Attempting to modify the angular material directive to render vertically has been a challenge. I experimented with using transform:rotate in the CSS, however, it resulted in the slider behaving and rendering differently.
md-slider {
position: absolute;
top: 40%;
transform: rotate(270deg);
max-width: 80px;
max-height: 80px;
}
You can view the output on my plunker (link). Since there is no official vertical slider component for angular material, CSS adjustments have been necessary.