Big Sky Montana

Every year my friend Ray has a tradition to go on a new adventure for New Years. This year it was Big Sky Montana for Snowmobiling. 

Going up the magic carpet

The resort is beautiful, nestled between several large mountains. 5,000 acres of fun with the highest peak at 11,150'. I didn't get that high as my snowboarding skills aren't ready for the black diamonds up at the peak.


Our room was at Village Center and had a fridge, microwave, and sink. I managed to cook some Boar's Head bacon purchased at the village mall a very short walk away. Gluten free beer was available at Whisky Jack's bar and all the restaurants were very helpful with steering me in a gluten free direction. Breakfast at Chet's even had gluten and other allergy information on the signs. I mostly stuck to cracked-egg omelets for breakfast. For lunch, bison burgers with no bun or cheese. Dinner was sometimes bison burgers, but I also had steak and Montana lamb. Once we went down to By Word of Mouth which is a few short miles from the resort (a bus can take you too) and had the best chopped lamb steak I've ever tasted.

As far as activities we did it all. First there was lots of relaxing in front of the fireplace with a mountain view in the window. Also, we did the snowshoe and zipline tours. I really enjoyed snowshoeing and took several pictures. It was snowing so it is hard to see much of the background. It was so quiet and serene with the snow and the trees. The zipline was a lot of fun. This was my second time doing something like that. I did hang upside down and have the picture to prove it. 

My tracks

The second day we had our fun with the snowmobiles. Ray got a touch of elevation sickness as we moved from 6k to 10k feet up the mountain. We got stuck four times up in the meadow with the deep powder. We weren't really on the bigger snowmobiles made for that. Our guide said that we were driving very well and could have probably used the larger ones. I had done trail riding before but the powder is so different. It is hard work getting unstuck. We would have probably been in serious trouble without our helpful guide.

Old Faithful

We also had a wonderful day at Yellowstone. We started in West Yellowstone and took a huge bus with tracks into the snowy park. I saw lots of wildlife including bison, bald eagles, elk, fish, and flies. The hot springs are very hot but even the flies can live there and some bacteria. The colors were amazing in some of the pools. We were there all day and barely scratched the sufface of the park. Also, I had to drive all the way from Big Sky to W. Yellowstone because it was snowing and foggy at the same time. I thought Ray was going to have a heart attack he was so nervous in the passenger seat!


I really improved on snowboarding through my Monday lesson and Tuesday on my own. By the end of Tuesday I navigated an entire run without sitting down. Only once did I sort of 'stop' on my heel edge before turning back to my toe side which was to avoid a nasty bit of snow that I'm sure I would have face-planted on. I can't wait to get back out again!


I'm not done uploading all the pictures yet but you can find most of them here. 

Big Sky New Years 2012