It had snowed 4 inches according to the snow report, but as usual, up on the ridge it was a different story. I would say about a foot of fresh in most spots, which was on top of more new snow from earlier in the week....not bad!
I met up with Matt and Brian at the base area and we headed over to Schlasmans. Our first lap was down the northern aspect, and we found plenty of great snow, and got some fresh tracks down a few nice spots. At the bottom we met up with the rest of our posse for the day, Paul and Heather. Later we added Tim and Steve for a 6 person power posse!
A key point about riding at Bridger is the aspect of "Hiking the Ridge." Prior to this season, this has meant riding to the top of the Bridger lift, unstrapping, and hiking straight up for about 500 vertical feet to the ridge of the mountain. Requirements for this activity include: an avalanche transciever, partner, and avalanche shovel, a good set of lungs, and strong legs. Those willing to hump it up the extra distance to the ridge are rewarded with at least a mile of ridgeline that is hikable either north or south to the boundary lines of the resort. "The Ridge" is known to hold good snow for a long, long time after a storm, and is the venue of choice for the hardcore skiers and riders at Bridger Bowl. This is due to the limited use it receives compared to the lift served lower mountain.
The other noteworthy aspect of The Ridge is the terrain. This upper part of Bridger Bowl holds some of the steepest, craziest, tightest, gnarliest in-bounds skiing in the world. If you can ride the harder lines up there, you can probably hang with just about anyone on the snow when the going gets gnarly. It is intricately riddled with chutes, cliffs, trees, rocks, steeps, blind rollovers, hanging snowfields, and on and on. If you do not follow a seasoned veteran on your first forays up there, you stand a good chance of getting in big, big trouble. There are so many places where taking the wrong side of a spine of snow means serious problems. Getting stuck on top of a 30 cliff with a bad landing and no way out but struggling 100ft back up a 50 degree, 6 ft wide chute is not a good time.
This season they opened the first new lift in 30 years called Schlasmans. It expands the terrain along the ridge to the south up the shoulder of Saddle Peak, opening up tons and tons of great new riding. Additionally, the new lift terminates about 50 yards shy of the ridge, and the hike is now very quick and very easy.
So, on this fine day we took a quick hike out of Schlasmans to the north, and hit up the old South Boundary lines. Super good! Sweet, deep fresh powder, and super fun winddrifts, little drops, and fun jumps. Next hike was south, this time out to Saddle Peak, to hit up the snowfields just below the shoulder just outside of the new boundary line. It is a quick easy hike, although it was blowing a good 45 mph over the ridge!
The snow looked good, and Mengs dropped in first, shown here on a little video I took. It is WIDE OPEN up there and Mengs hauled ass for two big turns....The next jaunt took us north again into the area known as D-Route. This was formerly only accessible from the north, off the main ridge hike. It was a haul, and had a lot of uphill on the ridge to get to the lines. From Schlasmans it is either flat, or descending to get there. Way better.
Another unique feature of the ridge is that every single thing you can ski down has a name. Usually humorous, dirty(or corny) and coined by some ski-hippy back in the seventies. I opted to hit up the chute called Sixth Grade with Brian. We dropped in to some perfect turns through perfect snow that brought us down to the entrance of the chute, pictured below. The tree in the middle is pushed over from all the snow, but the ones right above the rocks give a better idea of the steepness of this thing.
I had never ridden this line before, and didn't really know what to expect. As Brian jimmied his way into the chute, it became clear that in classic Bridger fashion, it was extremely narrow, and extremely steep. Try "my board-barely-fits-sideways-and-sometimes-tighter" width! Oh yeah, and it's kinda steep. Like "fall and start sliding and you may not stop" type of steep.So Brian got right down in there, jump turning away. Jump turning is how you get down stuff that is super steep and narrow that you can't just straight-line out of. You have to jump off the snow and turn your board to the other edge, then land again 0 to 8 feet below your starting point.
Brian was soon out of sight. I waited a bit and then made my way after him. It is always a bummer going second cuz the first guy has pushed a lot of the fresh snow down the chute with them. Right at the top you have to make a turn around a tree that is in the way that constricts the chute to about 4 ft wide, and then stop.
I made it in, and started hopping my way down. I saw Brian below me again after a bit, and he yelled up at me to stop. I was knocking too much snow down on him from above and it was threatening to push him down the rest of the way.
He continued after the slough stopped, and I waited a good while before following this time. When I reached the point where he was, I could see mostly out of the bottom. It was still a ways to go. I bet the whole thing is at least 100 yards long. No wider than about 6 ft at any point. I continued skitching my way down the thing, and about 50 ft from the bottom I caught my board at the tip and tail between the rocks and got pitched backwards downhill! Oops! Luckily I stopped after one backwards somersault, recovered and made it down the rest of the way.
Looking back up it looks like this:
In the center of the picture is the line. The couloir goes up and then turns to the right. Looks great right! Ha ha! The picture doesn't do the steepness justice. Lines like this are about the challenge, scaring the crap out of yourself, and the thrill of taking it right to the edge....
Oh yeah, and this was the easy way down. Check out what the other guys did! Click on this one so it gets bigger, and then look in the middle to see the dude in the pinch of this crazy line. Tim is holding himself with his arms, adjusting his board position, about to drop straight out of that thing. Welcome to Bridger Bowl!
We all made it down safe from this round and went back up for more! Believe it or not, the last run of the day was even more crazy that either of those two. We took a wrong turn right in between the two lines above, and got stuck on top of a crazy steep face. Luckily Mengs had his camera and had taken a picture to study when we were on top. So after some studying we decided we could make it, and jimmied down some steep-ass rotten-snow rocky ridiculousness, ending in a 30 ft shot that you had to straight line due to the exit being about 3 ft wide. Looking at it from below, it is the sort of terrain that you would definitely classify as "unrideable." Good Times!
I was totally exhausted at the end of the day, but I must say it was one of the coolest days on the hill I have had in a long time. Riding stuff that crazy is an experience you can't have any other way. We ended the day with another traditional Bridger activity, which is apres ski beers at the Grizzly Ridge in the base area, trading tales of our exploits like fisherman trade fish stories, sipping a good brew, and already anticipating the next day on the hill...
No comments:
Post a Comment