Local Look Back: How much snow…

By Karen Davids

In October 1978, Blu (my ex) and I left Alta, Utah; it was too crowded and smoggy, but where to go? Our ski patrol friends at Alta said “go north” … so we did and five hours later drove into the parking lot of Big Sky Resort.

We walked into the Mountain Mall—yes, the same structure you see today!—and got jobs. My first job was at the Caboose and Blu was the liquor store clerk for the Ore House. We easily found lodging at the Hill Condominiums. The road to Big Sky was dirt back then and our old Ford Econoline van had a horrible heater—our bananas would freeze on the way home from Bozeman in the winter.

Karen Davids remembers moving to Big Sky in 1978 and the epic snow at Big Sky Resort the following year. PHOTO COURTESY OF KAREN DAVIDS

We worked at night and skied all day long: it was the best! The following winter I got a job at the Ore House Restaurant located in the Mountain Mall. I was so excited I called my mom to tell her and … silence. “No, mom, wait! Not the whore house—the Ore House! A restaurant, they sell great steaks!”

I loved working there; we were family and there are still a small handful of us who are still here in Big Sky.

The winter of 1979-1980 there was so much snow on the road from Mountain Mall to the Hill condos it was like a luge; the banks were so high—10 feet! At least that is what I remember.

Back in ’81, I left to work at the Ore House in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but Big Sky was in my blood and heart. There was a ski patroller back in the day who I had eyes for—he was married back then and Blu and I were still together—and as time went on we all remained friends as we were “family.” Well, around 1996 that ski patroller found out I was divorcing and looked me up … and in the fall of ’97 he moved me back to Big Sky where I will remain as long as I can afford to live here!