The work is the latest in an ambitious slate of upgrades the resort has undertaken, including three new high-speed, multiple passenger covered chairlifts, upgrades to on-mountain lodging at Huntley Lodge and The Summit hotel and 45 new mobile guns to manufacture snow. “And give people an experience that is accessible to a broad range of individuals.” BuildingĬonstruction will begin this summer on the tram with the work being completed in phases and expected to take three to five years, depending on the construction cycle.
“These are going to be some internationally renowned experiences that I think are going to put southwest Montana on the map in a way that it hasn’t before,” Kircher said. “This is as much about summer as it is about winter,” said Taylor Middleton, president and chief operating officer at Big Sky. To reach the terminal in the summer now requires a vehicle ride. The existing tram can move about 150 to 200 people an hour. Trips to the top will be balanced by the hour to shuttle skiers and nonskiers. Once atop the peak, a viewing area with a glass floor will provide 360-degree views of the surrounding mountainscape and down the peak’s fall line, which may be too much for those squeamish about heights. The tram will replace the existing tram that was erected 25 years ago and provide summer visitors a bottom-to-top experience. At that intersection will be a large, glass-walled dining venue as well as the base area for the new tram. Food service will be available at the transfer point, and for winter users enclosed magic carpets will assist the ski school instructors.įrom midmountain, the gondola will continue uphill to the bowl of Lone Mountain near where the Powder Seeker 6 lift loads. In the summer, the midmountain area will become a takeoff point for ziplining, a mountain coaster and mountain biking trails. “The never-evers will start at the base,” Kircher said, progressing up the mountain for slightly more difficult runs where snowmaking equipment has been installed. At midmountain, a sports center will be built to ensure the base area is less crowded and to provide skiers with access to intermediate runs. The upgrades will include a glass-rich gondola picking up skiers near the current parking area and traveling uphill along the route the mountain’s oldest lift, Explorer 2, now takes. “We don’t put dollar figures out on anything we do, because it’s all about the experience,” he said. Kircher wouldn’t say what the extensive upgrades will cost as inflation has soared in the past year and the pandemic has caused construction material prices to climb. Kircher’s father, Everett, started the company in 1948. “It’s our life’s work as a family and as a team,” he said.īoyne purchased Big Sky Resort in 1976. 15.įamily owned by Michigan-based Boyne USA Resorts, the latest upgrades will create an experience rivaling anything in Europe’s Alps, according to Stephen Kircher, CEO and president of Boyne.
BILLINGS – Big Sky Resort will add a new gondola from its base area, sports center, restaurant venues and a new tram to the top of 11,166-foot Lone Mountain as the final phase of its 10-year, $150 million expansion plan, the company announced Feb.
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