written by Mary L. Peachin and Yvette Cardozo with photography by Mary Peachin and courtesy of Yellowstone Club
Jan 2004, Vol. 8 No. 3
So what is the skiing like? Having your own private mountain, trackless terrain, no lines with lifts practically to yourself.
Predictable, safe, perfectly manicured. Exactly what you would expect. Many owners are folks who ski once or twice a year. The vast majority is average intermediates. Not to say that there isn’t a headwall with a cornice or steep runs that can scare the daylights out of you. Patrollers love it. And if you can truly hit the slopes hard, personal guides will ecstatically take through the trees or back gullies, any challenge you can safely manage.
At present, the Club has 2,000 skiable acres (about the size of a medium size Colorado resort like Breckenridge), 2,700 vertical feet, seven lifts and 30 runs. Not bad for a place that was supposed to be a ski-out retirement home for Tim and Edra, a mountain with a single lift in the back yard.
Eventually, there will be a total of 12 lifts and another 2,000 acres of skiing. But well before that happens, the adjacent Big Sky’s 4,350 vertical feet, 18 lifts, 122 runs and 3,600 acres of skiing will augment today’s choice of runs.
Club members can shoosh over and ski Big Sky’s jaw-dropping upper tram runs, then return back to the Club for prosciutto wrapped pheasant breast with chipotle reggiano cream and baby vegetables.
Oh, it could be so easy not to like the Yellowstone Club. It is, after all, a playground for the rich. A place you’d expect dripping opulence; where Corinthian columns soar and gold plating spreads everywhere. A destination sought by Type A’s outfitted in $2,000 Bogner ski outfits. A mountain resort where kids (if they are seen at all) are spoiled.
But, heck, none of the above appears to be true. Yes, the Yellowstone Club, a 13,400 acre ski resort is located 11 miles up an unmarked road, is exclusive. Visitors not only check in at a guarded gatehouse … they check OUT (to make sure, we suppose, nothing is accidentally left behind).
And yes, the Club offers service with a capital “S” (picture running an entire resort … lifts, lodge, kitchen, maids … for only two people when that’s the total number of members who show up). It oozes an untouchable pedigree (owned by a timber baron, run by an ex-US vice president, a ski legend and a bicycle racing star, among others).
But… What you get in place of monumental egos is a lodge full of unassuming, startlingly friendly 40-somethings and their polite, well mannered and helpful kids … all dressed in comfy jeans and (we swear) Target T-necks.
The Yellowstone Club located in southwest Montana less than an hour’s drive from Yellowstone National Park is basically a country club that happens to have ski lifts and great powder snow. Right now, there are 16 guest cabins, five lifts and 30 ski trails. All for 70 members. Eventually there will be 864 families (an exact figure calculated by how many homes can be put on the land without it feeling crowded).
It will NEVER feel crowded, vow owners Tim and Edra Blixseth. In fact, it is so isolated, it’s downright spooky.
Picture finding abundant comb-marks of grooming tracks visible at the end of the day. Picture a place so quiet, the lift attendant has to hit a special button when you get on a chair. At the other end, a warning siren (tastefully muted, of course) alerts the liftie on top that you’re arriving.
We tried many times to get a list of special extras that the well heeled member would find here. Back when Deer Valley in Utah was brand new, the public relations staff delighted in ticking off amenities, like tissue boxes on the lifts to gourmet food, plus all the gold plating in the bathrooms. No one will give you such a list here.
The cabins are, well, elegantly rustic. Not in any way uncomfortable but not particularly opulent, either. The mountain lodge resembles an upscale hunting cabin … antler chandeliers, peeled logs, animal heads and blankets on the walls.
Oh sure, they’ve got a basket of comfy slippers so you don’t have to do lunch in ski boots. But it takes a bit of ferreting to find the stuff that makes this place truly different.
Should you want company on the ski trails, the Club will dispatch a personal guide, who will provide any service you request, from placing your skis on the snow to giving you tips on how to ski.
