Skiing for connection with Friends On Hill

No matter who you are and what you do, finding a community can feel challenging and scary. With the ski season now in full swing, Friends On Hill (FOH) aims to facilitate meaningful connections among skiers and snowboarders, one turn at a time.

FOH was created during the 2023-24 ski season by Brendan DeOrsey, a former MSU student. According to him, he wanted to bring back a community of boarders and skiers who weren’t worried about being the best on the mountain and wanted to help each other learn and grow. 

With a slogan of “Turns Made Better Together,” the organization wants to highlight the benefits of riding with groups.

“You may not be the strongest, so maybe these people can teach me some things. I personally think you learn the best by going with people who are better than you,” DeOrsey said.

According to DeOrsey, there is a place for everyone at FOH. The group has seen up to 13 people join in on the fun, DeOrsey said. These individuals range quite a bit in experience level — from those who have been skiing their entire lives to people who have only gone a few times.

Every chairlift ride, they try to switch up who rides with whom so everyone gets the opportunity to talk to someone new.

“I think the seven to ten-minute chairlift is the perfect icebreaker. You know you are trapped with that person and might as well have a conversation and get to know them a little bit,” DeOrsey said.

Moreover, DeOrsey wants to provide those who’ve never engaged in extreme winter sports with the opportunity to do so, regardless of where they’re from.

“I’ve known people who have grown up in Gallatin Valley their [whole] lives and have never once put on a pair of skis at Bridger Bowl for one reason or another. Let’s try to get those people out, let’s try to get the person from Mississippi who just moved here skiing,” DeOrsey said.

He also outlined the potential benefits of skiing and snowboarding for people’s mental health as being a real motivating factor for continuing to meet. “Montana is in the top of alcoholism and in the top of suicides for both teens and adults,” DeOrsey said. “Maybe skiing and snowboarding can help alleviate that for one person [because] I know that [Bridger Bowl] is my happy place.”

For anyone looking to shred with FOH, they meet at the Jim Bridger Lodge deck by the lift chair bench on Sundays at 11 a.m. Once everyone finishes skiing — usually around 3 p.m. — they continue the fun at Grizzly Ridge, the restaurant and bar in the main parking lot just below the Mountain Roundhouse ski shop.  

Anyone new who shows to the meetings will be given complimentary FOH beanies, koozies, stickers and patches. 

More information can be found on their Instagram under @friendsonhill.