Big Sky Resort
Big Sky Resort is a world-renowned ski and snowboard destination located in the heart of the Rocky Mountains in Montana. Boasting the biggest skiing in America, Big Sky Resort offers over 5,800 acres of skiable terrain, including over 300 named runs and 4 terrain parks. With its enormous summit and eye-popping vertical drop, Big Sky Resort is a paradise for skiers and snowboarders of all abilities.
In addition to downhill skiing and snowboarding, Big Sky Resort also offers cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, dog sledding, and other winter activities. With luxurious accommodations and a variety of dining and entertainment options, Big Sky Resort is the perfect place to experience the beauty and thrill of the Montana wilderness.
The ski season at Big Sky Resort typically runs from early November to late April, depending on weather conditions. Big Sky Resort is known for its abundant snowfall, which can reach up to 400 inches per season, and its state-of-the-art snowmaking system, which helps to maintain a consistent base of snow throughout the ski season.
We recently ranked all of Montana's ski resorts, so you can see where Big Sky Resort stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Big Sky Resort is a part of the Ikon Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all or most of the Ikon-sponsored slopes with it throughout the year, depending on the type of pass you bought.
Big Sky Resort is a part of the Mountain Collective network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all of the slopes that are also a part of the Collective.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Big Sky Resort around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Big Sky Resort Terrain Overview
Big Sky Resort has a total of 300 ski trails, which are serviced by 39 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 5,850 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 2,367 hectares, 9.1 square miles, or 23.7 square kilometers.
Big Sky Resort's slopes see on average 400 inches (10.2 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 33 feet every year!
Total Runs
300
Lifts
39
Skiable Acres
5,850(24 km2)
Annual Snowfall
400"(1,016 cm)
Big Sky Resort Elevation
Big Sky Resort has a summit elevation of 11,166 feet, or 3,403 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 7,218 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 4,350 feet (1,326 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
The summit of 11,166 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.
Summit Elevation
11,166'(3,403 m)
Vertical Drop
4,350'(1,326 m)
Base Elevation
7,218'(2,200 m)
Big Sky Resort Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
86.7out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Big Sky Resort has 5,850 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Seeing as Big Sky Resort is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, it's no surprise that over 77% of its trails rated as either intermediate or expert-level. This leaves only 23% of its skiable acres as beginner terrain.
Beginner
23%(1,346 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
25%(1,463 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
52%(3,042 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Big Sky Resort good for beginners?
This is one of the hardest ski areas in the country to ski at, so it is not great for beginners. Big Sky Resort ranks in the top 10% of the most-difficult ski resorts in the country. It has 52% of its trails rated as expert, or black-diamond level.
Big Sky Resort Location
Big Sky Resort is located in the state of Montana, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Big Sky, MT.
Address:
Big Sky, MT 59716 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
bigskyresort.com
GPS Coordinates:
45.29000, -111.38000
Getting to Big Sky Resort
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Big Sky Resort), its coordinates of 45.29000, -111.38000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Big Sky, MT to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Big Sky Resort.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport | BZN | Bozeman, MT | 35 mi |
| Bert Mooney Airport | BTM | Butte, MT | 71 mi |
| Helena Regional Airport | HLN | Helena, MT | 95 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Big Sky Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Big Sky Resort.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lost Trail Powder | Sula, MT | 8,200 ft | 48% | 32 mi |
| Bridger Bowl | Bozeman, MT | 8,700 ft | 75% | 44 mi |
| Discovery Basin | Anaconda, MT | 8,158 ft | 68% | 79 mi |
| Maverick Mountain | Polaris, MT | 8,820 ft | 52% | 87 mi |
| Sleeping Giant | Cody, WY | 7,428 ft | 49% | 92 mi |
Big Sky Resort Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 11,166 ft |
| Base Elevation | 7,218 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 4,350 ft |
| Trails | 300 (23% Beginner, 25% Intermediate, 52% Expert) |
| Lifts | 39 |
| Skiable Acres | 5,850 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 400 inches |