Moonlight Basin Ski Resort :
Review.gif)
 |
| Moonlight
Basin Lodge |
Moonlight
Basin is Montana’s newest ski area, opening
for business during the 2003-2004 ski season. As such, when
I ventured out to Moonlight Basin in March 2004, I had absolutely
no idea what to expect when I arrived. Indeed, I wasn’t
even sure where it was!
When
I finally did manage to find Moonlight Basin, I must say,
I was fairly impressed – considering how new it
is. The Moonlight Lodge is absolutely gorgeous. And the skiing,
while not exactly stellar, wasn’t bad, either. Moreover
and more importantly, the expansion plans for Moonlight Basin
resort are impressive. Moonlight ski resort during the 2003-2004
ski season had much of its terrain (including the best looking
terrain from what I could tell) reserved for “cat-skiing” only.
If all goes according to plan, this cat-skiing terrain should
become full lift-served terrain for the 2004-2005 ski season
as plans call for adding a new chairlift in this area.
| Moonlight
Basin Vital
Statistics |
| Snowfall
: |
400
inches |
| Acres
: |
1500+ |
| Vertical
Feet : |
1850
ft. lift served/3250 ft. total |
| #
of Lifts : |
1
Six-Person High Speed Quads, 1 Fixed Grip
Quad, 1 Triple, 1 Shared Quad Lift. |
| Terrain
: |
15%
Beginner, 58% Intermediate, 27% Extreme |
|
In the
event you have never heard of Moonlight Basin Resort, it
is located on the northern edge of Big
Sky Resort – in
Big Sky, Montana. This has obvious benefits in that you can
ski Moonlight Basin one day and then quite literally ski
over to Big Sky Resort on another day. Indeed, Moonlight
Basin and Big Sky Resort actually share a chairlift – the
Iron Horse Quad.
One
very nice thing about Moonlight Basin ski area is that,
at least during the 2003-2004 ski season, it is very affordable.
Lift tickets were less than $30 – very affordable when
you consider that skiing at neighboring Big Sky costs around
$60. Undoubtedly, as new lift-served terrain gets added,
the cost of lift tickets will increase. However, I suspect
Moonlight Basin will remain relatively affordable once their
new terrain opens as they have more limited terrain and amenities
than Big Sky ski resort does.
The
setting for Moonlight Basin is absolutely gorgeous. Moonlight
Basin sits on the northern and western edge of
Lone Peak – which is the main peak at Big Sky Resort.
The views of the mountains and the surrounding area are absolutely
wonderful.
Getting
to Moonlight Basin is just as easy as getting to Big Sky
Resort. Just follow the road up from the town of
Big Sky until it ends. Moonlight Basin lies about 2 road
miles up the road from the entrance to Big Sky – so
make sure you don’t accidentally turn off into Big
Sky Resort by accident (as there is no way to reach Moonlight
Basin from the base area of Big Sky Resort).
The
main base area at Moonlight Basin is located at the Moonlight
Lodge. The Lodge is a beautiful building with a
heated outdoor pool, a gorgeous view and quite spectacular
to look at when inside. The only problem is that Moonlight
Lodge really is less a “ski lodge” than a hotel.
As such, don’t plan on changing into your ski clothes
inside the lodge or find lockers to store your gear. If you
need a place to change into your ski clothes, it is easier
to just park down lower on the mountain at the base of the
Pony Express – using the little “igloo” to
change in.
 |
| The
"Igloo" at Moonlight Basin, with numerous condos
on the hills behind it. |
The
little “igloo”, in case you are wondering,
is a rather sorry excuse for a building that is really a
temporary round tent that is located at the bottom of the
Pony Express chairlift. The igloo right now is used as a
warming hut that also serves a limited supply of typical
ski area food (much better, and expensive, food is found
up at Moonlight Lodge). Hopefully, as Moonlight Basin expands,
they will remove this little igloo and replace it with a
more skier friendly base lodge. Doing so will also keep bums
like me from walking into Moonlight Lodge and changing into
ski clothes right by the hotels front desk!
Anyway,
that’s enough discussion of the area and base
facilities at Moonlight Basin ski resort. So let’s
move on and talk about what is important, which is, of course,
the skiing.
Moonlight
Basin Trail Map (large
image)
Next Page : Skiing
Moonlight Basin
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