2014 Winter Mountain Outlaw

EXPLORING LIFE, LAND AND CULTURE FROM THE HEART OF THE YELLOWSTONE REGION

MOUNTAIN

FREE

WINTER 2014

ASYMBOL GALLERY

Counterculture:

OUTSIDE VAN

COMMUNITY RADIO

SAYULITA, MEXICO

5 MINUTES WITH

FEATURED OUTLAW: THEODORE ROOSEVELT

explorebigsky.com

OLYMPIAN HEATHER MCPHIE

+

TOTAL GEAR MAKEOVER explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

1

2

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

ARCHITECTURE

|

7 7 7 E M A I N S T, S T E 2 0 3

INTERIOR DESIGN B O Z E M A N , M O N TA N A

P E A R S O N D E S I G N G R O U P. C O M

P: 406.587.1997

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

3

4

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

5

CONTENTS

Colin Stemper airs it out at Big Sky Resort’s 2013 Dirtbag Day, a ski patrol fundraiser with a raucous 30-year history. Through an October 2013 merger, ski operations at Big Sky, Moonlight Basin and Spanish Peaks are now joined, creating a 5,750-acre mega-resort with 4,350 vertical feet, 23 chairlifts and 10 surface lifts – the largest in the country.

PHOTO BY RYAN DAY THOMPSON/RYANDAYTHOMPSON.COM

6

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

SUMMER 2013 On the cover: Freestyle mogul skier and U.S. Ski Team member Heather McPhie poses for the camera at Red Bull Headquarters in Santa Monica, California, in April 2013. Find more about the Olympian and Montana native on page 20. PHOTO BY DUSTIN SNIPES/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

DEPARTMENTS 12 LETTERS, CONTRIBUTORS The boss, the wordsmith and our fabulous contributors 16 TRAILHEAD What goes best with bluegrass and cold smoke? Green beer, mountain goats and McConkey.

20 OUTLOOK 5 minutes with Olympic mogul skier Heather McPhie 24 OUTBOUND GALLERY 33 SCIENCE Weddell Seals, the world’s southernmost mammal 35 TALE If winter fly fishing isn’t hardcore enough, add a baby to the mix 43 HISTORY Dornans: whiskey smuggling and mountain climbing 51 ENVIRONMENT Former first lady Laura Bush is an ardent supporter of national parks 60 PROFILE Helena boxer Duran Caferro – young and raring to go 92 GETAWAY Our writers visit three fantastic regional getaways: The Ranch at Rock Creek, Mountain Sky Guest Ranch and Spring Creek Ranch 97 GEAR Finally, it’s here: The Total Gear Makeover 105 FAMILY Thwarting cabin fever, family style 109 TASTE OF THE TERRITORY Herein lie the finest edible delicacies of the Greater Yellowstone 110 HEALTH Why wine is still good for you 119 FEATURED OUTLAW Theodore Roosevelt: the strongest public lands advocate to ever occupy the White House

CONTENTS

Dawn Patrol

Acrylic on wood panel Bend, Oregon-based artist Adam Haynes painted this piece for a 2012 Asymbol Gallery show, called “Another Sunrise in Outerspace.”

The colors were inspired by a sunrise Haynes saw on his annual Thanksgiving hike up Tumalo Mountain, near Mount Bachelor. The mountains are based on the terrain around the South Sister, and the snow cat on one he saw in a farmer’s field.

“I wanted to achieve the vast [mountain landscape] and having the lowlands covered in fog, like you weren’t quite sure what was going on down there, but up here it was peaceful,” Haynes says. “I’d love to transport into that picture and experience that moment.”

Find more of Haynes’ work and on the Jackson, Wyoming-based gallery on page 64.

8

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

FEATURES

37 NOW Danuru Sherpa is the “undiscovered Michael Jordan” of Mount Everest.

44 REGION Nexus: Rick Bass visits Fort Benton, Montana.

54 MUSIC Former DJ Maria Wyllie digs into the powerful, growing force of community radio. plus: Pearl Jam’s new album Lightning Bolt is an instant classic.

64 GALLERY Asymbol Gallery’s snowboard, surf and skateboard art slashes its way into the upper echelon of mountain culture – right where founders Travis Rice and Mike Parillo think it belongs.

71 ESCAPE Joseph T. O’Connor finds room to breathe in Sayulita, Mexico 78 YELLOWSTONE John Layshock exposes winter in Yellowstone. plus: Cross country skiing in Shoshone Geyser Basin.

84 LAND Emily Wolfe investigates how Hall and Hall, a leader in ranch real estate, has helped preserve the western landscape.

114 RIDE This ain’t your grandpa’s RV. Portland, Oregonbased Outside Van makes the sickest road trip rigs this side of Pluto.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

9

MOUNTAIN OUTLAW PUBLICATIONS

BE SEEN BY OVER 1 MILLION PEOPLE REGIONALLY

Missoula Helena

Anaconda Hamilton

Butte

Bozeman

Three Forks

Wisdom Dillon

hundreds of drop points surrounding Yellowstone National Park

Big Sky Ennis Virginia City

Big Timber

West Yellowstone

Red Lodge

Ashton, ID

EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Emily Stifler Wolfe

CREATIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR Mike Martins

SENIOR EDITOR Joseph T. O’Connor

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER Kelsey Dzintars

DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR/ ASSOCIATE EDITOR Tyler Allen

ASSISTANT GRAPHIC DESIGNER Taylor-Ann Smith

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Maria Wyllie

VIDEO VIDEO DIRECTOR Brian Niles VIDEO PRODUCER Joe Paulet

SALES AND OPERATIONS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Megan Paulson DIRECTOR OF SALES EJ Daws

Island Park

Idaho Falls, ID

PUBLISHER Eric Ladd

Billings

Livingston

Gardiner Cooke City

WINTER 2014

Yellowstone National Park

Cody, WY

Victor, ID

ACCOUNT MANAGER Katie Morrison ACCOUNT MANAGER – PACIFIC NORTHWEST Kurt Erickson

Driggs, ID Jackson, WY

NATIONALLY drop points in Washington, Oregon and mailed to 38 states

EVERYWHERE

explorebigsky.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Eric Anderson, Rick Bass, Terry Cunningham, Brian D’Ambrosio, Molly Loomis, Luke Lynch, Forrest McCarthy, Patrick Straub, Hayden Zelson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS AND ARTISTS Stephen Adamson, Phil Best, Chris Boyer, Dylan Brown, Chris Brunkhart, Tyler Busby, Duran Caferro, Anne Gilbert Chase, Jesse DeVoe, Frank Douglas, Jessica Farrer, Beau Fredlund, Garth Hager, Adam Haynes, Sarah Helmbrecht, Joel Hubbard, Adam Johnson, Deirdre Keating, John Layshock, Max Lowe, Jennifer Lowe-Anker, Thomas Lee, Matt Ludin, Jon Marshall, Matty McCain, Aaron Mulkey, Emily O’Connor, Jim Peaco, Sabrina Reynolds, Scott Serfas, Brett Seng, Donnie Sexton, Dustin Snipes, David Swift, Ryan Day Thompson, Andy Tyson, Peggy Weiss, Michael Weitzman, Eliza Wiley, Michael Wright

SUBSCRIBE NOW! Get the goods from the Greater Yellowstone mailed right to your door. Purchase 1 year (2 issues) of Mountain Outlaw magazine for $20 or 2 years for $35 at explorebigsky.com/subscriptions OUTLAW PARTNERS & MOUNTAIN OUTLAW P.O. Box 160250, Big Sky, MT 59716 (406) 995-2055 • media@theoutlawpartners.com ©2014 Mountain Outlaw Unauthorized reproduction prohibited

Contact media@theoutlawpartners.com or call

10 MOUNTAIN explorebigsky.com 406.995.2055 for advertising opportunities

explorebigsky

explorebigsky

0

400

600

0

500 0

0

0

300

100

0

0

200

200

0

300

100

400

0

0

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Dear readers, I’ve decided to break my tradition of touching on some amazing background of this publication, and instead share one idea with the hundreds of thousands of readers who will see this winter 2013/14 issue of Mountain Outlaw.

BE KIND Consider taking an extra moment to make a positive difference. Hold a door open for a stranger, handwrite a thank you card, call a parent and tell them you love them, adopt an animal, volunteer at a local charity, or give Mother Nature some TLC. Let’s stop arguing and start caring.

Join us as Outlaws breaking the norm: Let’s start a movement bringing peace, love and kindness back to the forefront of society.

Send your thoughts, stories and ideas on this topic, and I’ll dedicate more space to it in the next edition. Best idea gets a full page to share his or her thoughts on how to make the world a better place.

Thanks, Jeff Pensiero, for the idea!

Eric Ladd, Publisher eric@theoutlawpartners.com

12 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

PHOTO BY TYLER BUSBY

SUBARU OF BOZEMAN

Eco Friendly Certified Dealership. for our energy consumption, comprehensive recycling, community involvement and water conservation.

D R I V I N G

T O

C O N S E R V E (406) 586-1771

Text 579-9966 for Service Same Day Service for Many Repairs subaru-bozeman.com explorebigsky.com

M O N T A N A 31910 Frontage Road Bozeman, MT 59715 SALES Mon-Fri 8-6 • Sat 9-5 SERVICE Mon-Fri 7:30-6 • Sat 9-5 13 MOUNTAIN

FROM THE EDITOR

Sunrise in Patagonia: Emily climbing near the base of Aguja Poincenot.

PHOTO BY ANNE GILBERT CHASE

PEACE IN MOTION

January 1, 2013 Patagonia, Argentina We wake in the cold, pull on boots and climbing gear, and leave the tent at 2:45 a.m. on empty stomachs. After 13 hours climbing snow, ice and granite, Anne Gilbert and I reach the summit of Aguja Poincenot.

We’ve traveled 7,000 miles to get here, carried packs through sleet and waist-deep snow, and spent Christmas Eve shivering on a frozen ledge with one thin sleeping bag between us. Now, the afternoon air is still, and around us are the Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre massifs.

14 MOUNTAIN

But we still have to get down. More than 2,000 vertical feet of rappelling and 1,000 of post-holing down a glacier stand between us and camp.

At 8 p.m., halfway through our descent, we pause in the evening light.

Poincenot throws a long shadow across a lake far below. There, sun on my chapped face, I find exhausted, exalted contentment.

ment through challenge, like Olympic skier Heather McPhie (p. 20) and boxer Duran Caferro (p. 60). Others seek simpler harmony, like Rick Bass exploring small-town Fort Benton, Montana (p. 44), and Maria Wyllie delving into independent radio (p. 54).

We hope you, too, find peace this season – what editor Joseph T. O’Connor discovered in Sayulita, Mexico (p. 71), “room to breathe.”

When making a magazine, it’s important to reflect, especially mid-production. You see where you’ve been and recognize what lies ahead.

In this issue of Mountain Outlaw, you’ll find people pursuing fulfill-

explorebigsky.com

Emily Stifler Wolfe, Managing Editor emily@theoutlawpartners.com

FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS

CUNNINGHAM

LOWE-ANKER

HAYNES

BASS

RICK BASS is the author of 31 books of fiction and nonfiction and a board member of the Yaak Valley Forest Council. He lives in the Yaak.

LOOMIS

As a youth in New York City, TERRY CUNNINGHAM was fascinated by stories of wonderful adventures populated by valiant souls. Upon relocating to Bozeman 15 years ago, he found the Gallatin Valley abounds with such bold adventurers undertaking grand escapades.

Montana artist, author and lifetime resident, JENNIFER LOWE-ANKER is President of the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation, which founded the Khumbu Climbing Center in Nepal. She lives in Bozeman with her husband Conrad Anker, and sons, Max, Sam and Isaac. Find her artwork in Visions West Galleries in Bozeman, Livingston and Denver and at jennilowe.com, and more on the ALCF at alexlowe.org.

Based in Victor, Idaho, MOLLY LOOMIS focuses her writing, radio and photography on adventure, travel and conversation in the world’s wild places. Find stories on her latest adventures, like a two-month expedition in Myanmar this past fall, at mollyloomis.com.

Born and raised in central Oregon, artist ADAM HAYNES sees the world through his surroundings – the dramatic geography of the Cascade Range.

With a fine arts degree from Montana State University, Haynes’s freelance illustration clients include Specialized, Patagonia, Red Bull, ICON, ESPN and Gnu, and his art hangs in galleries around the Northwest. Find him at stickfort.com

RYAN DAY THOMPSON is a husband, father and full-time adventure photographer who lives in Big Sky’s Mountain Village. If you don’t see him falling down the Headwaters chutes in bright red outerwear, he’s probably eating more pizza than he should be at Blue Moon Bakery. Check out his work at ryandaythompson.com.

THOMPSON

explorebigsky.com

PHOTOS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: CRISTINA PERACHIO, LAURA CUNNINGHAM, LOWE-ANKER COLLECTION, ADAM HAYNES, BECCA SKINNER

MOUNTAIN

15

TRAILHEAD

FEATURED EVENTS

BY HAYDEN ZELSON

Big Sky Big Grass

PHOTO BY PHIL BEST

February 6-9

For the eighth straight year, a lineup of bluegrass giants heats up the Big Sky winter with fast and furious finger picking. Headlined by the Sam Bush Band, Travelin’ McCourys and The Infamous Stringdusters, Big Sky Big Grass is one of the best festivals in the Northwest, says emcee Jason Meyers.

The Big Grass Music Academy, a pet project for show organizer Steve Merlino, is now in its second year of connecting budding musicians with the pros.

Kootenay Coldsmoke Powder Fest February 21-23

Powder hounds love British Columbia for its famed powder snow and laid back vibe, and Kootenay Coldsmoke Powder Fest at Whitewater Ski Resort has been celebrating that fact for eight years now.

“That coupled with the region’s tight community and love of snow sports distinguishes this as one of the premier ski fests in North America,” said Whitewater’s Rebeckah Hornung.

Make sure to hit the fest on Saturday night for the Sam Bush Band – Bush is known for inviting all of the weekend’s performers up on stage for one big jam session. bigskybiggrass.com, bigskyresort.com

The event spreads attendees out among its 1,184 treed acres and into the surrounding backcountry, Hornung said. Specialized freeride, backcountry and telemark clinics will be available for skiers and snowboarders of all ages and abilities, with celebrity guides including Greg Hill, Eric Pehota and Alison Gannet. coldsmokepowderfest.com

Jason Carter and Ronnie McCoury, of the Del McCoury Band, jam with Drew Emmitt and Billy Nershi at Whiskey Jack’s during the 2013 Big Sky Big Grass Festival.

St. Patrick’s Day in Butte, America

PHOTO BY FRANK DOUGLAS

At the turn of the 20th century, Butte had the highest percentage of Irish-Americans of any town in the U.S. – higher even than Boston, with more than a quarter of the population originating from Ireland.

REEL

MCCONKEY

Shane McConkey redefined the world of gravity sports. He took both fat skis and reverse camber to the mainstream and brought his consummate stoke – whether in flight or with family – to every pursuit.

When he died at age 39, on March 29, 2009, in a ski BASE accident, the ski community was left reeling for a fallen hero.

Produced by Red Bull Media Group and Matchstick Productions, the 2013 documentary McConkey illuminates this influence. – T.A. mcconkeymovie.com

16 MOUNTAIN

March 17

explorebigsky.com

Today, the Emerald Isle’s culture remains prominent, evidenced by the architecture and the Sullivans and Sheas in the phonebook. Butte also boasts one of the country’s rowdiest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, with 30,000 people flooding the city’s pubs and streets.

With its Celtic step dancers, green beer, green hair and corned beef and cabbage, this is one for the bucket list. buttecvb.com

PHOTO BY TYLER ALLEN

Fly Fishing

|

Hunting

Fall Creek Ranch Jackson Hole, Wyoming • 164-acre turn-key recreational ranch • ¾ mile of Fall Creek with wild trout • 5,200 sqft luxury log home and barn

$10,700,000

|

Ranching

|

Running Colter Ranch

Conservation

C & B Reece Ranch

Hay Creek Ranch

Belgrade, Montana

Tetonia, Idaho

Lake George, Colorado

• 696 acres with mile ¾ of Bull Creek • Excellent pheasant hunting • Parcel options available

• 864 acres with farmland • 1 mile of fishing on Bull Creek • Dramatic Teton Range views

• 167-acre premier equestrian estate • 6,600 sqft barn & heated indoor arena • Exceptional hunting and fishing

$5.79M, Was $6.475M

$3.5M, Was $4.5M

$2,850,000

Toll Free (866) 734-6100

www.LiveWaterProperties.com Montana | Wyoming | Idaho | Colorado | Oregon | Nebraska

BUYING INTO THE RESORT LIFESTYLE?

ELEvaTE YOUR FINaNcING. EverBank offers unique financing solutions for primary and secondary resort homes that can take you higher.

• EverBank Preferred Portfolio JumboSM mortgages for condotel and resort homes • Flexibility, exceptional service, and a wide range of lending products • Extended rate locks that protect your interest rate

13ERM0331.02. NMLS ID: 399805 © 2013 EverBank. All rights reserved.

Get your financing in motion.

Call us today.

James P. Wentzel Senior Loan Officer 800.255.2777 | NMLS ID: 91413 jim.wentzel@everbank.com everbank.com/jwentzel Drew Wachter Branch Sales Manager 970.471.4916 | NMLS ID: 403821 drew.wachter@everbank.com everbank.com/dwachter

Invest & enjoy

Brokering The FinesT Farms, ranches & sporTing properTies

FayRanches.com/MO | 1-800-238-8616 18 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

TRAILHEAD

You’ve go at que st ions, we’ v e go at answers .

total p op ulat ion=100,000 R AN G E : The Rocky Mountain and coastal ranges of northwestern North America

[Since the 19 3 0s and ‘40s individuals have been introduced into additional mountain ranges in Oregon, Montana, Washington, South Dakota and Colorado.]

INFOGRAPHIC BY KELSEY DZINTARS

Fam i ly Hair color

T he b e arde d lady B oth ma le s ( b illie s) and fem ale s ( n an n ie s) have ho rns and b e ardl i ke hai r o n their chins.

Mountain G o ats c an jump ne arly 1 2 ft. in a single b ound

FAST FACTS

Kids are able to jump and hop within hours of birth and can scramble over rough mountain terrain by 4 days old.

SOURCES: animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/mountain-goat defenders.org/mountain-goat/basic-facts

G OATS vs.

M ountain g o ats h av e c lov en h o ov e s w ith tw o to e s th at s p re ad w id e to imp rov e b alan c e. R ough p ad s on th e b ottom of e ac h to e p rov id e th e g r ip of a n atural c lim bin g s h o e.

