Looks like we timed it right.  After skiing three weeks of amazing conditions in Revelstoke, BC, we headed home just in time for the most epic powder day I’ve ever had at Bridger.

Check out a mini POV edit from ‘Two Foot Tuesday’

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/58517118″>Go Back to Bridger – Axel Peterson Cold Smoking 1/29/2013</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/bridgerbrigade”>Bridger Brigade</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

by Axel Peterson

This early season in Montana was amazing.  Tons of snow and stable conditions made for some unbelievable skiing.   We poked around the Bridgers for a few weeks in early November, skiing ‘The Great One’ twice as well as smaller couloirs that were nice and filled in thanks to the wind.

On November 12th, 51 Inches of pow brought us to the Little Cottonwood Canyon.  Leaving from the bars in Bozeman at 11 PM, myself, Randy Evans, and Reid Morth arrived in SLC just in time to eat a hearty breakfast and head into the Wasatch.  We met up with Dylan Crossman and Colter Brehmer and had two awesome days of touring.  It felt great to ski some ‘bigger’ lines.

We sent it over to Sun Valley for Turkey Day.  Rob, myself, and local shredder Jeremy Lato had two amazing days of skiing 1-2 feet of fresh on Galena Pass. Completely stoked on two days of amazing powder, Rob wanted to end the day with a nice speed flight.  Grabbing his wing from my truck, Rob sent it for the top of Red Devil.  Sometimes things don’t work out, and for Rob this was his day.  Landing weird on a pile of rocks, he dislocated and broke his ankle.  Requiring surgery that night, Rob took a huge blow to his season. Rob is a champ, and will be back stronger than ever in a few months!

After returning to Bozeman from SV, myself, Max Lowe, and Ryan Walters loaded the sleds and set sail for Cooke City.  We met up with ‘Cooke City Locals’ Pat Cowan and Sean Fithian, and had some fun romping in the new snow.  It snowed nonstop the four days we were there, restricting us from venturing to high, so we had some fun hitting smaller cliffs and skiing long pow runs in the trees off Woody Ridge. We have a tradition that every time someone gets their sled stuck they have to shotgun a beer….We ran out of beer the third day.

Getting back into cell phone range, on our way home from Cooke, I had a message from Reid Morth saying we have tickets to Red Mountain for their opening weekend.  I jumped on the opportunity and within 12 hours of getting home I was on the road again traveling North to Rossland, BC.  Kyle Taylor, Micha Hoogeveen, Reid, and myself had quite the adventure.  Hitting black ice an hour north of Spokane, we rolled KT’s car.   At first I accepted our trip was over and that the car was totaled.  However, after 5 hours of repairs and duct tape, the car was running and we were on our last stretch towards Red. Arriving in Rossland at 3:30 AM, we had just enough time to catch a few hours of sleep before heading to the hill in hopes of catching first chair.  A crew of young guns beat us to the punch by pitching a tent in line, so we had to settle for second chair.  We started the morning off right with a nice 300 Gnar Points for cooking breakfast in line.  The bacon, eggs, coffee, and whiskey fueled us for a long day of shredding.  Despite having one of the deepest bases in record for opening weekend, Red was plagued with a solid rain crust on most aspects.  We still made the most of what we had, got some sick shots, and had one hell of a weekend!

Returning back to the states, I had two days to regroup at home in Bozeman before loading the car and heading once again to Canada.  This time it was a family trip. We have been wanting to take a family ski trip for years, and it finally aligned.  Dylan Crossman, my big sis McKenna Peterson, and myself headed 12 hours to Golden, where we met up with my Mom, Dad, and little sister.  We helied into Chatter Creek Lodge for two days of the deepest skiing of my life.  It was some serious cold smoke blower and after two days, it was extremely hard to leave.  Chatter Creek is one of the coolest places I’ve even been with the sickest terrain I have ever seen. There is some serious potential there, and I will do everything in my power to go back one of these years…

Back to Bozeman from Canada trip #2, we dawn patrolled the next morning to one of my favorite spots in Montana.  It is a super double rainbow secret spot, near Big Sky, and I was excited to take McKenna and Dylan up there for their first time.

