Montana

Oh my God!! I am unbearable at the minute. Just found that friends of ours have moved to Montana. They're about an hour from Big Sky resort and have Bridger Bowl on the doorstep.
We've been invited out and spent at least a nano second debating if we should go next season.

If we're travelling so far I'd love to try The Rockies as well. We can fly from Bozeman MT to Seattle WA and then into Canada.

I'm not too fussed if the skiing is only adequate in Montana as we'll be paying flights and lift pass only.

I don't know Canada's ski resorts apart from the obvious Whistler etc. So based on us flying in to Vancouver where would you recommend?

Off to look at piste maps etc now. Only 12 months to wait!

Is flying to Vancouver a must? If you could make a more regional airport (Kamloops or Kelowna, for example) it might make your journey at the other end more reasonable. From there the amount of resorts accessible within a few hours will leave you with plenty of options.

Reason I went for Vancouver was that it's always been somewhere I wanted to go. Distant family live there etc. It's not an essential to arrive in Vancouver, it was my first quick guess at the nearest main airport to the Rockies region that I could to from London.

Plan was to fly to Canada from UK, ski there for a week. Possibly drive / fly to Seattle then flight to Bozeman for Big Sky & Bridger Bowl.

Edit: just looked at Seattle departures and seems like we can get to Kelowna from Seattle so that may be an option.

There are more resorts than I can think of in interior BC. You will be spoiled for choice! I am moving back to the flat today but I will try and dig out my map with all the resorts on it.

I've skied Whitefish in Montana (used to be known as Big Mountain) and it was great (though not THAT big!)

Big Sky is one of my favorite in Montana. Lots of high speed quads, lots of runs and hardly any lift lines.

Bridger is a nice mountain for taking a family to, especially if you have younger children. Not as expensive, a bit more low key. No high speed quads the last time I was there. Most of the lifts are older and tend to stop once in a while.

Also, you will not be that far from Red Lodge. It is about 60 miles south west of Billings. Total driving time from Bozeman would be in that 2.5-3 hour range. They have a nice sized, family friendly mountain with two high speed quads on the back side. Just check their snow reports before planning to drive there. Sometimes they get shorted on the snow.

Whitefish, aka Big Mountain would be quite a drive from Bozeman. Not sure on air service to that area. It is good sized and very uncrowded.

Sorry for bumping an older thread but I see you still have 10 months to plan...

badlandskid wrote:Big Sky is one of my favorite in Montana. Lots of high speed quads, lots of runs and hardly any lift lines.

Bridger is a nice mountain for taking a family to, especially if you have younger children. Not as expensive, a bit more low key. No high speed quads the last time I was there. Most of the lifts are older and tend to stop once in a while.

Also, you will not be that far from Red Lodge. It is about 60 miles south west of Billings. Total driving time from Bozeman would be in that 2.5-3 hour range. They have a nice sized, family friendly mountain with two high speed quads on the back side. Just check their snow reports before planning to drive there. Sometimes they get shorted on the snow.

Whitefish, aka Big Mountain would be quite a drive from Bozeman. Not sure on air service to that area. It is good sized and very uncrowded.

Sorry for bumping an older thread but I see you still have 10 months to plan...

Budget is going to be the restricting factor on this trip. We're looking at £1200 - 1500 for flights to Bozeman alone.Lift passes also seem to be extremely expensive.

You can't put a price on the trip of a lifetime

Going mid January you can comfortably get RTN flights from Heathrow to Bozeman for <£500 a head.