T Y P E : M a mma l D I E T : H erb ivo re SPAN:: 9 to 1 2 ye a rs AV G . LI FE SPAN E : H ei ght at s ho uld e r, 3.5 S I Z E: 3. 5 ft WEI GH T : 1 00 to 3 00 l b s

Ho rns

SHEEP

Bovidae

Bovidae

w h it e

tan/brown/gray

Thin, black, swept back

Thick, curling

G o at s w i l l usual ly cho o s e ter rain that is ev en ste e p er and more pre cipitous t han t he fav ore d ter rain of she e p, up to elevat ions of 13,000 ft .

GOAT SHEEP GOAT - BANFF NATIONAL PARK

You’l l nev er forget who’ s who again after watching t his music v ide o by Parks C anada’s Mountain W I T.

The Greater Yellowstone Area Mountain Ungulate Project is a collaborative research initiative to study the ecology and population dynamics of bighorn sheep and mountain goats throughout the Yellowstone ecosystem.

Follow their progress at gyamountainungulateproject.com

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

19

OUTLOOK

PASSION. PERSISTENCE. PERSEVERANCE.

BY MEGAN PAULSON

U.S. Ski Team member and Montana native Heather McPhie sets the bar high in women’s freestyle skiing. Her resume speaks to talent and perseverance: McPhie, 29, is an Olympian, a National Champion, and Red Bull’s first and only sponsored mogul athlete, with multiple World Cup podiums under her belt.

“When I close my eyes to calm myself,” she says, referring to the moment before dropping into a competition mogul course, “I take myself back to the mountains of Montana.”

Born and raised in Bozeman, McPhie grew up a skier and gymnast. At age 12, she joined the mogul program at Bridger Bowl. Two years later, in 1998, she watched on TV as Jonny Mosley won Olympic gold in Nagano, Japan, and in 2002, McPhie and her parents attended the moguls event at the Salt Lake City Olympics. Both left a lasting impression.

due to its difficulty – McPhie also has a Back Full in her quiver, a laid out back flip with a full twist that few women on the circuit even attempt. At last winter’s World Championships in Voss, Norway, she was the first woman to complete these tricks in the same run.

But success does not come without hardship: When McPhie fractured her back in 2006, it took months for doctors to diagnose, resulting in a painful and drawn out recovery. With perserverance, she prevailed.

Capable of incredible focus, McPhie’s brimming smile reflects her grounded, outgoing personality, and success earned on her own terms. It’s no secret, she says, that her dream is to stomp a Back Full and D-spin at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Best known for her D-spin – an off-axis 720-degree rotation that scores high

FIVE MINUTES WITH

OLYMPIAN HEATHER MCPHIE

Watch a profile video of Heather McPhie at explorebigsky.com/heathermcphie

20 MOUNTAIN explorebigsky.com PHOTO BY DUSTIN SNIPES/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

McPhie lays it out in Zermatt, Switzerland, October 2013.

PHOTO BY GARTH HAGER

Mountain Outlaw: Tell me about being on the U.S. Ski Team.

Heather McPhie: Representing the U.S. is an honor – it comes with a responsibility to do [my] best. I’ve loved traveling and meeting people, and gaining appreciation for the similarities and differences across cultures.

M.O.: Among your sponsors are big name companies like Red Bull and Lululemon. How did you pull that off?

H.M.: One of the lessons I learned [seeking sponsorship] is the importance of going after what I believe in, and aligning myself with companies and products I want to represent. I felt for some time that Red Bull would be a great fit, as its known for pushing the limits, and doing things that haven’t been done before.

Many people told me I was crazy, [since] Red Bull didn’t sponsor mogul skiers.

Most importantly I made a commitment that I would be 100 percent true to myself – that I wouldn’t try to fit a mold of what I thought they might want. I was also very persistent, believing they would see my passion for the sport and the benefit I could bring.

M.O.: What is the key to your success?

H.M.: When I’m doing what I love, I ski better. [Since I often] throw harder tricks than most other women on tour, I have an advantage in points – if I throw them well. On top of that, I love to push my abilities.

M.O.: How long has it taken to get to this level?

H.M.: I’ve been competing in moguls for 17 years and on the U.S. Ski Team for eight. My career has been bumpy… no pun intended! I started competing with my D-spin in 2005, and it’s been [hard] learning to perform it well. At first, the sport wasn’t ready for it, but now, judges seem excited about both of my more difficult tricks, and I’m throwing them better than ever.

M.O.: How has Montana influenced you?

H.M.: Montana has shaped me. My experiences growing up and people I’ve been surrounded by help keep me grounded. One thing that’s always in my carry-on is the belt my coach Garth Hager hand-tooled for me that says “Made in Montana”. On the belt is a buckle I won in 2004 from the Northern Division. My first coach, Mike Papke, presented it to me after the win, and it’s a daily reminder of the reason I started skiing.

M.O.: What is the best moment in your career thus far?

H.M.: I’ll never forget standing in the finish area at Deer Valley, when I earned my first World Cup podium and qualified for the 2010 Olympics.

Stepping up my performance under such pressure and going from 27th in the world to second in just a few months – that was the deepest I’ve dug. When you push yourself to such limits, and it comes down to less than 30 seconds of your life, it’s powerful to put it all together.

M.O.: Do you have any advice for young athletes?

H.M.: Focus on your goals and the things you can control, instead of worrying about the outcome. Hang on to your dream – it can be your North Star – break it down into smaller goals slightly outside your reach but still attainable.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

21

lifestyle

CROSSCUT RANCH 259 +/- Bordering Bridger Bowl Ski Area and Bohart Ranch Nordic Center Call for details

P RO P E RT I E S

WESTFORK CAMP 17 Acres, 6 Buildings, 4 Cabins, 3 Ponds $18,000,000

17 TRAVERTINE AT YELLOWSTONE CLUB 6 Bedrooms, 3.75 Bathrooms, 4,505 Sq/Ft, 3.15 Acres $3,800,000

Ladd, Kulesza & Company Real Estate Brokerage, Consulting & Development

FOUR PEAKS AT YELLOWSTONE CLUB 7 bedrooms, 10,451sq/ft, ski access $10,900,000 Photo by Karl Neumann

MOUNTAIN MEADOWS 120 Acres of Wildlife and Mountain Views $3,495,000

2570 OUSEL FALLS 2.18 Acres, 4 Bedrooms, 5 Bathrooms, 2 Half Bathrooms $2,995,000

For more information or private showings contact:

406-995-2404

14 COTTONWOOD CROSSING 3 bedroom /2.5 bath / 1,854 sq.ft. $375,000

L K R E A L E S TAT E . C O M

All information given is considered reliable, but because it has been supplied by third parties, we cannot represent that it is accurate or complete, and should not be relied upon as such. These offerings are subject to errors, omissions, and changes including price or withdrawal without notice. All rights reserved. Equal Housing Opportunity. Š2013 LK REAL ESTATE, llc. lkrealestate.com | *Membership is required

OUTBOUND GALLERY MATT LUDIN

Sandhill cranes take off from Swan Lake Flat, Yellowstone National Park.

Ludin captured this image in April 2012, the first day the interior park roads opened to the public for the season. mattludin.com

BEAU FREDLUND

Snowboarding in the high Beartooths

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

25

OUTBOUND GALLERY

MAX LOWE

Colter Hinchliffe spots his landing midcorked 720. Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. maxlowemedia.com

26 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

AARON MULKEY

Billings, Montana, resident Echo Oak climbs Stringer, a four-pitch WI4 in Cody, Wyoming’s South Fork Valley. The South Fork hosts one of the highest concentrations of frozen waterfalls in North America. coldfear.com

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

27

BRETT SENG

OUTBOUND GALLERY

Seng captured these copper mugs at a Bozeman wedding, where Moscow Mules were the signature drink. brettsengphoto.com

28 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

MICHAEL WEITZMAN

A palette of colors gave this old workhorse new life in Virginia City, Montana. michaelweitzman.net

JOEL HUBBARD

Horses graze near Luther, Montana, as the fall air gets colder and snow settles on the distant Absaroka Mountains. hubbardphotographymt.com

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

29

OUTBOUND GALLERY

explorebigsky.com

BEAU FREDLUND

Clark Corey soaks up the scenery in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness. beartoothpowder.com // cookecitychronicle.blogspot.com

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

31

Creighton Block

BI G SKY ’S MOST EX TE NSIVE FI NE ART COLLECTION

Fine Ar t available at Amazon.com, search Creighton Block

CREIGHTONBLOCKGALLERY.COM | (406) 993-9400

L o c a t e d in t h e B ig S k y Tow n Cen ter on th e c o r n e r o f L o n e Pe a k D r ive

R. Tom Gilleon “Cold Blue,” oil, 40x40

Sharon S. Lohss

•

sharon@shelterinteriors.net

•

www.shelterinteriors.net PHOTO BY KARL NEUMANN

SCIENCE

WEDDELL SEALS: A BELLWETHER Wake up, Mom! Only a couple weeks old, this seal pup is vocalizing to its resting mother. Pups weigh about 65 pounds at birth and grow to 220 in the first 35 days. The mothers lose half their body mass while nursing.

PHOTO BY JESSE DEVOE

Lead researcher Jay Rotella (left), with PhD students Glenn Stauffer and Thierry Chambert, using a mother seal’s tag numbers to look up her age and reproductive history on a field computer. PHOTO BY JESSICA FARRER

Weddell Seal pups are born during the Antarctic spring, when it’s usually around -10 F, dry and windy. Their birthing grounds are farther south than those of any other mammal.

Having spent winter 150 miles north in the Ross Sea feeding on fish, octopus and krill, the mothers are 1,000-1,200 pounds when they give birth – or about the weight of a horse, says biologist and Montana State University professor Jay Rotella, who leads a study on the animals.

Holding their breath for up to an hour, they swim long distances south beneath the frozen sea ice along the continent, using tide cracks to breathe. They return to the same colony each year.

Their largest predator, Orcas, cannot swim as long beneath the ice, so when the mothers haul out to give birth, their pups are safe during the 4-6 weeks it takes them to nurse and learn to swim. When the pups are weaned, the females return to the water and breed.

THESE PHOTOS WERE OBTAINED UNDER NMFS PERMIT NO. 17236

Only about 20 percent of pups survive to breeding age – 7 or 8. Those that do may live into their teens and 20s, Rotella said, noting that the oldest recorded animal is 33.

The Ross Sea is perhaps the most pristine area of ocean on Earth, and although the seals aren’t endangered, studying them gives scientists “bellwethers that tell us [if] this last best place in the ocean is having problems,” Rotella said. – E.S.W. Don Siniff, of the University of Minnesota, initiated this study in 1967. Rotella and Bob Garrott took the project over in 2001. Find more at weddellsealscience.com. explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

33

34 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

TALE

Adela bundled up and loaded into the kid-pack, I step into the river cautiously, armed with waders, outerwear and a three-weight fly rod. In my first few steps, the water I encounter is warmer than the air temperature. My fingers stiffen in the cold.

Eventually I tie a couple feet of 6X tippet to my leader, and onto that a size 20 Parachute Adams. I make my first presentation to the rising trout.

“Watch this kiddo,” I whisper to myself.

But the fly only drifts past the rising trout and continues on. A few more drifts, and I can feel Adela looking over my shoulder, expecting something.

Pat Straub fishes the Gallatin River with his daughter Adela, near their home in Gallatin Gateway. © 2013 THOMAS LEE

I cut off the dry fly and retie 18 inches of fluorocarbon tippet and two size 20 beadhead Zebra midge flies, the first one red, the second black. Above the knot of the new tippet, I tie a small tuft of yarn as a strike indicator. Adela watches, and the trout continue to rise.

With my new offering, I make a drift to the rising fish.

“This will get ‘em,” I say, this time loud enough for her to hear.

The orange wisp of yarn goes underwater, I raise my rod and a trout leaps into the air, trying to toss the fly.

THE SHORTEST DAYS ARE OFTEN THE BEST

BY PATRICK STRAUB

The pace of winter fishing fits my style – slow, gradual and deliberate. The quietness of the river is eerie, like the green at a small college on Sunday morning.

On the morning of December 21 – the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year – I stand on the bank with my 18-month-old daughter Adela, watching the currents in the Gallatin River flow past.

Snowflakes hit the water, disappearing instantly. Occasionally, a trout rises to a hatching midge. Despite her silence, I know Adela is in tune and observing the scene. For me, the quiet is reassuring.

Adela squirms, her small legs kicking against my back. I bring the fish to hand and then release it back into the clear, cold water of the Gallatin.

We work along the bank, hooking several colorful trout and landing a few. Eventually, they cease feeding – their window of activity is short in winter.

Back on the banks, Adela and I giggle as we make angels in the fresh snow. I stand up from the cold ground, reaching down to grab her hand. Our two snow angels lay side-byside: mine, large and clumsy; hers, tiny and delicate.

In the months since, the memories of trout and the zebra midges have faded, but I vividly recall laying on my back below blue winter sky, and the warmness of my daughter’s laughter as we played in the snow.

A fishing guide and fly shop owner, Patrick Straub has authored several books. His most recent, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Fly Fishing, is available at Gallatin River Guides in Big Sky or on amazon.com.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

35

P R AC T I C E W I T H YO U R PA R T N E R S

vintagewinter.com A collection of Alpine Home Decor and Chalet Style Antiques

K E E P E A C H OT H E R S A F E

Skis • Snowshoes • Posters • Antiques • Decor

Sharpen your skills, bring the proper safety gear and always bring a partner.

T H I N K R I S K , T H E N R E WA R D

BSSAR.ORG // MTAVALANCHE.COM

36 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

VintageWinter.com

15

off

Photo by Darren Davidson

any items at GOING OUT OF BOUNDS?

%

use promo code:

Outlaw

Danuru Sherpa at the Khumbu Climbing Center’s 10th anniversary in 2013. Natural talent and advanced training have made Danuru one of the most highly regarded guides in the Himalaya.

NOW

PHOTO BY MAX LOWE

FLASHPOINT

DANURU SHERPA REPRESENTS A NEW BREED OF HIMALAYAN GUIDE

BY TERRY CUNNINGHAM

D

anuru Sherpa and John Dahlem’s headlamps lit the riot of wind-whipped ice pellets peppering their faces like buckshot, plinking against their oxygen masks. It was 4 a.m. on May 24, 2010, and the men were at 28,500 feet on Mount Everest’s southeast ridge.

They braced themselves as another 50-mile-an-hour gust threatened to blow them tumbling 8,000 feet into Nepal.

Dahlem, 67 and a retired school principal, looked back at his 34-year-old guide Danuru, who flashed a broad smile accented by a single gold tooth and motioned upward.

Several steps later, Dahlem was suddenly unable to breathe.

“It felt like there was a hand clamped over my mouth. I thought I was having a heart attack,” he recalls.

He gestured madly to Danuru, who knew immediately what was happening. The Sherpa smacked Dahlem’s oxygen mask, knocking ice chunks from it. But he still wasn’t getting air.

“Then he leaned in like he was gonna kiss me,” Dahlem says.

Danuru, a native of Phortse, Nepal, placed his lips over a thin tube venting Dahlem’s oxygen mask and, with a sharp puff, blew a hunk of frozen sweat and snot back into the mask, unclogging the system.

For Dahlem, standing atop Mount Everest in 2010 was a stepping stone in his goal of completing the Adventurer’s Grand Slam: surmounting the highest summit on each of the seven continents, and reaching the north and south poles.

For Danuru Sherpa – who Bozeman alpinist Conrad Anker describes as “one of the two or three strongest people on [Everest]” – the goal was to earn enough money to send his daughters, now ages 13 and 11, to school in Kathmandu.

Since the late 19th century, western expeditions have employed Sherpas to haul heavy loads and establish high-altitude camps on 8,000-meter peaks including Everest, despite their lack of technical or rescue training.

A significant flashpoint in the Sherpa-Westerner relationship occurred on Everest in 2013, when three European solo climbers ignored the pleas of a Sherpa ropefixing crew not to traverse the icy slopes of the Lhotse Face above them. The Europeans then inadvertently knocked down chunks of ice toward the rope-fixers and rebuffed the Sherpas’ subsequent challenge with a deluge of vile insults.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

37

NOW

Danuru was at Camp I when a group of furious Sherpas confronted the solo climbers at Camp II. “Very angry talk,” he says of the melee in an excited tone. “[Western man] make the first punch and then big fight with fist and rock.”

The brawl – which was portrayed very differently by the Westerners involved –became the subject of world headlines in the weeks that followed.

“They don’t listen when we ask please wait,” Danuru said, shaking his head. “Need respect to Sherpa more. Climbing is Sherpa way to make money, change our life.”

Anker is more direct. “This altercation should serve as a wake-up call for ‘Westies’ to quit treating [Sherpas] like trash and slaves.”

Danuru was 18 when he met Anker and Dave Hahn, both renowned American climbers now with myriad Everest summits. The year was 1999, and all three were part of the expedition that discovered famed British mountaineer George Mallory’s body on the north side of Everest.

At the time, Danuru had limited technical climbing skills and no guide training, but both Anker and Hahn were impressed.

Hahn describes Danuru at that time as an “undiscovered Michael Jordan…

He just needed to refine that raw talent.”

At 6 feet tall – which is 6-12 inches taller than most other male Sherpas – Danuru is a physically imposing man, Anker says.

“But [on that trip] he also displayed exceptional situational awareness and a knack for connecting with people.”

That opportunity arose in 2003, when Anker and his wife Jennifer Lowe-Anker founded the Khumbu Climbing Center in Phortse, its twoweek programs focusing on proper equipment use, situational awareness,

38 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

medical first-responder training and English language skills.

“Our goal was to reduce the alarmingly high fatality rate among the native high-altitude workers,” Anker says.

Since excelling in his KCC training, Danuru has served as an instructor there for the past seven years. In June 2013, he attended the National

“CLIMBING IS SHERPA WAY TO MAKE MONEY, CHANGE OUR LIFE.”

Left: Looking toward Tengboche monastery in Phortse, Nepal, Ama Dablam in the background.

Phortse is the home of the Khumbu Climbing Center, which works to reduce what co-founder Conrad Anker calls “the alarmingly high fatality rate among the native high-altitude workers.”

Below: Danuru’s mother, pictured on far left, is honored in a prayer ceremony with other Phortse village elders. PHOTOS BY JENNIFER LOWE-ANKER

Outdoor Leadership School in Wyoming on a KCC scholarship, learning compass, leave-no-trace, map-reading, multi-pitch climbing and risk management skills. “Now I go teach these things at KCC,” Danuru says.

We actually LIKE painting. Crazy, huh?

Call the experts to tackle your next project.

Inte r i or • E xte r i or • Co m m erc i a l Re si d e nti a l • Pa i nti ng • S t a i n i n g Pre - f i ni shi ng

BRING IT ON.

Natural talent combined with this advanced training has made Danuru one of the most highly regarded guides in the Himalaya – a sort of “poster-Sherpa” for a new breed of native high-altitude workers there. Major expeditions vie for his services each climbing season.

