Tow ropes: they’re not just for the Midwest anymore.
Big Sky Resort in Montana has added a rope tow in its terrain park. The newest feature was unveiled during a ribbon cutting ceremony over the weekend. The tow is Big Sky 40th lift. It’s total rope length is 1,000 ft. Riders can be brought approximately 500 ft. up the park.
For now, the rope tow has been set up at the Swifty terrain park. That could change in the future, though, depending on what terrain is open.
“The people have spoken (on every Instagram post since late 2022), and we answered,” Boyne Resorts VP of communications Stacie Harris said in a press release.
Swifty is Big Sky’s largest terrain park. There are five total terrain parks at the resort: progression parks Cowpoke and Explorer, medium park Maverick, and large parks Peacemaker and The Cache – which features all natural, all wooden features.
“Park Tow is now open!” Ride Big Sky Resort said in an Instagram post. “Thanks to everyone involved and to everyone who rides our parks. This one is for the people!”
Big Sky Resort has 40 lifts with an uphill capacity of 42,000 people per hour. There are 1,800 chairs, 13 surface lifts, 1 tram, and now 1 tow rope.
Rope tow culture is huge in the Midwest, where smaller ski resorts with big terrain parks set them up to keep a large number of riders moving up the mountain as efficiently as possible. Two ski areas synonymous with rope tows are Wisconsin’s Trollhaugen, and Minnesota’s Hyland Hills, which street snowboarder Tommy Gesme calls home.
In February, Grace Warner hosted Grace’s Getaway, a two-day all-women event at Pine Knob in Michigan, as a chance for riders to get laps on a rope tow. In North Carolina, newly opened Hatley Pointe Resort introduced a rope tow in its terrain park for this season. Across the state, Beech Mountain installed a rope tow in its terrain park for the 2024-2025 season as well.
Big Sky has gotten between 5” and 9” of fresh snow in the past week, though none of it has come in the last few days. It’s been Montana cold at the village, with temperatures of 10 degrees. There are 35 of 40 lifts open as of 3:45 p.m. MST on January 28, 2025. Big Sky has 292 out of 320 trails open. 68 of those are groomed, and there are four terrain parks open in total.
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