Snow Business: A Half-Dozen Unique Ski Runs in North America

A meadow in Colorado, a bowl in Montana, a glade just outside Las Vegas, the backcountry in British Columbia, getting lost in Vermont and a tale of two states. Those thoughts were the end result of an exchange across a school parking lot while picking up the kids on Friday.

I saw my oldest's teacher.

"You going anywhere?" I ask.

"Yeah," she says. "Mad River Glen."

"Catamount for us," I reply.

The brief exchange made me think not only about our respective destinations this weekend, but a couple of quirky things about them. Here is a look at the two plus four more — and I have skied all of them — for a total of a half-dozen unique runs.

South Wall, Big Sky, Montana

The fashionable thing to do is take the tram to Lone Peak, where you can see Yellowstone off the back side and hit wide-open terrain of various levels of difficulty, including some gnarly chutes. But that changed one day while riding up the Lone Peak Triple. A look to the left revealed the line for the tram, and it always seems long.

A look to the left was paradise in the form of the South Wall — a sun-facing bowl that always seems sparsely populated. On the map, the bowl looks relatively short — and it is — but it faces the sun and you can pretty much get a nice line down all to yourself while the cattle head to the tram.

Prospect Bowl, Telluride, Colorado

It was a March morning a few years ago and one of my western colleagues was dumbfounded as a friend and I were eating bowls of oatmeal quickly at breakfast. It had become cold overnight and the terrain had glazed over. No one seemed in a hurry to get out there except the two of us.

"Where are you guys going?" my western colleague asked incredulously, pointing out that there was no powder.

"We're going to get the Prospect Express lift, hit that steep thing at the top, build some speed and get into a tuck through the trees in that flat meadow," I said.

"You eastern guys are nuts," he said.

But oh was it fun.

Slot Alley, Lee Canyon, Nevada

It's part glade, part bowl, part old school trail — just about 50 minutes from the Las Veags Strip. It's a mountain paradise on top of the Nevada desert and it should be on everyone's bucket list.

Island Lake Lodge, Fernie, British Columbia

So I flew from Bradley to Toronto to Vancouver to Fernie. I was tired. I went to a reception anyway. I had a chicken wing in one hand and a beer in the other and here comes one of the public relations reps.

"Wanna go into the backcountry tomorrow in a snow cat?"

"Uh ... yep."

"See you at sunrise."

Ate 37 more wings, drank juice and went to bed. Let's just say the next day included sunshine, fresh tracks on every run and what is arguably the best snow in North America.

The Rat, Mad River Glen, Vermont

It's not really marked, but there is a sign. You find it for the first time thinking you might be lost. It is quirky even on a mountain that makes unique runs famous.

But everyone has to ski The Rat at least once because it is a meandering adventure through the woods that earns you the MRG badge of honor — the "Ski It If You Can" sticker.

The Yellow Chair, Catamount, Berkshire Mountains

Take the chair. Turn right and you can ski in New York State. Take a left and you can ski in Massachusetts. That's pretty cool because where else in the East can you ski in two states on the same mountain?

Photo Credit: Big Sky Resort

Chris Dehnel is a Patch editor and past-president and current executive secretary of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association East Division. His Snow Business column appears regularly during the season.