Montana Snowbowl is a throw back ski resort that’s mostly suited to the local folks from Missoula who can pick and choose their days and make an assault on the amazing terrain on a powder day.

Snowbowl used to hold some record for having the longest vertical in some region, but our visit highlighted that its vertical along with the steep terrain are both a strength and a major weakness. The snow quality was quite nice for the upper third before it deteriorated quickly at lower elevations. The rock features near the top were amazing as were the trees, but the tree skiing became unfun once we got to the soured snow. Traversing out to the icy or crunky mogul runs wasn’t fun either and made us forget the phenomenal terrain further up, and made us reluctant to do too many laps off the Grizzly chair. If only there had been 3 or 4 groomed runs for egress (which due to the pitch would require winch cat grooming), then the terrain would have been amazing!

We had lunch at the Double Diamond Café which was very cheap, and the locals were so friendly and up for a chat. Après ski bevvies were at the Last Run Inn, which is an institution and the way all ski bars should be!

Missoula was enjoyable and more cosmopolitan than we’d expected for a town out in the middle of nowhere, which is likely due to the university influence. It was amazing how some of the trendy eateries such as Sushi Hana were packed on a weeknight.

Considering the great terrain, Snowbowl is definitely worth a visit if you’re doing a road trip of Montana ski resorts, but it’s probably not somewhere you’d hit up on a broader USA safari unless you really like seeking out the diamonds in the rough.

Our thoughts on the pros and cons are outlined on the Montana Snowbowl overview page, and you can see how we rated Snowbowl versus other western USA ski resorts.
See our video here