Christmas in Big Sky

For the second year in a row, our whole family spent Christmas in Big Sky, Montana, our home away from home. This won't be a day by day journal, but rather a quick summary. My goal was to squeeze in as much skiing as possible, particularly before Christmas, because I had purchased Bigger Sky passes that allowed Ann and me to ski free prior to Dec. 26. I think I squeezed in 6 days before Christmas. What was great about those passes is that if it wasn't a powder day, there was no feeling of guilt about arriving at the mountain at 10 AM or quitting at 3:30 to save the legs for another day. When you pay the regular price of $79 per day, it's important to get your money's worth.

Having said that, we did get in one great powder day with 10 - 15" of fluff. And it snowed a few inches here or there a number of other times. Here was a nice shot of the mountain I took with my regular camera on the way up to the peak one day. It's my screensaver now!

Isn't it a pretty mountain? Kind of reminds me of a huge Whiteface, the difference being Lone Peak is at an elevation of over 11,000 ft at the summit, while Whiteface is 4,867.

I took a couple of skiing shots, but they weren't great. We were too busy skiing to stop for photos much.

One highlight of the trip was a morning excursion into the northwest corner of Yellowstone, about 20 miles down the road. I decided to just bring my iphone (actually I think my regular camera was broken at that point) and to see what I could do with my phone camera while Colin and Kevin used their big guns. I don't really want to do a direct comparison, because I'm sure their shots were far superior, but I'll share a few of these iphone shots and you can tell me what you think. The fun part was that the temperatures were well below zero (10 - 20 below, as I recall), so steam was rising and frost was forming, with interesting crystals everywhere. Not a lot of wildlife (other than a cute family of otters!), but the scene was crisp and bewitching!