And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
-Nietzche
Saddle Peak in the distance; our tracks on Saddle
I was booting up the ridge on Saddle Peak with some buddies on a bluebird day in mid-March 2022. As we neared the top a skier with a paraglider was taking off from the peak. I exclaimed to my buddies, “That’s nuts!” We all watched him take flight. Seeing him do two barrel-rolls as he got down over the cliffs had us all gawking and saying “That guy’s nuts, he must have a death wish.”
Before he took off, I thought saw the paraglider glance over at us. I expect he thought, those guys are nuts, they’re skiing in an uncontrolled avalanche zone without parachutes.
In athletic activities, nuts is in the eye of the beholder. One person’s skill set is another person’s impossibly nutty activity. At Bridger Bowl, there are plenty of activities partaken by some, that seem a bit nutty to others.
After every good powder dump, I see skiers hucking off cliffs. Given that my legs could no longer absorb the shock of such activity, I think, they’re nuts. They likely think that it’s nuts for all of us who stay attached to terra firma to miss out on the thrill that catching a whoop of air, and maybe showing some style.
There are the lines of skiers that head to the ridge when the first chairs reach the top of Bridger and Schlasman’s, before the first turns have been made on the lower mountain. We did it differently in our day, they must be nuts. I expect they think, that powder skiing is skiing, and the best powder skiing is far removed from the lifts. To them, Staying in lift serviced terrain is nuts.
Snowboarders like the simplicity of their sport: one board, no poles. Skiers like the flexibility and traversing advantages that a pair of skis and poles provide. Being behind boarders on traverses as they expend massive effort to move along makes me think they are nuts. Watching the best of them surf the mountain has me in awe.
Tree skiing is nuts to folks for whom groomers are their world. Groomers are fun, but as the only thing one skis? Nuts for sure.
I was hiking the Ridge to the Ramp earlier last season. When I reached Hidden Gully, a snowboarder was ready to drop in. I took some photos. I sent them off to my relatives in the east. They couldn’t believe that Hidden was considered skiable terrain. The opinions were unanimous, the snowboarder was nuts.
Dropping in and riding Hidden Gully
If I relayed their comments back to the snowboarder, I expect he’d argue, “They’ve never experienced the wildness of dropping into Hidden, that’s nuts.”
Why are we all out here doing this nutty stuff? Are we simply thrill seekers pushing our luck to heighten the thrill? There is likely some of that, but mostly I think folks are challenging themselves to reach the next level, or in the case of us old folks, challenging ourselves to maintain our skills. There is a beauty to standing atop a steep stretch of untracked terrain and imagining yourself carving turns down it. There is beauty to landing a huck in soft snow, to being the first one to float down a couloir on a deep day. You are hoping for a soft landing, hoping the snow sluffs, but does not avalanche as you turn. Hoping for that feeling inside when you get into a rhythm, when everything clicks. A vertical ballet of flow that makes all the nuttiness feel right.
The author's last tracks of the 2024 season