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Side-country means you can ride the lift with a standard ticket, then
ski outside of the ski area boundary. Once through the gate you must
travel with ski partners and have basic avalanche safety knowledge
and equipment. Some locations, like the Ridge at Bridger Bowl,
require hiking up the "boot-pack" trail to access the ski runs. Others,
such as the Big Couloir or North Summit Snowfield at Big Sky,
require you to sign out with the ski patrol.
If you want expert instruction and guidance for your backcountry
ski career, it's available, for a price of course. Drew Pogge at Bell
Lake Yurt will set you up with a cozy yurt camp in the Tobacco Root
Mountains and guide you through the stunning ski terrain of the
'Roots. Yellowstone Ski Tours' Beau Fredlund will guide you on ski
adventures nearly anywhere in the vast and spectacular ski terrain of
Yellowstone. Ben Zavora's Beartooth Powder Guides out of Cooke
City offers a cabin or a yurt for rent and guided ski tours into the
magnificent high country of the Beartooth and Absaroka ranges.
Don't let the complications of backcountry skiing deter you. It
can be as simple as cranking off some mellow turns in a low angle
meadow in the Bridger's. Or it can get as involved as a multi-day
ski traverse of the Bitterroot Range. However you approach it, you
are seeing and skiing wild and varied terrain, building friendships
and memories, and earning your turns.
PHIL KNIGHT
All smiles after skinning the top of Woody Ridge
in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness
