This year was our third annual PT ski trip! We have a group of friends from PT school who pick a new mountain to explore every year! This year’s pick – Big Sky, Montana. One of the perks of this location is the inexpensive nonstop flights between Minneapolis and Bozeman. Upon landing in Bozeman, you will be welcomed by the coziest cabin-like airport with views of mountains out every window. Yes, this is my favorite airport!
About to land in the mountains!
Grabbing some coffee at…
…the coziest airport
About to land in the mountains!
Grabbing some coffee at…
…the coziest airport
Getting to Big Sky
From the Bozeman airport, the easiest way to get to Big Sky is to reserve transportation ahead of time. Adam scheduled a shuttle through “shuttle to big sky” several months ahead of time. It was very slick! Our driver was waiting for us at the Bozeman baggage claim with a “Urick Party” sign. The shuttle fit our group of eight and all of our luggage comfortably. Grocery options are limited and expensive in Big Sky, so our shuttle driver was kind enough to make a 15 minute pit stop at a grocery store in Bozeman. We ordered from Albertson’s online ahead of time, so our food was ready when we arrived. Also, conveniently we were able to spend some of our allotted 15 minutes stocking up at the liquor store right next door.
Super slick shuttle system!
Big Sky Town Center
We stayed at an Airbnb in Big Sky Town Center. One of our criteria on our ski trip is for the place to have a hot tub, so we found a spot that checked this off, could fit all of us, and was only a 15-minute walk from the free city bus service. We enjoyed being surrounded by mountains as we explored Big Sky Town Center on foot. The downtown area has a rustic modern feel filled with shops, restaurants, and bars. Our first stop was Acre for lunch. (Unfortunately, it has been permanently closed now.) We enjoyed some local cuisine, such as elk meatballs and bison burgers. Don’t forget to ask what their drink special of the day is because we scored a couple bourbon Nutella hot chocolates!
The view from our Airbnb!
Big Sky Town Center
Acre
Tasty drinks!
And hearty food.
The view from our Airbnb!
Big Sky Town Center
Acre
Tasty drinks!
And hearty food.
We then meandered toward Beehive Basin Brewery catching our first glimpse of the Lone Peak! We indulged in some local beers and learned about Montana history from the bartender here. We caught the orange line from the town center bus stop to Mountain Village that afternoon to get our ski rentals a day early. We rented our gear from “Big Sky Sports Rentals,” and they made it very easy to pick up. They even had a free valet service where we could store our skis and poles at the base of the mountain, so the only thing we had to lug back with us to our Airbnb was our boots! Big Sky Resort also makes it very easy to load up your lift pass. Make sure you purchase your lift tickets ahead of time to save some money! They’ll send you an email with a QR code and you scan this at one of their several “sky card express stations” to get your card that you’ll put in a jacket pocket to easily access all of the lifts. Doing all this the day before made it so much smoother to get right on the mountain the next morning!
Lone Peak!
Beehive Basin Brewery
Where we tried a few local beers!
Mountain Village
Free ski valet for rentals!
Mapping out our plan for the next two days!
We were able to load up our lift pass the night before!
Lone Peak!
Beehive Basin Brewery
Where we tried a few local beers!
Mountain Village
Free ski valet for rentals!
Mapping out our plan for the next two days!
We were able to load up our lift pass the night before!
Meadows
Once we were all situated, we caught the yellow line bus to the meadows area. We had all intentions of eating dinner and checking out a brewery here, but the dinner place was more expensive than we wanted, and the brewery was closed due to COVID. Unfortunately, the bus only stops in the meadows area every 2 hours in the evening, so we opted to walk the ~1.5 miles back to Big Sky Town Center. It ended up being a beautiful walk since the sunset and Lone Peak were dead ahead.
“Meadows.”
The beautiful walk back from Meadows.
“Meadows.”
The beautiful walk back from Meadows.
