South Bridgers

South Bridgers Overview

The Bridgers run south-to-north as one continuous ridge from Bozeman Pass to Maudlow and lie entirely within the Custer-Gallatin National Forest. The range is home to the iconic Bridger Bowl Ski Area, which has been the epicenter of the Bozeman skiing community since the first rope tow was installed in 1951. Bridger Mountain State Park was originally owned by the state of Montana until the non-profit we know today took over in 1954 when locals came together to create a community-owned ski area. Since then, it's grown to become a modern destination resort with a devout local crowd yet still remains a non-profit, reinvesting all earnings back into its facilities. Bridger Bowl's boundaries have grown to create one of the more unique resort experiences, as it blurs the line between traditional inbounds and backcountry terrain. The resort allows guests to hike--with a beacon--above the tallest chairlift to ski 'The Ridge' with its often nuanced and cliff-riddled topography. Many of the ski industry's pioneers, from the ranks of Bozeman locals and Montana State University students, have come of age in their careers at Bridger Bowl. As MSU dropouts often joke, tuition is cheap at Bridger Bowl University, and the steep overturned limestone beds offer tight couloirs and jagged cliffs to defend one's PhD thesis against. This chapter will focus on a few famous peaks, basins and major access points, but will skip over nearly 90% of the skiing in the range. The Bridgers offers hundreds of named couloirs and scrappy faces with double drops which would require their own series of books to be fully covered. Instead, a handful of prominent lines that don't fall within entries will still be shown on maps and images, but just not given the full coverage that other ski descents in the book have been given. The range is divided into the Northern Bridgers and the Southern Bridgers, with the bulk of the book focusing on the Northern Bridgers.

Zones Covered