Snowbowl sits just outside Missoula, a 20 minute drive and offers 2700 vertical feet of steep, ungroomed terrain. With the recent addition of the SnowPark expansion in 2018 (?), Snowbowl amounts to about 2,000 acres of skiable terrain. Rocks, cliff drops, gullies, trees, and even a natural form of halfpipe can all be found here. The only thing you can't find is a fully staffed terrain park with man made features.

Snowbowl has been operated by the same owners for a long time and have seen business increase with each passing season. If your skills are up to par with black diamond terrain, Snowbowl could be one of the most fun resorts you go to around the Missoula area. Nature crafted a fine mountain, there's just one major glaring problem, the culture.

To the ordinary Missoulian, Snowbowl is the "love to hate" kind of place. The parking is atrocious, the crowds are insane on a Saturday, and if there is no new snow, the groomers are a sheet of ice, due to the lack of maintenance. The ungroomed terrain won't fair you much better either. Without any new snow and any temperatures above freezing, Snowbowl turns into Mudbowl, or Rockbowl, or "lose your ski in a willow bush and look for three hours-Bowl". This brings me to the management, maintenance, and Season Pass holders.

Snowbowl is renowned for being "cheap". They charge 68 dollars for a day pass and maintain their mountain like it's still under 600 acres. They groom once a week and make no snow even when they have every chance to. Management will make little to no effort to communicate to the public in the age of social media and when they do communicate, they lie. On Friday, January 27th, Snowbowl lost power. They reported the outage to the electric company and as soon as the lodge got power, they announced on Social Media, "we are open" and started selling tickets to customers at the resort. All the while, not a single chair was moving. People waited from 9am-1pm before Snowbowl finally said that they won't be opening. Customers rushed to the ticket booth to ask for a refund, but they refused to give out any. Instead, they gave people vouchers to come Saturday. If you couldn't make it that day, then your pass was void.

Saturday comes and Snowbowl announces that 100% of their mountain is open and the mad dash of both Friday and Saturday's crowds begin. Meanwhile, winds up at Snowbowl gusted up to 40 miles per hour, too fast to open their mountain-top chairlift, LaVelle Creek chair. Snowbowl had lied, twice. As a resort, they have the capabilities of knowing when their mountain will be able to operate and when weather will prevent them from operating. They chose to lie and take people's money, then refuse to refund that money when they were unable to fulfill their promise to their customers. While all of this anti-consumer behavior is appalling, what's worse is the reaction of their Season Pass holders.
The average Season Pass holder will go to Snowbowl any day of the week if the snow is good. They are either retired or have a job they can leave at any time. When Snowbowl pulls any of their anti-consumer antics, the most they do is shrug it off and claim "That's Snowbowl for ya." When confronted with the question, "Isn't Snowbowl taking advantage of their customers?", the answer I got back was this:
"The real problem is the crowds. All these people buying tickets today are plugging up the lifts and making it impossible to have fun. We'll probably only get 5 or 6 runs in today. You just have to come up on a weekday, when all these normies aren't around, trying to act cool while they fall on their faces halfway down the mountain. They're the problem."
Instead of calling out the company that willingly deceived the community and purposefully made problem worse, they blame the people who have busy lives and can only commit to one or two days of the week to actually taking themselves or their families to the mountain that is publicly owned by the Forest Service. Instead of being a community, the Pass holders decided to be elitist, and while most Pass holders are not this stuck up, the culture surrounding Snowbowl accepts and encourages the mentality of "That's just Snowbowl". They accept that they are slaves to the mountain and no matter how ugly the management may be, they will always give them their money, because "what other mountain with sick terrain is 20 minutes away?"

Missoula is a place where you can walk into a person downtown and have a conversation about anything. You can bump into them at the bar by accident and become lifelong friends in a month. Missoula has a wonderful culture full of vibrancy and an abundance of outdoor activities, but the culture of Snowbowl is by far the most toxic part of that community. It is truly a shame that such a greedy family owns such a beautiful mountain, one that is always in view from the front door, and one that is marred by such deplorable people in a community full of kindness and generosity.

