You know the job interview mantra: “You only get one chance to make a first impression.” So I’m impressed when my skiing at Big Sky in Montana starts with being scooped up by a chairlift to find it not only has a hood to keep wind and snow at bay, but the seat is heated. This is good news to a backside that was basking in summer sun not 36 hours ago.
Even my impression is impressed. I’m skiing with Shawn Radtke, who started out on his skiing career at Telluride, in Colorado, before moving to Montana. “It’s quieter here than Telluride, but that will shift,” he says.
“Big Sky is more of a skier’s mountain, there’s more challenging terrain here than Telluride, and also longer runs.” The view from the top – looking from Big Sky’s Lone Mountain, over the ski runs and into the Montana wilderness. On a visit before moving here, he skied three of the mountain’s famed (ie, most difficult) runs – Big Couloir, North Summit Snowfield and Tu – and “that was the clincher,” he says.
“You have all this backcountry quality skiing with lift access. You know, I’ve been here nine years skiing 100-plus days each year and I still haven’t skied every run.” Big Sky, is indeed, big – the resort area covers 2350 hectares – and beyond Radtke’s hair-raising, elbow-scraping runs (they call their triple-black-diamond runs “high exposure”, I call that an understatement) – many hundreds of those hectares are devoted to cruisy terrain, long, smooth and .
