If you like spring/summer skiing then one of the best places on the planet for easy car access skiing is the Beartooth Pass in Red Lodge, Montana. Call MDOT at 800-226-7623 to make sure it’s open as snow even falls in June up here. This is some of the best car accessible ski terrain anywhere on the planet.
About a 10 minute drive south of town the road bends upward finally cresting at just less than 11,000 feet of altitude at the West summit. It is real big vertical considering that you get to climb most of it in a car and access dozens of different big mountain lines (check out the photos). There are even places like the saddle approach down in to Gardiner head wall that are easily skiable by a skier of intermediate ability but make no mistake, most of this is big mountain expert terrain. If you can’t ski Corbett’s at Jackson, the Couloir at Big Sky, or Great Scott at Snowbird then you probably should not be skiing most of this terrain.
The night before I big adventure friends from Bozeman stayed with us at The Spires at Red Lodge. By the time they left following our day of skiing I think they all wished that they owned some Red Lodge, Montana real estate.
We all stayed at this really cool new development called The Spires at Red Lodge the night before and went for a big walk on their trail system marveling at the views of the high peaks to the west. We were amazed by just how affordable Red Lodge Montana real estate is as they were selling complete cottages for under $200,000. We didn’t think there was a ski town anywhere where anything left that was this affordable.
Our pick-up taken care of we headed off in to the heavens and the jaw dropping scenery that is the Pass. Just the car ride alone makes this whole trip worth it and the skiing is a bonus.
As we near the top of the west summit we see the head wall we are about to ski. Gardiner head wall is very steep, anywhere from 35 degrees up to 45 degrees, so we are glad that it is 55 degrees outside because the snow should be soft as it faces east in to the early morning light. There is evidence of several small wet slides on either side of the face so we know we need to keep alert.
The corn snow has us giggling half way down it is so good. It is a short 500 vertical foot hike out which takes about 20 minutes and we decide to have lunch at the rocks along the top by the highway. This had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that there were five 20-somethings in bikini tops sunbathing. From there we headed to Reefer Ridge where there are many lines to get you back to your morning vehicle drop. These are all 3,500 vertical foot big mountain lines and some of them cliff out so choose your lines carefully or you’ll be doing some hiking.
We found a beautiful 40 degree Couloir that allowed us to ski virtually to our car and, thanks to the main Rock Creek still being frozen we skied right over it (not wet boots). Get somebody to skier cut everything you ski at the top just to be safe as we kicked off a wet one that ran for 2,500 feet which got our attention. Check out this line for a car accessible ski it is pretty radical.
We chugged back up to the west summit to retrieve our other vehicle and plunged down the 2,000 vertical feet of the Rock Creek head wall on the way back to town for good measure. We had a few cold ones waiting and we hadn’t seen anyone else all day long, except for at the Gardiner head wall and marveled at our great fortune to be living in the last, best place.
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