BRIDGER BOWL — Opening day at Bridger Bowl is set for Friday, but for some eager skiers, waiting that long isn’t an option. As soon as the snow starts falling, they head for the slopes — even in the early season, when conditions can be risky.
On Nov. 29, the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center reported a backcountry skier was riding the Pomp Twins Couloir near Fairy Lake when an avalanche broke loose. Video footage shows the skier being carried roughly 250 feet downhill before deploying his airbag. He stayed on top of the snow and left the area uninjured.
Watch how to stay safe on the slopes
This wasn’t the first human-triggered avalanche in the Bridgers recently.
“The skiing has been good where we found it — got some good powder turns,” said one skier I met, Emma.
In the past two weeks, Bridger Bowl has gone from bare ground to powder-covered slopes. Skiers like Emma and Mateo have been making the most of it.
“Yeah, the lower part of the mountain has been groomed, which makes it easy to skin up,” Mateo said.
They’re far from the only ones.
“How many folks do you get up here skiing preseason?” I asked.
“A lot, and we love that,” said Hiram Towle, Bridger Bowl’s general manager, who added that last weekend, you would’ve thought the hill was open, judging by the number of backcountry skiers out.
“People definitely came up in numbers, and the skiing was great,” Towle said.
But great skiing doesn’t mean safe skiing.
“It is high avalanche danger out there, so people need to be very careful,” Towle said. “We’ve had slides from Saddle Peak all the way over north through the edge of our boundaries.”
The Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center has reported seven avalanches in the Bridger Range in the past two weeks, four of which were triggered by skiers. One avalanche last Friday in the Apron area of Bridger Bowl reportedly caught and carried a skier as well.
So why is the avalanche danger so high right now?
“They got two to three feet of heavy snow,” explained Alex Marienthal, an avalanche forecaster with the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center. “Before the snow, there was old snow on the ground that created a weak layer. In some places, it’s not supporting the new snow and is causing avalanches.”
The center updates the avalanche forecast daily for southwest Montana. On this day, the highest danger — marked in red on the forecast map — was in the Bridger Range, Cooke City, and the northern Madison and northern Gallatin ranges.
Marienthal recommends all backcountry skiers carry three key pieces of safety equipment: an avalanche beacon, a shovel, and a probe pole. He also stresses the importance of never skiing alone.
For Bridger Bowl, uphill travel will be prohibited starting Tuesday at 4 p.m. so crews can prepare for opening day. Ski patrol will be on avalanche mitigation duty to ensure a safe and on-time start to the season.
For the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center's forecast, visit this link: https://www.mtavalanche.com
