boyne can do something about it or sell to someone who values guest satisfaction as much as they value real estate sales:
1) Employee attitude — While the local businessowners and many of the skiers themselves are very friendly and considerate, as one would expect at a Montana mountain, the employees are listless, bored, and lacking in amicability. True, most are not Montana locals, being transplants and ski bums hailing from Miami, Los Angeles, New York, and Thailand, but Boyne Resorts has apparently done little to engender enthusiasm in these poor kid’s hearts. When a ski ticket is set at $ 106 for a single day and an annual pass’ early purchase period discount calls for a whopping $ 1019 outlay, a guest can expect at least a little bit of effort on the mountain’s part to engender a sense of pride and excitement in their product. That is apparently missing, and it’s a shame, because it takes the edge off the experience and makes guests feel like they are intruding on someone else’s more important business of texting, navel gazing, and zoning out.
2) Crappy Mobile App and Website — Many ski areas have embraced the digital revolution and developed beautifully designed and user friendly applications for wayfinding, tracking, and snow reports. Big Sky has one, only (a) location services won’t pinpoint your location on the trail map as advertised, which makes it easy for a first timer to get lost (b) the tracking feature doesn’t work and © the weather and snow reports are never updated. Even on the website it is nearly impossible to find the actual daily snow report and, once found, it is so littered with marketing speak and a constant oscillation between «packed powder» and «fresh powder» as to be misleading. My «packed powder» day was entirely groomer slush. A little honesty from Boyne about the product they are delivering so late in the year would be appreciated.
3) Expense relative to Value — Big Sky is in the middle of nowhere. And hence no one shows up. They further this phenomenon, however, by imposing an antiquated flat rate lift ticket price without any incentive to purchase in advance. At $ 106, the locals are mostly priced out of skiing here — especially when $ 30 and $ 40 tickets are available for other nearby ski hills. Granted, this is the only «true» resort in the state, but the price gouging occurs everywhere. (a) the most expensive on-​mountain rentals of all time — Black Tie ski valet is cheaper. (b) $ 100 mountain tours — other resorts offer these for FREE. © $ 10 pizza slice.
That said, the mountain itself, the food, and the locale are first rate, described in my exhaustive trip report of the mountain that may be found here:

A nice resort for a couple weeks of skiing. Had a good experience in the full sized suite. Although the place was a bit dated, it was a comfortable and friendly stay. BTW, great location for hitting slopes.

Expensive, dirty, unhelpful staff, room tiny and dark for 360 + a night. Came for a week to spend my wedding anniversary. What a disappointment.

My wife and I want to second and third everything Marvin L. wrote on 2/​19, he got it exactly right. We’ve been coming here for a few years and despite the fabulous mountain we’re now having second thoughts about return visits due to the severe under-​investment. We’re in the middle of a week’s visit in late Feb./early Mar., Swift Current is down once again and the mountain is mostly inaccessible. The owners (Boyne Corp.) need to either get their acts together or sell to a more responsible group.

A real disappointment. As a seasonal staff member I have lost any respect for Big Sky Resort. Communication from management is awful. Most of the staff are transient bums whose life goal is to get high on a daily basis. The culture of the resort is a hands off policy by management when employees misbehave and act out.
The skiing is ok, but not as good as Utah.

Ok. It seems that I will be in the minority here and not provide a stellar review of big sky. I will preface it by saying that we had weird, challenging conditions that saw rain top to bottom in February, unseasonably warm weather, high winds, flat light with minimal snow all week. First the good, this mountain is big, gnarly and can be super dangerous. I consider myself an expert and can go pretty much everywhere, as long as cliffs are not involved. Big sky is up there with all the biggest best I have skied. Also great long consisting pitch intermediates to just rip it. The people who work here are fabulous, super friendly and very accommodating. They really helped when things went wrong with some of the lifts.
So why only 3 stars? Honestly, it seems that there is not enough investment to consider this a world class $ 110/​day resort. One chair (swift current) stalled on us for 90 minutes and needed a generator to eventually get us off. It is an incredibly important part of the lift system and had been having problems for days. It seems they were stitching it together and hoping to get by. Another chair (challenger) just shut down for the year, too old to repair. Again, important for accessing parts of the mtn (look at a map to see why), and clearly an issue years ago. Other chairs were intermittently stopped, not sure why. The lift system is just not at the same level as the resorts that big sky wants to compete with.
Restaurants are also minimal, surprisingly so. They’re so sparse it’s hard to find them. I don’t really need over the top lunches (although Everetts filled that niche nicely), I just want and expect some more options. There are porta pottys at the top of some of the lifts, because there aren’t enough facilities. Also, why there is not a big map at the top of every lift seems strange to me.
Lastly, I am a big advocate of using a guide at least once for big mountains. Not only to understand the mtn, and to find hidden gems, but also for safety reasons. Is that terrain just too difficult for me? But the guide cost is insane here, $ 500 for ½ day, $ 700 for full? This is in bounds guiding. I have paid much less for off piste guiding, with the guide responsible for providing beacons, probes shovels and avi safety.
There seems to be a chicken vs egg at big sky. They want to be in the same class as the biggest resorts and charge at that level. But to do that they need to get the infrastructure at that level. Terrain is certainly world class, but the infrastructure just doesn’t feel like it yet. There seems to be so much focus on real estate, and there are certainly ppl that revel in million $ homes that dot the landscape, but for me u have to get the basics correct first before moving into that realm of the development process. Will I come back? Maybe, but I think there are a lot of other big mtn, laid back places that one can save a lot $$ for the experience.

