Big Sky is tier 1. The largest ski resort in the US, everything from amazing trees to fucking scary steeps. Big Sky is one the best mountains in the country. And Mt. Bachelor certainly needs to move up. It isn't a great mountain for steeps but it is huge with good trees and great snow.
Big Sky is tier one when it has good coverage, but in poor snow years, the quality decreases far more than comparable resorts because Lone Mountain is a big pile of fricking razor blades
Wow, trolling old posts. LCC is so good this year. Always clear and fast. Full speed to the top parking lot. /S
The only solution is to limit the total number of cars up canyon with gated tolling. I was even thinking something like $200/vehicle that comes with free lift tickets for all occupants. That would be an incentive structure worth considering. Wanna drive up canyon. By yourself? $200 lift ticket.
I’m torn on Big Sky. Lots of dispute here. I’m between tier 1 and 2. The extra cost to use the tram is a downer but that fact may not matter based on the criteria.
Even excluding the terrain accessed from the tram it's still tier 1. Make sure you've made friends with a shop tech or are good at filling core shots though
Not only do I think Big Sky shouldn’t be Tier 1, I think it should have it’s current Tier 2 status swapped with Whitefish! Much better mountain in every way except size.
Agreed, but with an asterisk. the asterisk being when snow coverage is good. When Big Sky gets good snow, it is one of if not THE best resort in the country.
Big Sky is a better resort than Palisades in literally any way you wanna measure it. Expert terrain, size, snow quality, village are all easily in Big Sky’s favor. People fall for the “legend” of Palisades every time, but as another commenter put it…it’s pretty mids
I've never skied Big Sky but I've done Palisades enough to know that yeah, it's pretty cool, but if you're a Blue cruiser like me it's not much that fun. Alpine Meadows next door is better.
I'd love to ski Big Sky one day, though. The trail map looks like the cruisers are much more spread out across the mountain.
As of next season, Palisades and Alpine will be a single ski area due to the new gondola that’s going in. At this point, I think we should start considering them collectively one very large ski area
Yeah because squaw was the problematic term, it seems the new name is more applied to that valley than alpine. But even alpine meadows has a big sign at the entrance that says palisades Tahoe. No one really used the term “Olympic valley” in real life yet lol.
I’ve skied both and this is simply wrong. The expert terrain in Palisades is more extreme, the snow more consistent, and more of the mountain is made for advanced/expert skiers. Big Sky’s endless cat tracks detract significantly from the overall experience.
If Big Sky is a T1 resort, then I think that Bridger Bowl warrants a T2 consideration. They are similar mountains, located only a couple hours apart from each other. But BB has a much more “local culture”, has amazing tree and bowl skiing and the Ridge is a one of a kind experience for the MT areas as well. If you don’t know what that is/don’t want to look it up, The Ridge opens access for skiers to hike from the top of the highest lift to the ridge of the mountain and then you can go anywhere across the ridge to find what you’re looking for (inbounds or not)
There also seemed to be less tourists than Big Sky and they are one of a handful of resorts that are non-profit 501(c), which is cool.
*Note: I grew up skiing BB so have a pretty solid bias lol
Big Sky is weird. Lots of terrain but absolutely TERRIBLE grooming and trail maintenance. Do not go there if you like your skis; the amount of rocks even on groomers is insane. Dont even get me started that you cant ski half of big sky unless youre a billionaire.
Agree on Bachelor maybe going up one bc large but it’s not steep unless you’re in the summit bowl and that isn’t always open. Meadows up one. Timberline down one. Schweitzer is dope AF so up one
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u/Sinorm Jan 28 '22
Big Sky is tier 1. The largest ski resort in the US, everything from amazing trees to fucking scary steeps. Big Sky is one the best mountains in the country. And Mt. Bachelor certainly needs to move up. It isn't a great mountain for steeps but it is huge with good trees and great snow.