As many folks know, Bridger Bowl is no stranger to snowfall. But what about rockfall? Last week, a major landslide swept through the majority of the ski area, raising questions and concerns about the effects of the slide.
“Keep going over, and you know this terrain that's accessed by high traverse? You can really see how deep that particular scar is,” Hiram Towle said as he pointed to the slopes of Bridger Bowl.
WATCH - Bridger Bowl Landslide: A Shift in Terrain and Skiing Experience Ahead
Hiram Towle is about to enter his fourth season as general manager of Bridger Bowl. He tells me he’s seen some pretty gnarly storms. So, when the rain started pouring last Tuesday?
“It’s pretty typical here; we have a pretty strong microclimate. You know they call it the Bridger Bowl cloud. It often delivers the great snow that we love,” says Hiram.
But last Tuesday, the Bridger Bowl cloud delivered something a little more extreme.
“There was something very different about this that was actually able to strip that amount of material and bring it down the hill,” shares Hiram.
A massive landslide stretched across the entire ski area, all the way from Bridger Gully above the bears to Slushman's. Hiram pointed out some of the affected areas.
“Everything above North Bowl? You can see all of the chutes. Some of the most significant damage, however, is farther south. The South Bowl area. The Zits. A lot of those ripped out to the point where if I went and stood in it, it would be up to my chest or deeper,” Hiram showed me.
Hiram says there were a few close calls, with part of the slide making its way down to the base of the Pierre’s Knob lift. Fortunately, no lifts or buildings were destroyed in the landslide.
Crews are already underway, clearing rocks and debris from the lower portion of the mountain, but? “The areas that we can’t get to, to clean up? Are areas where people ski. It’s part of our famous ridge terrain. That’s just going to be a different look for people,” says Hiram.
Just how different? We’ll have to wait for the snow to find out.
“A chute that was enjoyable skiing in an average winter might take a few more inches or even a foot of snow to fill it in,” Hiram told me.
Regardless, Hiram says Bridger Bowl crews are doing everything they can to not only have the mountain ready for ski season but ready for when Mother Nature strikes again.
“There’s a saying in the ski business: ‘Never enough to do it right but always enough to do it twice’. We don’t want to be doing this twice,” says Hiram. “We’re always doing our best to prepare for the unknown. You can rest assured Bridger Bowl will take good care of you for many generations.”
