Bridger Bowl

Bridger Bowl
Faster you dirty hippies!

Our next stop on the tour of Montana ski areas was a small place called Bridger Bowl, just outside of Bozeman. Bridger is Bozeman’s local mountain, and was quite different from Big Sky. The parking lot was dirt, the lift tickets were only $45, and there were maybe six chairlifts. What makes Bridger notable, however, is what all the locals call “The Ridge.” None of the chairlifts go all the way to the top of the mountain, which is one long ridge. If you bring an avalanche beacon, shovel and a buddy, the patrol will let you hike up to the ridge and ski any of the many scary lines right off the top. The Ridge even has its own devoted band of skiers, known by the affectionate name as “Ridge Hippies.” Not many of them are actually dirty, as the subtitle might imply, but I always like to use the phrase “dirty hippies.”

Nate and I had a stroke of luck and showed up to four inches of fresh powder, which was certainly nicer than the bare dirt of Yellowstone. We ripped down some lower runs on the mountain for awhile, but very soon succumbed to the desire to hike and ski The Ridge. Beacons on and shovels ready, we hiked up and traversed over to a nice looking chute that didn’t have any tracks yet. It ended up being a great run, but I was skiing like a schmuck and fell twice. That run was so fun we hiked up and did another, this one much more of a billy goat line that weaved around some rocks and took some navigational skills. We got down that just fine, though someone had already skied it. I guess third and fourth tracks isn’t so bad. By that time, my body was wimping out on me, so we ate a big lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon skiing the lower runs.

The next day at Bridger, the fresh powder had turned to nasty icy crust. Instead of spending money to go wreck ourselves on bulletproof moguls, we strapped on the tele skis and got a great backcountry run in. We even managed to find some powder, which made the uphill slog worth it. All skied out for the day, we jumped back in the van for our last stop in Montana, to visit Josh Allen at home in Missoula.

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