Schweitzer Mountain, Idaho

Skiing Schweitzer Mountain feels considerably different from Big Sky, Montana.

The elevation is much lower, with a summit at 6400 feet whereas the base of Big Sky is over 6800 feet, rising another 4350 feet to the summit of 11,166 feet.

While most hard core skiers would consider that to be a marked disadvantage for Schweitzer Mountain, being further north, almost to the Canadian border, apparently gives this Idaho resort plenty of snow for the season.

The lower elevation could be an advantage for older skiers and others with altitude adjustment issues.

For the last few years, I personally sometimes feel a bit queasy the first few times going to the top of the mountain in Big Sky on any given ski vacation due to the high elevation.  The lower elevation at Schweitzer would eliminate this for me, I'm sure.

Schweitzer's lower elevation makes for heavier, wetter snow than Big Sky.

Surprisingly, this wet snow felt very slippery and fast, which I would attribute primarily to wearing rental skis if not for confirmation from Jay's girlfriend Sasha, who was on her same skis she'd broken in a few days earlier in Montana.

Nonetheless, we all adjusted quickly, and I made it most of the day without falling, until I tried to follow Jay into some moderately deep powder without enough speed, which the rental skis could not handle...or at least that I did not trust my rental skis to handle.

It wasn't as big of a crash as I had in my own skis a couple of days earlier when I was tooling along through powder beside Harry's Water Road, a green run in Big Sky, only to go flying fifteen feet out of my buried skies and face planting three feet deep in a powder gully on the other side of a ridge.

I've heard that if you don't occasionally fall, then you're not improving, so I guess I must be pretty much an expert in this, my 41st season of falling on the slopes.

The wet snow made for heavily flocked pine trees along the trails on the bluebird day we skied there, and the vast panoramas, occasionally including a large lake below, made for glorious views.

It was one of the most beautiful days for skiing imaginable, and despite being New Year's Eve and what locals said was the most crowded day of the season, we found plenty of room for ourselves.

How did we end up skiing at Schweitzer Mountain?

Sasha's family also happens to be avid skiers, and her Aunt Peg extended a gracious invitation to Julie and me to join Jay and Sasha on a stay at the Idaho Club in nearby Sandpoint for New Year's, presumably on our way home from Big Sky.


Peg and her husband Read went all out, renting two large, beautiful houses near their own spacious home, to accommodate all of their family members who cared to join them.  A star of their family reunion was Sasha's grandmother Phyllis, who the grandchildren all call Maudy, who at 94 years old is as sharp as a tack.  Maude joked that she was having a love affair with Jay.

As it turned out, Jay and Sasha had taken their Range Rover from LA rather than riding with Julie and me in our Escape, freeing us to arrive in Big Sky a few days earlier than their jobs would allow.

At that point, I wasn't sure if Julie and I were unnecessary baggage, believing we most likely had been invited only because it was assumed we would all be driving together, but Peg and Read had  reserved the houses months earlier, and in fact much of the family would be leaving by the time Julie and I arrived on December 30.

With a warm welcome from Sasha's extended family, including a delicious catered dinner at Read and Peg's home, we never felt like afterthoughts or party crashers.

Because Sasha like Jay loves family time, she had spoken often about her family members, and it was nice putting faces to all the names, as well as learning a little more of their perspectives.  They're all very well-educated, friendly people.

Julie and I were pampered throughout the trip, with a catered breakfast the next morning at Peg's house and Jay picking up the tab for lunch at the hillside lodge at Schweitzer.

For New Year's Eve, Sasha's mother Libby treated the party to a holiday prix fixe gourmet meal at Beet and Basil, which proved to be fantastic, too.


On New Year's morning, Julie and I declined what felt like a very sincere invitation to stay another day, opting instead to make the long drive back to Big Sky as planned.

The only downside of the trip to Schweitzer was that the weather system which brought great snow to both Big Sky and Schweitzer also corrupted driving conditions, taking twenty miles per hour off our average speed to stretch 6 1/2 hour drives each way into 9 hours.

Fortunately, we made it both ways without accidents despite some precarious incidents, and an incredible "waxing gibbous moon" arose above the mountains well before sunset, though our photos could not adequately capture its size or eerie beauty.

Schweitzer is less than 90 miles north of Spokane, if you want to experience it for yourself.