Opinions Needed, Big Sky Vs. Bridger

Tripplesixty

Tripplesixty

Member
Ok here's the deal. A couple of friends and I are getting passes together this year and we live in Bozeman MT. Our two options are Big Sky and Bridger Bowl one of the kids in the group wants to go one place and the others want to go to the other. So instead of arguing for the next 2 months I want to put it to a vote on NS. Please vote for Big Sky or Bridger and state your reasons why....
 
It all depends on what you want.

Bridger

Slow lifts

local vibe

baller ass terrain everywhere

pow for days

shitty little park

only 20 mins away

Big Sky

Shit ton of terrain, a decent amount of really sick stuff

lots of tourists

pows gone real fast

decent park

about 45-55 mins away
 
I would have to disagree with you slightly here, with the slushmans lift it seems that alot of the ridge terrain gets skied out real fast... at least the stuff that I was skiing last season... But big sky does get skied out just as fast in my opinion except maybe on a week day
 
I vote for Bridger...so much closer and Big Sky, although much larger, doesn't have that much more sick terrain.
 
I would go with Bridger if I lived in Bozeman, especially if Big Sky gets rid of the Ambush park. If that happens there is pretty much no reason to go there except for maybe a few weekends out of the year.
 
Challenger is pretty gnar. There is other good stuff around the mountain.. the problem is all the flat groomers that must be crossed to get there.
 
The debate can go on for days. For me, it comes down to pow days. Two years ago, I got a pass at Bridger. It was an amazing snow year and we were skiing pow all the time. However, towards the end of the year when it stopped snowing as much we were skiing short, mogul-filled runs. This was enough of a reason for me to get a pass at Big Sky the following year. I was glad with my decision because the snow year wasn't as good and on the days with less snow we could still mob the groomers, park etc, whereas I would've been skiing short mogul filled runs at Bridger. Big Sky definitely doesn't get skied out very fast, just on the popular runs. We've been there a week after a pow day and got good turns. I'm getting a Big Sky pass next year.

Also, depending on how old you are price might be an issue. 18 and under gets a Bridger pass for about $375 I believe, but older than that and you're taling 700 dollars, which is only about $100 less than a Big Sky pass....
 
oh dude! i just went on a trip to montana and went to both of them!

BIG SKY FOR SURE!

bridgers park wasnt great and it just pretty much wasnt that great skiing, big sky has a ton of big mountain and multiple terrain parks and a village! big sky for sure
 
facepalm.jpg
 
the village > the entire east coast its so sick.
i dont even ski, but i get a pass to big sky to people watch in the village.
 
since im one of the guys that is affected by this im going to say, bigsky because there is more expert terrain that is accesible without a beacon and since i dont have 300 bucks for a good beacon thats a big plus, also on a powder day bridger bowl is tracked out and ive seen them turn people away at 10am because they are over capacity not somthing i want to hear when i get to the mountain, bigsky has a free bus that runs all day everyday bridger has a bus that runs on saturdays and since i dont have a car bigksy wins again, ive skied moonlight basin the last two years and when bigsky gets powder they get powder and its an awesome day and i would rather have 20 amazing powder days than 50 alright days and finally with bigsky you get 10 free days at other boyne resorts so theres spring break already paid for no lift tickets i like that save some money so in the end
scorebigsky 3bridger bowl 0

easy math BIGSKY but thats just my opion
 
Big Sky- decent park but it's in jeopardy right now, as you may know.

Enormous amount of terrain but a lot of it is the same and kinda flat.

Much more of a resort than Bridger, and way more young people ski

there. The hour or so drive from Bozeman can be a bitch, but it's worth

it, there's also a free bus that shuttles people back and forth. All in

all Big Sky is the better choice.

Bridger- the best part is how much closer it is to town and there's better steeps and cliffs, but everything below the ridge is flat as shit. There's no high-speed quads and they refuse to put one in. If you're into hiking to shred the pow than Bridger might be better for you. Don't even consider Bridger if you're more about jibbin.

Big Mtn/ WFMR - Best ski area in all of MT. I grew up skiing there so I'm probably biased but whatever. Decent park, had the biggest public hit in the state last season at 50 ft. Awesome tree skiing, chutes and cliffs. And tons of super sick natural terrain. However its usually foggy, but only tourists complain about it. It's at least a five hour drive from Bozeman, but you should definitely make a trip up there if you get the chance.

 
Thats what I have been doin but my friends can only make enough to live and buy one pas... $600 is a lot lot of money for some people
 
so true im sorry that i can only to pay for school and one season pass (rolls eyes) lol but even so its not easy coming up with the 750 bucks but im going to do it for my above stated reasons lol K-FED quit being an ass and just go to bigsky lol
 
If you want technical terrain, backcountry access, and big snow days, Bridger is definitely the way to go. Big Sky is the place to be if you are a park skier or want to ski wide open runs at 50mph. There are quite a few threads on this in the MT regionals if you look around for a couple minutes, because the topic seems to be brought up by just about every person starting school here. I've lived here my whole life and skied both mountains excessively, and Bridger is definitely my pick. However, most of the new people in town seem to like Big Sky a lot more...Bridger only becomes really fun once you know your way around pretty well, and most people get bored skiing north bowl for a weekend. So yeah, search around for ten minutes and you will find enough information to make your decision!
 
