#10 — BIG SKY, MONTANA
WEBSITE: BIGSKYRESORT.COM
VERTICAL: 4,350 feet
ACREAGE: 3,812
SNOWFALL: 400 inches
TICKETS: $81
Big Sky Resort exhibits all the qualities you’d expect of the highest-profile resort in a state that’s synonymous with the Wild West: It’s rugged, wide open, low-profile and sometimes intimidating.
Big Sky offers up 3,812 acres of terrain on three aspects of Lone Peak, skiing that ranges from tight trees to steep, open bowls to legendary chutes like the Big Couloir. The best terrain is accessed off the top of Lone Peak, which is serviced by a tram, but when weather rolls in, stay lower and session the glades off the Challenger Chair.
Upgrade your ticket to include neighboring resort Moonlight Basin, and your access grows to 5,520 acres and 4,350 verts, both the biggest in the lower 48. The Moonlight side of Lone Peak offers incredibly long, sustained snowfields, while the hike-accessed Headwaters is all about super-steep couloirs.
The party scene isn’t much to talk about, but locals gather at the handful of bars and restaurants in the Meadows, a few miles down the access road from Big Sky.
THE TOP 12
#1 Whistler/Blackcomb, BC
#2 Aspen/Snowmass, CO
#3 Sqaw Valley, CA
#4 Jackson Hole, WY
#5 Mammoth Mountain, CA
#6 Alta/Snowbird, UT
#7 Breckenridge, CO
#8 Telluride, CO
#9 Mt. Baker, WA
#10 Big Sky, MT
#11 Copper Mountain, CO
#12 Park City, UT