More Big Sky Town Center
As we were walking past one of the hotels, Pete noticed a $5 happy hour before 6:00 pm sign posted on Copper’s door. We surely took advantage of this deal, sipping their whiskey drinks on their fireside comfy leather couches not just this evening, but the following two nights as well! Shortly after our first happy hour run, we had a hankering for some pizza, so we tried to get a spot at Ousel & Spur Pizza Co, but they were completely booked for the night. We ended up at Pinky G’s Pizzeria instead and we are glad we did! This was our kind of place – a relaxed environment with beer signs on the wall and the Olympics on the TV. We ordered some quite tasty pizza from the bar and didn’t have to wait long for it to get delivered to our table. After filling our bellies, we walked back up the hill to our Airbnb where we took our first dip in the hot tub and gazed at the clear Montana sky.
Copper Whiskey Bar
More beautiful skies!
Big Sky Town Center at night.
Pinky G’s Pizzeria
Copper Whiskey Bar
More beautiful skies!
Big Sky Town Center at night.
Pinky G’s Pizzeria
Big Sky Resort Day 1
Our alarm clocks rang, and it didn’t sting too bad because of the cushion of mountain time being in our favor. We geared up and made our way to the town center bus stop for our 15-minute ride to Mountain Village. We grabbed a locker at the rental shop to store our boots for the day and swooped by the ski valet to pick up our rentals. Not too much after 9 am our butts were on the heated seats of the Ram Charger 8-person chair lift up the mountain. This was no standard chair lift; it even had a blue bubble to encapsulate us and keep the wind out! Unfortunately, our first day on the mountain brought very icy conditions and overcast skies without precipitation, but we still enjoyed our slippery time together.
Probably the coolest chairlift we’ve been on!
We took a midday break at Mountain Village where we grabbed lunch at The Exchange. They have a variety of food options here; we opted for pork belly ramen which hit the spot! After our afternoon of skiing, we returned to Mountain Village where we were welcomed by a rave with mittens on ski poles dancing in the air! Right behind the DJ stand is a place called Westward Social. We snagged a table here for fancy warm cocktails and shareables. The quality of the food did not disappoint, but this isn’t the place to go if you’re on a budget or looking for quantity. The group’s favorite was the poutine, and my personal favorite was the s’more dessert where they came out with a torch and asked how I wanted my marshmallow done – how awesome is that?!
Overcast but still having a blast!
Solid crew!
Mountain Village gets bumpin in the afternoon!
Westward Social
Drinks to warm us up!
And fun food!
Overcast but still having a blast!
Solid crew!
Mountain Village gets bumpin in the afternoon!
Westward Social
Drinks to warm us up!
And fun food!
Big Sky Resort Day 2
Our second day on the mountain brought much better conditions! We didn’t have the foot of powder we dreamed about…but the warm sun had softened up some of the ice. The first day we had mostly explored the west side of the mountain (even catching a glimpse of some of the private skiing), so we spent most of our second day exploring the eastern side of the mountain. We stopped for lunch at the Madison Base that day, which had more traditional chalet food and was just fine to fuel us for our afternoon skiing. We found Uncle Dan’s Cookies hut by the chairlift on this side of the mountain. We didn’t end up getting these cookies from the source, but the chalets also sold them, and we certainly had a couple of these tasty local cookies!
Much sunnier day two!
Madison Base
Uncle Dan’s Cookies Hut
Much sunnier day two!
Madison Base
Uncle Dan’s Cookies Hut
Our whole group is definitely not skilled enough for the triple blacks up at the top of Big Sky, so we avoided the extra $80/day tram that can bring you to the top of Lone Peak. We mostly stuck to greens and blues and still didn’t have time to get to all of the runs in 2 days! Our two favorite blues were Meriweather on the east side and Calamity Jane on the west side. For our final night, we took the 4:15 shuttle from the mountain to Town Center and enjoyed some time hanging at our cabin. We made enchiladas, watched more of the Winter Olympics, and took another soak in the much-needed hot tub!
This was yet another quick weekend trip! We flew out Thursday morning and gave ourselves the day to get our bearings. We skied Friday and Saturday. We think two days is the perfect amount, both for our bodies and for the price (since mountain skiing is getting so expensive). And then we flew out Sunday morning. We now understand why it’s called Big Sky – the views from the mountain are sweeping and spectacular. And Lone Peak is quite the sight! There’s a reason “the biggest skiing in America” lives here – there’s plenty of terrain to explore! This was another great ski trip with friends in the books – now we need to decide where to go next year!
Big Sky, Montana