Waitress (seeing me writing a note at the table): “Please don’t write about Big Sky. We don’t want the place overrun with tourists.”
Me (to waitress): “You have my word.”
This is the Final Frontier. The last America. The last great place. Unspoiled. Uninhabited (or nearly so).
Come see it before Sylvester Stallone buys up all the land. He’s just grabbed a hunk of Telluride, Colo. He’s coming . . . he’s coming. . .
Big Sky lies in southwestern Montana at least 45 miles from the nearest MBA (one reportedly lives in Bozeman) in a breathtakingly splendiferous wilderness, offering the three things a skier wants most:
1. No lift lines.
2. No lift lines.
3. No lift lines.
Included with the no-wait lift lines are 400 inches of snow per year, steep chutes, wide cruisers, almost 50 miles of cross-country ski trails, one of the best restaurants in the Rockies–and when you’re tired of all that (“I’m sooooo sick of all this powder. If I have any more wild boar, pheasant or venison, I’ll just gag.”), you have three of the greatest trout streams in America nearby, and a 2-million-acre winter playground down the road called Yellowstone National Park.
But let’s go skiing first.
How you get to Big Sky is one of the reasons why, once you’re there, you’ll have the place to yourself. (Other reasons are: nobody knows the place exists in the first place, and the ones who’ve heard of it think people are sleeping in unheated shacks on a 300-acre hill–which is not the case, as we will see a little further on.)
To get to Big Sky, you have to fly Northwest Airlines to Minneapolis where two crazed flight attendants will drill your teeth without using Novocain. No, actually something much, much worse. You have to change planes for the flight to Bozeman, Mont. Big Sky is a major resort that does not have direct flights from most major cities. Yet.
Northwest Airlines is not Air France. On the flight to Minneapolis, we got a pretzel. On the flight to Bozeman, we got a bagel. Eat before you go, Buckaroo.
Big Sky is an hour from Bozeman, a pretty drive along the Gallatin, one of America’s great trout rivers. In February, men are already in the streams. They are catching fish. They look cold.
Originally founded by the late NBC newsman Chet Huntley, Big Sky is now owned by the same people who own Boyne Mountain and Boyne Highlands in Michigan.
They have created a new, deluxe ski-in/ski-out resort with the main lifts about 100 feet from the Huntley Lodge, where most people stay.
A separate section of the Huntley has condo rentals for people who want to cook in their rooms. If you rent a condo, you’d be smart to stop in Bozeman to buy groceries, which is what everyone who lives on the mountain does. The only place to buy things at the resort is a little market down the road from the Huntley, where a can of Edge shaving gel is $4.10 and a bottle of $6 Fetzer Sundial Chardonnay is $16.50. A state-owned liquor store is two miles past the market. The prices are better for wine and spirits, but you can’t buy Edge or lettuce there.
The Huntley has all the diversions you’d expect to find in a world-class resort: masseuses, aromatherapy, yoga classes, visualization seminars, a huge outdoor pool served by two indoor hot tubs, movies in a theater every night, day-care facilities and assorted shops where you can buy lots of things, but not a sable coat. There’s a nice restaurant.
The resort is in cowboy country. Nobody seems to be named Tiffany.
You can buy a cowboy hat in a lot of ski resorts, pardner, but up here, you can buy not only the hat, the boots, the shirts, the books of cowboy poems and cowboy recipes, the cowboy songs on tape–you can also buy a real cowboy ranch. There is plenty of land up here for sale. And people are beginning to buy it up. Stallone isn’t here yet, but a few others are.
Ted Turner and Jane Fonda have a ranch in the next valley. So does actress Andie MacDowell. Newscaster Tom Brokaw, a Montana native, has a spread further north. Condominiums are for sale at the resort. A one-bedroom ski-in/ski-out starts at $185,000
In Montana, gambling is popular and ubiquitous. There are slot machines everywhere but in the churches. They’re in the Huntley Lodge, too. If you like live action, there’s a poker game every night in the bar.
The newspapers up here remind you that Montana is a place far removed, in more ways than one, from Chicago. A front-page story in the Billings paper informs us that the state legislature has just passed a law making English the official language of Montana.
Another front-page story: a poacher, who had shot a much-photographed prize elk in Yellowstone, has been fined $30,000 and sent to prison for eight months. Then there’s the wolf pack, released in Yellowstone recently, which wandered into Montana over the weekend, but has since returned to the park.
The big story at Big Sky this year is that the legendary short lift lines should be even shorter. There’s more of Big Sky to ski.
Last year, Big Sky had 2,300 acres for skiing, making it a medium-large resort. This year, they’re adding another 1,200 acres, making it huge, almost as big as Vail, which has 4,000 acres. But while Vail can have 30,000 skiers on a big day, Big Sky will have 3,000. Math fans will divide 30,000 by 3,000 and think: gee, more room for me to ski.
Also new this year is a tram that takes you to the top of Lone Mountain, Big Sky’s main ski mountain. This extra 1,100 feet of elevation gives Big Sky bragging rights to having passed Jackson Hole, Wyo., with the biggest vertical drop in the U.S.: 4,180 feet.