Then it was time to head home to Idaho to spend X-mas with the fam and ski with the Sun Villains.  Galena Pass had some of the most snow and best, stable, conditions I have ever seen.  Touring Galena and the Sawtooths every day until new years, I earned many untracked pow turns and had some great times with close friends.  Andrew Daigh and myself scoped some big lines near Galena that we will go back for this spring, and North Parker and I found what we are calling ‘The Hollywood Wall of the Sawtooths”.  A couple days of brappin’ sleds with Barrett Cincotta, Kyle Casey, and Michael Franco, got me stoked on sled skiing over the pass.  I Can’t wait to get back to the homeland and film some big lines with good friends in the next few months!

This November/December has been one of the best early seasons I can remember.  Great trips with great people make for amazing experiences and memories. I am fortunate to have some many positive people in my life, and without them none of this would be possible.  I am currently in Revelstoke, BC, yes my third trip to Canada this winter, and am working on the second episode of Bomb Snow TV.  If you haven’t yet, check out the first episode, it highlights everything above.  Cheers to a great winter of fun and pow, and to all my friends who get after it, be safe.

-AXEL

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/56534096″>Bomb Snow TV: Episode One “Get While the Gettin’s Good”</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user5033495″>Bomb Snow Magazine</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Summers over.  The snow is beginning to fall.  We are finishing up our summer jobs and reuniting in Bozeman for another winter of skiing, travel, and adventure.  All summer, while slaving for sardines as a commercial fisherman, I couldn’t go more than a couple of hours without finding myself day dreaming of the coming season.  Revelstoke, Nelson, Alaska, Cooke City, the Sawtooths, Wasatch, Lost Rivers, Beartooths, etc…etc…etc….. My brain was racing.  The endless check list of couloirs, lines, peaks, and trips continued to grow.  The anticipation and stoke of a snowy winter kept me charged during the 18 hour fishing days.

At times, I wonder why I spend 4 months of every summer isolated on a 58 foot boat with 4 others, working nonstop, and constantly smelling of the ripest fish slime. All it takes is plugging in my dusty hard drive, maxed out with footage from last winter, and instantly I’m reminded why I put myself in this situation… The cold of winter, dropping into bottomless pow, scoping lines, sending, exploring, the nervousness, the excitement, the adrenaline, the stoke, the camaraderie of your bros grinning through their snow beards… This is the reward, this is what I live for.

We are going to be busy this season with a couple rad projects.  We will be working hard on a two-year wilderness ski project entitled Land of No Use, as well as producing monthly Bomb Snow TV episodes.  Check out the trailers for both projects.

Bomb Snow TV

Land Of No Use

The rock skis are out, and preseason eagerness is in full force.

See ya on the hill,

-Axel

*Feel free to shoot us a line at BRIGADE@bridgerbrigade.com

January took us across the northern boarder and into a land smothered in gravy and topped with cheese curds.  In cars cramped with ski gear, smelly bums, and as much American booze as possible, we followed the eighteen wheelers charging through the white out storm up Rodgers Pass and filtered into Revelstoke, BC.  We came to compete in the FWT Canadian Freeskiing Championships and to escape the terrible conditions that plagued our home mountains.

Well, frankly we didn’t have the best showing at the competition.  On the plus side of no one making through the qualifying day, we were free to shred, and shred we did.  The only bad thing about British Columbia is that its not part of the US.  With every visit, we ask the cardinal question, “How do I become a Canuck?” With a slightly heavier snow pack than what were used to  back in Montana, big fluffy pillows of pow tend to stick more consistently to rocky outcrops.  For us, it was the first time we had seen hittable cliffs since last season.

The panoramic views of the Monashee Mountains are a stunning canvas of sharp white peaks, fat rivers, and inversion clouds stopped up in valleys like glacier lakes. Aside from the 1,713 metres (5,620 ft in ‘Merican) of lift accessed vertical at Revelstoke Mountain Resort, we explored the surrounding backcountry access, including the legendary Rodgers Pass.  After overstaying our welcome in Revelstoke, we dipped back into the States to restock our beer supply and pick up  photographer, Craig Moore.  We then headed to Fernie for what was being broadcasted as The Storm of the Century!!! 

Of course, there seems to be a Storm of the Century!!! every season, but what we found in Fernie blew away our former beliefs of what constitutes deep pow.  With below zero temperatures, skiing the fifty inches that fell in that storm felt more like passing through cumulous clouds than sliding on top of solid particles.  It was too good to stop for a break, even though every single person in our group had frost bite spreading across their cheeks.  It was da deep on deep, ski it till ya sleep.

