Plenty of Snow For Everyone

At first, Big Sky tried to bury the upstart operation on the other side of the hill. There was hostility. There was legal action. But faced with intense demand from skiers who wanted access to the whole mountain, the two areas finally got their act together, a decision that benefited both sides.

In the 2005-06 season, they started offering the joint Lone Peak Pass, providing unlimited access to all runs and lifts at both resorts. It's the most skiing you can do on a single lift ticket anywhere in the country.

As befits the nation's biggest skiing complex, the Lone Mountain twins provide a complete range of terrain, from easy cruisers to some of the hairiest cliff-face runs you'll ever find.

No matter what level skier or boarder you may be, it is pleasant and helpful to start the day -- particularly on the first day of your ski vacation -- with a long, unchallenging run on a beginner slope, just to get the rhythm going.

On the Moonlight Basin side of the mountain, the place to do that is a seemingly endless run called Horseshoe that starts at the top of Lone Tree lift and winds (and winds and winds) some three miles down to the bottom of the mountain. Horseshoe is rated as a "more difficult" run, but this designation shouldn't scare off beginning skiers. It's a bunny slope most of the way; that intermediate rating stems from three steep but short sections that just about anybody can handle with aplomb. When I took Horseshoe, on a typically uncrowded Moonlight weekday, I went so long without seeing another skier that I began to worry I had somehow strayed off the ski area and into the adjoining Lee Metcalf Wilderness.

Big Sky has lots of easy, first-run-of-the-week terrain. There's a good collection of gentle hills surrounding the Southern Comfort high-speed lift. But the nicest beginner run we found is Mr. K, a pretty slope that curves down from the top of Gondola One, offering majestic views of Lone Mountain's pyramid peak behind you and the rugged ridge of the Spanish Peaks ahead.

Once you've got your ski legs, it's fun to step up the level of challenge. And on this mountain, the challenge quickly becomes extreme. On the steep, rocky cliffs plunging down from the mountain's highest ridge, you can ski or ride some of the rowdiest double-black-diamond runs in the United States.

On the Big Sky side, the 15-passenger Lone Peak Tram will get you to a series of chutes called the Gullies, so rocky and severe that one run may be enough for even hardy extreme skiers. From the top of the tram you also can ski down the Moonlight Basin face of the mountain on an equally demanding double-diamond bowl called the North Summit Snowfield.

The Gullies and the North Summit are tough in any conditions. But the local experts offered a useful piece of advice: If you look up from the bottom tram station and can't see the top, because of fog or cloud, don't ride up; you'll be coming down in a total whiteout. That turns out to be more frightening than fun on slopes this steep. The better part of valor in this situation is to ski away and come back to the tram when the skies clear.

If the tram is lost in the fog, you can get to another steep, rugged bowl on the Moonlight side called Headwaters. This is reachable either from Big Sky's Challenger lift or Moonlight Basin's short Headwaters chair. This, too, is serious-expert terrain, but it's fun to ski. And you feel great when you get to the bottom and look back up at the imposing cliff you just mastered.

Expert skiers don't have to go up to those high cliffs, though, to find a challenge on Lone Mountain.

Since the two resorts are on private property, they don't have to deal with the U.S. Forest Service restrictions that limit development at most Western ski areas. One noticeable result is that both areas offer wonderful tree skiing through lovely glades of spruce and pine, areas that you would expect to be off-limits at other resorts.