Drop is an apt word to describe the terrain at the top of this mountain. You have cliffs, you have your chutes, you have your really steep, scary stuff. This is not the place to go after three lessons at ski school. It’s all expert terrain. From the top you can ski onto the back of Lone Mountain, where the new 1,200 acres are. About halfway down, the slope becomes a gentler, intermediate terrain. Fortunately, you can get to it without having to risk your life, skiing steeps off the top. There’s a trail halfway up the mountain that takes you around to the new area. A new lift in back brings you back up. The rest of the mountain is mostly intermediate and advanced skiing.
Adjoining Lone Mountain is Andesite Mountain, with a gentler slope and extra-long trails for beginners, some long cruisers for intermediates, and a long, wide, undulating, tree-dotted meadow, a smaller version of Snowmass’ Big Burn. It’s one of the most popular areas at Big Sky. You may see a few dozen people here after a powder dump.
But there’s another option.
You don’t have to stay on the mountain in great accommodations with a pretty good restaurant.
You could stay off the mountain at a great restaurant with pretty good rooms.
You could stay at Buck’s.
Buck’s T-4 is a family owned Best Western Motel eight miles down the road from Big Sky. Unlike your standard Best Western, Buck’s T-4 is made out of logs, has a 15-foot fireplace, stuffed animal heads every five feet, and a restaurant that’s been written up in Gourmet and Sunset magazines and The New York Times.
Starting out in the 1940s as a hunting camp with two log cabins and family style meals, Buck’s has dropped the hunting trips, increased the number of beds and gone a little nuts in the kitchen. Buck’s now has 75 modern rooms, two outdoor Jacuzzis and some of the best food in the Rockies.
The restaurant serves the standard chicken, chops, steak and pizza–all of which are very good. But it is the wild game menu that has made the place famous.
Pheasant with pistachio nuts and pheasant pate.
Venison with red currant jelly and a baked apple stuffed with lingonberries .
Wild boar with mushroom, onion and herb dressing, vermouth cream sauce and wild huckleberries.
Antelope sauteed in madeira sauce, mustard, sage and juniper berries.
And so on.
Sixty wines.
Artery-closing desserts, like a large apple baked in pastry crust, with two scoops of home-made cinnamon ice cream.
Chuck Schommer, executive chef, observes: “People come down from the resort to have that baked apple dumpling . . . for breakfast.”
If you’re on a budget, you will want to put Buck’s on your list.
Until Dec. 22, a room for two at Buck’s is $99 (after that date a minimum stay is required). But wait, there’s more. Buck’s will throw in two free Big Sky lift tickets each day as a bonus.
Let’s do a little math together, shall we?
A lift ticket at Big Sky is $43. Multiplying that by two, we get $86.
Subtracting the $86 from the $99 room rate, we get $13 A NIGHT FOR THE ROOM!
Plus tax, of course.
In January, the rate goes to $109 per night. In February/March, the rate is $149. But the free lift tickets are still part of the deal.
“We’re trying something different at Buck’s this year,” owner Mike Scholz volunteered.
“Bankruptcy?” I asked.
“No. Volume. We think a lot of people will be attracted to this package.”
It could work.
A free shuttle bus runs between Buck’s and the Big Sky Resort. About halfway between the two is the Lone Mountain Ranch, designed expressly for cross-country skiers, with more than 50 miles of groomed trails. From here, you can plan a guided trip to Yellowstone less than an hour away.
Many people arrive at Big Sky totally unaware of Yellowstone’s proximity and winter activities. Yet they spend a good chunk of their vacations in the park, photographing waterfowl that are wintering over, elk, bison, deer, moose, coyotes, wolves, some of the 10,000 thermal springs (including Old Faithful) and frozen waterfalls.
You can rent a snowmobile and cruise more than 200 miles of trails with or without a guide. If you want to see Yellowstone in comfort, you can take a guided tour in a heated snowcoach–something that looks like a van on tank treads and skis. Yellowstone is a cross-country skier’s paradise, with rentals, lessons and guides available in the park. Because the U.S. Park Service closes Yellowstone at the end of March for snow plowing, you should call ahead for the exact closing date.
Numerous fishing guide services are located throughout the Big Sky area, with late winter fishing an option. For the ultimate in masochism, you might want to try a cross-country ski-fishing trip.
Into the vast white wilderness you go with your guide. Exhausted after miles of skiing, you whip out your fly rod, stagger into a 42 degree stream and try to tie a No. 4 Wooly Bugger on your leader with fingers as stiff as granite.
I have not mentioned night life.
There is night. There is no life.
A few bars scattered in the area. That’s it.
But if you’re skiing your own private 3,500 snowy acres every day the way you should, your eyelids are going to be slamming shut long before midnight. Maybe even before you’ve finished your baked apple dumpling at Buck’s.
DETAILS ON BIG SKY
Getting there: You can fly to Minneapolis, then change planes to Bozeman. Or fly to Salt Lake City and change planes for Bozeman, but this takes longer. Take the short trip. Northwest is the primary carrier.
Staying there: For lodging details at Big Sky, call 800-548-4486. For lodging details at Buck’s T-4, call 800-822-4484.