This update is primarily for the lessons here since there doesn’t seem to be a separate entry for the mountain sports school.
This year was my third time in Big Sky and after hemming and hawing about taking a lesson for quite a while I decided to give it a try. Prices seemed high ($ 90 for a half-​day group lesson) but I felt like my skills had plateaued and I could use some instruction from a professional.
The first pleasant surprise I had was that «group» lessons were anything but. Granted, this was during a weekday during a slower part of the ski season but when we met up there were three instructors for the higher level classes and only four students. We did a warm up run, split into small groups and I ended up getting an instructor just for myself.
After we split up I quickly saw that my instructor (Pablo) really knew his stuff, and was quite good at teaching. I was surprised how much more I enjoyed skiing after just a half day of instruction. There were a couple of runs (Lone Tree & the Headwaters Bowl) that I thought were out of my league beforehand that I was comfortably able to tackle after my class. The lesson I took was a great experience and in the future I think I’ll splurge for at least a half day class whenever I come back to Big Sky.

The people are so mean and brutally rude every time you make the smallest mistake people will make sure you know about when I got to the top of the lift I slipped and fell and the lift opperator at the top yelled at me for no reason and in general the people are just mean and not helpful their is only three things that are nice about big sky and that is the weather the view and the skiing.

Great service from Tyler in the Lift Tickets sales office! «Guides» all over to help. Excellent introductory session to introduce the slopes. Great food. What else could you ask for!!!

From beginning to end this place was fabulous. Understated elegance, unpretentious and inviting slopes and activities besides skiing. The people are so friendly. The shuttle service is very user friendly and punctual. The skiing was BIG! The food was excellent, but make reservations before you go. The shared shuttle to and from Bozeman airport was seamless. There was literally not one thing to complain about. If you like to ski and avoid the crowds, this is your place.

Just finished our second weeklong ski trip to Big Sky and we have decided it will be an annual tradition. I almost don’t want to write this, because we’d kinda like to keep Big Sky to ourselves :) here are a few of our favorite things — plenty of ski trails for all levels; no lift lines; ski school (especially — best adult ski instructor/​naturalist/​all around cool guy Jonathan Bowe); low key, relaxed atmosphere throughout resort & area; Buffet breakfast at Huntley Lodge; Lunch at Yeti Dogs or Black Kettle Soup Company at 9,700 ft; Après ski at Scissorbills Saloon; dinner at Buck’s T-​4; CR Creations Yarn Shop (beautiful yarn if you knit, lessons if you want to learn how or local, handmade items for you to buy); shuttle that takes you everywhere and best of all — everyone — resort crew, locals & other visitors are friendly and make you feel right at home. Can’t wait for next year — maybe we will see you there!

Great place to ski and stay. Friendly people and an amazing experience. The high altitude is a real trip!

I suppose this may not be a fair review since I’m not an avid skier or even a lover of cold weather. Ice, snow, sleet, wind, no thank you, give me my Carolina weather.
Compared to my memory of skiing in high school near the East Coast, this was far better reaching. I was incredibly impressed with the friendliness and helpfulness of all the Big Sky staff. Each person I encountered went out of their way to help me, make small talk, or suggest restaurants or breweries in the area. One of the staff even found our group to be so fun he followed us up as we got better to encourage us.
I was very pleased with all the activities (skiing, snow tubing, snowmobiling) and the staff. If you’re looking for a place where you can find all your snow sports and endless cold weather activities in one place, this is your ticket.

Whiskey Jacks has the BEST food. Couldn’t believe how fast we got our meals and drinks and the food and service was amazing. There was a full house with the Big Grass Festival this weekend and they were on top of it!

Fantastic snow, ZERO lift lines, quiet outdoors without loudspeakers on the terrain parks, fast lifts, easy ski-​in/​out, good food. What more could you want!
We stayed at The Summit. Be sure to utilize their free shuttle to restaurants down the valley.

