We went on our ski touring adventure trip to find a ski resort to rival what we have in Vail. Whitefish certainly was not what we were looking for. Big Sky is promoted as being bigger than Vail and it certainly has a lot of terrain--but at least a third of it is Double Black Diamond or Triple Black Diamond. So, insofar as terrain that we can ski is concerned, it is not as vast as Vail. But it was fun skiing it for five days. The conditions were good and we got some sunny weather but, this year, Vail's conditions were better than either Whitefish or Big Sky. Montana just didn't get the year's atmospheric rivers of snow. So, unfortunately, in 2023 we did not experience "boot top Montana cold smoke."
The Skiing
Day One of skiing was with a complimentary 10:30 am mountain tour from Mountain Village. Our volunteer tour leader was Rick and he was not our favorite leader. We also had a sweep named Stacie and she was full of useful information. On Day Two of skiing we went over to Southern Comfort lift and did a run that Stacie had recommended called Pomp. It was a nice, wide tree run but the bumps were huge and the next day Dimitri’s knee was painful, which was a "good" thing because it did convince him to proceed with his already scheduled knee surgery. We did another complimentary tour that afternoon at 1:30 pm before Dimitri became incapacitated. We were with mountain host volunteers called Laura and Cindy. This tour was in the Moonlight Basin area and it was a great tour. We were really enjoying Big Sky blue run skiing. On Day Three of skiing, Dimitri did not ski (his knee was too painful) so Audre went out to check out the area around Powder Seeker and the Six Shooter lifts. Audre skied a black run in the Basin and liked it (and the way she skied it). The area around Six Shooter also provided good skiing. On Day Four of Skiing, Dimitri and Audre skied the Powder Seeker and the Six Shooter areas because Dimitri wanted to experience them too. On Day Five of skiing the wind was fierce and Dimitri did not ski. Audre checked out the Spanish Peaks area and Lizette, a tree run off of Southern Comfort. Spanish Peaks was too low and faced south so it was hard and the bumps were not fun. Lizette was very good. Unfortunately, she had trouble getting back to our cabin. Swift Comfort was closed because of the wind so she couldn't get to Iron Horse. With the help of a guy wearing an instructor uniform, Audre learned she could take the magic carpet from Mountain Village which, with a little polling, would allow her to get to the Explorer Lift. That lift would get Audre to Pony Express and then home. She found a guy called Bill who wanted to go to Moonlight Basin Club so together (and with some polling) they got themselves to Pony Express (which got Audre home and Bill to the Moonlight Basin Club).
Our Accommodations
We booked our Cowboy Heaven cabin in Moonlight Basin of Big Sky Montana in April of 2022 (3 Duster Drive, Big Sky, MT 59720). It was ski out, ski in and that was what appealed. Then it hit us, we were paying $1,045 per night for 780 sq feet of accommodation with no garage in the winter snowy weather. Oh boy.
As we stayed and skied Big Sky, we grew to like the resort but our impressions of our $1045 a night cabin were not good. We arrived at Cowboy Heaven Alpine Escape Cabin in Moonlight Basin (#3 Duster Drive) in Big Sky at around 5 pm. The road up and up was steep with packed snow, plowed but left snowy. It was still light out, fortunately. The driveway was also plowed into packed snow and it was very icy walking from the car to the front porch. Stepping up at least 1 1/2 feet to the front porch from the driveway was challenging (there was an intermediate step on the other side of the porch but we didn't know that at the time), not only because it was high, but the wood surface of the porch was icy and slippery. It was in fact a horror. Dimitri used the shovel on the porch to try to remove the ice and to clean the area. Meanwhile, Audre unpacked the car, taking small steps on the ice and leaving each of the month’s supply of 5 suitcases, 2 computers, the igloo, 10 shopping bags of food, our skis, helmets, and boots, one by one, on the front porch.
Opening the door of the cabin and seeing what 780 square feet of space looked like, was horrifying too. Audre’s first reaction was that the place was unbelievable, laughable, ludicrous, ridiculous at $1045 a night. We understood that the real estate valuation of these small cabins is somewhere between $2 and $3 million. That valuation, as well as comparables, must be the justification for the rent being charged because it could not be a reflection of the value of the structure or its amenities. The cabin and its amenities are just not keeping up with the land value.
We saw that Acra had brought a folding table for our computers, as promised. It was placed in front of the cabin windows that looked out on the Jacuzzi and it was next to the clothes hooks where we put our jackets. The dining table was to the left as we entered and it sat 4 as the pictures showed. The kitchen was as pictured but there was no empty cabinet space for our food—it was filled with this, that and the other thing. In order to unpack our groceries, Audre needed to re-organize the kitchen cabinets and drawers—that took an hour. To the right of the door was the living room area with sofa, coffee table, end table, corner table and heating stove. Every drawer and space was filled with this, that and the other thing. It needed re-organization. The TV was mounted at ceiling level, only watchable if we wanted sore necks.
The hall with the small, but standard bathroom with tub was to the left. To the right was the master bedroom, with a stand-alone sink, king bed, stacked washer/dryer, a bench and two bedside tables. There was no closet, only 4 hooks. No description of the cabin disclosed that there were no closets. The hooks were not even the kind that can be extended out or the ones with grooves for hangers. These were fixed wooden pegs about 4” long that didn’t hold much. There certainly wasn’t enough space for our months’ worth of clothes, ski outfits, underwear and snowshoeing clothes. After exercising, there was no airflow around the clothes to dry them off. Off of the master bedroom was a toilet room with a small shower.
