I’ve read q’s reports from Discovery over the years, plus the powder flyover and John had last year, so we drove the same Missoula to Lost Trail to Philipsburg route they did and stayed at the Broadway Hotel next door to the Brewpub. We didn’t have the powder so we took the tertiary route 259 for a shorter drive.
Sunday was crystal clear, so overnight low of zero F in Philipsburg. Despite the clear skies and no wind, I was wearing my heavier fleece mid-layer all day and had my jacket hood up for groomed runs. This tells me it probably never exceeded 15F. Discovery opens at 9:30AM and we were on the hill about 10.
The front faces south and the back north so we immediately headed to the back. The lowest Silver Chief chair was closed, but that was inconsequential because the Granite chair is 1,670 vertical. Granite is Gpaul heaven, long and relatively steep fall line groomers. View down Center Stage:
Grooming is of quite high standard for a supposed mom-and-pop area.
After 3 of the Granite groomers we ventured into the western bowl of the expert Limelight area, starting with Mother Lode.
Below the steeps tseeb saw a couple of locals execute clean 360’s, so I got the camera out for the next natural lip, where one of them managed only ¾ of a backflip.
We then skied Manhattan onto Limelight’s eastern bowl.
Riding up Limelight we see the western ridges Good Finger and Bad Finger.
We saw a snowboarder spraying snow on Good Finger so we skied that.
Here’s the bench at the top of the Limelight chair.
And here’s the patrol shack at its base.
We also skied Ajax in the western bowl and Bad Finger in the eastern one. Overview of the eastern Limelight Bowl.
We came to the base twice during the day on Southern Comfort and Silver Bow. We saved Sluice Box and Berkeley for our last 2 runs after 4PM.
All of these runs were nicely groomed and not as firm as one would expect from the south exposure. I asked a local if Discovery had any of the rain events, and he said only one in mid-January. With Discovery’s low skier density all of these frontside runs probably corn up nicely during q’s late March timeframe. Speaking of which, I found that Discovery does 60,000 skier visits on its 2,000 acres, even lower density than Castle Mt. or Lost Trail. We skied 20,900 vertical.
Even with q’s hype, I have to say Discovery exceeded my expectations, particularly in terms of terrain quality. It has a remarkable balance of terrain for all skier abilities. The Granite groomers are as good as anybody’s, Limelight is expansive and steep enough to keep experts busy quite a while, and the Jubilee beginner terrain is 800 vertical.
Discovery/Philipsburg have a retro ambience in a very positive way. Tseeb filled his 64 ounce growler at the Brewpub for $8. Lift tickets bought through the hotel were $33 and there was a guy at the base doing edge and hot wax work for $15.
Discovery has had 126 inches snowfall this season, similar to Panorama and Lake Louise. It’s clearly a mid and late season mountain, with gradual snow accumulation but a cold climate and nearly all the steeper terrain on the north side. No surprise the people in the office knew q and his annual visits at an optimal time of the season.
Sunday was crystal clear, so overnight low of zero F in Philipsburg. Despite the clear skies and no wind, I was wearing my heavier fleece mid-layer all day and had my jacket hood up for groomed runs. This tells me it probably never exceeded 15F. Discovery opens at 9:30AM and we were on the hill about 10.
The front faces south and the back north so we immediately headed to the back. The lowest Silver Chief chair was closed, but that was inconsequential because the Granite chair is 1,670 vertical. Granite is Gpaul heaven, long and relatively steep fall line groomers. View down Center Stage:
Grooming is of quite high standard for a supposed mom-and-pop area.
After 3 of the Granite groomers we ventured into the western bowl of the expert Limelight area, starting with Mother Lode.
Below the steeps tseeb saw a couple of locals execute clean 360’s, so I got the camera out for the next natural lip, where one of them managed only ¾ of a backflip.
We then skied Manhattan onto Limelight’s eastern bowl.
Riding up Limelight we see the western ridges Good Finger and Bad Finger.
We saw a snowboarder spraying snow on Good Finger so we skied that.
Here’s the bench at the top of the Limelight chair.
And here’s the patrol shack at its base.
We also skied Ajax in the western bowl and Bad Finger in the eastern one. Overview of the eastern Limelight Bowl.
We came to the base twice during the day on Southern Comfort and Silver Bow. We saved Sluice Box and Berkeley for our last 2 runs after 4PM.
All of these runs were nicely groomed and not as firm as one would expect from the south exposure. I asked a local if Discovery had any of the rain events, and he said only one in mid-January. With Discovery’s low skier density all of these frontside runs probably corn up nicely during q’s late March timeframe. Speaking of which, I found that Discovery does 60,000 skier visits on its 2,000 acres, even lower density than Castle Mt. or Lost Trail. We skied 20,900 vertical.
Even with q’s hype, I have to say Discovery exceeded my expectations, particularly in terms of terrain quality. It has a remarkable balance of terrain for all skier abilities. The Granite groomers are as good as anybody’s, Limelight is expansive and steep enough to keep experts busy quite a while, and the Jubilee beginner terrain is 800 vertical.
Discovery/Philipsburg have a retro ambience in a very positive way. Tseeb filled his 64 ounce growler at the Brewpub for $8. Lift tickets bought through the hotel were $33 and there was a guy at the base doing edge and hot wax work for $15.
Discovery has had 126 inches snowfall this season, similar to Panorama and Lake Louise. It’s clearly a mid and late season mountain, with gradual snow accumulation but a cold climate and nearly all the steeper terrain on the north side. No surprise the people in the office knew q and his annual visits at an optimal time of the season.