“He’s like a rock star,” says Dahlem, who Danuru also guided to the summit of Cho Oyu in 2008. “When we moved from camp to camp, Sherpas and climbers would come out of their tents to speak with him, yet he’s one of the most genuine, humble men I’ve ever met.”

Despite his skills, Danuru’s job is laced with peril. He survived a 1,000-foot avalanche ride on Cho Oyu in 2011 and has – on three occasions – given his own oxygen to a client struggling on the upper slopes of Everest.

The youngest of nine, Danuru has lost two brothers to altitude-related work, and another to alcoholism.

Although the gap in technical mountain-craft has narrowed between Sherpas and westerners in recent years due to programs like the KCC and the Nepal Mountaineering Association’s month-long training course, there still remains an extensive gap in respect.

406-580-0331 | info@montanapaintinc.com

explorebigsky.com MOUNTAIN www.montanapaintinc.com

39

TIMBER CREEK RANCH

C ody ody,, Wyoming C W yoming

F E AT U R E S • 557 acre property with 3 year-round residences • Over 1 1/2 miles of trout fishing on the Southfork of the Shoshone River • Exceptional equine facilities • Near Cody, WY and Yellowstone National Park

Contact Fay Ranches Ph: (406) 586-4001 Toll Free: (800) 238-8616

For more information on this property and to view video please visit www.tcr-cody.com

THE WEST MAY BE WILD,

but it’s not unci viliz ed

sareck Design

RAINBOW RANCH LODGE

rainbowranchbigsky.com • 1.800.937.4132 Five miles south of Big Sky entrance on Hwy 191

NOW

Danuru’s humility reflects a culture that values modesty and deference – something that doesn’t necessarily best serve Sherpas guiding well-heeled, type-A clients on 8,000-meter peaks. In the fall of 2002, Danuru tried to turn around slow moving Korean clients just below the Hillary Step for timing and safety concerns.

STATE-OF-THE-ART AUTOMATION. HUMAN EXPERTISE. ASTOUNDING FINISHES. See how our 9,000 square foot facility, coupled with our knowledge and experience, can enhance your next project.

Danuru, pictured here with his family in Phortse, guides at high elevation to support his daughters’ education.

PHOTO BY JENNIFER LOWE-ANKER

“Client say: ‘We spend lots of money to come here.

Almost there. We go up!’” Danuru recalls. After several calls to Base Camp, they finally heeded the Sherpa’s advice.

Hahn believes Danuru has outgrown his current role as a personal guide for one or two clients at a time, and is capable of leading expeditions.

Outs ta nd i ng f i ni s hes on…

I n t e r i o r /e x t e r i o r m i l l wo r k • D oors W i n do ws • C a bi n e t s • M e tal

“I don’t like keep working on the mountain too long, but I need to make money for education for daughters,” Danuru says with a sigh.

This is also cultural, Anker says. “Their biggest investment is in their children’s education. Improving your place in life is the social bling in the Sherpa community.”

Given the complex risk/reward calculus of highaltitude mountaineering, one can only hope Danuru Sherpa will know when the time is right to hang up his crampons.

406-580-0331 | info@montanaprefinish.com

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

41

www.montanaprefinish.com

C R E AT E F R O M

Montana H I STORY

OUR T IM BE R TO YOUR T RE AS URE

PLAY VIDEOS TO LEARN MORE AT FLATHEADLAKETIMBER.COM

FLOORING • FURNITURE • CABINETS • TIMBER ACCENTS FLATHEADLAKETIMBER.COM

|

(406)465-4346

MONTANA’S WHISKEY BAR Come enjoy a rustic, yet elegant Montana bar and grill, featuring over 100 whiskeys and delicious food from around the world.

101 East Main St., Bozeman, MT • 406.404.1700 • coppermontana.com

HISTORY

JACKSON HOLE’S FINAL OUTLAWS BOOTLEGGING IN THE LAST OF THE OLD WEST

BY FORREST MCCARTHY

In 1934, after prohibition, Dornan turned the homestead into a convenience store, gas station and beer parlor. Following World War II, the establishment expanded into a full-service bar and restaurant – one Petzoldt would never set foot in. Jack Dornan was known to sport a six-shooter on his hip.

Continuing in the tradition of fine spirits, Dornan’s Spur Ranch Bar today has an impressive selection of wine and liquor year round, in addition to an assortment of pizza, pastas and salads.

The adjacent Moose Trading Post and Deli offers sandwiches and various healthy trail snacks.

Jack Dornan and son David PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID DORNAN

Originally from Philadelphia, Dornan’s mother Evelyn homesteaded a property at the base of the Teton Range in 1916, and he joined her there in 1920. After struggling for several years growing cabbage and potatoes, Dornan found a better living trucking supplies from Salt Lake City to Jackson, including illegal whiskey.

In the fall of 1930, he hired Petzoldt to truck “supplies” from Salt Lake City to Jackson’s Hole. After a whiskey run in November, Petzoldt appeared back at Dornan’s empty handed, claiming he’d been hijacked, the contraband stolen.

Dornan dismissed the lie and allegedly threatened Petzoldt with a butcher knife.

Petzoldt later confessed in his book, Teton Tales, that he hadn’t been hijacked, and instead abandoned the whiskey near Kemmerer, Wyoming, for fear of being arrested.

The full story will likely never be known, but regardless, the incident bankrupted Dornan’s trucking business.

Winter in Grand Teton National Park

Paul Petzoldt was 16 years old in 1924 when he first climbed the Grand Teton, wearing cowboy boots.

A farm kid from Idaho, Petzoldt became one of America’s most influential mountaineers, eventually founding the National Outdoor Leadership School. He was intrepid, robust and virtually fearless; yet one thing frightened him – Jack Dornan.

With the best Teton Range vistas in the Jackson Hole Valley, this is the perfect spot to admire the ephemeral signature of a day’s adventure – ski tracks gracefully adorning long slopes of powder snow. And when the sun sets behind the bar, backlighting the Tetons in soft alpenglow, it’s clear why Evelyn and Jack Dornan chose it nearly a century ago.

SUGGESTED ADVENTURES

• Skate ski the groomed road to Jenny Lake • Snowshoe or cross-country ski along the marked trail to Bradley Lake • Backcountry ski or snowboard Maverick, 25 Short or Shadow Peak • Watch wildlife from the Moose-Wilson Road

DORNAN’S DETAILS

Location: Moose, near GTNP’s south entrance Winter hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., December - March

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

43

REGION

NEXUS OF THE R I D I N G I N T O F O RT B E N T O N B y Ri c k B a s s

44 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

Fort Benton and the mighty Missouri River from the air.

PHOTO BY CHRIS BOYER/ © WWW.KESTRELAERIAL.COM

WEST

They say there are only two stories in the world: someone goes on a journey, or a stranger rides into town. Many of the best stories are an amalgamation of the two, and driving into Fort Benton, descending from the high plains into the Missouri River bottomlands studded with giant cottonwoods and seething with Canada geese, a traveler – and writer – couldn’t ask for much more.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

45

REGION

in with a friend, AS I DRIVE Cristina, who’s never been West, I realize it’s a bit strange that my first impulse was to show her the prairie, not the mountains. Perhaps it had something to do with the idea of a blank canvas – there is so much space here to fill the heart, the mind with awe.

Called “The Birthplace of Montana” – meaning, of course, white Montana – Fort Benton was established by the American Fur Company in 1846.

Prior to that, it was, in some ways, the historical nexus of the Lewis and Clark expedition: On June 2, 1805, just east of here at what’s now known as Decision Point, the leaders had to choose whether to take the left fork – the Missouri River – or the right, the Marias. Despite the protests of their men, the captains gambled left and forged upstream another 40 miles toward what is now Great Falls.

As in many small western towns, a historic hotel anchors Fort Benton’s main street. The oldest operating hotel in Montana, the Grand Union was built in 1882, when it was reportedly the finest between Chicago and Seattle. Restored in 1999 by owners James and Cheryl Gagnon, it is today as good a place as any to spend a hundred bucks on dinner.

Dorothy Meyer, assistant general manager at the Grand Union and a native of northwest Montana, finds the essence of Fort Benton in the roads leading to and from this small town, population 1,486. Meyer likes to get out in every possible direction, and likes to come back, too.

46 MOUNTAIN

Above: The oldest operating hotel in Montana, the Grand Union was built in 1882 and today offers fine dining and lodging. PHOTO BY

SARAH HELMBRECHT

Right: A bronze statue of Shep, the town’s honorary mascot, stands in the center of Fort Benton. PHOTO

BY DONNIE SEXTON/MT OFFICE OF TOURISM

Set in a wide valley beneath howling winds, it is carved by the Missouri River and by time. It’s a fairy tale kind of place, with its bygone ghosts.

Dorothy’s right about the roads: From its beginnings, Fort Benton was the portal for trappers and buffalo hunters who would alter the West, and a jumping-off point for the eventual white settlement of the Pacific Northwest and western Canada. To pursue any of those pipe dreams, one had to follow the Missouri, which meant coming to Fort Benton.

Beyond it, the country got wild. If geography is not destiny, then destiny does not exist.

STAYING AT THE GRAND UNION, I wander across the street to the Banque Club, craving a steak and a drink, as one does sometimes in the loneliest of landscapes.

explorebigsky.com

I’d heard about an informal gathering at the bar there sometimes referred to as Cocktails with Carter, and that the bartender, Carter Johnsrud, is pretty colorful. While I’m leery at first, I soon see what the fuss is about when he treats me and Cristina, another writer, to free whiskeys. It’s evidently been a long day for him, and we’re the only ones left in there – it’s gotten late, somehow.

But it doesn’t hurt that he’s gobsmacked by Cristina, who looks not unlike the actress Anne Hathaway.

“You look like someone,” he says.

“Aren’t you someone? I don’t know how to say this, so I’ll just say it directly, you look, well, great.”

Cristina smiles. “You’re doing fine,” she says.

The Snow Has Arrived…

…we can help you find your Big Sky property this winter season.

Contact one of our Big Sky experts today.

DON PILOTTE

STACY OSSORIO

ERIC OSSORIO

580.0155

539.8553

539.9553

BROKER

BROKER

BROKER

MARC LAUERMANN

SALES ASSOCIATE

581.8242

TONI DELZER

SALES ASSOCIATE

570.3195

PRUMT.COM | 406.995.4060 55 LONE PEAK DRIVE | BIG SKY TOWN CENTER An independently owned and operated broker member of BRER Affiliates, Inc.

haas builders www.haasbuilders.com 406.995.4552 explorebigsky.com

big sky, mt MOUNTAIN

47

REGION

There’s a silhouette of Shep on the bluff overlooking town, and in the

CHALET 4

center of town a giant bronze statue of him by Montana sculptor Bob Scriver. My little German shorthair pointer growled and barked at this imposing monolith, rushing at the hero’s elevated iron ankles.

The next day, we meet an old guy in the elevator at the Grand Union, with his equally old wife. Dressed up for the occasion, he’s wearing slacks, a white shirt, vest and bolo tie, and she’s in a dress and jewelry, her silver hair piled high. They’ve driven a long way, they say, to have

AT Y E L L OW S TO N E CLUB

FEATURES

YOU’D THINK FORT BENTON WOULD BE

all over the Lewis and Clark saga, but the big celebrity in town is an old border collie named Shep, nearly 70 years gone now. His master, a sheepherder, died one day and his body was shipped by rail to family back East. Old Shep kept waiting by the tracks every day for years, until one sad day when, his hearing diminished, he slipped on the tracks and didn’t hear the train coming.

a nice steak, a nice stay at the nice hotel, remembering older, maybe better times. They’re 75, if they’re a day.

It’s not the simple elegance or opulence of the rooms, nor any one perfect dish on the menu – not even the port reduction on the salty rack of lamb or the pumpkin risotto – that bolsters or saves a marriage; instead it’s the act of trying, the presence of two willing participants. I remember seeing a younger couple earlier in the day, maybe in their 30s, play-

Incredible, Direct Ski-in/Ski-out Access 6,000+ Livable Square Feet with 5 Bedrooms Tu r n k e y P r o p e r t y w i t h B a s e A r e a L o c a t i o n Steps from War ren Miller Lodge J u s t 3 0 m i n u t e s f r oRma rYe llowstone NP e R e s a l e O p p o r t u n i t y 2,200 Acres of Private Skiing

o n

P i

Chalet 4

Turn-key chalet with direct access to 2,200 acres of private skiing

a t Ye l l ow s t o n e C l u b

For more information on this property visit www.C chalet4.com | View Video Online

F E AT U R E S Incredible, Direct Ski-in/Ski-out Access 6,000+ Livable Square Feet 5 Bedrooms Turnkey Property with Base Area Location Steps from Warren Miller Lodge

TO BIG SKY

SLOPESIDE - LOCATION IS EVERYTHING

TO MOONLIGHT BAS

CHALET4.COM

Constructed in the late 19th century, this bridge now serves as a walking bridge near downtown Fort Benton. PHOTO BY CHRIS BOYER/ © WWW.KESTRELAERIAL.COM

ing tennis on the city courts down by the river.

cabin on the other side of the wide muddy river, a light appears.

We go for a drive at dusk. Winterkill has decimated the pronghorn populations, but they’ll be back – ghosts themselves, they are the remnants of long ago, the only animal that could summon such blazing speed to escape the clutches of the North American cheetah that once stalked these same plains 12,000 years prior.

Minutes later, we see the bob of a flashlight coming down to the other shore, hear the cough of the diesel engine, then witness the mythic sight of a flat-bottomed barge chugging across the powerful waters, tethered to the overhead wire cable guy line spanning the two shores.

The dark waters lap at the wide bow, and when it reaches our shore, we drive on, our tires rumbling onto the planks.

We turn down toward the ferry launch and ring the buzzer. In the

The ferryman nods at us, reverses the engine, and carries us across, into the darkness, a warm dry wind blowing, a crescent moon rising.

My little dog leans into the wind, stares ahead, eyes illumined by the ferry’s lantern.

So much beneath us, so much behind us. We move forward, history trailing. Should we look forward, or peer back? Either view is interesting, mid-river, and we push ahead.

Creighton Block Shirle Wempner, “On Alert,” oil on linen, 30x30 Available at Creighton Block Gallery, Big Sky, Montana | creightonblockgallery.com

49

We ’ ll ge t t he re st.

From A lpine Property Management to B ig Sky Luxury Rentals, Y ellowstone Luxury Tours to S huttle to Big Sky & Taxi, Big Sky’s premier vacation rental company offers: ~ No monthly management fee ~ All services under one roof ~ Competitive commission based structure ~ Record breaking summer & winter bookings ~ Great owner incentives with our additional divisions

Call us today to discuss how we can help increase the return on your investment. vacationinbigsky.com | 406.995.4148 explorebigsky.com

50 MOUNTAIN

ENVIRONMENT Clockwise from left: Mrs. Bush at Hells A-Roarin’, July 2013 PHOTO BY PEGGY WEISS; Speaking at the Glacier Conservancy Fundraiser, 2012 PHOTO BY SABRINA REYNOLDS; At a 2013 Yellowstone Park Foundation fundraiser with Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk NPS PHOTO BY JIM PEACO

NATIONAL VALUES F O R M E R F I R S T L A D Y B R I N G S AT T E N T I O N TO P U B L I C L A N D S

By Emily Stifler Wolfe

Laura Bush and her friends were riding back from Fish Lake, just north of Yellowstone National Park, when the clouds unleashed.

“It rained for three hours, hard,” said Warren Johnson, Hells A-Roarin’ outfitter and their guide. “There was water roaring down the trail. The ground just couldn’t take any more water.”

After a mile they reached Knox Lake, where the outfitters rigged a tarp, tied up the horses, built a

fire and fried a few fish they caught earlier that day.

“They just realized that was all part of the natural experience,” Johnson said.

It continued raining during the twohour ride back to Jardine, Montana, and Johnson inquired if the women were all right, or if they were cold.

Mrs. Bush, whose husband George W. Bush served as president from 20012009, visited her first national park, Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico, as a Girl Scout. This past summer, she was in Yellowstone with four childhood friends from Midland, Texas. The group – which includes former National Park Foundation vice chair Regan Gamman – has spent a week hiking in a park every year since 2000.

“This is fine,” they told him. “We know the country needs the rain.” It was July 2013, and the Emigrant Fire was burning 600 acres of public land just 20 miles away. Smoke had filled the air the previous few days.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

51

FIRST LADIES FOR PARKS

For Lady Bird Johnson, a childhood exploring cypress bayous near Karnack, Texas, began a life devoted to preserving nature.

Former first lady Laura Bush spends a week every year with friends in a national park.

Here, the group rides horses in the Yellowstone backcountry. PHOTO BY PEGGY WEISS

A librarian and a teacher by training, Mrs. Bush is known for her work as first lady in early childhood education and women’s health. However, she has also used her stature to garner support for America’s national parks.

At the start of their trip, Bush and her friends held a private fundraiser for the Yellowstone Park Foundation at park Superintendent Dan Wenk’s house. At the reception, Bush recalled experiences hiking with these same women in Grand Canyon, Olympic National Park and Yosemite.

importantly said YPF President Karen Bates Kress, it raised awareness for the foundation’s work. The park’s official fundraising partner, the nonprofit works to fund projects and programs beyond the capacity of the National Park Service.

During her husband’s presidency from 19631969, Mrs. Johnson advanced concern for the environment to the national stage, her advocacy helping set the tone for the administration’s addition of Lady Bird Johnson 3.6 million WHITE HOUSE PHOTO acres to the National Park System, plus passage of the Wilderness Act and the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

With friend Laurence S. Rockefeller, Mrs. Johnson helped prompt Congress to charter the National Park Foundation, the National Park Service’s charitable partner.

Public awareness is also important for the park itself.

“This is the largest intact ecosystem in the temperate zone of the world, a place that deserves all of our attention and our work to preserve it for the future,” Superintendent Wenk said at the reception.

“We started [hiking together] years ago with the Colorado River trip through the Grand Canyon, and then hiking out the 10 miles,” she said. “For a few years we entered the concession lottery to hike from tended camp to tended camp in Yosemite, and we were never drawn.

When George was elected, I called them and said, ‘Guess what, we’ve won the lottery.’”

When someone like Mrs. Bush visits, it gives the public “a greater understanding of the importance of national parks,” he later added. “She spends time hiking in the backcountry, exploring. That tells people there’s more to national parks than driving the roads and stopping at the pullouts.”

Laura Bush and Michelle Obama in the White House on Nov. 10, 2008. WHITE HOUSE PHOTO

The Yellowstone Park Foundation event raised $12,000, but more

The former first lady has a track record with groups like YPF.

