On a clear day from high atop Lone Mountain in Montana's Rockies, you can see all the way to Wyoming, where the Grand Tetons loom on the southern horizon. Turn west, and the distant Pioneer Mountains scrape the sky. Look straight down, and the tallest thing in sight is your hotel, the ten-story Summit at Big Sky, some 4,000 vertical feet below.
Warmed by the memory of last night's perfect filet mignon, you decide to return to the hotel's Peaks restaurant for lunch. If you're an expert skier or snowboarder, you drop down one of the Gullies, a series of absurdly steep double-black-diamond runs designed to lower your altitude in a hurry.
If you're a craven intermediate skier - like me - you step back into the Lone Peak Tram, which will drop you off within hailing distance of a comfortable blue run to the bottom. Only minutes after stepping out of your skis, you're stepping into the Peaks and calling for another steak, preceded by a glass of Opus One cabernet and a "Paté de Montana" appetizer.
That's what you call roughing it, Big Sky-style. Sure, you're mostly here for the skiing and the scenery, but that's no reason to deprive yourself of life's comforts. At day's end you can contemplate Lone Mountain's beauty from the Summit's heated indoor/outdoor pool - or from the hotel's Carabiner Lounge over a pint of Moose Drool Porter, a Montana brew that tastes much better than it sounds.
The Summit itself is a bit too bulky looking to be beautiful, but there's little need for it to compete with the natural splendor of the surrounding Rockies. Completed in 2000, the hotel offers studios or hotel rooms or multi-bedroom suites configured to suit your needs: some with spa tubs, some with fireplaces, some with wet bars. All have splendid mountain views from every window - and with three high-speed lifts just a short walk from the hotel entrance.
The Summit is hardly the only housing option at Big Sky; it's merely the tallest. If log-cabin authenticity is what you seek, for example, you may opt instead for the resort's Powder Ridge units, accessible to the slopes via the White Otter lift. But the Summit offers a tempting combination of high-end hotel amenities plus ready access to the main part of the mountain. And the mountain is what brought you here in the first place.
Getting to Big Sky involves a flight into Bozeman and an hour-long drive or shuttle-bus ride south through the intensely scenic Gallatin River Valley (you pass Ted Turner's buffalo ranch along the way). Big Sky, which is owned and managed by Boyne USA Resorts, is about halfway between Bozeman and Yellowstone National Park.
That may sound (appealingly) like the middle of nowhere, but visitors will not find themselves entirely isolated in the resort's Mountain Village. You can, for instance, tour Yellowstone Park or snowshoe into the back country or try your hand at fly-fishing in the Gallatin River. The river runs by the Rainbow Ranch Lodge, where the restaurant offers cozy surroundings, a tasty elk tenderloin and an impressive wine cellar. (Try their generous risotto appetizer, a meal in itself.)
Back on Lone Mountain for the main business at hand, you'll find more than 150 runs serviced by 17 lifts, which ensures that lift lines are rarely encountered at Big Sky. Changes for 2005 include the new Southern Comfort high-speed quad (replacing the old triple), which provides access to long-yet-gentle green cruisers where beginners can stretch out without getting run over (and where intermediates like me can tune up before tackling steeper runs higher up).
For more experienced skiers, two new gladed runs have been added this year. Expert skiers and snowboarders, as always, will head for the Lone Mountain summit - elevation 11,166 feet - for a quick peek at the Tetons, followed by a hurtling descent through the Gullies.
As for me, I opt for a more leisurely view from the peak and then a return to the Peaks, where I still haven't tried the wild duck ravioli.
Prime-season rates (Feb. 5 through March 18, 2005) for the Summit at Big Sky run from $298 through $361 per adult nightly, depending on the size of your room or suite.
For more information, call 1-800-548-4486, or visit www.bigskyresort.com.
Forbes Fact
Big Sky Resort originally was the brainchild of Chet Huntley, the famous NBC newscaster whose Huntley-Brinkley Report, co-anchored with David Brinkley, ran from 1956 to 1970. Huntley, a Montana native, conceived Big Sky after he retired from NBC, but he died in March 1974, only four months after the resort first opened for skiing.
Boyne USA, which is owned by the Kircher family, acquired Big Sky in 1976. Boyne was founded by Everett Kircher, a former car dealer, who in 1947 bought land in northern Michigan, now called Boyne Mountain, for just $1. Today, in addition to Big Sky and five Michigan properties, Boyne owns and operates resorts in Washington State, Utah and British Columbia.