A typical conversation might go like this: Club Member: “So where should we head this morning?” Guide: “Well, that run obviously hasn’t been groomed this morning. There are seven tracks on it. Come this way instead. Oh yes, and keep to the left side of the run … it’s softer there.”
As our day wore on, we got into the habit of dropping our camera gear off to be retrieved later. No worry that it would go astray. Parents can turn their children loose with no fear they will be bothered by questionable types. Even Christmas vacation (a time of madness at lesser spots such as Aspen) will remain quiet, low key, mostly empty and, of course, safe.
If you fly here in your private jet (and yes, a lots of members do), the plane will be washed, fueled, serviced…whatever.
Beyond all this, there is more. Skiing director Warren Miller wandered over to talk about the club. “Where else can some one with 20 million dollars buy a legacy piece of property?
But money isn’t enough. The final okay falls to the owners, who explain that they want “great people … we don’t accept any other kind.” In trying to define what “great” means, Brandy used the term “moral” at least three times in two minutes. The average member is 40 or 50 years old, has a couple of pre-teen or teenage kids, and is quite often self made. But no movie stars. Not a single one. The place is billed first and foremost as a family resort.
There’s a story that Blixseth had already accepted money from one prospective member, who then yelled at a waiter. He got his money back immediately. Or as one observer wryly put it, “No jerks. No egos.”The Yellowstone Club is more than a winter ski resort. It is a place for all seasons. In addition to the 18-hole Tom Weiskopf golf course, there is horseback riding, hiking, bicycling, and blue-ribbon Montana fly fishing.
Montana has always been known for the quality of its fishing rivers. The Yellowstone Club, which has miles of its own trout-stocked streams towers over the Gallatin River fishery. Yellowstone Club guiding expert Bill Lurch is happy to take advantage of the day’s hottest fishing in the area. Doesn’t matter whether it’s an hour’s drive to the Madison River or a tad further to the Yellowstone River, maybe even south to Henry’s Fork of the Snake in bordering Idaho.
During my visit, we headed to the Madison River to take advantage of the salmon-fly hatch, a savory favorite for rainbow and brown trout.
Launching our drift boat at the Palisades (noted on the map as the South Madison ramp) the brilliant red sandstone cliffs made a perfect roosting site for a pair of Golden eagles. The word was out about the salmon fly hatch attracting fly fishing buffs from miles around.
It was close to a perfect day (a slight headwind) on the Madison, warm enough to take off our waders and slather with sunscreen as we drifted in shorts. Even those pesky Montana mosquitoes had magically taken the day off.
As we floated downstream, a flock of punk-haired mergansers mingle with a gaggle of Canada Geese, ducklings in tow. A stately Blue heron stalked fished from a sagebrush bank colorfully lined with blue lupine, prickly-stemmed pink wild roses, and highlighted with the brilliant red of Indian Paintbrush. Even the odd hedgehog cactus had its yellow crown in full bloom.
As morning faded, Bill oared the boat toward the shoreline and, in a flash, set up a blue-checkered tablecloth table with two canvas chairs and unloaded a cooler filled with gourmet sandwiches and home baked cookies. As we enjoyed our lunch, anglers tossed fly rods as they floated past. What a great day on the river; we continually caught and released browns and rainbows.
All too quickly we floated 10-miles to our take out. And the drive home; a scenic drive through the northwestern annex of Yellowstone National Park back to the exclusive hideaway those charming cabins at the end of the unmarked road at the Yellowstone Club. Want to join?
Should you be invited to join The Yellowstone Club, your $250,000 fee plus $16,000 per year dues covers lodging but not meals or equipment rentals. The season runs mid December to mid April. The 2,700 vertical feet of skiing sits pretty high, with guests now sleeping at 8,220 feet.
Last year’s seven lifts will soon be joined by three more lifts and work is under way on a base lodge with 18 apartments and seven hotel rooms at the base.
For further information:
The Yellowstone Club
888-700-7748 or www.theyellowstoneclub.com.