Compiled with information from the National Park Foundation

52 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

Current first lady Michelle Obama started the ‘Let’s Move Outside Junior Ranger’ program, a nationwide campaign encouraging families to get outside. Mrs. Obama also spoke after Laura Bush at the Flight 93 Memorial commemorating the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Other first ladies including Nancy Reagan and Hilary Rodham Clinton have also supported the nation’s public parks.

ENVIRONMENT

From 2004-2008, she was honorary chair of the National Park Foundation, which was created by Congress in 1967 to raise private funds and increase awareness of the parks.

The organization in 2008 gave her its highest honor, the NPF Founders Award.

pick your pearls.

“Mrs. Bush was a champion of the national parks,” said NPF Communications Director Marjorie Taft Hall. “She continuously shared her passion and enthusiasm for the parks with many audiences, inspiring support, appreciation and lasting connection for these special places.”

An outspoken “Mrs. Bush continuously shared supporter her passion and enthusiasm for the of youth parks with many audiences, inspiring programs like Junior support, appreciation and lasting Rangers, connection for these special places.” which she says helps children become conservation stewards, Mrs. Bush continues to be a figurehead for these public spaces. At a 2011 fundraiser, she helped raise $65,000 for the Glacier Conservancy and the National Park Foundation, and in 2012, the Bushes donated more than $100,000 to the National Park Foundation.

Private philanthropy is vital for parks, NPF’s Taft Hall said.

Currently, NPF is helping fund one of the nation’s newest national parks, the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the crash site of one of the airplanes hijacked on September 11, 2001. For Mrs. Bush, this spot is close to her heart– Flight 93 was likely headed for the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, had passengers not intervened. She visited Shanksville days after the crash and has returned every year since.

S H E L LY B E R M O N T Unique, handmade jewelry

Supporting the parks – both natural and historical – is a national value, Wenk says.

Extensive selection of South Sea & Tahitian pearls Exotic stones, raw diamonds, fine silver

“It’s not easy anymore to create national parks. It wasn’t easy in 1872 [with Yellowstone], but the fact that we did it is an incredible statement of what we value as a country. Mrs. Bush continues that in her own way.”

and 18-22 karat gold

B I G S K Y, M T | P A C I F I C P A L I S A D E S , C A Private appointments and trunk shows available. shellybermont.com

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

53

MUSIC

COUNTERCULTURE:

MOUNTAIN TOWNS EMBRACE COMMUNITY RADIO

BY MARIA WYLLIE

It’s a fashion statement: Hoodies, baseball hats, tees, mugs and bumper stickers all bear the four-letter call numbers of KGLT, Bozeman’s community radio station.

These are indications of personal taste, and of commitment to this mid-sized mountain town with its fierce local pride. The community-driven, listenersupported nonprofit was voted Boze-

According to Marketing Director Ron Craighead, KGLT has one of the largest record collections in Montana, if not the Northern Rockies. PHOTO BY MARIA WYLLIE

54 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

man’s best radio station for the past 12 years in polls by the Tributary and the Bozone.

Based on the Montana State University campus, the station has provided commercial free, unformatted radio for 45 years.

“You can’t just focus on one aspect of your community,” said KGLT Marketing Director Ron Craighead. “It needs to be inclusive enough for everyone to participate.”

Ron Sanchez got his first taste of live radio in 1968, the same year KGLT spun its first records. Sanchez was 16, living in San Jose, California, and looking to share his love for music over the airwaves.

He began as an apprentice at local rocker KSJO, where he knew more about music than many of the DJ’s who worked there.

“Since age 3 or 4, I was interested in the idea of radio,” said Sanchez, now KGLT’s longest running DJ. He remembers turning the dials as a kid and hearing different sounds come out, almost like a magic box.

At KSJO, he soon learned what was wrong with radio. “I went in one day and half the records were gone, and they were saying ‘well, it’s a new format.’”

This new configuration was built around record sales. Rather than play-

“I’M HERE TO CLEAR UP YOUR FACE AND MESS UP YOUR MIND”

ing the music they wanted, DJs had to answer to a music director, who only let them play the top 40 bestselling tracks.

In a November 1967 Rolling Stone article titled “AM Radio Is Dead and Its Rotting Corpse Is Stinking Up The Airwaves,” radio pioneer Tom “Big Daddy” Donahue explained how booming record sales triggered Top 40 radio in the mid-1950s, and rock n’ roll became an industry overnight. The format was nearly identical from city to city, with disc jockeys playing all the same records.

“Music should not be treated as a group of objects to be sorted out like eggs with each category kept rigidly apart from the others,” wrote Donohue, now part of the Rock Hall of Fame and known to many as the father of progressive radio.

Earlier that year – in response to his aggravation with AM radio – Donahue started playing album-oriented rock on the largely ignored FM band, at KMPX in San Francisco.

Donahue broke the Top 40 mold.

Rather than mimic the jovial businessmen who’d taken over the AM dial, he spoke in a conversational style and played an eclectic mix of music that didn’t fit into a singular format.

“I’m here to clear up your face and mess up your mind,” Donahue said at the beginning of every show.

At odds with management, Donahue left the station for KSAN in 1968, and the rest of KMPX’s announcing and engineering staff followed. They tested the limits by broadcasting live music recordings, refusing to air certain commercials, offering political commentary and getting involved with community concerns. Through this “think audience” first mentality, Donahue gained a loyal listenership, and KSAN ultimately came to represent the underground radio movement.

Sanchez made his way to KSAN in 1975, and was once again allowed – and expected – to play what he chose. Still living by this philosophy, Sanchez, now 61, plays what he wants at KGLT. “I don’t believe in limiting yourself to a genre,” he said. “Good music is timeless. I can play something from 1957 and something brand new, and you can see how they connect.”

Ron Sanchez, KGLT’s longest running DJ, plays “whatever I feel like playing” every other Friday from 3-6 p.m. PHOTO BY MARIA WYLLIE

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

55

MUSIC

KHOL is here to stay. On air since 2008, the station has found a permanent home in Jackson’s Center for the Arts. PHOTO BY DAVID SWIFT

His time at KSAN was short lived, but formative. Donahue died from a heart attack just a few months after Sanchez came on board, and the station fell to corporate control without his leadership, soon transitioning to a country-western format. What Frank Zappa once declared the “hippest station in the universe” was no more.

len King-Rodgers took over.

“When everything around us was going automated, [Charles] kept the live DJs on air,” said King-Rodgers, crediting her predecessor with enabling KGLT to be what it is today – live, unformatted, commercial-free radio.

Fed up, Sanchez bailed.

Unlike commercial radio or public broadcasting, community stations aren’t supported by advertising or corporate underwriting; they’re owned and influenced by the communities they serve.

“It was time to clear the boards and start fresh,” he recalls. After visiting his parents who had moved to Montana, he relocated to Bozeman in 1980 and opened a Mexican joint called Casa Sanchez. He was back on air a year later – this time at KGLT. The station needed help and in 1990, Sanchez’s colleague from KSAN, Phil Charles, was hired as general manager. Under his guidance, KGLT acquired transmitters in Helena, Livingston and Gardiner, and in 2007 began web streaming on kglt.net.

Charles managed the station until summer 2010, when former DJ El-

“They’re typically alive through the efforts of local civic groups that cobble funds from town budgets and volunteers,” said Michael C. Keith, adjunct associate professor of media and radio studies at Boston College, and the author of 21 books on the subject. “Their goal is mostly community service.”

These stations can have a large impact, especially in smaller towns.

Prior to the opening of Moab’s community station KZMU in 1992,

“IT WAS OLD-SCHOOL, WILD, WEIRD AND OPEN FOR EVERYONE TO COME AND PLAY” 56 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

the airwaves in this southern Utah town had been silent.

Moab’s recreation-driven economy was boom and bust, said the station’s founder and program director, Christy Williams, and it busted in the late 1980s. “There was a period of time in the late ‘80s when there was no radio at all,” she said.

Funded by the Corporation of Public Broadcasting’s sole service grant, KZMU was birthed in an abandoned National Park Service trailer in one of the isolated town’s industrial neighborhoods.

“It was old-school, wild, weird and open for everyone to come and play,” said Williams, who has lived in the area since 1981. Although the station has matured in its 21 years, she still feels “we are holding up the cultural stick, way out here in the middle of the desert.”

The only station in Utah with a volunteer-run DJ program, KZMU has 120 DJs ranging from age 4 to 82, and strong youth programming.

Children in preschool and kindergarten are trained young, and Williams says they start to get it at age 6. Parents engineer the Saturday morning show, called

“Children’s Shine Time,” but the kids do all the talking – mostly about “things that are gross,” Williams says, “because that’s what interests them.”

As they grow older, the kids graduate into “Tween Time,” and then host their own Saturday night shows once in high school.

“It’s kind of astonishing, given how many moving parts there are… think Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Amy

Pinpointing the exact number of community stations in operation today is difficult, as they don’t all belong to one organization; Professor Keith estimates there are a few hundred, but it’s hard to say.

What is known is that these stations operate as models for freedom, valuing human connections and offering a return to localism in an increasingly digitized world.

Aidan Keating, 11, hosts “Tween Time” at KZMU in Moab.

“The only way traditional radio will survive is to emphasize live personality with local relationships,” Professor Keith said. “It must distinguish itself from the rest of the digital audio universe.”

PHOTO BY DEIRDRE O. KEATING

Goodman honking at the steering wheel,” Williams said.

Since 2008, the station has operated completely on solar energy through a grant from Rocky Mountain Power, which paid for half of the solar remodeling.

“I think it makes really good sense to try and do things that are holistic in their thinking, and solar power and sustainable energy seems like a very circular thing,” Williams said.

For Jackson, Wyoming, resident and KHOL listener Corey Talbott, 26, listening to community radio isn’t just about discovering new music – it’s about connecting with people who share similar musical tastes.

An ardent metal fan, Talbott listens to Oliver Tripp’s Monday night show, “Metal Massacre,” almost every week. When he first tuned in, he didn’t know Tripp personally, but through their shared interest in the genre, the two have become friends.

“You never know what you might hear,” Talbott said. “I’ve met a lot of friends based on what they play on the radio.”

On air since 2008, KHOL is quickly establishing itself as a defining member of the thriving Jackson community.

Volunteer DJ and prominent architect Nona Yehia designed its new studio, located in the Center for the Arts, and a new antenna installed atop Snow King in March of 2013 provides clearer sound, signaling this community station is here to stay.

While KHOL, KZMU and KGLT are all locally driven, they also have broad appeal.

For KGLT, this means a worldwide audience can listen through live online streaming, but also use social media sites like Facebook to interact with station personnel – something KingRodgers said listeners love.

However, the station is careful not to lose sight of its dedication to the locals who support it. “[Going forward], we still want to be this community-oriented station that trains apprentices three times a year and does a couple thousand [public service announcements] a year,” she said. “That is our integrity… we always want to be this live, music-of-choice radio station.”

Volunteer driven and listener supported, these three stations act as voices for their communities, offering an honest and distinctive service.

So, turn up the radio when you’re driving in your car. You can’t see whom that voice belongs to. You can’t press rewind or fast forward. This is the real thing.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

57

MUSIC

M ON TA NA

R O OT S

LET THE RECORDS PLAY PEARL JAM’S STAYING POWER

BY ERIC LADD

Above: Eddie Vedder takes center stage at Wrigley Field in July 2013, his trademark bottle of red wine in hand. PHOTO BY ERIC LADD Below: Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament brings his Montana roots to the stage.

ONLY THE MOST LEGENDARY BANDS CAN SPAN GENERATIONS OF FANS, FILL ARENAS YEAR AFTER YEAR, ADDRESS SOCIAL ISSUES, INSPIRE YOUTH AND HANDLE FAME WITH HUMBLE DIGNITY.

PHOTO BY MATTY MCCAIN

Founded in 1990, Pearl Jam is one of few American groups to accomplish all of this, remaining relevant and true to its roots.

When Pearl Jam released its 10th studio album on October 15, 2013, it went straight to the top of the charts.

Tickets for the fall/winter tour sold like the quick fingers of a face-melting Mike McCready guitar solo. Cuts from the new album, Lightning Bolt, were played during the 2013 World Series commercial breaks, and late night television talk shows hosted the six-man rock band.

The album opens with hard driving, punk-inspired songs like “Mind your Manners” and “My Father’s Son” and

58

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

Pearl Jam was co-founded by bass player Jeff Ament, a native of Big Sandy, Montana. Ament has stayed connected to his home state over the years, helping fund skate parks in Missoula and supporting the campaign of Montana Senator Jon Tester with private fundraising concerts.

Q&A with Tester Mountain Outlaw: How well do you and Jeff know each other?

Jon Tester: Jeff and I are five years apart.

[He] was a senior in high school when I was the music teacher at Big Sandy Elementary School. As with most people who come from a small town, my folks and I followed the lives and careers of most of the kids who grew up in Big Sandy, and Jeff was no exception. We watched him play basketball and football in high school, watched him go off to college and then to Seattle, and then make it big with Pearl Jam. M.O.: What do you think of someone from Big Sandy being such a rock and roller?

J.T.: More power to him for doing something he loves and for building such a worldwide fan base, [which] clearly speaks to the quality of Pearl Jam’s music.

M.O.: Do you like their music? Favorite song?

J.T.: Absolutely. My favorite song of theirs is ”Just Breathe.”

EDDIEVEDDER TAKESLISTENERS ONAPOSSESSED JOURNEY THROUGHDARK MOMENTS, BROKENHEARTS ANDSTIRRING DAYDREAMS.

closes with a pair of heartfelt, tear-jerking ballads including “Future Days.” Listen start to finish, and you’ll find it hard not to imagine you’re at a Pearl Jam concert, walking away tired and inspired, with ringing ears and arms full of swag. Lead singer and guitarist Eddie Vedder takes listeners on a possessed journey through dark moments, broken hearts and stirring daydreams.

DEBUT SEASON SCHEDULE 12.28 JAMES SEWELL BALLET 01.11 SECOND CITY

The songs “Let the Records Play,” a rock-a-billy style tune, and “Lighting Bolt” are crowd pleasers, inviting listeners to dance in family living rooms and college dorm rooms alike. Drum fans, get ready – Matt Cameron (formerly of Soundgarden) is at his best, pounding out complex rhythms that insure this 50-year-old stays in wicked shape.

01.25 PORTLAND CELLO PROJECT

True to form, Pearl Jam has not granted many interviews since releasing the album, instead letting the music speak for itself. A simple twist of fate became marketing genius when the band debuted some of the tracks from Lightning Bolt on the sacred grounds of Chicago’s Wrigley Field on July 19, 2013, and a massive lightning storm delayed the show for three hours.

03.01 ANTONII BARYSHEVSKYI

Pearl Jam has a 20-plus year history, 8.7 million Facebook followers and weather.com psychic powers.

Lightning Bolt is a must–have for all fans.

And continuing its philanthropic efforts, the band is giving a steady portion of ticket and album revenue to community health, the environment, arts, education and social change, via its Vitalogy Foundation.

Download Lightning Bolt from pearljam.com/lightningbolt for $11.99.

02.15 THE MOTH MAINSTAGE 02.20 THE BRUBECK BROTHERS

03.09 DAVID MASON, TAMI HAALAND, AND THE POET’S CONGRESS 03.19 THE BIG SKY COMMISSION, FEATURING PHILIP AABERG, ANGELLA AHN, AND MIKE REYNOLDS 03.29 MARK APPLEBAUM

What’s not to love.

SEE YOU ON STAGE. WARRENMILLERPAC.ORG

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

59

PROFILE

HELENA LIGHTWEIGHT COUNTS ON WORK ETHIC TO PUSH HIM TO THE TOP BY BRIAN D’AMBROSIO

Big, rough types in Montana are as ubiquitous as rusty pickup trucks. But tough guys weighing 135 pounds such as Duran Caferro Jr. are an unusual byproduct.

On June 8, 2013, Caferro dispatched Angel Torres at Helena’s Lewis and Clark County Fairgrounds. Round two saw Torres exhibit glimmers of fight, but halfway through, Caferro smelled blood and refused to let Torres fight into the third. Following an exacting combination of body shots, Torres was finished. Referee Russ Hansen could have counted to 50.

Before the fight, Caferro, 25, said he wanted to show the crowd his skills. “They are coming out for a reason. I don’t plan to disappoint them.”

For his journey to continue successfully, Caferro – who’s won 6 of his 7 professional bouts – must demonstrate the work ethic and unbendable will of the fighter. This 6-foot-1 lightweight says he has both.

At a time when boxing has taken its lumps from the American sporting public, Caferro is an anomaly, a young man born into the hostile climate of the most masculine of arts.

60 MOUNTAIN

“Growing up, I tried other sports and I switched from sport to sport,” he said. “I quit each of them in favor of boxing.”

Prizefighting loves tales steeped in the Hollywood tradition, and Caferro’s life holds some of that magic. Born in Billings, Montana, his mother is of Cheyenne ancestry and a Lame Deer native; his halfIrish, half-Italian father, Duran Caferro Sr., was born in Whitefish and grew up boxing. When Caferro Jr. was 2 years old, they moved to Helena, where his dad began coaching at the H-Town Eagles Boxing Club.

“I’ve been a gym rat and boxer since I was in diapers,” Caferro Jr. said. Some of his earliest memories are associated with the distinct odor, attitude and fury of the boxing gym. In a video clip at age 6, he talks about his future in the ring. At 8, he was competing against opponents and absorbing the nuances of the fight game.

Caferro Jr. was a member of Team USA in 2009-2010, during which time he won eight national amateur titles and international amateur bouts in such far-flung places as Russia and Italy, Puerto Rico and Wales.

explorebigsky.com

Duran Caferro delivers an uppercut to the face of his opponent Maurice Anthony, on Aug. 19, 2012, at the Lewis and Clark Fairgrounds in Helena, Montana.

PHOTO BY ELIZA WILEY

In June 2012, at age 23, he stepped up to the pro level against Alan Beeman (0-2), from Providence, Rhode Island, at Shrine Auditorium in Billings, Montana. Entering the ring on a maiden voyage with no jersey or headgear – a change from the amateurs – could make a fighter feel vulnerable. Caferro Jr., however, felt comfortable, physically freer and faster. Having a fully exposed target invigorated him, he said.

“My trainers wanted me to feel him out first and not attack him. He threw one punch, and I didn’t feel any danger. I got him on the ropes. I tried to be patient. It was over quickly.”

Caferro Jr. breezed by his second opponent, but faced a setback in his next bout: a third-round TKO at the hands of a fighter named Maurice Anthony, who was making his pro debut. Caferro Jr. staggered Anthony several times in the first two rounds,

but halfway through the third, Caferro Jr. absorbed too much unanswered punishment. The referee intervened.

