WHAT'S IN A NAME?
ROCKVILLE
How Rockville Bowl was named isn’t quite as obvious as it may seem. Yes, it’s rocky, and that was certainly part of the inspiration. But the deeper meaning for the name came from ski patroller Cary Wilson. “When all that terrain opened in 1995, we were just trying to get things named as quickly as we could so that we could easily communicate with each other where we were or tell other patrollers where an incident had taken place,” says Mike Buotte, the Snow Safety Director for Big Sky Resort.
“A patroller returned to the summit station from a run check in that area and announced to the other patrollers, ‘Well, we don’t need to go back there anytime soon. It’s mostly just rocks.’ Cary then sang out the lyrics to R.E.M.’s “Don’t go back to Rockville” and we laughed. By virtue of casual consensus, and subsequent use, the name stuck for that general area as Rockville.”
Rockville is accessed by taking the Lone Peak Tram to the summit and then dropping into Liberty Bowl. After skiing down Liberty Bowl, you enter Rockville Bowl. “It’s nearly 500 vertical feet and 40 degrees,” says Dave Stergar, a former guide and 35-year Big Sky skier. “It needs a lot of snow to cover up those rocks, but you can often find powder in there because people just don’t ski it that much.”
THREE FORKS
Three Forks was originally part of Moonlight Basin when that ski area opened in December 2003. “The general manager of Moonlight Basin was a guy named Burt Mills,”says Dave Benes, Assistant Patrol Director at Big Sky Resort. “I think Burt sort of led the effort to have trails named for historical and geographic landmarks.” To that end, the Headwaters Bowl, where Three Forks is located, is full of trails named for significant Montana rivers and creeks. But to local skiers and snowboarders, Three Forks is a zone unto itself. The ridge hike makes it feel exclusive. And the snow stays soft because of less skier traffic.
To ski Three Forks requires a decent hike along the ridge, which can take up to 30 minutes. That, says Stergar, is what makes the skiing so good. “Not a lot of people like making that trek, so it doesn’t get skied out after a storm very fast,” he says. “It’s a steep, 1,500-vertical-foot powder run on those days.”
If you’re not willing to make the trek, you can still enjoy the action. In 2021, Moonlight Basin opened LakeLodge, home to the 3 Forks Restaurant and Bar, named after the ski run because of its perfect view of the lines.
But back to the nomenclature: It all stems from the Headwaters theme. “There’s Hell Roaring, which is named for Hell Roaring Creek, and they say that’s the most distant point of the Mississippi,” says Benes. “And Firehole is named for Firehole River inside Yellowstone.” The run called Three Forks consists of three chutes that converge into one, making it look like a three-pronged fork. Keeping with the schtick, it’s named after a specific Montana river confluence: “Three Forks is where the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers converge, and that’s only about 30 minutes from here,” says Benes.
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