Brider Bowl Freeskiing Contest from 1997

I'm kinda shocked I'm allowed to publish this since music in it is by Pharycde and DJ Shadow. It may go dark because of copyright but it may not. I hope a lot of competitors see this, this is a slice of history I don't think is online anywhere by anyone else. Some good friends I met later in life were competitors...

Backstory - there was a freeskiing tour in 1997 that had stops at Bridger, Crested Butte? and Jackson? Hell I don't remember. I wanted to compete, kinda, but I knew I'd have more fun shooting and editing the footage for a college project so that's what I did. A friend hooked me up to be a forerunner of the O's semifinal run (I don't think I show any skiers competing on the O's because it was tame compared to the first semifinal run on the Ridge lookers left of the O's) I left my camera (unattended, ha) on North Bowl road while forerunning so I skied WAY faster than normal so I could get my camera before the first people skied.

Some guy named Doug Coombs was the only one who scored higher than my forerun on the O's and while I doubt I woulda placed top 20 overall...I'm gonna cling to that top 3 score and yes i realize forerun scores are an early throw-away calibration with no reference to the runs of actual good skiers about to come and yadda yadda, please let me claim this one...ha.

Anyhoo we had a massive year in 1997 and lines filled in I've never seen filled just a few days before the contest. Talk about amazing timing. So a buncha non-locals came in and ripped the fucking shit outta bridger in ways none of us locals have ever seen before because most of those lines were not skiable in my short BB history, and those non-locals were ballsy as hell! It was amazing to see. Many of us, inspired, went to ski these lines after the contest and honestly they were no joke. The cliff band in the semifinals that a ton of people ski over and over in this video - the speed coming out of it was insane and why you see a lotta crashes (there is a road below it where you NEED to stop for). And the ramp before that cliff take-off - you couldn't see the landing until a turn before the cliff - and the take off was STEEP. And there was a rock that never got buried in ANY year a turn or two before the take off, for added fun. These guys came and skied variations of this line over and over, I was blown away because I've never seen it skied. That area normally was an unskiable rocky mess then it magically it fiils in the week before the contest and dozens of people ripped it? WTF. So cool.

As for the dumb joke at the end with Doug, it was one of many questionable edits i did in college and beyond TBH. Sorry? It's not nearly as funny as I thought it was at the time, but ya know it was just a tiny local video made for a college grade and not for Youtube.

I'll publish other parts of the video later, maybe. Much respect to all these skiers and snowboarders!

https://youtu.be/ixtUGGOBL5Q

Wow. Very cool man. Thx for posting

Good stuff. A year before I got there. So much familiar terrain. Keep it coming, I enjoy seeing familiar faces/terrain. Bridger has produced so many great skiers/boarders. I wish I still had some vhs classics from the BB era around that decade.

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radness.

I arrived September ‘97. Just missed it. But I remember the fallout about Coombs’ fluidity score. Haha.

Are you Arden? I was a film major as well.


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Very cool. Bridger is so rad.

The land of pucker.

Awesome. We drove our roommate Brigitte Mead down from BC for this, her first contest ever, which she won. Just a blur of road trip shenanigans, deep powder skiing, and crazy parties.

I always wondered if there was footage of this! My third season here (before there was such a thing or the technology to produce the Daily Video!) and it was the legendary 96-97 season of yore. I remember the comp was supposed to be at Big Sky and got moved to Bridger sort of last minute (conditions better?) as there were shirts with Big Sky crossed out and Bridger written in (I wish I still had that!). I got to be a North Bowl "road guard" holding people up as competitors ripped the Ridge above. Hard to imagine a comp like this here today, but it did happen once! Feel lucky to have witnessed it and to have been here for that era and for 31 years now. Bozeman and MSU have blown up and Bridger has changed as things tend to do, but it remains such a special place full of ski magic.
Thanks so much for posting this trip down memory lane!

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I remember the comp was supposed to be at Big Sky and got moved to Bridger sort of last minute (conditions better?)

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Cannot recall why it was moved but that was a really shitty year down in Big Snivel, not for snow coverage but other factors.

MR, do you still down Southern Comfort?

Yes, am familiar with the year had down that way. Very heavy.

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Originally Posted by gaijin

I arrived September ‘97. Just missed it. But I remember the fallout about Coombs’ fluidity score. Haha.

Are you Arden? I was a film major as well.


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Not Arden. He went on with Trask to make beautiful kayak films and the ski movie The Waiting Game, which was unique for its time.

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Originally Posted by lifelinksplit

Good stuff. A year before I got there. So much familiar terrain. Keep it coming, I enjoy seeing familiar faces/terrain. Bridger has produced so many great skiers/boarders. I wish I still had some vhs classics from the BB era around that decade.

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I may be uploading parts of those VHS tapes if Youtube allows it, or you may be talking about different videos, I dunno.

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Originally Posted by kootenayskier

Awesome. We drove our roommate Brigitte Mead down from BC for this, her first contest ever, which she won. Just a blur of road trip shenanigans, deep powder skiing, and crazy parties.

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Do you remember the name of the event series?

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Originally Posted by BobbyBill

Yes, am familiar with the year had down that way. Very heavy.

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Ah, I forgot that was 96-97. Not sure when we met but it felt like you were always there.

This is sweet. Thanks for posting. That was my freshman year at MSU. I remember watching that a bunch back in the day. Was it part of Riblets?

Def skied that lookers right section left of chute 7 and aired DRCS right after the contest. I remember one guy skiing so smoothly through there it still stands out in my mind to this day. Those guys came to town and sent it! I remember them hucking big into Hidden too.

