Beartooth Basin Opens for the 2025 Season
Your read that right. Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area started spinning lifts for the 2025 season on May 28th, and with it comes a challenge that'll test everything you’ve got. Opening day at the summer ski area comes almost a month after the last resort in Wyoming shut down for the season. This is where winter goes for summer vacation, this is "The Spirit of Skiing."
For opening day, this upside-down, summer only ski area filled its parking lot with skiers and riders frothing to drop into terrain that demands respect. After driving dozens of miles and winding up thousands of feet of elevation, you park at the top of the ski area and peer over the edge of a Corbett's-like headwall that drops away beneath you. The Poma lifts wait below, ready to humble you even further.
Steep and heavy, these conditions are unique and challenge even the best. "This is a place for people with a passion for big mountain skiing and a laid back atmosphere," says co-owner-operator Austin Hart, and that philosophy permeates everything about Beartooth Basin. But don't mistake laid-back for easy—this experience demands your A-game. Dropping off the headwall is a rush. Chopping through avalanche debris and managing your slough are strangely foreign concepts with the sun so high. The area has snow cats, but their role focuses more on snow farming than traditional grooming. "Marmots attack the wiring in the machines" Austin explains—just another day in the life of this unique ski area. If the snow cats are at the bottom of the basin when they break, that’s where they have to get fixed. So you won't find easy cruisers for warm up laps. You also won't find rentals, or lessons, or buildings. What you will find is a hardcore love of skiing and riding.
Getting here is part of the adventure. With roads finally passable only days earlier, driving up from either Cody, Wyoming or Red Lodge, Montana is like rolling the season back a few months. The extreme change in altitude drops temperatures 15 degrees. Snow banks still stack 20 feet high in places, towering reminders of winter's grip on this high-altitude zone which is completely impassable all winter long.
The draw here is real and far-reaching. Skiers and riders come from across the country to experience what Beartooth offers. Opening day had visitors from as far as Maine and Canada. The area has even hosted international visitors, including Jamaican skiers—a testament to its reputation among those who seek skiing's most unique experiences. Originally a private area off-limits to the public until 2003, Beartooth Basin has built a dedicated following among those in the know.
Operating at 10,000+ feet while coordinating with two different state highway departments and navigating permissions with four different government agencies creates its own set of challenges. With opening day at the whim of highway departments and closing day at the mercy of Mother Nature, the season's length remains beautifully unpredictable, and the terrain changes from week to week.
For staff like Carolyn, a patroller from Billings, this is a summer gig unlike any other. Fellow patroller Zach camps nearby for the short season, embodying the committed community that keeps this place running. Beartooth Basin isn't just about skiing after everyone else has called it quits for the season. It's about proving you can handle conditions that exist nowhere else, in a setting that rewards courage with stunning views and a stoke that will stay with you long after the snow melts.
With the rare après events of fishing, mountain biking, and golf nearby, this is your chance to join the passionate elite.