At the end of the hall was the second bedroom with 2 single beds, one bedside table in between and a TV console table that was filled with this, that and the other thing too. This room had no closet either. Just the wooden pegs which no photo had disclosed. Audre was truly annoyed with Dimitri because we have a portable clothes hanging rack in our storage area. She wanted to bring it but Dimitri said not to. In each bedroom, there was also a chest of drawers. These drawers were full of bedding. All of the extra stuff from the kitchen and living room and all of the extra bedding went into the second bedroom, either under the beds or on them. Having done that, we were able to put our clothes in the chests of drawers and our ski clothes, ski underwear and stuff on the wooden hooks. The hangers provided were the thick plastic ones and not enough of them could fit on the hooks. Audre put a rubber band around her hangers to hold them on the hook but it was precarious. Speaking of precarious, there was a shelf with do-dads over the computer table. When Audre was re-arranging, an antler fell off and put a dent in Dimitri’s computer cover. Fortunately, the computer was closed and the dent didn’t affect its operations. (She felt really awful.)
On our first morning, we sent an emergency “accident waiting to happen” e-mail to Acra about the front porch. Chris, her husband, called and Audre talked to him. Audre asked that they install non-skid mats if they could not put de-icer on the wooden porch. Acra sent an e-mail that we could leave and receive a full refund or go to one of the two other properties she suggested. We were skiing and did not respond. Chris arrived at the cabin at about the same time we were returning from skiing and he could see Dimitri using the snow shovel to try to clear the porch. Chris came with an ice-breaker shovel and started breaking up the ice on the front porch. He was nice and explained all of the challenges they have keeping up the place in the winter. He also cleared off the top ¼ of the big mound of snow in front of the porch so that we could see the view of the Gallatin Mountains from the cabin and Jacuzzi, as promised in the website. Whenever there was snow, the homeowners association guy came to clear off the front porches and shovel the walks. He mounded the snow in front of the Jacuzzi eliminating the view that Chris created. After using the Jacuzzi, we each used one of the showers. The hot water ran out with 2 showers going at the same time. Are you kidding? In addition, the combination of the non-adjustable water pressure and type of shower heads installed resulted in showers that actually hurt.
On the positive side of the equation, the cabin was truly easily ski-in/ski-out. Our third morning was sunny and we were facing full east. The views from the inside of the house, from the porch, the Jacuzzi and the back of the house were awesome. Whether it was worth $1045 a day was a question Audre kept asking herself. Also on the positive side of the equation was the Jacuzzi. It was indeed at 104° F. Dimitri absolutely loved it—except that getting in was dangerous. There was a huge step into it and the surface we were stepping into was wavey. The step up into the Jacuzzi might have been placed on the side of the Jacuzzi that had a flat sitting area where you could step. But it still would have been a large step into the tub. Audre used the Jacuzzi but limited the time she spent in it. After 3 days of soaking in it, the red spots on her skin had not erupted. The Jacuzzi cover was a problem, however. We had 60-mile-an-hour winds one day and the cover was flying off because the fasteners were broken. Dimitri took a wire we found in the cabin and secured it. In response to a message asking for help, Chris came by and put chairs on top of it to hold the cover down. A third positive was that the heating system worked in the cabin and kept the set point, temperature. We moved one of the TVs from the bedroom and put it on the bench in the living room so we could comfortably watch TV. The sofa in the living room was good. A fourth positive was that the appliances were new enough and functioned well. Without any neighbors next door, the cabin was very quiet. The Internet was good and Alexa joined us for our stay providing Pandora music. So, with all of our clothes put away and the kitchen organized we declared that we “fit” into 780 square feet and we were making do; no we were actually comfortable enough.
We were, however, told to bring our trash and recyclables to the Moonlight Basin trash/recycling area. There was a map in the cabin but it was nowhere near detailed enough. With help from a local woman, we found the recycling containers. They had labels for glass, cartons, plastic and so on. But there was no label anywhere for ordinary trash. Later, we learned that there was a container, with a door, for regular trash. We had seen something like that but it didn't look like a trash receptacle to us. For $1045 a day, one would think that the owners could provide for trash collection (if not detailed instructions).
When we arrived, we brought food from Rice Fine Thai Restaurant in Bozeman and had a good meal. On our second night we had Gourmet Gals cater a meal for us and for our friends, Bob and Maddy. Our dinner party was a success although we were not impressed with any of the food except the rum cake dessert which was very good. On our third night we went to Olive B's and thought it was very good. We had a crème brulée which was delicious; the blue cheese flavor was not overpowering. On our fourth night, we went to our friends' house for a delicious dinner. The next night we went to Cortina restaurant at the Montage and had a really wonderful meal. On our fifth night, the wind and blustery snowy weather was so bad, we decided to stay in the cabin and eat leftovers. On our sixth night, we went to Lotus Pad Thai and had a barely adequate dinner. On our seventh night, we went to Michelangelo's and had a very good meal.
Conclusion
While Big Sky does offer a great many runs (both groomed and ungroomed) and varied ski terrain, it is not better than Vail. The weather in Montana at the 45th parallel is not as reliable as in Vail. The town of Big Sky with its grocery store and restaurants was 8 miles from the Mountain Village. That was quite a distance for everything in life other than skiing. Big Sky does not require that the roads be plowed clean; they were snow-packed and got very icy. For example, from our cabin, we put our skis on and skied on Duster Drive over to the ski run at the end of the road. In addition, Big Sky does not require that plowed snow be removed. So, high mounds of snow are created along the roads where the snow plows and snow blowers throw it--reminiscent of romantic alpine villages totally snowed-in during the winter. The problem is that it isn’t romantic, it’s dangerous. When driving, the huge snow mounds obstruct views around bends.
So, after our 2023 ski touring trip, we have not found a place better than Vail.
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