Outpeople: Phil Bridgers organizes the great outdoors

Mountain Gear is one Spokane’s oldest and most prominent outdoor sport retailers. While their iconic shop on Ruby Street is a fixture in the minds of most residents, what many don’t know is that Mountain Gear is also one of world’s leading online retailers – as well as the main sponsor and organizer of many great outdoor sport and entertainment events around the country.

The man behind those events is Phil Bridgers, Mountain Gear’s full-time events coordinator.

Bridgers, 53, grew up in Coeur d’Alene, where he fell in love with the full bounty of outdoor recreation available in the area. While working in radio advertising, Bridger met Mountain Gear owner Paul Fish at a 2006 Pangandaran tsunami relief event in Spokane. Fish, impressed with Bridgers’ organizational skills, immediately offered him a job.

“Paul and I started a conversation about all the events that Mountain Gear was hosting. He felt it was time to hire somebody to manage those events and I was very eager to do it,” said Bridgers.

The granddaddy of Mountain Gear’s events is ‘Red Rocks,’ a 13-year-old event originally crafted by Fish, along with Dennis Gafvert of The North Face, to celebrate and educate members of the rock climbing community.

“I spend all year organizing for this event as it has now become the largest climbing festival in the world with over one thousand people attending,” said Bridgers. “There is really nothing like it in any other sport.

“It gives everyday folks the opportunity to climb in one the best locations in the world alongside top athletes and icons from all the major climbing brands. It’s an amazing event where people meet new friends, learn new skills – and of course, they drink a lot of beer,” he adds.

Bridgers laughs when recalling his first year at Red Rocks. “I was an avid climber but knew nothing of the celebrity athletes involved. I was handing out student assignments to the pro athletes and I had to ask them what their names were.

“When I didn’t recognize The North Face’s Peter Croft – who is essentially the Tiger Woods of climbing – he asked me jokingly if I had ever even read a climbing magazine,” said Bridgers. “I was embarrassed at the time but now we just laugh about it when we see each other at the event every year,” he adds.

For Bridgers, his work at Mountain Gear over the past 10 years has just become an extension of his daily life. When he’s not organizing campouts, rock climbing events or film festivals for his day job, he’s organizing ski trips, climbing parties, and mountain bike adventures with friends, family and co-workers.

“I love the job, love the company, but I just really enjoy bringing great outdoor events to the community,” Bridgers said.