KT’s birthday fell on our last night in town, and what pursued was a blur of nearly escaping bar tabs, cannibalistic wrestling, chomping into beer cans, and a torn meniscus.  We returned to ‘Merica a little worse from wear, skied Big Mountain for a couple days, and went to the premier of Aaron Robinson’s Manifest, before driving back to Bozeman.

Big Thanks to Revelstoke Mountain Resort, Fernie Alpine Resort, Whitefish Mountain Resort at Big Mountain, The Taylor family at the Hidden Moose Lodge, and Craig Moore.

After the FWT competition at Moonlight Basin, we were partying at the Filling Station in Bozeman.  KT had just won the comp and Randy took the Sickbird, more than enough reason to party.  KT was supposed to leave the next morning for Alaska, but decided last minute to go compete at the world championships in Kirkwood, meaning there was an open seat in a truck bound for AK in the morning.  I couldn’t pass it up.

I left with Kyle Christenson and Nathaniel Murphy the next morning.  Besides a few setbacks, like crashing the truck into a snow bank just over the Alaskan border, we made it in one piece.   Kyle and I met up with Ryan Kreuger, Steve Lowry and Luke Smith and headed to the snowbird hut, located off of hatchers pass in the Talkeetna range. We were lucky enough to have perfect blue bird days and great snow.  We spent the next six days at the hut, knocking off every line in sight.

After leaving hatchers pass we headed to Valdez where we met back up with Murph and Reid Morth.  We got into town for the second week of Tailgate Alaska.  The beer garden that was set up at the top of Thompson Pass kept us occupied for the first couple down days.  Then when the weather cleared Kyle and myself sledded into an area known as the Books.  We drove up the glacier just as a helicopter was flying their clients out.  We realized they had just skied two of the main chutes in a massive cirque that we now had completely to ourselves.

Over the course of the next few days we got to ski some of the most incredible lines I’d ever seen, let alone skied.  Alaska was a life changing experience.  It’s the one place that I have to go to every winter.  It truly is the Mecca of skiing.

-Rob

ALL PHOTOS BY KYLE CHRISTENSON

This season has been somewhat of an upset in Bozeman.  The snowfall around Bridger Bowl and Big Sky is well below average.   Eager for some snow, word of a huge storm set to hit the Bitterroot’s sparked extreme anticipation. With NOAA predicting over four feet of snow in three days, we sent it towards Lost Trail Powder Mountain.

On the road, an hour and a half into the drive, we were greeted with misfortune in the middle of nowhere.  A shot engine in Trav’s van forced us to gimp the van back to Butte and rent a car.  There was no way in hell we were going to miss the following pow day!  Hours later, we were heading toward the heart of the storm.

Arriving at the Lost Trial parking lot at 1:30 AM, with feet of new snow, we relished in the fact that tomorrow was going to be the deepest day of the year thus far.  We woke the next morning to 30” of new snow.  We skied all day, not even breaking for lunch.

The snow didn’t let up for one second, so we knew that the next day was gong to be another deep one.  Despite our obligations to return to Bozeman, we had to stay for one more.  With 56” falling the entire storm, we made the right decision.  There is nothing like chasing a storm with your buddies!  Thanx Bomb Snow, Mystery Ranch, and Voke Tab.

Until the next storm,

-AX

Well, like most of the rockies, our beloved Bridger range has not been up to par lately, so we travelled East to Red Lodge Mountain.  The ski area had never really been on our radar, but anything seemed better than riding our tails through grass and rocks.  What we found blew us away.  Not only was there a solid base but a healthy layer of fresh as well.  The days alternated between storm and sun, with more and more snow falling and cold temps keeping it fluffy.

The nightlife in and of itself was worth the trip.  Out and about for the Christmas Stroll, we met all sorts of local barflies and legends and even took turns challenging a champion leg wrestler on the floor of the Snow Creek Saloon.  One sexy Barmaid made a point of singing and dancing to Afroman’s “Cause I Got High” for Axel.

 

Local shredder, Justin Modroo took us under his wing and lead us on a dawn patrol in the Palisades area our last day.  All in all we enjoyed four unexpectedly epic days of snorkeling the Great Beartooth Reef and found a gem of a ski town.

Special thanks to Anjin for helping with the edit, and to Paul and Jeff at Red Lodge Mountain for the epic days of shred.

Check out the video: