Vertical. The measurent of the distance between up and down. Stand here, look up to there, that is the vertical. Stand up there, look down here, that is still the vertical. High tech resorts can measure how many vertical feet one skis in a day. Some resorts advertise their vertical, their up and down. A big vertical in the ski resort world is 4,000 to over 5,000 feet. What about that other measurement? Horizontal. The measurement between side to side. Stand here, look over there, that is horizontal. Stand over there, look over here, that is horizontal. What about a horizontal that is over 10,000 feet?
Jokers are not welcome at Bridger Bowl. This is the real deal type of skiing.
In the heart of Montana cowboy country was a man, the man was named Bridger, from the Boze man land, that had a valley, a valley with a western ridge. The ridge was up, up there, where the cloud lived, the snow cloud, the one that lived in a horizontal direction, from one side to the other, over two plus miles across. Beginners and intermediates were teased riding up any and all chairs, as there are requirements to elevate oneself to this ridge above the valley of the man, the Bridger man. Easy to look up, a sweat to get to, and once there, thousands and thousands of horizontal feet to choose where to go down, the vertical down, the drop into the bowl, the Bridger Bowl, often hidden in the snow cloud.
The chair goes up vertical, but you own feet will get you to the horizontal.
Montana has an easy bowl of snow to get to, however it is not easy to experiance the vertical here, as a hike up is a must with proper avalanche gear. Bridger Bowl has a ridge to ski, not a peak. From left to right, there are chutes to challenge any and all of the best skiers in the world. As a community owned and operated ski resort, there is a pride here that starts from the bottom up, the vertical side of a business, and from side to side, the horizontal side of a community. This creates many “hoku’s”, stars that share in the stellar experiance to be had here, from the marketing duo of a Doug and Mike, to the ski patrol that may tote your skis up to the ridge hidden in the snow cloud, on their own private lift.
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There is plenty of challenging terrain here for the ones that fear that horizontal ridge in the snow cloud.
MauiSkiBus was used as a shuttle bus at Bridger Bowl for these two stranded skiers.ed