I was faced with this decision last year and even though the facts have been made clear so many times, let me cover it again.

Big sky:

Getting there

Hour drive or free hour and a half bus ride 7 days a week. Your skis and get put under the bus so they get beat up a bit and the bus is packed on busy weekends. I never couldnt get on a bus when i was using it to go skiing but some people have told me about the bus being full and having to wait an extra hour to get the next bus but it is really rare.

Park

Big sky's park is no breck or keystone or PC no one will argue that, but I though the park features last year were pretty good. They had nice small and medium sized jumps, 4 medium to large size rails. and maybe 10 small to medium boxes and rails. They also had a pipe that was not amazing but it was pretty good. The park at big sky is still being determined as to what they are going to do with it next year however, so there could be big changes.

Terrain

Big sky has lots of flat cruisers, but there are lots of fun features off the sides of those funs if you go explore, big sky also has a sick tram that usually has a short line and gets you to some nice steaps. Challanger lift is also a good lift if you like to ski bumps or pow and gives you a short hike to some chutes. Big sky also has mostly express lifts.

Vibe

Big sky is a resort but does not have much at all for night life and if you ski there all the time you will get to know some people and it has some what of a core vibe once you navigate your way through the all the visitors.

Bridger

Getting there

Bridger is a 25 miniute drive and they have free buses on the weekends

Park

Bridger really puts very little effort into there park and for a park in the rockies I would plan and simple call it bad.

Terrain

Bridger has sick terrain off the ridge fo sho. I was never there on a pow day but I was told the lift line was crazy long to get to the ridge but that might also be because there were not as many pow days last year as years past. Bridger does not have any express lifts and other than the ridge is pretty flat and much smaller and shorter runs than big sky.

You did not mention moonlight into the equation which has the headwaters for steaps and lots of cool jibs in there park but usually only one or two jumps that aren't much to speak of. Someone actually hit someone on a chair last year on a poorly made jump under a lift. But the jibs at moonlight are sick. You can access both moonlight and big sky with a lone peak pass. Now what you have to consider is money. In order of how expensive they are: Lone peak, Big sky, Moonlight, Bridger. I think Moonlight might actually be cheaper than bridger if you buy it at the right time. There are also all kinds of frequent skier cards you can buy for the different mountains.

Personaly for next year I will buy a Lone peak pass and the College frequent skier card at Bridger for when friends go there and I want to ski with them it only costs 30 bucks.
 
Sorry forgot, Bridger has a local ski hill vibe and a lots of core skiers that live in the boze and have skied there for years. Bridger is not a resort but does get some out of town traffic because it is cheaper to ski there.

Each hill has its d-bags

Typical Bridger d-bag "I ski at bridger, yeah i'm core like that."

Typical Big sky d-bag "At least I ski at a real mountain, what, you wanna fight about it."
 
Thanks for all the replys. I know this topic has been discussed before but this is priamrily a vote to see where my friend buys his pass. I have already made up my mind on this topic as I have been skiing out there for a few years. Instead of my group of friends arguing about it we wanted the general concesus from the masses and all the pros and cons to both mtns and well just base the desicision of that. Thanks again though...
 
this made me really happy, and its not that we forgot moonlight its that we all decied that moonlight would not be an option its a great mountain and has alot of really cool people and great terrain but ive skied there the last two years and am going to give another moutain a try. my vote bigsky
 
That would be a difficult choice for me.

But generally the basics are:

If you want a greater variety of terrain, what [may] be a great park (the budget cuts), the Lone Peak Tram and the Couloir, pick Big Sky.

If you want powder, powder, and more powder, great expert terrain, a local vibe and less of a tourist-y feel, as well as the excellent Schlasman's terrain, pick Bridger.
 
bridger isnt the only place that gets powder powder powder they get differnt storms than bigsky but last year it seemed that bigsky got more storms where as BB didnt get as many or as much snow, i really would like to try schlasman's but as far as i know it will still be beacon requierd and i dont have a beacon so it rules out alot of BB for me ( i supose i could buy one but its a large expense)
 
Agreed... I think big sky got hit harder this year with storms and as for schlasman's, the pow was alright but skied out very fast. I usually hiked it over to the Fingers and hit them on a pow day...
 
id agree with all of this. bridger is also hella cheap for a day pass, and its half day price for a full day with a big sky pass, so on days when you do want to go there, its pretty cheap.

also something noone has pointed out, but storms can be a lot different too. we had one storm this year where bridger got like 5 or 6 inches, and big sky got like a foot plus. then later that season, the reverse. big sky got 6 and bridger got shat on.

but overall personally, id go big sky pass, and go to bridger when you feel like it, since its not to expensive.
 
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