“In that third bout, Duran Caferro learned a lesson in the vulnerability of boxing,” said Missoula boxing referee Russ Hansen, who has officiated 5 of Caferro’s 8 bouts. “This kid is a great fighter,” Hansen said. “In 30 years, I haven’t seen such an exciting boxer in the state of Montana.”

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

61

PROFILE

“I CAN’T LET WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK DISTRACT ME.”

Above: Caferro wins against Belgrade’s Dave Otis in 2010. PHOTO BY DYLAN BROWN Right: With his son Duran “Buster” Caferro, in 2012, when Buster was 4 years old. PHOTO BY DURAN CAFERRO, SR.

And the young boxer has something else, according to his father. “He was emotionally devastated when he lost his third fight,” Caferro Sr. said. “You find your true character and what you are made of by losing. Some would have quit or taken time off, or even self-destructed. Two days later, he was back in the gym. His character has been revealed. It’s inspiring.”

around 13, he started to drag me there.”

Caferro Jr. is working his abdomen off to rejuvenate the fight scene in Montana and become a legitimate contender.

In addition to his own street and gym training and accepting bouts at local fairgrounds and lodges promoted by Duran Sr., he volunteers, coaches, and is doing “whatever I can to get people more excited about the sport.”

This from a man who’s “into progressive politics,” and “knocks on doors for candidates,” in his spare time.

Indeed, his political bent often makes him an outcast in Helena.

Although he learned the basics of boxing at age 8, Caferro Jr. was 13 when he began to grasp its cardinal rule: Work your ass off.

“Years earlier, I had been dragging him to the gym,” Caferro Sr. said. “But at

62 MOUNTAIN

Boxing, Caferro Jr. says, has an unparalleled honesty, truthfulness and rawness. “It may be the only thing that meets all my adrenaline needs.”

“Well, the Che Guevara stickers and all of their Facebook posts making fun of religion and Republicans, it tends to rub some people in Helena the wrong way,” says Kevin McCarl, a small business owner and athletic trainer in Helena. “There are a lot of people who won’t support either Duran or his father because of that.

There are a lot of people who just want to see him get beat.”

explorebigsky.com

Caferro Jr. in turn says, “I can’t let what people think distract me.”

Similar to other aspiring champs, he craves matches with quicker, stronger fighters and bigger paychecks, as well as training quarters with access to quality sparring partners – most likely outside Montana. He hopes to compete for a world title at the end of 2014.

Caferro Jr. acknowledges that his success or failure isn’t predicated on his father’s matchmaking skills or a series of lucky breaks, but on his own inclination to gut it out and stay disciplined.

“Boxing comes down to work ethic and heart. Boxing is true justice.”

GETTING YOU INTO A NEW HOME IS WHAT MOVES US.

A home you can call your own is one of the true measures of success. That’s why we offer options for second home mortgages, lot purchase and construction, and refinancing.

ourbank.com 406.993.3350

However you define success, we’re committed to helping you get there.

Member FDIC

Equal Housing Opportunity

fROM THE CONTEMpORARy MOUNTAIN HOME TO THE RUSTIC MONTANA lOdgE

AU T H E NT I C H O M E C O N ST RUC T I O N SINCE 1993

lohssconstruction.com | Gallatin Gateway, MT explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

63

GALLERY B Y E M I LY S T I F L E R WO L F E

A S Y M B O L G A L L E RY A S S E M B L I N G P E O P L E A N D I D E A S F RO M T H E M O U N TA I N C U LT U R E Asymbol is a groundswell.

Founded in 2009 by professional snowboarder Travis Rice and artist Mike Parillo, the Jackson, Wyoming-based project is a collaboration between artists and creative minds from the snowboard, surf and skateboard cultures.

The idea was Rice’s, says Parillo, Asymbol’s art director and a full time artist who recently moved from Jackson to Los Angeles. A globetrotting Red Bull athlete who calls Jackson home, Rice, 31, helps the online gallery select new artists, design the in-house apparel line, and acts as the lead ambassador.

64

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

SCOTT SERFAS “Dime Spine” Award-winning photographer Scott Serfas captured this image of Asymbol founder Travis Rice in Alaska’s Tordrillo Mountains in 2010, during the filming of Art of Flight. The crew spent a month based out of a cabin, riding with Chugach Powder Guides.

“All the best snowboarding I’ve seen happen [in the history of the sport] went down on that trip,” says Serfas, 40, and a resident of Vancouver, British Columbia.

The helicopter was low on fuel at 9:30 p.m. when Rice convinced the pilot to take one last lap.

“We weren’t going to be able to fly around, and there weren’t many places for me to shoot from, so [the pilot] turned sideways, and I shot out the door of the heli,” Serfas says. “It was a quick one. 1,000 meters.”

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

65

GALLERY

Asymbol today features an eclectic group of more than 20 artists. The collection’s scope has a broad range, from Australian surf photographer Trent Mitchell’s intense, textured seascapes shot on 35-mm film, to Lake Tahoe, California-based sculptor, painter and photographer Corey Smith’s sometimes disturbing pieces satirizing the modern culture of plastic, celebrity and leisure.

Many have seen their work featured on snowboard and skate decks; others contribute to the publications that capture and even sculpt their sports’ evolution.

The collection is aimed at a younger audience – one brewed in the ‘90s that came of age in the 21st century.

“Here in Jackson – a very Western art town – so much of that art is indistinguishable, one from the other,” says Asymbol managing director Alex Hillinger, 41, who previously spent more than a dozen years working in consumer marketing and Internet startup companies in Seattle. “It’s the natural time for a new take on art that’s related to the mountains and the lifestyle that we’re living.”

Operating from an industrial warehouse south of Jackson, Asymbol is looking into opening a gallery space soon.

<<

“The most important component is building a community around your business, and thinking about commerce as an outcome and not a goal,” Hillinger said.

A D A M H AY N E S “2013 Ultranatural Poster” Red Bull’s Ultra Natural contest at Baldface Lodge, British Columbia, represented what some call the pinnacle of freeriding competition, with massive manmade features built into a 45-plus degree big mountain face.

Haynes, 35 and a native of central Oregon, created this illustration for the 2013 contest, hand-drawing the lines in black and white and then filling in the colors using Photoshop.

66

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

Early sketches felt a bit flat, Haynes says, “literally.”

So, attempting “to capture the steepness and feeling of consequence a rider would experience looking up from mid course,” he quadrupled the distance on the perspective, making the features look 200 feet tall.

<< In that vein, Asymbol is a member of the environmental nonprofit 1% for the Planet, and in total donates 5 percent of print sales to nonprofits. Some of its recipients are Protect our Winters, an environmental group focused on climate change; Stoked Mentoring, which pairs inner city youth with professional athletes to encourage kids in school; and the Craig Kelly Memorial Scholarship Fund, which supports Canadian avalanche course participants.

Asymbol has, in its four-plus years, established its own identity.

C H R I S B RU N K H A RT “Shadows” This image represents a turning point of a streetgrown revolution. The year was 1991, and Brunkhart photographed this unknown skateboarder on the first feature built in Portland, Oregon’s Burnside Park.

“It was the seed that sparked a bigger production,” says Brunkhart, 44. Now perhaps the most famous skatepark in the country, Burnside has huge bowls and walls. “It was what started the whole new skatepark industry around the world.”

“The longer we continue, the better it gets,” Parillo said.

“The only thing that matters with endeavors such as this is integrity, and ours gets stronger every day through the work of our artists and our crew.”

Brunkhart, who recently moved from Portland to New York, took both of the images featured here on traditional film. He was also present for snowboarding’s early years, documenting pioneers like Craig Kelly, Jamie Lynn and Terje Haakonsen.

asymbolgallery.com

A retrospective of his work entitled How Many Dreams In The Dark? is available through Asymbol.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

67

GALLERY

<< <<

#passitonproject

“Peter Devries”

One of Asymbol’s ongoing projects depends on the goodness of strangers.

Through the #passitonproject, the Lib Tech Speedodeeps board Travis Rice rode dur-

ing the 2012/2013 season has since been from Jackson to Japan, British Columbia to Seattle, Salt Lake to Australia and New Zealand. But it wasn’t Rice who took it on this journey.

How it works: Launched in Jackson last March, this is an “experiment in social art,” according to Asymbol’s website. The idea was “to document the board’s journey through the global snowboard community, seeing how many riders it can be passed on to and just how far around the world it can travel.”

Once you receive the board, you have three days to ride it; then you pass it on. Who knows, maybe it will find you.

Follow the board on Instagram at #passitonproject.

68

MOUNTAIN

SCOTT SERFAS

explorebigsky.com

This secret surf spot near Tofino on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, only breaks a handful of times in a year.

“You need really, really big swell – 20-30 feet,” Serfas says. “It faces east, and the swell is coming from the northwest, so it has to wrap around a point and then cleans up and breaks off those cobblestone rocks. The winds also have to blow north, which is offshore.”

Serfas shot this image of Peter Devries, whom he calls “the best surfer in Canada,” at around 8 a.m. in November.

“I’m a surfer – have to be,” Serfas said. “You have to know your sports, as far as angles and timing.”

C H R I S B RU N K H A RT “Craig Chute” Brunkhart shot this 1998 image of the late Craig Kelly near the end of a trip to Mistaya Backcountry Lodge, in interior British Columbia.

“It was super foggy and gray, and Craig wanted to go do this chute,” Brunkhart recalls. “I waited down in the valley and shot with a 400mm lens, watching him hike up this ridgeline all by himself. It probably took a couple of hours. At the top, he waved his arms and we waved back, and then he dropped in. The chute stuck out of this jagged peak, and it was [at least] a 50-degree slope.

He side-checked a couple times before he pointed it.”

Kelly was killed by an avalanche in 2003, while guiding in the backcountry near Revelstoke, British Columbia.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

69

itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s true! something sensational is happening No- Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just a rumor, the top 7 home technology integrators in North America have merged to become the largest home technology integrator in the world.

Introducing VIA, the Digital Concierge.

THE DIGITAL CONCIERGE

w w w. v i a h o m e . c o m Call +1.406.586.5593 in Montana, or +1.307.200.0533 in Wyoming to find out how VIA can integrate state-of-the-art technology into your home

we are 70 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

ESCAPE

BY JOSEPH T. O’CONNOR PHOTOS BY BRIAN NILES

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

71

ESCAPE

O C A L S I N S AY U L I TA , M E X I C O , H AV E A S AY I N G T H AT YO U C O M E F O R A V I S I T B U T YO U S TAY F O R E V E R .

A small fishing and surf town of approximately 4,000 residents, Sayulita is set in a cove between Punta Mita and San Pancho, 26 miles north along the Pacific coast from Puerto Vallarta, in the state of Nayarit.

The surf break is a two-minute stroll from downtown, where white and burnt orange, adobe-style buildings line cobblestone streets. Early in the morning, the plaza comes alive, the smell of fresh coffee and baked goods filling the warming air.

The Huichol, Nayarit’s indigenous people, sell colorful art, dolls and handcrafted bowls, jewelry and blankets around the square. Dressed

72 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

“WE GOT RID OF ALL OUR CREDIT CARDS AND SAID, ‘ L E T ’ S J U S T S I M P L I F Y. ”

Clockwise from left: Surfers and stand-up paddleboarders ride the tide at Punta Sayulita break From sunup to sundown, entertainers join locals in Sayulita, selling everything from pottery to blankets to jewelry and handmade toys.

Here, a woman sells colorful pottery on the beach With the Pacific stretching west to the horizon, the view from El Palacio’s expansive second floor open-air living room/dining room/kitchen area is broad and unobstructed.

in their traditional white, loose clothing embroidered in bright red, yellow and blue stitching, the Huichol are originally from the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains in the northeastern corner of Nayarit.

A block west, surfers of all abilities catch the Punta Sayulita break in front of Captain Pablo’s Restaurant.

Here, ex-pats Paul Southworth, aka Pablo, and his wife Patricia operate an all-things-adventure shop adjacent to their eatery. Hailing from Portland, Oregon, the couple guides surf and snorkel expeditions, as well as sport and fly-fishing trips, and also rents out sea kayak and standup paddleboards.

“We got rid of all our credit cards and said, ‘let’s just simplify,’” says Pablo, 63, a former steelhead fishing guide.

The Southworths moved to Sayulita 17 years ago, when

the area was sparsely populated, still a secret from the California, Colorado and Oregon visitors who now frequent its vacation homes and hotels.

“Sayulita is changing, but it’s still in its infancy,” Pablo says. “We grew with the town.”

Taco stands chock-full of the day’s catch grill sizzling tuna and mahi mahi steaks on nearly every street corner.

Between them, restaurants with full menus attract dinner guests with sunset ocean views and thatched roofs.

Miles of sand beaches beckon hikers with their low-tide rock formations and palm-covered bluffs.

There’s a sense of calm in the air here, there’s room to breathe.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

73

ESCAPE

ALOJAMIENTO [ACCOMMODATIONS]

HOTEL KUPURI In the heart of downtown Sayulita, Hotel Kupuri is just steps away from the plaza’s restaurants and shopping. Open since 2011, its broad, private courtyard and pool surrounded by tall palms provide peace in the village center.

Kupuri’s 22 rooms surround the courtyard’s three levels, each one offering wi-fi, air conditioning and sophisticated decor. But the real goods are on the upper tier: The honeymoon suite spans half of the third floor, with a kingsized bed, flat-screen TV and deck overlooking the pool and courtyard.

On the adjacent rooftop patio, a bar and dining area offers an eclectic cocktail list and panoramic views of the ocean and town.

Tropical birds sing through the thatched roof in Hotel Kupuri’s honeymoon suite, which offers some of the finest accommodations in Sayulita.

“When you come into Kupuri, you feel unplugged from the whole town,” said operations director Vitorio Jove. “Here, you can rest, you can really relax.” hotelkupuri.com

PHOTO BY EMILY O’CONNOR

74 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

El Palacio’s master bedroom takes up the third floor of the home and is accessed via stairs or elevator.

EL PALACIO/CASA MILAGROS Architect Rogelio Romana designed Villa Milagros to flow seamlessly with the nature in which it stands, the finest Mexican craftsmanship in mind.

This world-class estate has seven bedrooms and 11 bathrooms between its two vacation properties, El Palacio and Casa Milagros. Set on miles of private beach, the elegant villa also boasts a large swimming pool, an infinity pool, and a hot tub on the moon-viewing deck.

Guests soak in ocean breezes through the open-air dining room and windows; watch Orange-fronted Parakeets play among the palms; and fall asleep to set after set of crashing waves.

Looking over the infinity pool into the living area in El Palacio. At 8,000 square feet, this estate offers four king bedrooms, a game room and moon viewing deck with a grill and hot tub.

Complete with a game room housing card, pool and air hockey tables, Palacio – at 8,000 square feet – has three floors with four bedrooms, each with its own flair. Next door, Milagros offers three unique, king-sized bedrooms inside a 2,500-square-foot living space; French doors open onto a patio overlooking the pool, which in turn overlooks the Pacific. sayulitalife.com/palacio, sayulitalife.com/milagros

The kitchen at El Palacio offers all the amenities you could desire, including stainless steel appliances and plenty of room for cooking your own version of chile rellenos.

ESCAPE

[FOOD]

COMIDA

Tierra Viva’s specialty appetizer, Beef Botana, combines char grilled flank steak over tortilla chips, with melted cheese and pico de gallo salsa.

DESAYUNO [BREAKFAST] Choco Banana. Located on Plaza Sayulita’s north side, Choco Banana has been baking fresh bread and muffins daily since 1991, while serving up a mean cup of coffee, and vegan and vegetarian options.

Three (smallish) breakfast burritos will cost you 65 pesos (about $6.50 U.S.), but don’t miss the iced coffee (complete with coffee ice cubes), and the signature chocolate-covered banana topped with granola, candy sprinkles or coconut shavings. sayulitalife.com/chocobanana

EL ALMUERZO [LUNCH] Sayulita’s taco stands serve up some of the tastiest, most traditional fish tacos in the world. An affordable means to a quick lunch bite, you can find them almost everywhere in town.

A few favorites: Aqui es con Maria. Especial: Tostados aguachile (spicy lime-based salsa) Naty’s Cocina. Especial: Pollo chipotle tacos (chicken chipolte) El Itacate. Especial: Carne asada tacos (grilled steak) 76 MOUNTAIN

LA CENA [DINNER] Tierra Viva. Owner Daniel Velazquez epitomizes the Sayulita vibe with relaxed, outdoor dining, excellent service and eclectic, creative food. Chef Luis Benitez’s flavor influences range from the Caribbean to Oaxaca to Veracruz. Specialties include chicken mole, fresh mahi mahi and char-grilled tuna, but manager Hector Belmonte says not to miss the chili rellenos. “It’s something classic that anyone can make – my mom makes a great one – but we have one of the best.” tierravivasayulita.com

T IPS

Café el Espresso Sayulita. With prime seating on the plaza’s south side, Café el Espresso’s broad menu offers exquisite eggs Benedict and French toast, as well as a variety of fruit smoothies. Try the large latte, and the servers will artfully draw an elaborate puppy or rabbit in the foam. sayulitalife.com/elespresso

Miro Vino. When Luca Romano moved to Sayulita from Perugia, Italy, he brought his love for fine wine and his palate with him. In Miro Vino, he created al fresco dining among tall palm trees, serving some of the finest food in Nayarit.

Beef carpaccio, filet mignon in a cuitlacoche sauce, fresh snapper and wood-fired pizza round out this culinary experience. Oh, and the wine list will knock your flip-flops off. mirovinosayulita.com

Groceries: Buy them in Puerto Vallarta after deplaning – prices are better and selection is broader.

Haggle: Street vendors in Sayulita are savvy, and it’s perfectly acceptable to negotiate for a fair price.

Getting there: To get from Puerto Vallerta to Sayulita, either hire a ride with Jose Ramos Taxi Service (sayulitalife.com/ramos-taxi), or take the bus ($3 U.S.; cross the footbridge over Highway 200 and grab a seat.) Either way, use this time to brush up on your Spanish.

Precautions: Sayulita is reasonably safe, but it’s wise not to flash money around or travel alone at night. Also, maintain a reasonable state of sobriety.

Around town: Rent a golf cart to get around Sayulita; it’s easier than toting ice and food from town to your casa by hand.

(Contact Pacific Coast Golf Cars at 52-329-291-3854.)

explorebigsky.com

When to go: November through May is dry in Sayulita, with high temperatures averaging around 80 F. June through October is the rainy season, with hot and humid conditions.

Hooking into dorado on Captain Pablo’s fishing tour.

