Between January 13 and March 6, 2025, Bozeman watched as 235 bright young humans brought Bridger Ski Foundation’s world-class Community Winter Trails to life. From Lindley Park to Bridger Creek Golf Course, BSF’s Nordic Intro Program welcomed students aged 5 to 14 to a comprehensive, eight-week curriculum designed to teach and refine ski skills while bringing participants into weekly contact with BSF’s core values: personal growth, athletic development, and community wellness.
From participating in weekly themes like Ski Kind Week–where skiers put into practice our shared values of skiing aware, inclusive, respectful, and leaving no trace–to pulling an entire community together for a celebratory event, the 2025 season of BSF Nordic Intro demonstrated that intentional sport programming not only has the potential to develop high-level athletes but also healthy and resilient community members.
While our kiddos don’t touch snow under the BSF banner until January, much of the work of developing the programs begins the prior spring as our staff recruit coaches, hone programming models, and identify strategic priorities for the coming season. This past year, for example, we continued to develop our Coach Training Models around identifying each coach’s personal “why” for choosing to work with BSF Nordic.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, our team of 51 volunteers, coaches, and program leads discovered early on that we share a drive to serve the next generation of Gallatin Valley youth not only as ski coaches, but also as mentors, role models, and ambassadors for this sport that has brought us so much joy.
With our coaching team excited to learn, grow, and lead together, we moved into a fall of preparation. We doubled the size of our middle and high school learn-to-ski programming from 8 to 19 individuals. We distributed 73 sets of community rental equipment to kids. We also worked to integrate BSF’s burgeoning mental health initiative into our programming–with two orientations for coaches and two family education sessions with local and national experts addressing youth cognitive development and social media use.
The goal is to build programming that works not only to serve our skiers on the road to achieving their athletic pursuits, but that also brings youth, their families, and their coaches into collaboration as we work to promote a holistic model for winter athletics and wellness across the valley.
Of course, it is on snow where we see BSF’s particular brand of magic really begin to shine through. What we bear witness to daily is that creating a space where all individuals can thrive is the result of each member of our program buying into the power of this sport to create and strengthen our shared connection to community. This allowed a group of eight year-olds to happily engage in brainstorming ways they could make Lindley Park/Sunset Hills a more welcoming space for other new-to-the-sport skiers. It gave a group of eighth graders the chance to build friendships across Bozeman middle schools as they took on V2 technique.
Whether our kids’ Nordic skiing goals are gilded with Olympic gold or wholly recreational in an effort to pass a cold, dark season with a few more smiles, our message is the same: this community needs you, your ideas, excitement and individuality, to bring the magic to life.
Undoubtedly, one of the days when this magic of community shone through most clearly was at the 6th Annual Kicker & Glider Cup–BSF Nordic Intro’s keystone event and season-end celebration. On our final day of 2025 programming, some 160 skiers and 31 group guides adorned in costumes, one-piece pajamas, feather boas, and more, readied themselves to complete a 4-km obstacle course and fun ski to celebrate the smiles, skills, and friendships that went into making the 2025 season a success. (continued on page 24)
Unfazed by gusty winds and sudden snow squalls, a team of 26 parent volunteers converged to lay v-boards, build the course, and operate obstacles. Members of four different BSF Nordic teams, from Comp athletes to Pro Team athletes, joined the mix as guest coaches. More than 80 BSF community members congregated to spectate and take part in the first-ever Family Appreciation Social.
All and all, some 300 members of the BSF community showed up for nearly three hours of skiing, smiles, and celebration. Skiers and coaches supported their friends and teammates through each obstacle. Parents cheered not only for their kiddo, but also their neighbor’s kiddo, and their neighbor’s neighbor’s kiddo as they worked their way through each obstacle to converge at a finish-line dance party fueled by the all-important BSF cookies and hot-cocoa.
For me, the beauty and importance of the BSF mission is made most visible at times like these:
When we empower our youth to grow into individuals capable of taking on and celebrating challenges through teamwork.
When we watch from day one to the final day of Intro, as skiers grow in confidence in their own capability and skills.
When we witness our community–brought together by the incredible resource of a community trail system–support and celebrate its capacity for building wellness.
It is at these times that we tap into the true value of community-centered youth programming. This value will, we believe, live on in the lessons learned by our athletes and alumni, working outward in collaboration, confidence, and community to touch for the better every corner of our Gallatin Valley home–both on the skis and off.
“Ok Team, ¿Estamos listos? Are we ready?”
“Bend your knees - Doblas tus rodillas!”
“Let’s go!”
Learning to balance your entire weight on one skinny ski at a time is a challenge in and of itself. Learning to balance a new community, sport, and language while you’re at it? That’s downright impressive. This year BSF’s Nordic Intro Program welcomed 20 members of the Gallatin Valley community who were doing just that–learning life lessons, building friendships, and taking on an entirely new sport in the depths of Montana winter.
Now in its third season, BSF’s partnership with Bienvenidos a Gallatin Valley brought together our coaches, community partners, and sponsors to create low-barrier points of entry for any Gallatin Valley child experiencing financial, linguistic, or equipment-related challenges to accessing BSF. With growing numbers, we are excited to be building a blueprint for accessible skiing–and are designing it with every kiddo in mind.
1) In addition to BSF’s general scholarship fund, BSF Nordic Intro expanded our ongoing partnership with Potential MT to offer skiers and families a multi-front approach to decreasing the financial barrier to participation.
2) In an effort to reduce the linguistic stress of learning a new language, we recruited and trained five multilingual coaches, each capable and excited to support skiers in both English and Spanish.
3) To decrease the equipment and knowledge start-up barrier, BSF grew capacity to provide equipment assistance in the form of rental boots, skis, and poles by nearly 20%.
Each of these resources, tools, and building blocks have increased our ability to serve our mission and get more youth learning and laughing on skis. And yet, this season demonstrated in new and exciting ways that the strongest and most important building block of any community-centered programming is the community itself. We are beyond grateful to the community leaders and volunteers who showed up to teach a kiddo how to tie a ski boot, the six year old who encouraged a five year old when she fell, and all those who took care of eachother with carpooling, ski buddies, and more.
In 2025-26, we’re planning to support 50+ Nordic Intro skiers with free or reduced-price equipment assistance, 30+ skiers with language assistance, and 40+ skiers with financial assistance.
If you would like to get involved with our mission to support accessible skiing and life lessons (with time, resources, or connections) please contact BSF Nordic Intro: nordic.intro@bridgerskifoundation.org.
Jack Christianson is the Nordic Youth Development Director for BSF.