My friend Ian continued to send that cliff where everyone is crashing for the rest of the 90s. He would then point it through those lower rock bands and make one turn to stop before the road. I think he was 3-5 on sticking it but can’t really remember. Our roommate Nick did it one year and cracked his head and took the life flight to Billings. So we always called that air Life Flight. They were hitting it in way less snow then 97 though so it was pretty much point it off the top and try like hell to stop before the road. Truly wild stuff.

Doug def didn’t deserve the win-remember thinking that part of the movie was funny.


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Riblets...yes! There are some others I remember watching on repeat. Usually at one of clubbers old places where it was a new TV on top of an old 80s style broken TV that is think had been turned into an aquarium, but my memory is a bit blurry back then.

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That’s awesome thanks for sharing, brings back a ton of memories. My first winter in bozeman was winter of ninety six/seven. I was supposed to complete in that comp but a few days before I hit a shark in little gullies at BS and went for a tumble over a scree patch and got pretty banged up. Good times watching the sends from below.
The after party was nuts.
I feel like I nailed living there for the next eleven years as that area was still pretty unknown. Big Sky and Bridger was really magical in that time frame for me.


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Originally Posted by lifelinksplit

Riblets...yes! There are some others I remember watching on repeat. Usually at one of clubbers old places where it was a new TV on top of an old 80s style broken TV that is think had been turned into an aquarium, but my memory is a bit blurry back then.

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Clubber was good friends with all the Minnesota boys in Riblets, and they were also in all those other college movies I made so that makes sense. We probably crossed paths a few times then? Dr Huckinstuff was around bridger that time with those guys before going to Jackson, right?

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Originally Posted by Shredeagle

This is sweet. Thanks for posting. That was my freshman year at MSU. I remember watching that a bunch back in the day. Was it part of Riblets?

Def skied that lookers right section left of chute 7 and aired DRCS right after the contest. I remember one guy skiing so smoothly through there it still stands out in my mind to this day. Those guys came to town and sent it! I remember them hucking big into Hidden too.

My friend Ian continued to send that cliff where everyone is crashing for the rest of the 90s. He would then point it through those lower rock bands and make one turn to stop before the road. I think he was 3-5 on sticking it but can’t really remember. Our roommate Nick did it one year and cracked his head and took the life flight to Billings. So we always called that air Life Flight. They were hitting it in way less snow then 97 though so it was pretty much point it off the top and try like hell to stop before the road. Truly wild stuff.

Doug def didn’t deserve the win-remember thinking that part of the movie was funny.

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Was it the Ian that drank an insane amount of Pom juice? I can't remember his last name. Anytime I did that cliff band (except far looks right area which was jumped/skied often by many before the contest) I dropped and stopped off that lookers left cliff - I didn't have the balls to point and pray. Modern skis woulda been nice for that!

I also remember someone being seriously hurt on that line, musta been Nick.

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Originally Posted by 2FUNKY

The after party was nuts.
I feel like I nailed living there for the next eleven years as that area was still pretty unknown. Big Sky and Bridger was really magical in that time frame for me.

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I interviewed a lotta people at the afterparty. I'm trying to remember where that party was. My shitty memory thinks it was on 7th? Maybe a hotel bar??

Krog should have won!

Grizz has a riblets vhs and plays it occasionally. Awesome movie/footage. Post it on utube for the people!

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Originally Posted by nest

Krog should have won!

Grizz has a riblets vhs and plays it occasionally. Awesome movie/footage. Post it on utube for the people!

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That's awesome! I didn't people were still watching it or owned a VHS machine, ha. I'll have to upload the full thing later and see if youtube allows all the music on it.

Before Riblets there was Napkin - here's the end section of it, when Beartooth pass ski area had snow. The massive air at the end of it still blows my mind.

https://youtu.be/ndyPPr-nxG4

- a pro cameraman came up to the pass and shot that footage, it wasn't and isn't mine. As a college film student I don't know where I was but probably working at the Pickle Barrel and riding bikes in Bozeman.
--Yes, the young Tanner in this is 'the' Tanner.
-The end shot of the snowmobilers was found in my camcorder when I got it fixed. The repair shop put someone else's tape into my camera with that footage on it accidentally.
-As for the large drop, IIRC the story goes that the large broken off cornice chunk Mickey gapped to and jumped off fell over the next day after he hit it. He meant to hit more in the middle - the gap was blind so when he landed it he had to do the big drop right away instead of the plan of making a turn or two before doing the big drop. Sketch, but he pulled it off! I think he was annoyed he hip checked it though, ha.

Fuck yeah Willy! I didn't know he got a 2nd up there.

As I remember it, there wasn't a "tour" yet in 1997. The events were still just separate one-offs, although under the banner of the newly formed IFSA. But I could be wrong.

The '97 CB comp is worth a watch. Brant Moles showed up with what would have been considered fat skis at the time and completely humbled everyone else on 205cm skinny skis.

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Originally Posted by muted reborn

Clubber was good friends with all the Minnesota boys in Riblets, and they were also in all those other college movies I made so that makes sense. We probably crossed paths a few times then? Dr Huckinstuff was around bridger that time with those guys before going to Jackson, right?



Was it the Ian that drank an insane amount of Pom juice? I can't remember his last name. Anytime I did that cliff band (except far looks right area which was jumped/skied often by many before the contest) I dropped and stopped off that lookers left cliff - I didn't have the balls to point and pray. Modern skis woulda been nice for that!

I also remember someone being seriously hurt on that line, musta been Nick.



I interviewed a lotta people at the afterparty. I'm trying to remember where that party was. My shitty memory thinks it was on 7th? Maybe a hotel bar??

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I have vague memories of a pretty wild night at the Bacchus.