BIG SKY — It's been a slow start to winter, but now we've started to see more snowfall recently in Big Sky. With that snowfall comes more optimism from local businesses for a great winter season.
“It's been a little slow. Big Sky’s definitely not getting the snow that we typically do for this time of the year,” says Matt Rolfson.
Rolfson works at Gallatin Alpine Sports. He says this is the slowest start to winter he’s seen in the seven years he’s lived here. Although there’s a lack of snow, there do come some benefits to business.
“On the ski tuning side of things, it's been pretty busy for us just because we're doing so much repair work,” says Rolfson.
Liz Mcfadden, vice president of the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce, says that business in town is about the same as previous years.
“I would say we're still pacing the same as we have in the past. We're obviously down from, you know, 2021 a little bit, 2022,” says Mcfadden. “Because the skiing hasn't been great, there are people walking around town more. I mean, when I've gone out to lunch spots, the restaurants are packed during the day where in the past maybe they haven't been because everyone's up on the mountain skiing.”
She says even if the skiing isn’t as great as it’s been in the past, there’s still plenty to do in Big Sky.
“I would say there's still lots to do. There's the ice skating rink here in town. You know, you can hike still on some of the trails, snowshoe,” says Mcfadden.
For Rolfson, he’s looking forward to a busier Spring and is hopeful for more snow.
“We have a lot of college spring breaks coming up, which tend to be a lot of revenue for all the local businesses,” says Rolfson. “So far it's been pretty dang fun. Even regardless of our historic low snowpack, there's still plenty of fresh snow out there.”
