oh man, did you just open up a can of worms............
why not bridger? i had a pass there for one year actually too.
early season price for adult pass: $520
after Oct. 26: $555
prices went up this year too. it used to be $480 early season, $500 something after that.
not much of a discount. NO COLLEGE RATES!
slow lifts. old. from the 60's i believe
lift accessed terrain is garbage except for a few runs that get skied off in about two runs after a big dump day.
no park/jumps/rails/pipe
all good terrain is hike to terrain off the ridge. great terrain, BUT
i can't justify paying $500 for a pass to hike when i can go backcountry for free OR ride BS or Moonlight for 250-385 a season.
$250 unlimitted season pass at Moonlight (yes)
$250 10-day at BS (college rate)
$385 20-day at BS (college rate)
or you can get a frequency card for $45 at BS and pay $26 every time you want to ski/ride (that's my way onto the hill at BS this year)
all rates stated above are preseason rates. (before sept 31)
i usually only get about 20-30 days on lifts, and atleast 10-15 backcountry per season(Nov.-Apr). not including after the lifts stop running.
i've had a season at bridger and two at BS now, and now i'm checking out Moonlight. i don't expect Moonlight to be huge like BS, but the options are there. hiking the Headwaters is at your own risk. no partner needed. there are a few lines that are 'safe' to do alone. at bridger, a partner is required. if i do inbounds stuff, i want to be able to do it myself, since that's what i payed to do, and if i want to take it to the backcountry, then i only go with a partner that know's what he/she is getting into. that's a strict rule of mine when it comes to backcountry and some o.b. Moonlight also has an open boundary policy through a gate to access a new backcountry area that used to be exclusively used by a cat skiing operation that no longer exists, as i've read somewhere recently. i think in the site somewhere......maybe not. i can't remember.
so anyways, i'm not a hardcore Bridger guy like some people are in bozeman. paying to hike isn't my gig, and niether is riding slow lifts all season. i hit that place when the snow is good, real good, like two or three times a year. although the snow is good more than two or three times a year obviously. i just don't want to pay to hike all year. i don't mind a few times here or there though. i have also done a couple of gay snowboard comps there the past two years. not this year. it's lame. contests are a big sky for me this year. bigger
i've met a lot of cool people at BS too, so that kinda has something to do with it. some freinds let me crash thier couch pretty much the whole time i'm on winter break at a super nice condo and i always had someone to ride with. they've shown me around a bit. the locals are really a bunch of drunks, but really down to earth people if you get to know them. i don't know how they live such a lifestyle day after day, but they do it year after year. and they rip the mountain too. not to many jibbers, just solid riders all around. the jibbers are the high school kids from bozeman killin the park and rails. it aggravates the heck out of me that those little sh..ts kill the park, but couldn't drop a line anywhere except down a huge wide open bowl. ah, kids! they enjoy themselves though. i love when they try to send out vibes in the park. haha. i'm from the east, i'll show you vibes kid.......... haha. just kidding. it's not like that at all. it's coo
i know that snowboarder travis in that video of MLB. he's a guide there. well, last year anyways. i'm hoping he can show me around a bit. he know's the goods.......and so will the rest of the BS crew who are planning on riding there this season. already some shacks built up in the sticks and some log slides. secrets. should be sick at MLB, and hopefully empty.
the hike is a bit longer up the Headwaters than the Ridge at Bridger though. longer run down too. bigger, wide open lines. i'll be in shape real quick come xmas time, and there better be good coverage up there early january or there'll be hell to pay. hear that motha nature?
i think i'll be coming back to this thread at points during the year. thanks for posting it. cheers!
