The Washington Post

At Montana’s Big Sky Resort, a new perspective on skiing

By John Briley

November 12, 2021

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The old me would be indignant. I’m at an elevation of 11,000 feet, skittering across a massive bulletproof slate of frozen snow, my ski edges, knees and best-laid plans surrendering together.

Twenty years ago, I’d be cursing my luck — I came all the way up here, and no powder?!? — but today, thanks to my age (54), years on skis (50) and the guy in front of me, the biggest ski-movie star you’ve never heard of, I’m content, conditions be damned.

“Well, that was coral reef at its finest,” says Dan Egan when we arrive at a traverse 1,600 vertical feet below our start. “But we had to try.”

Indeed. We’re at Big Sky Resort in southern Montana on an early-April Monday. I’ve come here with my wife, Cathleen, and kids Kai, 12, and Christina, 9, to squeeze a few more days out of a covid-confounded ski season. Egan, who’s appeared in more Warren Miller ski flicks than almost anyone else and is now a ski instructor and ambassador at Big Sky, is doing far more than helping me unlock this immense resort; he’s also, Yoda-like, coaxing me further down the path to skiing enlightenment.

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