PHOTO BY KENE SPERRY

PHOTO BY ADAM JOHNSON

Celebrate [ACTIVITIES]

ACTIVIDADES Wet a line/Hang 10. Catch mahi mahi, tuna and sailfish with one of Captain Pablo’s fishing tours, and any local restaurant will cook them up on the spot. Or rent a surfboard or standup paddleboard from Patricia’s Surf Lessons and Board Rental. Professional instructors will teach you the intricacies of riding a wave at the Punta Sayulita break. captainpablo.com

Collaboration YELLOWSTONE CLUB

SPANISH PEAKS • MOONLIGHT BASIN

BIG SKY

Blaze a trail. Stroll 15 minutes from downtown Sayulita to Playa de los Muertos, the beautiful local cemetery.

Fresh flowers adorn brightly painted crypts and lead to a beach hidden by rock outcroppings. Smaller waves are perfect for kids, and the secluded area is just right for a quiet read in the sun.

Be at one. Yoga Los Sueños, located in the Hotelito Los Sueños, offers a number of classes for you to find your Zen, including Morning Flow, Vinyasa Flow and Kundalini. Vanessa Morrett, one of five instructors, will put your mind and body at ease with her gentle teaching style and expansive knowledge of this ancient practice. hotelitolossuenos.com

Shawna Winter Broker

Shawna@MTwinter.com

A view from cobra pose: Yoga Los Suenos instructor Vanessa Morrett leads an ocean-viewing yoga session, poolside at Casa Milagros.

purewestproperties.com | 406.581.2033 explorebigsky.com MOUNTAIN

77

PHOTO ESSAY

YELLOWSTONE WINTER WILDLIFE

78 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

Inside the Yellowstone caldera, the winter environment feels and looks like another world. Despite the extreme conditions, it can be a peaceful, spiritual place.

PHOTOS AND WORDS BY JOHN LAYSHOCK

When a foot of October snow extinguished the 750,000-acre wildfire that burned through Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 1988, the standing dead lodgepole pines smoldered like candles. The world was frosted, smoke rising through the snow.

Working as a “parkie,” I’d spent the summer living in Canyon Village, operating the one-hour photo lab, and picking up and delivering film to Old Faithful. Originally from Bozeman, I was 21 that first season in the park.

Later in the fall, during the quiet time before Canyon closed for the off-season, I delved into books from the Hamilton Store and discovered photographers Steve Fuller and Jeff Henry. They were winterkeepers – caretakers who’d lived and worked in Canyon starting in the early 1970s, removing up to 100 feet of snow from the building roofs each winter.

Looking through their images, I became obsessed with experiencing a Yellowstone winter. Nearly 20 years later, in 2007, I finally spent a handful of winter days in the park. I was addicted.

Last winter, my seventh in Yellowstone, I worked 53 days leading scenic and photo trips for Yellowstone Alpen Guides.

During the dark winter months, our small community grows close: We’re here because we want to be. It’s not easy, but I cherish these days.

53 DAYS IN

YELLOWSTONE

Layshock’s photographic diary depicting a winter in the park is available in two sizes at Yellowstone Alpen Guides and Madison Crossing in West Yellowstone (2013).

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

79

PHOTO ESSAY

For wildlife, winters are especially difficult, and photographers and other human visitors must be sensitive and respect the animals’ space.

Although each species is magnificent in a different way, bison are perhaps my favorite subject. Once numbering in the hundreds of millions, they were pushed to near extinction by the late 1890s, hunted for their furs and slaughtered as part of a government effort to weaken Indian tribes that depended on the animals.

Very intelligent birds that can live 20-plus years, ravens are good problem-solvers with long memories. They have complex family relationships and are known to argue and squabble. Large regional families have specific dialects.

Wolves have been controversial in Yellowstone since their reintroduction in 1995 and 1996. Highly successful, especially in winter, their presence has affected all of the other animals in the ecosystem, in turn altering the environment itself.

80 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

In 1901, Yellowstone National Park created the Buffalo Ranch in the Lamar Valley to save the last two dozen wild American bison from poachers.

It took more than four decades to restore the population, and the herd now hovers between 3,000-5,000.

These are the largest land mammals in North America today.

This young female bison is using her head as a shovel to dig through several feet of snow seeking grass. One of the animals’ only food source in winter, this feed has almost no protein. A layer of fat below bisons’ thick hide helps them survive the long winters; however, 9 out of 100 adults starve to death, and 20-40 percent of yearlings succumb to starvation, accidental injury or predators.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

81

The aquamarine blue color in some of Yellowstone’s hot springs is created by minute particles of silica and clay.

YELLOWSTONE BACKCOUNTRY

YELLOWSTONE

PHOTO BY ANDY TYSON

Getting There: Take a snow coach from Yellowstone’s West Entrance to Old Faithful.

Ski 2.5 miles to the Lone Star Geyser Trailhead, and continue 8.8 miles to Shoshone Geyser Basin.

BUBBLING, BOTTOMLESS KETTLES Exploring Yellowstone’s Shoshone Geyser Basin in winter

BY MOLLY LOOMIS

Permits: Backcountry permits (required, $25) can be reserved or picked up 48 hours in advance in Old Faithful, West Yellowstone and Mammoth. Call ahead.

Map: Trails Illustrated, Yellowstone National Park ($11.95) More info: nps.gov/yell or (307) 344-2160

water collect and drip down through the porous ground, all while being warmed by magma.

It felt like we’d landed on another planet.

The frozen expanse of Shoshone Lake’s 8,050 acres spread out before us, and to the south, the earth exhaled small puffs of smoke in an abstract beat.

The Shoshone Geyser Basin has one of the highest concentrations of geysers in the world – an estimated 110 are scattered over the equivalent of seven city blocks. Its namesake is the largest lake in the Lower 48 inaccessible by road.

One pool was a bottomless cauldron; another erupted every five minutes from a calcified tower; and my favorite, Taurus Spring, a perfect, circular pool of sapphire.

Bacteria, algae and minerals cause this watery rainbow of colors. The aquamarine blue is created by minute particles of silica and clay, according to Carl Schreier, author of A Field Guide to Yellowstone’s Hot Springs and Fumaroles. A combination of orange-colored bacteria and blue-hued water mix to form the dark void of the Black Cauldron.

As my skis glided over the gentle ground, geysers with names like Soap Kettle, the Black Cauldron and the Impenetrable Spring lured me to their edges. We crept around the auburn, yellow and red dirt exposed by the heat, staring at pools of aquamarine and sinister navy blue. We sat hypnotized by the bubbling kettles of mud and water and breathed in the sulfur smell like a tonic.

In summer, many more people visit the basin, arriving by boat or hiking, but in winter, we had it to ourselves. And this otherworldly scene was one summer visitors wouldn’t likely catch: Snow melting into clouds of billowing fog against a bright blue sky, as if it was transforming from solid to gas right before our eyes.

Situated atop an ancient active caldera, the Earth’s crust beneath Yellowstone is relatively thin – just 40 miles thick, compared to 90 in most other areas of the world, it’s what allows the thermal activity to occur. Geyser basins such as Old Faithful and Shoshone have developed where rain and

It’s hard to pull Victor, Idaho-based writer Molly Loomis from her daily powder skiing routine on Teton Pass, but she says it was worth it: You don’t see hiccupping water and bottomless cauldrons every day… unless you live in Yellowstone.

82 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

TODAY I TRACKED SALES LEADS IN CRM. AND APPROVED VENDOR INVOICES. TODAY I REVIEWED MY PROFITABILITY DASHBOARD. AND FORECASTED OUR SALES. TODAY I SKIED THE TRAM. TWICE.

See all that you can do with SAP’s Business One mobile app.

THE BEST-RUN BUSINESSES RUN SAP®

Winter Tours Wildlife•Scenic•Private•Photography Cross-country Ski & Snowshoe

Winter Photography Adventures 4 day and 3 night private, photography tour with our staff photographer/guide John Layshock •Limited availability of 4-6 people •Lodging at Old Faithful Snowlodge with meals included •$1,935 per person

DATES: January: 13-16 February: 14-17 March: 4-7 Call Steve at 800-875-7030 www.SAP-BMC.com | EasySAP@SAP-BMC.com

WWW.YELLOWSTONEGUIDES.COM

800.858.3502 explorebigsky.com

406.646.9591 MOUNTAIN

83

LAND

HALL AND HALL P R E S E RV I N G T H E W E S T E R N L A N D S C A P E B Y E M I LY S T I F L E R WO L F E

Tim Murphy turns his Suburban off Interstate 90 at Livingston, Montana, and heads south on Highway 89. Leaving the outskirts of town, the road enters a canyon between limestone cliffs carved by the Yellowstone River. DePuy Spring Creek is hidden by cottonwoods on the left.

Abruptly, the landscape opens into Paradise Valley, split and jack rail fences cordoning off fields of golden brown hay and vibrant green irrigated alfalfa.

The August sun filters in through the windshield.

“That’s Bullis Creek Ranch on the right,” says Murphy, 46, noting that Hall and Hall, where he is a partner, holds the listing on the private 6,220acre valley at $14.5 million.

To the east, the rugged 11,000-foot Absaroka Mountains rise 6,500 feet above the Yellowstone River.

84 MOUNTAIN

Adjacent to Bullis Creek, he points out the O’Hair Ranch, with its large blue silos and legendary spring creek; further south is the several-thousand-acre spread owned

by Austen Cargill II, an heir to Cargill Industries, one of the largest private companies in the country. Beyond this are ranches belonging to a former Goldman Sachs managing director and a senior partner in one of New York’s old line investment management companies.

While longtime local families still own ranches in this and other valleys around Montana, much of the state’s private land has remained open and in agricultural use because of non-resident landowners.

The first in Montana to sell working land as an investment asset, Hall and Hall is involved with the vast majority of these transactions in the West, and increasingly around other parts of the country and internationally.

explorebigsky.com

Special advertising section

When CNN founder and environmentalist Ted Turner purchased the Flying D Ranch south of Bozeman in 1989, it was a milestone in the real estate market, says Jim Taylor, 68, who helped broker the deal through Hall and Hall. “[Turner] was the first guy who was prepared to write a check for $20 million,” Taylor says. “Before that, $5 or $6 million was a lot.”

Hall and Hall also sold Turner the Bar None Ranch, a fly fishing and elk hunting property north of Bozeman, as well as a number of large ranches managed for bison and wildlife in Nebraska and South Dakota, and an estancia in Patagonia, near Bariloche, Argentina.

“He didn’t buy [the Flying D] with the idea of making a lot of money,” Taylor says about Turner’s signature 113,613-acre property where he raises bison for his restaurant chain, Ted’s Montana Grill. Instead, Turner, who Taylor says “cares deeply about the land,” wanted to return natural balance there by removing fences and creating habitat for indigenous wildlife like bison and elk.

Until the late 1970s, ranch land was priced on the number of cow/calf pairs it could sustain. Today, while these

“animal units” are still valued, buyers will pay even more for privacy, high quality fishing, hunting, wildlife habitat and scenery.

Although Turner brought attention to this market, he was not the first to make such a purchase. In Montana’s Madison Valley, for example, wealthy families have owned large operating ranches since the 1920s.

Many have donated conservation easements on their land, thereby giving up the development rights. Statewide, the Montana Land Reliance has helped landowners of all types establish easements on more than 2 million acres, keeping them available for agriculture and fish and wildlife habitat.

“The value of open space is really apparent,” said MLR managing director Jay Erickson. “It increases the value collectively for everybody.” He noted the aesthetic value of these easements, and the importance of maintaining agricultural land – “as basic as it sounds, we have to eat.”

The Nature Conservancy of Montana, which holds the conservation easement on Turner’s Flying D Ranch, has had similar success.

Hall and Hall sold the 80,000-acre G Hanging Dash Ranch, pictured here, in 2010. This large operation outside of Twin Bridges, Montana, runs around 3,000 head of cattle, making it economically viable. The Beaverhead, Ruby and Big Hole rivers flow together on the property, forming the Jefferson River. PHOTOS COURTESY OF HALL AND HALL

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

85

LAND

Lan d i s a tan g i b l e i n v e s tm e n t l i ke art, Tayl o r s ays . “ Th e pr i ce i n do l l ars m i g ht g o u p an d do w n , b u t the v al u e is n o t goi n g to g o aw ay… the y’ re n o t m aki n g an y m o re l and . ”

Grizzly Creek Ranch is a 1,945-acre parcel in Tom Miner Basin, four miles from Yellowstone National Park.

P

aradise Valley, Murphy says, has been on the map for nonresident buyers since the late 1960s, with celebrities like novelist Thomas McGuane, artist Russell Chatham and actor Peter Fonda owning property there and in some cases calling it home. The Suburban whizzes by the turnoff to Mountain Sky Guest Ranch – owned by Arthur Blank, cofounder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons.

Soon Murphy turns right onto the washboard of Tom Miner Creek Road, slowing to 25 miles an hour to cross the river on an old metal bridge. At the road’s end are the Gallatin Petrified Forest and the trailhead for 10,289-foot Ramshorn Peak; in their shadow is the B Bar Ranch, which produces organic grass-fed beef, maintains public Nordic ski trails, and is owned

by General Motors heiress Maryanne Mott.

After five miles, Murphy pulls left at a simple log archway into Grizzly Creek Ranch, a high-end corporate retreat and working ranch. Beyond a set of 100-year-old homestead cabins refurbished as guest quarters, dark volcanic cliffs frame the verdant valley.

86 MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

Visiting with the brokers, the facilities manager Dan Tompkins mentions he’s been seeing grizzly bears daily. The cow and calf elk will soon move down toward the Yellowstone River, he says, and the bull elk will remain on the ranch grounds in winter. “We had 60 or 70 bulls up here last year, and a herd of bighorn sheep.”

The ranch’s 1,945 deeded acres border the Gallatin National Forest, which runs into Yellowstone Park four miles beyond the jagged ridges.

Originally part of a larger ranch, Grizzly Creek was first sold

by Hall and Hall in the early 1970s for the family that founded the Ward Baking Company of England.

“This is probably the most spectacular and unique piece of property in the state,” Taylor said. “You show somebody this, and you can’t really show them anything else.”

It is currently listed at $25 million.

Special advertising section

ounded by Henry Hall and his son Warren, the Hall and Hall Mortgage Company began as an agricultural lender in 1946, working with farmers and ranchers just home from World War II. In 1972, led by Taylor – who grew up on a ranch on the Crow Indian Reservation south of Billings, Montana and graduated from Yale – the company expanded to offer agricultural properties as an investment class asset to a national and international clientele.

built one of the country’s largest farm and ranch auction companies.

Hall and Hall has grown significantly since its “humble beginnings” at $3 million in yearly revenue, Murphy

In 2012, Hall and Hall did more than 50 percent of its business in Montana, where it is headquartered, selling

Hall and Hall’s 15 partners make it their business to know the lifestyle they sell.

“Most of us grew up farming and ranching, and also are passionate about hunting, fishing, skiing and horses,” Murphy said. “We can easily put on our fishing hat or our cowboy hat, and they fit us well. It’s what we do.”

From left: Hall and Hall brokers Jim Taylor, Tim Murphy and Randy Shelton at Grizzly Creek Ranch.

Hall also deals in the South and the Midwest, as well as Canada, New Zealand and Latin America, using joint venture partners for international deals.

“Land has to be the primary asset for us,” Murphy says. “We try to stick with what we know.”

This could mean executive estates like Grizzly Creek or the 160-acre Elk Horn Ranch in the Yellowstone Club, a private ski and golf resort in Big Sky, Montana; sporting retreats like the Big Mountain Ranch in Meeker, Colorado, which harbors trophy game animals; or large working ranches like the 44,688-acre Winding Stair Ranch in Daisy, Oklahoma, which recently sold.

Those large agricultural operations are in fact where Hall and Hall has focused in the last few years, because many of its buyers are using them to park money as a safe alternative to the stock market or low-yielding government securities, Murphy said.

Because the majority of transactions are cash, the ranch market is highly unleveraged, so instead of crashing in 2008, Murphy says, “it just paused.”

This also means it’s stable – “The whole apple cart’s probably not going to topple.”

says, and the last decade “has produced nearly $2.5 billion in sales, spanning 2 million acres of private landscape.”

The firm now has 11 offices throughout the West, the Great Plains and Texas, collectively holding brokers licenses in 21 states - from Florida to California. In addition to real estate, it offers farm and ranch management and consulting services, mortgage loans, appraisals and most recently

approximately 189,500 deeded acres in the central and western part of the state – or about 66 percent of parcels larger than 2,500 acres, said Clark Wheeler, of the agricultural appraisal and consulting firm Norman C. Wheeler & Associates.

“They’re the industry leader, there’s no doubt about it,” Wheeler said.

While the bulk of its sales are in the West and the Great Plains, Hall and

Although still in a trough, the market began to rebound in 2010 and 2011, when “the gap between the ask and the offer finally [narrowed] where people started to transact again,” said broker Randy Shelton, 52. Subsequently, Hall and Hall had successive record setting quarters in 2012.

Additionally, Shelton said, since cattle, wheat and corn have been profitable in the last decade, agricultural operations can now produce a modest annual cash return. “You can get a 1 percent or better return on a

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

87

G. Harvey

JoHn ColeMan

Dan Metz

DaviD Mann

leGaCy Gallery is pleaseD to announCe tHe openinG of our tHirD Gallery.

BozeMan, Montana All artwork for the show may be viewed at www.legacygallery.com.

88 MOUNTAIN

B o z e M a n , Mt • J a C k s o n H o l e , W y • s C o t t s Da l e , az 7 west Main street, 1a • BozeMan, Montana 59715 • (406) 577-2810 explorebigsky.com W W W . l e G a C y G a l l e ry . C o M

Special advertising section

LAND

great ranch, compared to .05 percent on your savings account – farms do even better, though they are increasingly hard to find.”

Investment buyers don’t typically rely on a ranch’s income however, instead focusing on long-term real estate value, which Murphy says has historically been a viable asset.

Land is a tangible investment like art, Taylor says. “The price in dollars might go up and down, but the value is not going to go away… they’re not making any more land.”

Located in Chile’s southern Patagonia region, the 11,125-acre Estancia Valle Dorado Coyhaique has 13 miles of trout streams running through it, and a well-managed, low-overhead ranching operation.

ost of Hall and Hall’s business comes through referrals, and with many clients coming from cities, much of the brokers’ job is about education.

“Helping people understand [value in] the different markets is one of the biggest challenges,” Taylor said. “I help educate them, and the decision to buy becomes a logical extension of that process.”

Ultimately, it’s all about relationships.

Two of Hall and Hall’s biggest current clients, Texans Farris and Dan Wilks, sold their shares in their hydraulic fracturing company, FracTech, and are now the largest private landowners in Montana, excluding large corporations. Among the brothers’ more than 270,000-acre portfolio are the Pronghorn and Roosevelt ranches in the Snowy Mountains outside of Lewistown.

The Elk Horn Ranch is a 160-acre parcel inside the private Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana. Its well-appointed compound provides year-round use.

