Skiing Big Sky

The Boy’s family has two condos at Big Sky so we got the family together (17 of us!) for a ski vacation.

Two years ago I learned to ski at Big Sky. I got to hit the greens and ventured to some blues but wasn’t anywhere near good enough to really appreciate the mountain. The Boy grew up skiing Big Sky and for years he has serenaded me with stories of The Tram and I know to respect the mountain’s power after The Boy had a horrible wreck off a cliff onto a shale field that resulted in surgery and injuries he still feels the effects of.  Everyone in our family is a really talented skier and I was excited that this year I might be good enough to ski  The Tram or get brats at the yurt off the Shedhorn.

On Friday we started with our nieces and nephew (ages 8-12) and The Boy’s dad, who is in his late 60s. I brought out my new skis and it was like  learning to ski all over again. If I wasn’t super aggressive on the groomers then the skis were squirrely, shaky and chattery. It was super frustrating, but The Boy’s dad and brother used it as an opportunity to teach me better technique and these skis definitely forced me to do some things that make me a better skier. The visibility was bad in the afternoon so we mostly hit some intermediate trails, but finished with gorgeous runs on War Dance (trees!) and Mad Wolf (black moguls!).

On Saturday we were free of the littlest kids and The Boy wanted to hit it hard with his big brother. We were also with their younger brother and our 12-year-old nephew. These boys can ski. I kept telling them I’d let them have a boys day and they should go ski hard, but they insisted I stay with them. I was slower than they were and wrecked a few times (hey, now I know my new bindings work!), but overall I was able to hang with the boys. We hit the Dakota Gully (first time I’ve ever crossed avalanche warning signs), the bowl on Lone Peak, and went down Bacon Rind- my first double black! We didn’t make it to The Tram because it was a beautiful bluebird day and the line was out of control. However, I had a great day skiing my man’s home mountain with some of our favorite people in the world. I only wish these pictures did justice to the beauty of Montana.