Effort and Exposure: The Bridger Direttissima
At 4:49 AM Jacob, Deserrae, and myself began moving upwards through deadfall heading South from Flathead Pass. The sun slowly began greeting the crew as we crested an unnamed grassy knob and traverse along the flanks of an incredibly loose scree field. After a few hours of effort we finally hit the top of our first summit and began our long alpine day in earnest.
Upon reaching what we deemed “The Fins,” a series of wall-like rock protrusions that stand on the N Bridgers like a vanguard, Deserrae decided she would much prefer a day of hiking to the boulders we had been picking our way through, so she left Jacob and I to head on. It wasn’t until hour 4 or 5 that we were able to do anything resembling running, and most of this was essentially scree surfing from the top of an unnamed summit down to the saddle beneath Frazier Peak. While the original goal was a full Bridger Traverse, somewhere along the way we agreed it would make the project even better if we summitted every peak in the mountain range along the way as well. This added up to a series of 300-400’ shots up from the ridge trail to the mountaintops which added thousands of feet of scrambling to the day in total.
Upon reaching Hardscrabble Jacob had begun getting sick and made the decision to bail down the mountain to North Cottownood, leaving me essentially with the Bridger Ridge Run left to take on solo as well as a summit of Ross Peak from the North Side. Now, I’ve never stood atop Ross,but I know it’s the most technical peak in the Bridgers. There’s a trail that leads hikers up the South side from the meadow, but I was approaching from the North and had to take a different approach. More scrambling and rock hopping on the ridge lead me to a low fifth class slab I had to solo to reach the summit. This was the most epic part of my day, and made all the better with the marmot that greeted me at the top.
The descent off Ross wasn’t as straightforward as I imagined. There were multiple indents that appeared to be trails, and my mapping data didn’t have the section from the summit down to the meadow listed, leaving me to lower myself through the couloirs on a mix of class IV and V down climbing as well as using some Juniper ladders to get down.
Once down the rest of the day was basically a hike / run, but one I found incredibly difficult as the extra mileage, safety planning for my partners, and the long scuffle off Ross left me without electrolytes on the back 10 miles of the route. The exposure on the Ridge and the preceding 10 hours of effort had me cooked and I was moving slow, though a Good Samaritan did give me a shot of tailwind that helped for a while.
I hit the parking lot at 18:34, a full fourteen hours after starting, and I was so grateful to be off that ridge. This project, unintentionally, was a great opportunity to get back into that headspace I was operating form the last few years, and while not prefect, I definitely handled a long, hard day alone in the mountains better than I have in quite some time. I’m incredibly grateful for these places and the opportunity to test myself in them.
Splits:
4:45 Start
7:15 to 8,600’ peak
9:25 N Bridgers Unnamed Summit
10:29 Frazier Peak
11:00 Hardscrabble Peak
11:24 Pomp Peak
11:57 Sacagawea Peak
12:07 Naya Nuki
13:43 Ross Peak
16:27 Saddle Peak
17:07 Bridger Peak
17:26 Baldy
18:34 M Parking Lot
