Beartooth Highway in Montana is closed all winter due to heavy snowfall (it provides access to Beartooth Basin Ski Area, after all), but MDOT crews have just begun clearing the road for summer.
A video posted to YouTube from a Montana Department of Transportation plow driver states, "April 16th, 2024... as you can tell from the pictures yesterday, we made it up the hill quite a ways." Watch below.
Once you see the route Beartooth Highway leads, it's easy to understand why this road closes due to snow.
The winding highway has hairpin turns, switchbacks, turnouts, and lookout points. While that makes for an exciting road, it also makes for dangerous driving when snow falls on the road.
In the summer, when the road is most enjoyable, the highway services provides access from Red Lodge to Yellowstone National Park.
Beartooth Basin is North America's lone summer-only ski area with lifts typically spinning from Memorial Day Weekend throughout June.
However, the area sometimes has trouble opening due to snow conditions. In spring of 2022, for example, Beartooth Basin did not operate. Then, in spring of 2023, Beartooth Basin closed unexpectedly, again due to natural conditions.
When Matt Lorelli of POWDER covered Beartooth Basin's sudden cancellation of operations, he noted that this "was the first time Beartooth was able to open in two seasons. Last season was cancelled entirely due to a poor snowpack, and the season before was hampered by problems with one of the ski area's surface lifts." Read below.
When the area is open, it is used as a summer training ground, and the terrain is difficult enough that the ski area advises only intermediate and advanced skiers explore it.
The weather can also change at any time, due to the ski area being at 10,000 feet.
But what it lacks in facilities, it makes up for in history. Established in the mid-1960’s by Austrians Pepi Gramshammer, Eric Sailer and Anderl Molterer as an Alpine Ski Racing summer training ground, Beartooth Basin is one of North America’s oldest alpine ski training areas.
The ski area is staffed with professional ski patrol and and lift attendants just as any other ski area, so all of this being said, don't be afraid to check out Montana's summer skiing spot.
As it turns out, you can cure your mid-summer blues without traveling to Chilé.
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