More Skiing (and Some Boarding)

Well on the 9th and 10th we got back to skiing. This time we are at Bridger Bowl Ski Area, 16 mi. north of Bozeman. We don't have many pics because Monday was overcast, snowing and/or foggy most of the day and I forgot to bring the camera on Tuesday. Actually, I had it all along but I did not know it until we were finished for the day. Bridger Bowl is run by a non-profit foundation and at $45, it is remarkably inexpensive for what you get. It is a pretty big mountain (1,600' vertical for almost anyone, 2,000' vertical if you're braver and a grand 2,700' if you have a death wish) with more than enough lifts to prevent any lift lines.

Monday we just skied and explored most of the mountain. We both discovered "Bridger Bowl Reach for the Pole" was not just a corny saying...almost fell off the seat of the darn 2 seater lift. Why a pole in the middle of the seat? No safety bar and low arm rails to boot. Cindi started her day by losing not one pole, but both of them on the very first run. To be fair rather lose the poles than the person off the lift. After lunch, I finally got Cindi up on one of the higher lifts and the last 500' is almost straight up a cliff which was pretty impressive. The mountain above the upper lift house is 1,000' up and all rock, also very impressive.



There ain't but one way down from here, and you're lookn' at it.






Here's a shot of the upper 1,000' of the mountain. The death-wish guys actually ski that stuff. If you click the pic to expand it, you can see their tracks coming down to the trail in front of Cindi.




This is just one of the lift houses, but hey we are from Virginia...you can see the "Bridger Pole" in the middle of the chair.






On Tuesday, Cindi decided to put in some time on the board. I told her that one long run from a real lift beats the heck out of twenty short runs off the bunny lift. She actually bought it, so we headed off for a big-girl lift. She wound up making four runs and got both heel and toe edging down and a pretty good handle on toe-to-heel transition. The old heel-to-toe transition still has her baffled though. I must say that you would think she could at least get off the lift by now, but she fell all four times and took me out once...her third attempt proved that helmets are useful & essential since the chair went over top as she hit the ramp. She's getting really good at getting back up quick though. After a break, we changed back to skiing and had a relaxing afternoon.



This is nothing special, I just thought it was a nice shot.