Ski season begins

By KAYLEY MENDENHALL, Chronicle Staff Writer

Big Sky Ski and Summer Resort will open the slopes today for the skiing season, while Moonlight Basin and Bridger Bowl plan to wait for more snow to fall.

"We're going to open four lifts -- Swift Current, Explorer and two magic carpet surface lifts," said Dax Schieffer, marketing manager for Big Sky. "We are monitoring the conditions to hopefully get the triple chair and the bowl open as soon as possible."

Tickets for Thanksgiving day will be $35 for adults and $27 for juniors and students. Schieffer said the mountain has an 18-inch mid-mountain snow base and a 32-inch upper mountain base of natural snow.

The ski area has also been making snow for about three weeks and opened early for skiing on two previous days -- Oct. 30 and Nov. 7.

"The turnout for those two early days was really strong," Schieffer said. "We were really pleased with how many people have some pent-up ski energy in them. Hopefully that will carry through the early season."

At the neighboring Moonlight Basin ski area, vice president of marketing Rich Hone said the plan is to open skiing in one week on Dec. 2.

And at Bridger Bowl, employees said the target opening date at this point is Dec. 11.

"It's looking pretty good up here. We got some good snow today and the forecast is looking favorable," Hone said. "Let's get our skis ready or our snowboards and have some fun."

Kayley Mendenhall is at kmendenhall@dailychronicle.com

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