Recently I attended an IEEE technical conference in Big Sky, Montana. In case you didn’t know, Big Sky is a very nice ski resort located about an hour north of the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. I mostly attended this conference because I was presenting a technical paper on a PLC software translation utility that I had prototyped. I seriously had no clue that the conference was being held at a major ski resort. It’s a really nice place. Here are a few photos. The main peak is called Lone Peak and it sits at elevation 11,253 feet.

After my paper was approved for this conference, I found out from a coworker (Glenn S) that it was a major ski resort. Luckily I grew up skiing in Colorado with my family and still had my old skis stored up in the attic. They hadn’t been used in probably 10 years, but they appeared to me to be in decent shape, so I packed them up and took them with me. My ski boots which were also stored in my attic for those 10 years were destroyed … from the heat I suppose. Mental note: Do not store expensive plastic items in the 150 degree attic! I borrowed some winter wear from a friend (Dave B) and did a couple half-days worth of skiing while I was there. Some photos are shown below. All the skiing I did in Colorado growing up led me to believe that I would never experience any better skiing anywhere in the world, but I must say that the conditions at Big Sky were better than anything I’ve ever experienced. This is a top notch ski resort and they take great care of their slopes.  On a side note: My bindings were so old the ski shop refused to touch them and by the end of a couple days skiing, one of my skis was starting to de-laminate.

Here is a short video I took while skiing down a trail right to my room. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_nHN09zgbc

One day when there was nothing going on at the conference, I drove an hour or so down the road to check out Yellowstone. Here are a few photos I took along the way. Sadly, Yellowstone was closed for the winter. I felt a bit like Clark Griswold in National Lampoon’s Vacation after traveling all that way to find the park closed. But I made the best of it and watched an Imax movie and ate dinner and did some shopping in the little town of West Yellowstone. The town was mostly shut down also, though. It was almost a ghost town.

Back at Big Sky Resort, one night while I was walking around the base of the mountain after eating at a local restaurant, I heard the cheers of a large crowd coming from the mountain. I followed the noise (and the stream of people walking that direction) to find a quarter pipe competition in full swing. It was pretty fun to watch. Luckily I always have my camera with me when I travel, so I took a few photos and also some video.

And here is a short video compilation from the Quarter Pipe Contest at Big Sky, Montana. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg3tpHSaQVg

So that was my experience at Big Sky, MT. It was fun and I would definitely do it again.

Kurt