“Those properties were not on the market,” Murphy said, “but we had longstanding relationships with the previous owners, the late Earl Holding [of Sinclair Oil] and Ted Roosevelt, IV, so we were able to go directly to them and say, ‘We have someone who might want to buy your place. Would you be interested in selling it?’”

Approximately 30 percent of Hall and Hall’s sales are handled through private transactions such as this.

Certain properties are once in a lifetime opportunities, Murphy says, noting that although this term is often overplayed, it’s “very true in our market.” Ranches of this caliber often stay in families for generations.

Find more at hallandhall.com.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

89

The Great Western Ranch, near Quemado, New Mexico, has 176,805 deeded acres, and runs cows on around 292,000 total acres. Adjacent to the Ramah Navajo Indian Reservation and El Mal Pais National Conservation Area and set at around 6,000 feet, the ranch is home to 1,500-2,000 elk.

Creative Interactive Cuisine and Hibachi Steakhouse

WE’RE IN THE BUSINESS

Rated #1 by Trip Advisor

OF TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

AVAILABLE AT:

MT HWY WORKWEAR LOCATION: 19321 MOUNTAIN HWY E SPANAWAY, WA • (253) 846-5557

WASHINGTON STATE'S TRUSTED WORKWEAR SUPPLY MTHWYWORKWEAR.COM • (253) 875-9900 SPANAWAY, WA

Bringing you closer to Santosha (contentment) today... yoga massage acupuncture

chiropractic ayurveda thai massage

WINTER SCHEDULE - THROUGH APRIL 2014 SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY 5-6 pm Yin Yoga

7-8 am Yoga 8:15-9:15 am Pilates 9:30-10:45 am All Levels Yoga 6:30-8 pm All Levels Yoga

santosh abi gsky.co m WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

9-10:15 am All Levels Yoga 5:30-6:45 pm All Levels Yoga 7:30-8:30 pm Awareness Wednesdays (2nd & 4th Wed. of the month)

7-8 am Vinyasa Flow Level I-II 8:15-9:15 am Pilates 9:30-10:45 am All Levels Yoga 6:30-8 pm All Levels Yoga

8:15-9:15 am Zumba 9:30-11 am All Levels Yoga 6-7:30 pm The Practice (1st and 3rd Friday of the month)

9:00-10:30 am All Levels Yoga

N

ew

LD

LI

SO

ST

IN

G

Check the schedule online for workshops and special events

9-10:30 am All Levels Yoga 6-7 pm Zumba 7:30-8:15 pm Meditation (By Donation)

406-993-2510 • 169 Snowy Mountain Circle • Big Sky, Montana

Property ID 21132804

298 Ridge Fork Road ~ $3,250,000

84 Gravelley Range ~ $2,995,000

22 Acres in Big Sky near North Fork Trailhead 3 Master Suites in Main Log Home 3 Bedrooms in Guest Home 4 Stalls + Shower Stall, RV Storage in Horse Barn Huge Views of Mountains & No Other Rooftops

27 Acres in the Madison Valley 5,370 Square Feet 1-Acre Stocked Pond Springfed Creek Historic Powerhouse

ARTFuLLy uNITING exTRAORDINARy HOMeS wITH exTRAORDINARy LIVeS Tallie Jamison Lancey, Sales Associate 406.600.8081 || reallyBIGsky.com explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

91

Getaway Guide The ranch sits on the banks of Rock Creek, a blue ribbon trout stream

The Ranch at Rock Creek [Philipsburg, MT] Mountain Sky Guest Ranch [Emigrant, MT] Spring Creek Ranch [Jackson, WY]

There are guest ranches, and then there are these guest ranches.

Travelers come from around the world to fish at The Ranch at Rock Creek, to watch eagles fly above the Tetons at Spring Creek Ranch, and to horseback ride in the mountains above Mountain Sky Guest Ranch.

They come for the fine dining, western hospitality and the sense of escape. And what do you know?

These spots are in our backyard.

The Ranch at Rock Creek Experience-based Western luxury

THE RANCH AT ROCK CREEK Experience-based Western luxury The Ranch at Rock Creek has a storied past.

Originally a mining claim in the late 1800s, it was homesteaded at the turn of the 20th century and has been a working cattle ranch ever since. Famous as a horse-breeding site in the 1940s, it was even once home to the half brother of the great racehorse Man o’ War. In 2010, the property took on a new life, opening as a year-round guest ranch on par with the finest accommodations, setting and services in the West. Located just outside of Philipsburg, Montana, its 10 square miles sit on the banks of a prized trout fishery, Rock Creek.

Ranch owner Jim Manley has made tremendous investments into the ranch, creating a world-class equestrian program and well-

appointed lodging, and implementing more than $1 million in stream enhancements.

With a 2-1, staff-to-guest ratio, you won’t likely hear the word “no” during your stay.

“It feels like you’re at someone’s home, like hanging out with friends and family,” said Montanan Heather Budd on a fall 2013 visit.

The ranch achieves this fine balance between the Western guest ranch experience and Relais Chateaux-level services by mixing fine dining and backyard Montana adventure, its accommodations varying from cozy lodge rooms to private cabins and riverside glamping tents. This picturesque spot is ideal for family reunions, weddings and romantic getaways. – Eric Ladd

Don’t miss out on glamping at the Ranch at Rock Creek

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Wake up – breakfast is hearty! (Don’t miss the homemade Bloody Marys.) Then it’s off to fishing, where everyone from novice to advanced anglers will enjoy hunting the elusive Rock Creek brown trout on private waters. Head to the ‘Top-of-the-World’ lookout for a mid-day picnic with a view of the Pintler Mountains, then take an afternoon mountain bike or horseback ride followed by a soak in the cedar plank tub. The four-course dinner is paired with fine wine and topped off with an evening bowling session and late night karaoke at the Silver Dollar Saloon.

SECRETS

Mountain bike the Geronimo Trail (built by the gurus from Whistler, B.C.); request appetizers streamside at sunset; indulge in the Montana Port for dessert; fish the purple San Juan worm for cutthroat trout; and soak fireside in a claw-foot tub while listening to the river in a glamping tent.

IN THE KITCHEN

With influences from the Mediterranean and Montana, Chef Josh Drage uses an array of organic ingredients including locally raised beef and greens from the ranch’s garden to create masterful culinary treats ranging from Dutch oven cookouts to wine dinners.

Sleigh ride dinner

OPEN FOR WINTER

The Ranch at Rock Creek is open year-round and offers cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sleigh tours and snowmobiling in winter, with Discovery Ski Area just 20 minutes away. Winters here are peaceful – reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting with ice skating ponds, Christmas lights and snow-covered horses.

Reservations: Rates start at $950/person and are fully inclusive. ranchatrockcreek.com, (877) 786-1545 Cruising the world class trails

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

93

You can see the Tetons from almost every room at Spring Creek Ranch. PHOTO BY TYLER BUSBY

GETAWAY

SPRING CREEK RANCH serenity. “I like coming up here to enjoy a glass of wine and watch the sunset,” said one woman.

On a clear night, stars illuminate the lofty Teton Range silhouetted in the north, while a bull moose saunters next to the back deck.

Secluded on a 1,000-acre wildlife preserve 700 feet above the Jackson Hole Valley, this year-round, fourstar resort is only five miles from Jackson’s bustling town square and 12 from Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Accommodations range from western-themed hotel rooms and condos to impressive mountain villas, where deer, elk, red-tailed hawks and bald eagles can be seen on any given day. And the view is always changing: Some days each summit of the Cathedral Group – Teewinot, Owen and the Grand Teton – is visible, while other times the range is blanketed in clouds.

Even locals find themselves escaping to Spring Creek’s convenient

On Friday and Saturday nights, enjoy live music while feasting on mountain-inspired cuisine at Spring Creek’s award-winning Granary Restaurant. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the Granary provides impeccable service and options for the whole family – don’t miss the Cajun-spiced elk tenderloin.

Also on the grounds are a visitor and conference center, full-service spa (try receiving your treatment in the teepee!), indoor and outdoor hot tubs, a pool, tennis courts and a corral with 50 horses. Whether here on business, traveling with family and friends, or enjoying a couples’ getaway, Spring Creek will not disappoint.

– Maria Wyllie

WILDLIFE AND NATURAL HISTORY

The Dawn of Dusk wildlife safari takes guests on a journey through Jackson Hole’s wildlife hotspots, while a tour through Yellowstone National Park typically includes stops at various geysers, the Old Faithful Visitors Center, the Canyon region and the Hayden Valley. For all tours, experienced wildlife biologists tailor excursions exclusively to each group.

FOR THE PHOTO ENTHUSIAST Get to know your camera on the Grand Teton Photo Safari, where a professional photographer takes you to some of the park’s most photogenic locations and provides insight on capturing the best images possible.

Reservations : Pricing varies by season. Find rates and booking information at springcreekranch.com, or by calling (800) 443-6139.

94

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

A late fall dip in Mountain Sky’s hot tub Families return year after year to horseback ride at Mountain Sky Guest Ranch.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

Begin with yoga at sunrise, overlooking the ranch and the 11,000-foot peaks of the Absaroka Range in the east.

Devour breakfast before embarking on a backcountry horseback ride. Or take a “meal ride” to a mountain cabin, for deluxe grub cooked over a fire, surrounded by unmatched vistas.

Spend the afternoon golfing on a private, Johnny Miller-designed course, then fly fish in Big Creek’s, gin-clear water.

But don’t ignore the dinner bell – the dining in the lodge will be a highlight of your trip.

Finish by soaking in a hot tub overlooking the range, followed by a nightcap in the original saloon, before retreating to your private cabin and its blazing fireplace.

The Rising Sun golf course

MOUNTAIN SKY GUEST RANCH When Nelson Story drove the first herd of longhorn cattle from Texas to Montana (think Lonesome Dove), an early winter in 1866 forced him to plant stakes in the exact site where Mountain Sky Ranch sits today.

Tucked in the Gallatin Range west of Emigrant, Montana, the property has been home to cowboys and cattle ever since.

1929 brought a depressed cattle market, forcing then-owner Charles Murphy to welcome “dudes” to the 10,000-acre spread, strapping city slickers to horses and feeding them campfire meals.

Arthur Blank’s 2001 purchase of Mountain Sky firmly placed it among the top luxury guest ranch retreats in the world.

Blank remodeled the original structures with modern amenities, giving the visitor a sense of true Montana.

The main lodge still has its original fireplaces and exposed beams. Several cabins, carefully restored, now give visitors a place to rest their heads after a day of adventure.

Today, the ranch is known for activities – horseback riding, golfing, fly fishing, rafting and clay shooting are all offered – as well as its onsite creature comforts and exquisite food.

With several kids’ programs, it’s no wonder that booking is tight, considering 80 percent of guests return annually.

– E.J. Daws

Reservations: Packages vary depending on the season. Find more information at mountainsky.com or (800) 548.3392.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

95

DISCOUNTED PRICES ON GUIDED TRIPS Learn to fly fish or rest your ski legs Two-hour, half-day, full-day walk-wade and float trips

Winter means

powder days, snowflakes on the tongue,

WE GOT THE GEAR YOU WANT: Simms G4 Pro Wader and Coldweather shirt Winston’s new BIIIsx and GVX Select Sage’s NEW Circa and popular ONE INSANE PRICE MARKDOWNS ON THE GEAR YOU NEED: Simms waders, boots and clothing; Patagonia goods; Sage and Winston rods; Sage reels and more

Discounted prices on guided trips Learn to fly fish or rest your ski legs with a day a-stream or a-float We got the gear you want: Simms new G4 Pro Waders and new Coldweather shirts and pants; Winston’s BIIIx; Sage’s new ONE

...and fly fishing for trout!?!?!

Discounted prices on the gear you need: discounted Simms, Winston, and more THOMAS LEE PHOTOGRAPHY

96

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

Fine Purveyors of WINTER Fly Fishing Awesome-ness.

GEAR. GUIDES. HONEST INFO. Serving Big Sky, Yellowstone Park, and Southwest Montana

montanaflyfishing.com • 406-995-2290 Pat Straub; Montana licensed outfitter #7878

GEAR

T

O

T

A

L

GEAR

M A K E O V E R PORTRAITS BY JON MARSHALL

Mountain towns wouldn’t function without dedicated locals.

These are the schoolteachers, waitresses, fundraisers, rescue workers and lift operators who quietly go about their business, logging overtime hours to support the communities they love.

Most of them live in ski towns, well, because they love to ski. However, they typically don’t get snazzy new equipment every year. We worked with four community members from our hometown of Big Sky, Montana, and decked them out with the most badass 2013/14 gear we could find.

PHOTO BY TYLER BUSBY

“I was drawn to this project because of [Pete’s] raw nature and his passion for human-powered skiing,” said Dynafit Communications Manager Eric Henderson, who lined tester Pete Owens out with boots and bindings.

K2 Skis aims to lead in designing skis made for women and by women, said MJ Carroll of K2. This year’s new Remedy 102s are featured in tester Patty Hamblin’s kit.

For Mountain Outlaw, the goal was to shed light on our testers’ work, to say thanks, and hopefully, to rip a few turns with them this winter. – The Editors

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

97

PATTY HAMBLIN

ENGLISH TEACHER, LONE PEAK HIGH SCHOOL

ALPINE SKIING

GEAR

After 17 years in Big Sky, Patty Hamblin knows her favorite spot on the mountain: Bavarian Forest.

Originally from Preston, Idaho (think Napoleon Dynamite), the English teacher spends her free time taking care of her baby daughter and “generally having a great time in the outdoors.”

“I like the tight-knit feel of Big Sky – being able to drive down the road and wave at every other car because you know them is magical,” says Hamblin, 38. “I also love how active our community is.”

For Hamblin, being a teacher is a way to give back – from planning the Lone Peak High School Outdoor Expedition to serving as the Student Council Advisor, “there are so many great opportunities that go along with the job.”

Patagonia Untracked Anorak and Pants I was skeptical of the Anorak’s pullover style, but have been pleasantly surprised that the side-zip allows effortless entry/exit. Both items have the right amount of room for extra layers on cold winter days. If you’re warm hiking Big Sky’s A-Z chutes, the pit zips are easy to pull up and down with gloves on, and the leg vents are well placed.

To give the Gore-Tex an honest try, I sat in my chairlift swing through a crazy fall rainstorm.

The jacket (with its helmet compatible hood) and pants kept the wet out, and the warm in.

One of my complaints with past iterations of Patagonia ski pants was length. This awesome company heard its customers and remedied the problem – these are just right. Anorak $550, pants $449 patagonia.com Salomon Xtend Goggle The Xtends have a wonderful lens that dims the sun and comes in great colors. Available in several sizes. salomon.com Patagonia Women’s Capilene 4 Expedition Weight One Piece Suit This incredibly cozy, comfy base layer receives an A+ in my book. And the first question most of you may ask: What about the bathroom? Phew – there is a drop-seat that zips down both sides. An extrahigh neck and thumbholes to keep the sleeves in place round out a onesie you won’t regret slipping on. $199 patagonia.com

98

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

K2 Remedy 102 These skis have received rave reviews. With camber underfoot, they’re stable on groomers; the rockered tip and 16-meter turn radius makes them maneuverable in all sorts of terrain, especially deep pow pow! You will definitely see me on the slopes taking the Remedies for a ride. $599.95 k2skis.com Marker Griffon bindings At 67 ounces, the Griffons are lightweight: key for me this winter, as I’m nine months out of ACL surgery. Same goes for the lower DIN range, which is beneficial for lighter weight skiers, but not ideal for someone burlier. My knees are also happy with the Griffon’s easy entry and release. $295 markerusa.com K2 HighStyle poles Sometimes, the simplest tasks, like putting pole straps around my wrist, frustrate me. Sizing them to different gloves is too hard. Those days are over with the K2 HighStyles.

Lightweight, they have easily adjustable straps, plus retro ‘80s hot pink á la Better off Dead and a comfortable grip. $99.95 k2skis.com

Union Factory T Rice binding This new binding from Union was designed by “the man,” Travis Rice! The binding is a bit stiffer than most, but offers great board control. With a 2mm lift in the front, the footbed has a slight gas pedal feel, allowing quick transition in and out of turns.

Strap and highback adjustments are all done without a tool, which makes changing them on the fly super easy. $269.95 unionbindingcompany.com

Mitch Hamel moved to Big Sky planning to stay a winter, and after six years he’s still here.

Originally from Groton, New York, Hamel learned to snowboard while working as a ticket checker at Bromley Mountain, Vermont. He moved to Big Sky from Burlington, where he worked as a counselor at a juvenile detention center.

“Big Sky has felt like home since the day we moved here,” the 31-year-old says. “It has and continues to be a very welcoming community.”

Smith Vice Goggles Who knew goggles could be so techy? Spherical, Carbonic-X Lens, TLT Optics, Articulating Outrigger Positioning System, Patented Vaporator Lens Technology, Porex™ Filter, 5X Anti-Fog Inner Lens… umm, all you need to know is that the Vice’s minimal frame and oversized lens give you a huge field of vision, and the inner triple layer of foam makes them comfy. Both lenses have 5X anti-fog to keep them clear: the Blackout lens is best for sun, while the Red Sensor Mirror kills it in low light. $170 smithoptics.com

An all-around fun-loving guy, Hamel also likes to hike, trail run, camp, bike and canoe.

SNOWBOARDING

Never Summer Raptor This is an ideal Big Sky board: It’s a mid-stiff, directional board with a rockered tip and tail and camber underfoot. I love the setback stance, which allows better flotation in deep snow. The carbon and rubber stringers combined with the durasurf base and sintered p-tex sidewalls keep it nice and light, while also adding strength and durability – perfect for any rocks Lone Mountain throws at it! $589.99 neversummer.com

MITCH HAMEL

FIREFIGHTER AND EMT, BIG SKY FIRE DEPARTMENT

Dakine Force Jacket The Force has tons of features: a chest pocket for your phone, hood drawcords, adjustable cuffs, doubled wrist gaiters, a zippered pass pocket, a mesh goggle pocket and thumb holes. More importantly, the zippers are stormproof, the pit zips are huge, the hood fits over your helmet, and the whole rig is insulated and waterproof. The fit on Dakine outerwear runs big, so make sure you try it on first or check their sizing guide. $300 dakine.com

Dakine Ace Pant These are great pants from Dakine with stormproof/fully taped zippers and extra primaloft in the areas that contact the snow most – the knees and butt. Powder skirt loops allow easy hook-up with a jacket, and boot gaiters help keep snow out. Oversized leg vents accommodate even the rare warm day. $250 dakine.com Dakine Excursion Glove I run hot and don’t have an issue with cold hands, so these sleek gloves are just right – I especially like the dexterity, which makes getting in and out of bindings easier. Specs: 170 grams of Primaloft; water repellent leather/ soft shell outers; breathable Gore Tex waterproof inner; wool lining. $85 dakine.com Airblaster Ninja Suit You won’t win any fashion contests in the Ninja Suit, but from a functional standpoint, this full-piece base layer system with hood has you covered. You’ll never deal with exposed skin or snow down your underpants again. $79.99 poly; $189.99 merino wool) myairblaster.com

99

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

99

GEAR

GEAR FOR ANY SPORT Hammer Perpetuem If George Jetson were a skier, he would take Perpetuem on his big adventures. This large chewable pill is usable as your sole food source.

