TR: Bridger Bowl & Discovery MT 12.31.13-1.6.14

[Droogie]

My brother and I based in Bozeman MT, December 31-January 6th. It was absolutely fantastic! We were there over New Year's in 2010 and had a great time. We did at Powder Hound package and tacked on a few nights and a day at a really cool Mom and Pop mountain called Discovery Ski area. We stayed 6 nights ski 4 days at Bridger and 1 day at Discovery and had a decent breakfast for $380 per person after taxes. CHEAP! Conditions were fantastic all around. Snowfall while we were there went like this: 5 inches (day we arrived, no skiing), 4, 0, 2, 21, 3. Yeah, it was AWESOME.



The first two days we skied at Bridger Bowl. This is a fantastic mountain with great terrain. There were 4 inches of new snow on top of the 5 that fell the day before.







The terrain up above and is all skiable by hiking the ridge. The few runs I worked for off the ridge was excellent.







Bridger has some steep terrain.











This is the ridgeline over Mundy's bowl accessed by the Schlasman's chair. To ride this chair you must have a beacon, shovel and probe. The terrain here is pretty serious. Plenty of places to get clipped out. I was skiing solo over there so I didn't get too rowdy. This was the second day.













The third day we made a planned trip over to Discovery ski area. This is a great old-school mountain with fantastic terrain and $40 lift tickets. It had snowed about 2 inches of new snow.



This is a trail map of just the front-side. I think the vertical is about 1,600 feet. It seems like they could easily add a number of additional runs over here. One bummer is that most of the front side faces south so cover was a bit thin in areas. The best terrain at Discovery is definitely the terrain off the north-facing backside accessed by the Limelight chair offering 1,000 vertical feet of steeps, glades, cliff-bands and pow stashes.













Just one pic of the terrain off the Limelight chair. I would have needed to spend several days back there to ski all of the nooks and crannies. I hope to get back here again.







This was a cool pic contrasting the brown prairie with the mountain.







Old-time groomer. Like REALLY old.













The 4th and 5th days things got dialed up from really fun to absolutely epic. I woke up at like 5:10 and say the Bridger snow report was reporting 1 inch of new snow. I was pretty disappointed since the day before the forecast was calling for 2-4 with another 3-5 overnight and then 1-2 during the ski day. Needless to say I was underwhelmed and went back to sleep. At 7:30 my brother asked me if I was ready to get up. We went down to breakfast and I looked at the snow report again. This time it said 2 inches. Then it started snowing in town and accumulating. One the way up to the mountain it kept coming down harder and harder. While we were getting our boots on it snowed an inch in the parking lot. Things were looking good, but we had no idea what was in store.







It was dumping so hard we were getting covered on the lift ride up. However, there was no wind, it was 25 degrees and visibility was fine despite the dumpage.







My brother on something like our third run on one of the more traveled runs.







I was REALLY happy!











The nukage was just absurd! I rode to the top of the Bridger chair at one point and the lifty had written that 11 inches had fallen in 3 hours. I then took a pic several more times that day as the updated it. Although it is hard to see the sign was updated over the course of the day to say that 15 had fallen in 4.5 hours, that 17 had fallen, that 18 had fallen and then at 3:30 the sign said 21 inches had fallen since 4:30 AM!



All day it was one pow lap after another faceshots, knee deep, pockets thigh deep, blower all the stuff you lust about all year long! There was zero working for it. You just got off the lift and said I'll see you at the bottom. There was no traversing out to something or hiking to something or taking a run-out from something to get back to the chair. It was just a day to point your skis down the fall line and let it rip!



























The total storm accumulation was 24 inches in less than 24 hours. The next day was really cold with it never getting above zero at the base and staying well below zero up top. Although we had to go in to warm up our feet we viewed it positively because it helped keep people off the mountain.















Because of the snow the day before they had the Ridge and the Schlasman's chair closed. It opened at 11:00 the next day. I had three runs of the chair that day that rank right up there with the best of my life. It was like the movies!!!! I couldn't take the 30-40 minute line to get on the lift while waiting in below zero weather so I went back to other parts of the mountain where the skiing was still fantastic.































It was an amazing trip! I hadn't had snow like that since a New Year's 2004 trip to Jackson Hole.

























Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Droogie]

Edit: Narratives now added.

[ROYMERCER]

You are one lucky guy!!!!

[StealthBoarder]

Looks like you picked the perfect time to go.



Don't worry about the pics they are fine. They still show how great it looks out there.

[teledave]

Disco' backside looked sooo good when I was there but the snow was soooo bad (1/4" ice storm the night before on top of week old snow), I'd love to get back there with good weather sometime.



I'd love to hit Bridger sometime too, all I really know about it though "Don't hike with Mark".

[RMacSki]

pics are fine after you click on them. NICE TIMING! awesome

[skiatlanta]

sick tr. I def want to get out there sometime

[Droogie]

Bump for narratives added.

[mobile boarder]

Bad arse TR. Great shots and glad you enjoyed!

[skipanther]

Great pics,I am envious,a most excellent,epic TR!