snowave":34eg0qnc said:
Fun little area, Discovery. I hit it on the busiest day of the year last season (1st Saturday in March, which is season pass sale day, too), and after about a week without new snow... but I can see it being nice with new snow and less crowds.
I would agree that after a week with no new snow Discovery can become a little bland to say the least. However, in terms of busy I think having spoken at large to many people over the last couple years it is impossible for Discovery to be busy on the mountain. A busy day at the very most from memory gets about 1800 people I think they said and the parking lot will be overflowing long before lift lines. This winter on the final Saturday, after a major storm the day before, saw 31 chairs filled at the bell(less than 100 people) and other than ~16 people max waiting for Limelight during the morning it quickly became walk on. There is always 100 times more people in the lodge than skiing Limelight which is the best skiing largely.
Tony Crocker":34eg0qnc said:
I presume the 14 days out of 19 at Discovery were due to q's free lodging base being nearby. Having driven through the region I do appreciate the distances involved between areas and realistically you're going to be in and out of hotels or else get exhausted from the driving if you want to hit a lot of them. I am curious how much of the March storm cycle hit the area around Snowbowl and Discovery. Reports from the Bozeman area sounded more like Utah, a couple of good storms but mostly spring conditions and a lot of warm weather. But the Northwest (including Schweitzer) and western Canada were consistently great from what I've read. So as a followup, given Discovery's reputation for modest snowfall and Snowbowl's predominant south exposure I'd also like to know how surface conditions held up.
In the end I skied 21 days and took 8 days off. 14 at Discovery, 2 at Red Mountain, 1 at Schweitzer, 1 at Lookout, 1 at Great Divide, 1 at Big Sky and my last day was at Snowbowl.
I stayed way longer than anticipated at Philipsburg and Discovery. I binned a couple days at Whitefish as Discovery was good at the time and I binned a long return drive to and from Utah as we got pounded by a storm in Montana for closing weekend whereas Utah was getting nothing til nearer the following weekend. I think I am now at the stage that Discovery will get most of my trip time from now and maybe a week will be spent motoring in future. I'm also looking at deals like Schweitzer have to ski from mid March til season end for $99 and the deal at Big Sky to ski their final week for $49.
I did drive over to Bozeman to ski a day at Big Sky for $29 but it was average top to bottom and I was not going back again for $82. Snowbowl and Great Divide were bonus days in their season so I knew conditions would be average at best but had great spring skiing. Prior to that I had a wet day at Lookout, 2 powder days at Red Mountain and a great powder day at Schweitzer. it was closed the following day due to rain overnight as temps rose which I was bummed at as it would have been epic had it stayed cold.
Tony, I ain't a huge fan of Snowbowl, I find the terrain bland of which IMO the best is on the front side. Discovery on the other hand is on the backside. On Friday 13th April Snowbowl's terrain on the front was either gone or close to it whereas Discovery will hold wall to wall coverage for some time yet on the backside. The front side obviously wont due to exposure but I think that is what you need to remember when comparing the 2 resorts best terrain.
March and April always deliver in Montana. I spent a lot of time with friends shooting and drinking so all is good.
PS coldsmoke I bought Downhill In Montana. Very good read!
If anyone wants to see my pictures they are here(in reverse order for some reason I think!)
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