I just returned from spending several days near Big Sky, Montana, at the most exclusive ski mountain in North America -- The Yellowstone Club. It was a surreal experience.
The Yellowstone Club is a private club with strict financial and behavioral requirements of its members. In addition to annual dues and an initial six-figure joining fee, members are required to own real estate in the area. Potential members are screened, financially and morally, to ensure that those admitted are wealthy, humble and friendly. No garish people are invited.
Once in, skiing/boarding (winter) and golfing (summer) privileges are included in the membership cost. In other words; there are no lift tickets to buy or wear. In my case, as a guest of a member, I was free to ski at my leisure... and at no cost... once I was through the front security gate.
About the skiing...
While I don't have any actual numbers to support this claim, I honestly believe that there were more employees on the mountain than there were skiers and snowboarders. The main mountain has three high-speed quad lifts and two shorter, fixed-grip chairs, while some of the secondary mountains have additional lifts primarily dedicated to providing home access. Rarely would there be anyone waiting to board any lift. The lifts frequently run in circles with no one aboard.
The main mountain itself has a nice mix of steep pitches, glades, and carefully groomed runs. From the top, the front face features several steep chutes between cliffs and outcroppings. The chutes widen and level-out towards the bottom. The powder was incredible here -- apparently, not many of the Club members like dropping through the narrow chutes at the top.
The backside of the mountain has some of the longest glades I've ever skied. The pitch starts out fairly slight, but the terrain steepens with each turn. After nearly a mile and half, the glades empty to a long runout back to one of the lifts on the frontside. The runout is flat... too flat... such that a lot of pushing & skating is necessary. Snowboarders had to walk, and they were apprehensive about returning to that side of the mountain. This part of the mountain was literally deserted; partner skiing was an absolute necessity. If alone and injured, bears and mountain lions would find you far sooner than a human would.
It was VERY cold when I was there -- the coldest weather I've ever experienced, in fact. It was -23 F Monday morning. They delayed opening for an hour because of the extreme cold. I skied that afternoon, but the temperature never exceeded -10 F. I did OK... I covered my entire face and used hand & foot warmers in my gloves and boots. It was a beautiful sunny day with no wind (thankfully). Tuesday was slightly warmer, and it turned cloudy with snow increasing later in the day. Three inches of new snow greeted us Wednesday morning, along with bluebird skies again. The three inches easily turned into a foot in the bowls up top. The powder was the best I've ever skied. Interestingly, the snow was a bit slower than I would've guessed it to be. Apparently, when it gets THAT cold, there's such a lack of (liquid) water in the snow that it's not very lubricated and the snow crystals are more abrasive. The result is more friction on the base of the ski/snowboard.
Not all the runs were powder-filled; many are groomed nightly. Since most of the Club members join because of the allure of "Private Powder", the groomed runs aren't particularly popular. Much of the courderoy remains untouched well into each afternoon. One member I briefly skied with kept using the phrase "ABC" -- an acronym for "Anything But Courderoy'.
Big Sky ski area is adjacent to the Yellowstone Club, and there are connecting lifts and trails to and from. I didn't get a chance to venture over there; in part because the skiing was so good where I was... and in part because I didn't want to deal with the security guard stationed at each trail entrance back into the Yellowstone Club from Big Sky. Security is tight; a former director of the Secret Service is the current Director of Security for the Yellowstone Club.
As you can imagine, the homes in the Yellowstone Club area are large and spread out. The area is very large, spreading over a couple mountains and thousands of acres. There is no village core; it's more like a mountain neighborhood. Nearly every home there has ski-in, ski-out access, and there are several short feeder lifts to and from the homes. Those home-access lifts remain idle most of the day; once a member/guest approaches, a bored employee becomes excited to see an actual person and starts-up the lift.
I took some pictures; I'll post some of them later (my camera's batteries are dead at the moment).
Overall, this was an incredible opportunity that few get to experience. I am very grateful to my friends for inviting me to share it with them. They've invited me back; I intend to return sometime!
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I'm so jealous! Seems like such a waste having empty lifts going roundy roundy. But anyway...glad to hear you experienced REAL arctic air. It was plently cold and windy up at Heavenly. Thursday was the coldest at single digits and brisky winds. The 3-6 inches of new snow everyday was awsome light dry white smoke with almost the same friction problems you were having. But then my summer slush wax probably diden't help..the fix to that is steeper slopes! Mott canyon was pure garbage and should be renamed Rock Canyon. Many of my party had to have emergency board repair after that adventure. One cut his base to the core and another cracked an edge. The glade runs off of Comet and Stagecoach were simply awsome, North Bowl was also sweet..albiet the slow lift ride out (think HRM's old school). Perhaps next time I go there North bowl and Galaxy will have been upgraded to HS quads.....and 100 lift tickets?!
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