Big Sky Montana

We had never been to Montana before, having spent all of our ski trips in Colorado. So we decided that we needed to mark that check box off, and flew into Bozeman, MT. Picked up our rental vehicle, and drove down to Big Sky.

We had decided to rent a 4WD, and it proved to be a fortunate decision the very first night we were in the condo! We wanted "first tracks" and departed the condo early only to find the parking lot was knee deep in snow, but our 4WD allowed us to roll out with no problems.

Chelsea and I waving at Mom as she glides over all that powder! It is difficult to adjust one's snowboarding riding stance to clumps of fresh powder, but once you adjust, riding becomes fun again. We had some initial issues dealing with snow that deep, and each of us had different issues, as Celeste and I were on our snowboards and Chelsea was on skis.

Chelsea is explaing to everone how much work it is to ski on fresh powder. Celeste and I were on snowboards, and we had some difficulty with it at first too, but soon found a rhythm.

See how deep the powder is on the table tops? The powder has stacked up everywhere. As cold as it was that morning, something warm to drink hit the spot.

It was such a beautiful day, that we wound up taking a lot of pictures. As this picture shows, it did remain cold outside which made the occasional hot cocoa feel really good! You can see by the crowd that most people felt the same way.

I think Chelsea & Jeremy were laughing because it was nice and warm in the cable car, compared to outside conditions! Seriously, why were we ever riding the 2 or 3 person chair-life when we could be riding in this warm gondola?

We took a day off from skiing, and drove down to Yellowstone Park. Here we are after waiting for a new snow cat to come and get us. The one we were on for our tour of the park, broke down and we had to wait for an hour for a new cat to arrive.

The bison in Yellowstone, were obviously dressed for the weather, and were no doubt much warmer than we were!

There were several large bison herds that our snow cat drove by, these guys were everywhere. And as you can probably see, this picture was taken from inside the snowcat, as Bison are tempermental and sometimes take exception to humans approaching them on foot.

Throughout Yellowstone Park the geography is highly variable, and as you can see, very rugged country.

The park covers an area of 3,472 square miles (8,987 sq km) that is made up of various geothermal features like geysers, as well as mountains, lakes, canyons, and rivers.

Did I mention our snow cat broke down? As you can see in this image , the track mechanism has completely sheared off from the drive axle.

The single biggest problem here is that we are miles from the Tour Operator's HQ, and this snocat isn't going anywhere until the track mechanism is repaired.

Since our original Snowcat was going to require a new axle/track mechanism, the driver had radioed in and had the tour company send out a replacement snowcat. That was good news indeed, because as you can see, the snow and cold were not going to get better anytime soon.

Everyone is celebrating the new snow cat arrival, as we knew that it was going to be warm inside!

This is perhaps one of the benefits of an area that has serious winters, the tour company had quite a few snocats and a large supply of parts and a good maintenance team. The Yellowstone rule that only snow equipment can be utilized during the winter, tends to mean that they must have everything they need to keep the snocats operational.

Snocats not only offer thrilling rides but also play a crucial role in park operations. They maintain essential winter access for rangers, deliver supplies to remote areas, and groom cross-country ski trails.