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Aspen’s Bridger Gile is coming into this offseason feeling like he’s moving forward, instead of playing catchup.
Gile completed the 2024-25 Alpine season on Tuesday with a slalom race in Vail in the U.S. Alpine Championships. But the real cap to his season came on Monday when he repeated with a second place in the national giant slalom championships — finishing behind U.S. Ski Team teammate River Radamus for the second year in a row. It was the cherry on top of a solid second half of the season that saw Gile break new ground and also earn the national team’s Comeback Skier of the Year award.
“As I was driving back from Vail today, I was just kind of sitting there just super happy and just, like, content,” Gile said on Wednesday. “It takes a lot of work to be a ski racer and there are a lot of days that are super hard and you don’t want to be doing what you’re doing. So then to get the results, it makes it all worth it.
“It’s nice to be able to sit here now and be, like, everything that I did was so worth it and it makes you excited to get back at it and do it again.”
The 25-year-old Aspen native missed a large portion of the previous two seasons due to a back injury. He previously told the Aspen Daily News that he did not believe he would ever ski pain-free again, but this year he learned to manage it and completed his first full season since 2021-22. And at long last, the results started to come.
Gile took 19th in the International Skiing Federation’s World Championships on Feb. 14 in Saalbach, Austria, capitalizing on a surprise invite. At the time, he believed the result would be an inflection point in his career after he proved to himself that he can ski with the sport’s top dogs.
Two weeks later, on March 1, he qualified for the second run of a World Cup giant slalom for the first time in his career after 22 previous starts dating back to 2020. He posted the 26th quickest time on the first run, faster than 31 other finishers.
On the second run he posted the 18th quickest time out of 30, admittedly letting up a little bit toward the end to make sure he finished the race and secured the WC points. He ended up finishing in the 24th position.
“The first three quarters of the run I did really well and did exactly what I wanted to do and was making up a good time,” Gile said. “Then I got down to right over the last pitch … and you can kind of see the crowd, you can hear the crowd a little bit and I made a little mistake. I was trying to fight this feeling of, ‘Just make it down,’ but once I saw the finish line it was kind of hard to charge because I really wanted to get to the finish line.”
On March 15 in Hafjell, Norway, Gile missed the line by just 0.04 seconds to end the World Cup calendar.
At nationals, Gile started with a 15th-place finish on Sunday in the super G. In the GS, Gile was second after the first run with a time of 1:11.48, 0.08 behind Isaiah Nelson and 0.02 ahead of Radamus. Gile lost some time on the second run, posting the ninth fastest time, while Radamus posted the fastest time, 1.02 seconds faster than Gile.
Bridger Gile, left, finished just behind teammate River Radamus, center, in the giant slalom national championships for the second year in a row.
Courtesy of Joshua Duplechian/U.S. Ski and Snowboard
It was the second straight year that Gile played second fiddle to Radamus at nationals.
“It’s definitely a good way to end the season, but definitely a little bummed to get second and not get first,” Gile said. “I don’t know, I guess I really want to beat him one of these times. … That’s something I’m still trying to figure out, but I think just the way he’s able to create the speed above the turn, which is something that I’m going to focus on all summer.”
Gile is excited to come into a summer of working on making gains to his skiing more so than nursing his back — though he did tweak it in Tuesday’s slalom, he said.
Rather than just playing catchup, he’s able to focus on being more competitive.
“It feels like you’re working toward something, which is awesome,” Gile said. “It makes ski racing a lot of fun when you get good results at a level that I haven’t experienced yet. This season was one of the most fun seasons I’ve ever had, I think a lot because of those results, but also getting results at the highest levels. It’s an amazing feeling.
In total, FIS lists 24 race starts for Gile this season across national and world championships, World Cups and continental cups. The silver at nationals was his lone top-three finish, though he posted multiple top-10s in the European Cup.
For his efforts, U.S. Ski and Snowboard recognized Gile as the top men’s comeback skier of the year on the Alpine team. The award came with a $1,000 check and, more importantly, some recognition for his efforts to work his way back.
“The recipients of this year’s awards are so well deserved. Whether it was an impressive comeback story or just a valued member of our team, it is a great way to cap off a successful and long season,” Anouk Patty, U.S. Ski and Snowboard chief of sport, said in a release.
Gile said he’ll take about the next month off to recover, then it’s back to training with more competitive purpose ahead of another important season with the Olympics serving as a sizable carrot to chase.
“The main focus is to keep this good skiing up and try to keep having success on the World Cup,” Gile said. “And if I’m able to do that, then the Olympics will be a prize.”