Skiing in Big Sky Style on Slopes of Montana

Aspen, I’m sorry to say you just don’t do it for me anymore. You too, Keystone. As a sometime skier, it’s hard to get excited about a resort where it seems that the latest ski bunny fashions and apres-ski drinks rate more importance than the trail conditions.

Also, if you’re going to the Rockies to do powder skiing, you don’t want to spend your vacation waiting on hourlong lift lines.

There’s good news here in Montana for earthy skiers who just want to ski. The people you meet on the lifts and after the trails close will probably be Montanans and the skiing is challenging, albeit on a slightly smaller scale than Colorado’s popular resorts.

People say that skiing in Montana today is what Colorado was like 15 or 20 years ago.

Low-Key Surprise

Taking a ski vacation in the Big Sky state is a pleasant, low-key experience, with lift tickets costing an average of $12 for a full day and no waits in line.

In fact, when lines got too long at Lost Trail, one Montana ski area, the owner built another to handle the overflow. And he’ll probably do it again.

The Bitterroot Mountain range of western Montana has two excellent ski areas, Lost Trail and Snow Bowl. And if you like skiing in two states, the runs at Lost Trail, named by the Lewis and Clark expedition, were recently expanded into Idaho, adding twice the skiable terrain.

Lost Trail, 90 miles south of Missoula, is a family-oriented ski area where teen-agers flirt with each other in the lodge and the typical ski school class of 5-year-olds whizzes past on the slopes, looking like ducklings following the leader.

Neighborhood Clientele

The fact that these skiers are mainly people who live nearby is a treat. They talk to you. And listen, too.

Lost Trail is ideal for beginners and for intermediate skiers who want to ease into their ski vacations. The vertical drop is only 1,300 feet with 18 trails, more than half of them of intermediate rating. And a day’s worth of skiing at Lost Trail ($12) costs less than a couple of apres-ski brews at Aspen.

Plus, you can enjoy those drinks after the lifts close by lolling in a hot springs pool at Sleeping Child Hot Springs, a short drive away in Hamilton.

After the combination of the steam and the drinks, you’ll probably feel like taking a room at Sleeping Child Lodge. But you’re better off capping off the soak with a hot mug of coffee and then steeling yourself for a bracing evening of Western music at the Brass Rail, a cowboy watering hole complete with wall-to-wall 10-gallon hats and a twanging country band.

After the first day we were ready to tackle higher mountains, and so it was on to SnowBowl the next day, about 100 miles north of Lost Trail just outside of Missoula. SnowBowl claims the greatest vertical drop among Montana ski areas, 2,600 feet.

Off-Trail Tree Skiing

With 28 trails, 80% of them intermediate and expert, a good amount of that consists of deep, powdery bowls. There’s also some superb off-trail tree skiing for skiers whose confidence was boosted by an easy first day at Lost Trail. The area is near a college town, so the mix of skiers is a bit more energetic than at Lost Trail.

It’s a good idea to ski SnowBowl two days in a row because you just start to get the feel of the mountain on the last run of the first day, which should make for a fabulous second day on the mountain.

We stayed overnight in the Village Red Lion in Missoula, and on our weekend not one but two groups of high school students from all over the state congregated for their annual conventions at the hotel.

A lot of these kids lived on vast expanses of farmland, taking the bus to a one- or two-room schoolhouse every day, and Missoula was big time to them.

Meeting Smoke Elser on our last night in Montana was a great way to end the trip.

Old-Fashioned Ride

Smoke is a licensed outfitter in Missoula and he spends at least 150 days of the year in the back country of Montana, horse packing and camping. We went up to Smoke’s ranch and loaded up the horses to take an old-fashioned cowboy ride up the back mountains to where his wife had a big barbecue waiting.

While we ate steak and grilled potatoes, Smoke’s wife took out her portable organ and, in a voice reminiscent of Edith Bunker’s, serenaded us with mournful cowboy ballads.

It fit perfectly--the winter dusk falling, the horses neighing in the darkness, the acrid smoke burning our eyes.

Winter comes early to Montana, the cold and snow often setting in as early as September and starting to slow up come mid-February, although most areas don’t open until late November at the earliest. No matter; if you can brave the elements, an outdoor twilight barbecue can be a reality even in December.

If you consider yourself a skier of the earth and not of fashion, try Montana, the real West.

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Lost Trail, P.O. Box 191, Darby, Mont. 59829; (406) 821-3211.

Sleeping Child Hot Springs, Box 1468, Hamilton, Mont. 59840; (406) 363-6250.

The Brass Rail, Highway 93 North, Hamilton, Mont. 59840; (406) 363-3243.

SnowBowl Ski Area, 1700 Snow Bowl Road, Missoula, Mont. 59802; (406) 549-9777.

Village Red Lion, 700 W. Broadway, Missoula, Mont. 59802; (406) 728-3300.

Smoke Elser, c/o Blue Star Canvas Products, 300 W. Main St., Missoula, Mont. 59802; (406) 728-1738.