Unexpected ski-lifts at Beartooth Pass, MT!

Beartooth Basin is one of these ski areas like no other. We found it on our descent from Beartooth Pass. There are two surface lifts serving a ravine topping at 10,900 ft and serving a 1,000 vertical bowl and 600 acre of skiable terrain varying in pitch from 15 to 50 degrees.

This place used to be where the Red Lodge International Summer Ski Camp was held. It used to be headed by Austrians Pepi Gramshammer, Eric Sailer and Anderl Molterer in the 1960's and is arguably one of North America’s oldest alpine ski training areas. I'm glad we stumbled upon it !

Today a newer ownership group has revived the place and in early summer is staffed with professional ski patrol and and lift attendants just as any other ski area, but with a summer like setting above 10,000 feet that can sometimes turn to winter at a moments notice. You might call it back-country skiing with a lift!