Sorry to break the news but I don’t think you’ll find one that meets the criteria of 1-3 hour trip AND good terrain – depending on how far you want to travel for that terrain. The USFS cabins around Bzn tend to be in areas that aren’t close to good terrain. The Maxi Cabin or Window Rock Cabin near Hyalite Reservoir are very short skins/walks to get to and are in the vicinity of good riding (check the MT conditions thread for pictures of Blackmore, Hyalite Pk, etc) but you would actually be better off leaving the cabin, getting in your car, and driving closer to the trailheads for those trips.

Garnet Mtn Lookout Tower is the best cabin in terms of scenery but other than a couple short (100 ft vert) shots near the cabin you may not want/be able to ride other lines considering how little snow there is this year. Those lines would consist of steep open south facing shot that I’m not sure how you’d return from OR an obvious avy chute to the north that I’ve only heard of being ridden/skied a few times in the past dozen years.

Little Bear Cabin used to be the most comfy but I hear they removed the warming stove and now only have the small fire box on the (awesome) wood fired cook stove. No riding near there without a snowmobile.

Both of those cabins will take longer than 3 hours to skin to.

You could probably access a couple places from Mystic Lake cabin (Mt Ellis and Lick Ck meadows) but again you’d really be going out of your way to stay at the cabin (which is about a 10 mile skin depending how you went about it).

Lastly, they may all be booked up already. Wifey and I tried finding something for a weekend in Feb/Mar and were pretty much out of luck.

I don’t know if Brackett Ck cabin is available in the winter but that would put you at the eastern base of the Bridgers and maybe in striking distance of some of the terrain up there. Most people use snowmos to get to those lines in the winter though.

@Colin wrote:

Resort days at lost trail can be pretty rad, too.

Sounds like they have WAY more snow than Bridger or Big Sky this year too. Definately compare snow conditions before settling on Bozeman. I know lots of BB and BS season pass holders that are really really depre$$ed this season.

Every rentable Forest Service cabin can be found at http://recreation.gov

Beaver Creek Cabin NW of West Yellowstone and Ibex Cabin in the Crazy Mountains probably provide the best access to good skiing. The rest are typically too far from good terrain.

This is seriously not the best year to be making a road trip to MT. Where the riding’s good, the snowpack is really touchy and everywhere else, the riding is pretty bad. Unless you are truly fired up to come down here, I would seriously suggest other destinations (such as BC!). I’m not trying to rain on your parade, but it’s pretty grim right now. Be prepared to deal with an unpredictable snowpack and volatile conditions if a storm ever does head this way.
Let me know if you want some beta on anything specific if you do wind up down in Bozeman.
Good luck!

@matty_mcd wrote:

thank you Montanans!! :headbang: Lots of great info and suggestions.

I see that Bridger is indeed hurting, Big Sky and Moonlight are pretty much on par, and up north including Lost trail are killing it. I’m looking into yurstki.com and perhaps Great North Powder Guides but they are indeed a little pricey.

Thanks for all the info. Feel free to keep it flowing. If anyone one near Big Sky has accommodation recommendations (cheap slopeside with kitchen), please share.

I work at the Summit hotel in Big Sky. Its at the base and ski in ski out. We have some small rooms that have a murphy bed, pullout couch and kitchen. Sounds like what you are looking for. The rooms can be pricey at certain times since we pretend we are a 4star hotel. The village center is another hotel affiliated with us, it is also ski in ski out and has similar rooms to the one I described. A lot of times we have deals when you combine tickets and lodging.

If I were you I would stick to resort riding if you want to safely get the goods around here. Our tram is like taking a heli ride, you can ride some sick wide open steeps here. Let me know if you have anymore questions. You can hit me up when your here, i dont mind sharing a few secrets.