Update: Snowbowl has taken upon themselves to censor their online community to prevent people from badmouthing their mountain. Until management changes at Snowbowl, I will be boycotting this place. All of what they have done encourages other mountains to do the same. It takes customers for granted, restricts access to public land, and place people in possible danger. It's not worth your time or your money.
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Ever dreamed of being rescued from a lift, swinging helplessly 40’ in the air, Jack Frost biting your face? Snowbowl can make that nightmare come true. I feel Misoula and guests deserve to know that the owners of this facility are negligent with the maintenance of the lifts (every single year for the past decade patrons have had to be rescued from lifts because the lift broke in the middle of the ski day. Today the tow rope and T bar weren’t working. Snowbowl does not provide refunds when the lifts and rope tow are out of order! You just swallow your $40 and head down the mountain road. A reliable source share with me that Snowbowl’s overworked heroes- thank you blessed rescue team- are not even paid a competitive wage. The lack of proper snow removal from the parking lot to the lodge makes it treacherous and I know people who have fallen and seriously injured themselves just trying to get themselves and their gear to the lodge from their vehicle! To top of off, surfaces and restrooms are unclean. Please Missoula, you’re nodding your head , reminiscing your own fond memories, Happy New Year, may you not have to swing precariously in the biting wind waiting for a rescue AGAIN this year.
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Our 2 sons going out for our 5th time. Last there 3.5 months prior pandemic hit . Looking forward to the good times. Dang proud Snowbowl offers the terrain to get to "the other side" of our routine life. Thanks Ronnie!
Brazen Family
Go Griz 1986
.. 5 yr plan..
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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.
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*if you're in shape and capable. The bowl is not a revered hometown mountain by all, its very polar in Msla, but the people who love it are the best kind of people. Hardworking, gritty, raw, unfettered, no-frills, passionate and fine-honed to their craft. You will find a group of "old-timers" up there 5-7 days a week skiing East/West Bowl laps until their octogenarian limbs are satisfied for the day. You will find a LOT of east coast transplants that moved to Missoula for school at UM and never left, and are still to this day challenged by the vertical, terrain, and south facing slope challenges. This is not JHOLE or ASPEN, nor is it Big Mountain aka Whitefish or Big Sky Resort, you will not find bells and whistles here, if you're a good skier and humble you will find challenges and character. The Last Run Inn (bar) is full of regulars and locals which makes for some great people watching and better wood stove fired pizza. Garland should be running around somewhere behind the scenes humming and ha'ing. Make sure to be guided to Meadows or South of the border while you're here. If you're really lucky you'll meet someone who will let you poach Rick's Neff-Land just off of Paradise.
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For a Mom and Pop ski hill, Snowbowl has turned out several of the worlds best freestyle skiers! Montana Snowbowl is steep with some great tree runs and if you like groomers they have some down right, haul ass groomers.

We're talking true Americana here, what skiing used to be like before the mega resorts. Make sure you get one of their Award winning Bloody Marys and a big slice of their Pizza pie.

Snowbowl is the real deal. Sometimes Big things come in little packages!


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Montana Snowbowl is a local embarrassment. From the abysmal customer service to the small skiable acreage (950 acres) to the two chairlifts dating back to the Tenth Mountain Division era (these lifts are over fifty years old, slow, and notoriously breakdown-prone) and the delights of the access road, the place is not worth your US$40.00.

On the two antiquated chairs, it'll take you 35 minutes to get to the mountaintop, where you'll find, on a good day, some decent snow and some short, enjoyable runs, on and off-piste...for maybe the first thousand feet of vertical. Enjoy this while you can; quickly, you'll hit ice and slush. The west-of-the-divide stuff that falls on Snowbowl is often the consistency of elephant-snot. As the climate changes, Snowbowl's elevation is not adequate to collect good powder; frequently, what falls at its base (elevation 5,000 feet) is rain.

If you are unlucky, a chairlift will break while you're riding it. You'll wait half an hour, then another half an hour, and then along will come the cavalry in the form of the Ski Patrol (paid minimum wage), who will throw you a harness on a rope. They will suggest you fasten this harness around you because they're gonna LOWER YOU DOWN FROM THE CHAIRLIFT. This is the routine Snowbowl evacuation method. When you're safely on the snow, and have made your way to the base, don't imagine you'll get a rain-check to ski another day. Customer service at Snowbowl competes with that of wait staff at restaurants formerly behind the Iron Curtain. From the owners to the managers, the place specializes in alienating its skiers. The hard core of locals who frequent the area are a philosophical lot; they'd have to be.

A quote from a fellow skier at another local Montana area: "Snowbowl is the only place I've skied where I realized the stuff they were referring to as 'firm powder' was actually ice that was transparent all the way down to rock." From Missoula, you can gaze north, directly at many of Snowbowl's south-facing runs. Look closely and you'll see the glint of sun on ice.

Skip Snowbowl; head ninety miles southeast to the Flint Creek Range and Discovery Basin, a local gem of an area and the opposite of Snowbowl in every way. It's very friendly, inexpensive, and loaded with beautiful runs for skiers of every ability - everything from uber-gentle to great, north-facing double-black chutes and trees - with dry, high-elevation powder and chairlifts that don't break down. You'll dig it.
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Cheap, short lines, great snow and great terrain--trees are amazing. Wish they would improve on the lifts, though.
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Snowbowl is a skiing gem in a world of high class over priced ski resorts. Snowbowl is a bit of a step back in time.

Two older fixed grip chairs haul two at a time up to the top for some of the best tree and glade and bowl skiing in the rocky mountain west. I like the slow oldies. They let you take time to enjoy the view and meet a lot of really awesome people.

You don't come to snowbowl for the groomers or the park but for the killer skiing 20 min. from downtown Missoul. This is a real gem. Just get adventuresome and tear off into the trees or any run, and from the top you get 2600 ft of major fun. You can knock off 2000' from the griz chair and add more from the top.

So come on by and I'll be happy to show you why Snowbowl is so dear to my heart.
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Montana Snowbowl is a locals' ski hill and with that comes some huge pluses. Riding at Snowbowl comes cheaply and the ski area is completely uncrowded and freshies last a long time on a powder day. You don't need to be bitchy to get to the goods! The steep terrain is pretty good, so it's somewhat surprising that Snowbowl has stayed under the radar.

As to be expected, Snowbowl is no-frills. The lift infrastructure is far from world class and the facilities are very simple. You definitely won't find any day spas at Snowbowl! There is negligible nightlife, it's not ideal for beginners and park junkies can forget it.

With all that simplicity comes a fantastic relaxed vibe and plenty of friendliness.

For more detailed ratings of Snowbowl and to see how it compares to other ski resorts around the world, see our powderhounds resort ratings.
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