Big Sky Skiing
With more than 5,600 skiable acres, Big Sky Resort and Moonlight Basin make up the largest skiing area in America. Downhillers and snowboarders have access to 23 lifts, 220 runs, and 4,350 feet of vertical. An annual snowfall of 400 inches sustains the Big Sky ski season from around Thanksgiving through April.
You can warm up with a cruise down Mr. K, a front-side bomber that catches morning rays and is groomed every night, offering three miles of gently undulating, green-run terrain. For more angle, try Andesite Mountain’s blue-run Elk Park Ridge. In the afternoon, the Lone Peak Tram affords views of three states—Montana, Wyoming and Idaho—along with Yellowstone National Park and the Tetons on a clear day. From there you can carve down the black-diamond Liberty Bowl, a wide-open, European-style piste. At tree line the slope becomes Bavarian Forest, with glades of conifers that descend for another 750 vertical feet.
From the 11,166-foot summit at Lone Peak, you can snowboard down the black-diamond slopes of Liberty Bowl and ride all the way down to the Dakota triple chair and more than 200 acres of open bowl skiing. If cross-country is more your speed, Lone Mountain Ranch is North America’s premier Nordic Ski center, with nearly 75 kilometers of groomed trails.