«Biggest Ski Resort (most acreage») in the US, and my favorite ski resort. The runs are great — plenty are long and wide, ranging from nice, easy greens, to fun blues, and challenging black and double blacks. We have been here several times, most recently for a week over Christmas, and everyone, including the kids, had an incredible time.
Santa was good to us, and brought us a foot of fresh powder, including 6 inches for Christmas Day. We made it up right when the lifts opened for first tracks, and the powder was amazing. One of our best skiing days ever. And, almost no lift lines, especially once you get up from the base — even during Christmas week. Runs were rarely crowded.
It gets pricey, at $ 100/​ticket for adults and $ 53 for kids 10 and under. Although that seems to be about the going rate now for comparable resorts. You can save money if you purchase a Big Sky Card well in advance. You can also sign up for Boyne Rewards to earn points toward lift or lodging discounts. Or, if you book lodging through Big Sky Central Reservations, kids 10 and under ski free.
ThIs time we stayed in Big Sky lake condos, which was great — brought up groceries from Bozeman, so cooked most meals in, except lunches on the mountain. Took in some live music, kids activities, free movies in the Amphitheater, yoga, and on Christmas Eve, church service followed by torchlight parade down the mountain, Santa ziplining in, and fireworks through the snow fall. Wonderful trip, and looking forward to our next Big Sky trip!

Just spent the holiday in Big Sky and I will definitely be back in the future. What a great mountain to ski. The place is HUGE! They are not kidding when they say biggest skiing in the America. There are plenty of runs to ski of board for any skill level. This truly is a great place to explore, from the training ground at the Mesa Base to the Chutes near the tram. One of the most surprising aspects of the mountain was just how under crowded it was throughout the day. I know from experience just how crowded mountains can be during the holiday season, having skied most of the major mountain resorts in Colorado in the past. Skiing at Big Sky was a dream in comparison. No lines on the ski lifts once you are on the mountain. 90% of the time I could ski to the bottom of any lift and not have to wait at all. It made for a much more enjoyable experience as I did not have to wait around ever and I could spend more time on the mountain rather than in line. With so few people on the mountain I had plenty of wide-​open runs that I had all to myself. Being able to ski in powder from open to close was an amazing experience that I have never experienced anywhere else.
I would highly recommend giving Big Sky a try the next time you are looking for a place to explore during the ski season.

Big Sky consistently has good snow because of high altitude.
Bison burgers are a must.
If the gondola is open, it’s worth going, but make sure the visibility is good or it can be a bit daunting.
So much terrain to cover… there’s something for every level. Even when it’s «peak time» you can find wide open runs…

Had an awesome time in Big Sky. Great place to stay for Yellowstone. Wake up and leave early when going to Yellowstone to give yourself the best chance to see wildlife and beat the afternoon crowds. I came during the summer months and had plenty to keep me occupied. Resort is like a small town with the shops and activities.
I would highly recommend the adventure zip and the lone peak expedition.
On the zip tour you go up a ski lift and then take about a half mile hike to the first platform. Harnesses are very safe and responsible staff make you feel even more secure, especially for nervous zippers. There are four lines, each about 1,000 ft long that take you to speeds up to 35 mph. The final line has two parallel lines, so you and a friend can race. Make sure to get the left line (It’s much faster!!!)
Lone peak expedition takes you in a four seater ski lift to start about 2,000 ft higher up. From there you take a truck to another lift. The truck has 12 comfortable, padded seats. Keep your eyes peeled for wildlife here as it is abundant. Big horn sheep are almost a guarantee. The truck drops you off at an enclosed gondola. The ride lasts four minutes and lets you off on the peak. From the peak you can see three states and two national parks. On almost all days, you can see the Tetons from Lone Peak.
If you’re not as adventurous there are great hiking trails all around the mountain. There is an 18 hole disc golf course that takes you for a brief hike from hole to hole. If you prefer, you can buy a pass for $ 9 that allows you to ride the ski lift to the top and back down on your own. There is the option to hike down but is just is breathtaking from above.
If you’re really feeling exceedingly sluggish, there are approximately 15 shops in the mall within the resort. The restraints are top notch. My personal favorite was an italian place near the center of the village. Their pizza was out of this world. Another place called Yeti Dogs was nothing like I had had before. They had all kinds of concoctions with hot dogs. The include but are not limited to chili, baked beans, fritos, and mayo.
I spent 10 days there, each one was as entertaining as the previous if not more.

Great time here. Light powdery snow.
The runs here are huge. I’ve never skied somewhere with consistently wide runs. Big Sky has everything from double blacks to greens. We enjoyed skiing in the bowl and going fast on the long steep groomers.
Stayed at Hill Condos and took the shuttle to the mountain, always on time.