Read the label to figure out how much to take hourly (according to your body size), put the pills in your pocket, and set off on a multi-day ski tour around Yellowstone. Don’t forget to drink a lot of water with this space-age product. hammernutrition.com

Darn Tough Socks With 1441 stitches of fine merino wool per square inch (the most in the industry), Darn Tough socks stay cushy all day. No seams = no blisters. Top it off with an unconditional lifetime warranty.

Testers Mitch and Patty tried DT’s Over-the-Calf Cushion Padded Shin Ski/ Ride Socks for their on-mountain ripping this year; Jessie’s cruising the Lone Mountain Ranch trails with her Nordic Micro Crew Ultralights, and Pete is skinning up a backcountry ridge somewhere, reveling in his Padded Over-the-Calf Ultralight Ski/Ride Socks. darntough.com

MEDIA

MARKETING VIDEO PRODUCTION

M O U N TA I N O U T L A W

EXPLORE BIG SKY

E X P L O R E B I G S K Y. C O M

(BIANNUAL)

( B I W E E K LY )

( D A I LY )

1 Sept. 20-Oct. 3, 2013

HEADER

explorebigsky.com

Life and land from the heart of the Yellowstone Region

Explore Big Sky

Big Sky FALL ON THE FLY: The fishing issue

S T R AT E G I C P L A N N I N G A N D C O N S U LT I N G

PHOTO BY DAVE EDWARDS

Sept. 20-Oct. 3, 2013 Volume 4 // Issue #19

Sam Byrne talks investment at Montana economic summit

BUSINESS PROFILE: Willie's Distillery takes Ennis by storm

A summer of Music in the Mountains

explorebigsky.com

GRAPHIC DESIGN

WEB DEVELOPMENT P U B L I C R E L AT I O N S A N D AGENCY SERVICES EVENT PLANNING AND PRODUCTION

Gov. Bullock meets with top Montana companies

LET US HELP YOU TAKE YOUR BRAND TO THE WORLD. Contact: media@theoutlawpartners.com, 406.995.2055 • theoutlawpartners.com 100

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

A Bismarck, North Dakota, native and five-year Big Sky resident, Jessie Wiese, 32, puts her master’s in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences to use as director of Big Sky’s parks and trails organization, the Big Sky Community Corporation.

Salomon S-Lab Skate Pro boot Never has a top-of-the-line skate boot offered such comfort and warmth without compromising performance. The stiff sole and forward heel cup combined with a state-of-the-art micro-adjusting buckle system took my skiing from slightly sloppy to very tight. $399 salomon.com

She frequents the Lone Mountain Ranch Nordic trails, clocking 8-10 miles a day, five days a week on her skate skis.

“It’s important to me not to live to work, but to live for my passions, enjoy my surroundings, and try to help people and communities reach their potential and goals,” she said.

Smartwool Cortina Hoody This merino knit hoody offers sun protection up to UPF 25, and it pops with color and style. The performance-driven design includes flatlock seams to eliminate chafing, and thumbholes that increase coverage. The built-in flip mitts fold over my hands, keeping them covered when I need a little extra warmth. $110 smartwool.com Smartwool NTS Light 195 bottom These windproof, reflective tights are my new best friend on cold, snowy days. Although form fitting, the merino wool material is not constricting, and the wide, women’s specific waistband is a comfortable addition. The secure rear pocket works well for storing gear or food. $85 smartwool.com

JESSIE WIESE

Smartwool PhD Cortina Jacket This is the jacket to own in the southwest Montana climate. The nylon outer and merino inner keep me toasty on a long downhill Nordic ski run, and I loved it for fall bike rides and climbing peaks mid-summer.

The front pocket is perfect for storing music or a snack on longer Nordic treks. $160 smartwool.com

Wiese is a Big Sky Rotary Club member, a board member on the local Mountain Bike Alliance, Natural Resource Council and park district, and has also helped coach the local Nordic team.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BIG SKY COMMUNITY CORPORATION

Salomon S-Lab Carbon Pole This incredibly light and super stiff carbon pole transfers more power through each pole plant. The new, perfectly fitting ergonomic strap gave me excellent control and the optional smaller, lighter baskets minimize drag. $299.99 salomon.com

NORDIC SKIING

Salomon S-LAB Equipe 10 Skate SG Not only are these skis light, they’re also responsive and highly stable. The Nomex honeycomb core is wrapped with a carbon fiberglass laminate and sandwiched between wood sidewalls – which means every bit of energy you put in becomes powerful forward momentum. The G5 Zeolit race base has an additive that increases glide and wax retention, and balanced pressure and camber make every snow condition – especially cold – feel fast. Incredible rebound energy makes me feel like I’m ready for a 50k. $649.99 salomon.com

Julbo Whoops sunglasses Designed for smaller faces, the Whoops’ photochromatic lenses excel in many light conditions, and the scratch resistant, anti-fog coating keeps them performing despite changing temps. $90-$160 julbousa.com

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

101

PETE OWENS

BIG SKY SEARCH AND RESCUE

“I can put skins on at my house, climb as far as I want and never run into anyone,” he said.

“The shot is southeast facing, and you ski everything – deep powder, crust and dirt and rock, sometimes all in one run.”

Classic Owens: positive attitude, hair-brained schemes.

A volunteer with the local search and rescue team, he is currently taking classes toward Occupational Therapy at Montana State University, and spends much of his free time bagging peaks near Big Sky.

Mammut/Barryvox Element avalanche beacon The directions for the Element are only one page long (even I will read that). Without practice, I performed a multiple beacon search flawlessly. User friendly, this is a great beacon for beginners and is similar to the Mammut/ Barryvox Pulse, but without the advanced options for professionals (which come with a larger user manual and price tag). The Element’s screen is not backlit, so you’ll need a headlamp on a dark night… but you probably want one of those anyways. $489.95 mammut.ch G3 Spade Tech Shovel Digging buried people out is the most time consuming part of avalanche recovery, and shovel design has come a long way the past five years.

The Spade Tech looks like a tiny toy you’d pack to save weight, but with its straight shaft/blade, paddling softer snow like a canoe and carving blocks from firm debris won’t flex the shovel a hair. $59.95 genuineguidegear.com G3 300 Carbon Speed Tech Probe G3’s Speed Tech 300 locks into place with a pull cord. If you’re looking to volunteer or work for a rescue organization, you’ll need a 300 cm probe. This one comes in 43 cm segments and weighs 284 g, with cm’s marked for pit digging. $84.95 genuineguidegear.com G3 Bone Saw Since becoming commonplace, the extended column test has provided improved accuracy for avalanche decision-making. With that, the snow saw has gone from a geeky nonessential, to an every-outing-necessity. At 169 grams, G3 has answered the call of a simple, light, solid tool. $59.95 genuineguidegear.com

102

WHAT PETE’S PACKIN’

Pete Owens has been skiing for 29 years and living in Big Sky for nine. The former professional ski patroller loves touring up the low angle terrain on Tick Ridge with friends.

MOUNTAIN

PHOTO BY JON MARSHALL

BACKCOUNTRY SKIING

GEAR

Black Diamond Anarchist Pack w/ Avalung (Pete wearing at right) With 2,624 cubic inches of space and weighing 4.5 lbs. (including the Avalung avalanche safety breathing device), the Anarchist is a go-anywhere pack. With it, everything is at my fingertips: Snacks/light layers in the belt pocket, goggles in the top pocket, pit kit in the bigger top compartment, and avalanche gear in a dedicated front pouch. The hip strap still on, I can swing the pack around front and access the back zippered compartment. $299.95 genuineguidegear.com Black Diamond Ascension Nylon STS skins These skins can put in a skin track so steep your partners’ hips will hurt just looking at it. They’ve stuck to my skis at -20 F, worked after I fell into a creek, and after walking a half-mile over rock, too tired to remove my skis. On that note: Always bring two of the rubber, belt-like ski straps – lifesavers if your skins do fail. $139.95 blackdiamondequipment.com Julbo Orbiter goggles The Orbiters’ photochromatic lens changes tint with changing light and their frame is so comfortable I sometimes forget to remove them on the skin up. $180-200 julbousa.com Ibex Indie Arm Warmer An instant layer change, these arm warmers fit in my pack hip pocket. I grab them on the fly when cold, or stash them when sweaty. $40 shop.ibex.com Brooks Range pit kit: This is a vast improvement for anyone still carrying a crammed stuff sac of snow crystal cards and waterproof paper. Brooks Range’s sleek bag lets you organize your stability rating tools with dedicated pockets for every item. $151.95 brooks-range.com

explorebigsky.com

Black Diamond Justice skis The BD Justice is the voice of reason in a fast evolving ski world that almost left us at the trailhead with two Ushaped snowboard-looking “skis” on our feet. With its “semi-rockered” tail, I feel solid in steep, firm couloirs; the moderate sidecut is great for getting an edge in on the skin track.

At 6’2” and 190 lbs., I was apprehensive about the capped sidewall (tricky to repair) and the max length of 185 cm. However, with 115 cm underfoot, a rockered tip, and enough useable edge, it was perfect for spring tours.

By incorporating paulownia wood with carbon fiber, the Justice has that “real ski” wooden feel, without the weight (8 lbs., 6 oz per pair/185 cm). I even found a rock to hit, and am happy to say both the rock and the ski survived just fine. The Justice is set to change in future seasons, so get them now while they’re hot. $437 blackdiamondequipment.com Dynafit Mercury TF Alpine Touring Boot Unbuckle the boot cuff with Dynafit’s new central buckle system, and the Mercurys have running shoe-like range of motion.

Buckle the cuff down, and you have an aggressive ski boot. I’ll never again confuse ski and walk mode. If you call the back of your truck your second home, this boot is all the chairlift you need. $799.95 dynafit.com Dynafit TLT Radical ST binding Dynafit has made believers out of us skiers who long assumed the small unsuspecting pin binding could never hold us or our huge egos.

Turns out, they do the job quite well. The TLT Radical ST is for those looking for light bindings in and out of bounds, without having to wear leashes. Ultra-light geeks, be forewarned: The brakes cannot be removed. $499.95 dynafit.com Outdoor Research Ferrosi Hoody Water resistant and with great wicking capacity, this is one of the most versatile jackets I’ve ever worn. At 399 grams, it’s uber-light (I sometimes imagine ripping it off like Hulk Hogan entering a wrestling ring), but it’s tough and even survived a crash into a rock pile. $125 outdoorresearch.com Outdoor Research Trailbreaker Pants These lightweight, durable, water resistant pants have slim fit and a great range of motion, but aren’t so tight people look at you and think, “That guy’s a tool.”

The right pocket is “beacon rated,” a new trend in the avalanche world where you clip your transceiver in your pocket for quick access. As with any avalanche skill, practice is the only thing that makes your search faster. $195 outdoorresearch.com

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

103

Balanced care for your pet Big Sky’S ReStoRation & textile Cleaning SpeCialiSt SinCe 1988

Our Mission:To provide the best possible service to our clients through education, experience, courtesy, honesty and professionalism.

Holistic care and traditional veterinary medicine • Acupuncture • Herbal consultations • Physical rehabilitation

iiCRC CeRtified fiRm • 24-houR emeRgenCy SeRviCeS

338 Gallatin Park Drive, Bozeman • (406) 551-2360 • 360petmedical.com

Free Estimates

futurakitchencabinetry.com

Quality On-site Craftsmanship

Montana Made

406.586.1300 1195 Stoneridge Ste #5, Bozeman, MT 59718

Elizabeth Adamson and Will Lynch chillin’ on the summit of Mount Elly during a backcountry ski with their dads on Teton Pass. PHOTO BY STEPHEN ADAMSON

FAMILY

Thwarting Cabin Fever, Family Style

BY LUKE LYNCH

Looks of surprise and confusion greeted our party

as we skinned past other backcountry skiers on our way out to Mount Elly that crystal blue January day. Elizabeth, age 2, rode quietly on her dad’s back, taking in the sights. My 1½-year-old son Will squirmed and giggled, pulling my sunglasses off my face as we cruised along.

Avoiding cabin fever with young kids takes some work, but it’s worth it. Here are a few alternatives to riding the chairlift, or when the kids are too little to ski the resort.

TOBOGGAN

We laughed and laughed as we climbed to Elly’s 9,279foot “summit” on the south side of Teton Pass, where we let the kids down for a snack break and a romp in the snow.

Find a road that’s groomed for snowmobiles or has user-created tracks; a nice gentle uphill from the trailhead is best. Load up the toboggan (a plastic sled with a rope will do), pack up snacks and hot chocolate, bundle up, and head out.

“Go faster, Dada!” Elizabeth said, squealing as she and Stephen took a short run down a gentle east-facing powder field. On my back, Will just laughed with delight.

The beauty is in the mini-adventures along the way, and the thrill of descent. Drag the wee ones up for some exercise, and when they get antsy you have a quick, thrilling ride down.

Goggles and helmets add mystique to the adventure. On the right road, a descent of several miles is possible.

Inspired by Calvin and Hobbs, the scrawling on our sled says “Speed, Angle, Lean – Calvin would do it.”

We were either heroes or villains to the folks we met that day – one woman worried the kids were cold and checked if they still had their mittens (they did). Another, a mom herself, proclaimed us the best dads ever, and a ski bum in the parking lot said what we were doing was f’ing awesome.

By early afternoon, it was time to head home, so we put our skins back on and headed back to the ridgeline and our eventual descent back to the truck at the top of the pass.

Max Lynch loves fresh snow. PHOTO BY LUKE LYNCH

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

105

FAMILY

Brothers Max and Will Lynch on a cross country ski with Dad. When Max tires, the skis and poles can be secured to the Chariot. PHOTO BY LUKE LYNCH

SKI When kids are too small to ride the chairlift or if you’re looking for something different, it’s good to have a plan.

Here are three options:

1

Low avalanche danger: Bring a little one along for mellow backcountry tours in a pack like the Osprey Poco Plus. The added weight makes easy terrain more difficult, so if you usually focus on steeper backcountry skiing, taking a kid is an opportunity to check out a relaxing spot or scout burly terrain from a mellower angle. It’s always better to go with another adult – watching someone peel his or her climbing skins with a child on board can be pretty funny.

2

Cross country: I load a kid or two in the Chariot with a ski attachment and enjoy both the company and added challenge of a skate or a classic ski.

The cold winter air and gentle rocking are soporific – great for little ones who don’t nap easily.

3

Lifts: Some resorts allow you to carry a child on your back while riding the lifts. Others don’t, so check before making the drive.

ENDLESS SNOW FORT Our kids’ imaginations run wild when we build snow castles, dragons, tunnels, ramps and slides. We try to keep a snow building project underway all winter, using the snowplow piles to mine blocks and tunneling material.

*MONTANA’SBEST

I sometimes worry about the consequences of collapse… one more thing added to the endless hazards, but I love that our kids find such endless adventures in our backyard and neighborhood.

Nutrition, Supplements, Grooming, Self-wash & Unique Dog Gear.

SHOP ONLINE

DEE-O-GEE.COM d an

106

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

WE DO 4069952305 BIG SKY FOOD

we deliver serving breakfast lunch & dinner view menu at:

bigskybluemoonbakery.com

D YOUR • • FIN

PERFECT PROPERTY BIG SKY • YELLOWSTONE CLUB • MOONLIGHT BASIN • SPANISH PEAKS • SKI, GOLF AND FISHING PROPERTIES

Eric & Stacy Ossorio Eric Ossorio, Broker - 406.539.9553 Stacy Ossorio, Broker - 406.539.8553 eric.ossorio@prumt.com stacy.ossorio@prumt.com ossoriorealestategroup.com prumt.com

Real Estate Group

IDAHO

BIG SKY

JACKSON

YELLOWSTONE

MONTANA

CODY

RED LODGE

WYOMING

BOZEMAN

A SMALL ‘TASTE’ OF SOME OF THE GREAT RESTAURANTS SURROUNDING YELLOWSTONE PARK

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

109

NOVA CAFÉ Voted best breakfast in Bozeman! thenovacafe.com BRIDGER BREWING Craft beer, craft pizza bridgerbrewing.com 14 NORTH Contemporary take on handcrafted and scratch-prepared new west food, plus a full bar 14northrestaurant.com

BLUE MOON BAKERY Bakery, pizza & more bigskybluemoonbakery.com BROKEN SPOKE Pit BBQ & daily drink specials brokenspokebigsky.com OLIVE B’S Continental cuisine & notable wine list olivebsbigsky.com

SNAKE RIVER GRILL American Grill - wood burning oven snakerivergrill.com

SNAKE RIVER BREWING Considered Jackson’s “Living Room” Pub and grub with locals and visitors alike snakeriverbrewing.com

THAI ME UP Part Thai food, part brewery thaijh.com

JACKSON

SPUR COFFEE Espresso, baked goods, fresh squeezed juices ouselandspurpizza.com

CITY BAKERY Traditional Red Lodge – everything made from scratch and traditional recipes (406) 446-2100

RED LODGE ALES Fresh, local, craft beer. redlodgeales.com

RED LODGE

RIB AND CHOP HOUSE The best steak, seafood and rib house around ribandchophouse.com

ADRIANO’S Authentic Italian cuisine and homegrown western hospitality adrianositalianrestaurant.com

CODY

COPPER WHISKEY BAR Rustic elegance, with a wide variety of food and over 100 whiskies from around the world coppermontana.com

WHISKEY JACK’S - SLOPESIDE Southwestern cuisine in Big Sky Resort’s Mountain Village bigskyresort.com

OUSEL & SPUR Pizza, pasta, salads, full bar ouselandspurpizza.com

BOZEMAN

BIG SKY

Lamborn Family Vineyards in Napa’s Howell Mountain apellation. PHOTO BY MICHAEL WRIGHT

HEALTH

BY ERIC ANDERSON, MD

My sports medicine patients often inquire about my views on wine consumption, and I’m proud to tell them, “I drink wine!”

In the past few decades, medical research has shown moderate wine consumption (two glasses per day for men and one for women) may have significant health benefits for reducing the risk of most age related diseases. Specifically, these studies have demonstrated a decreased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, dementia and diabetes.

The potential health benefits are thought to be related to the large number of bioactive components in wine with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. One of the antioxidants, “resveratrol,” is present in the seeds and skin of grapes and is also found in wine, especially red.

Since heavy consumption of wine or other alcohol is associated with increased risk of liver disease and multiple types of cancer, I always recommend moderation.

The truth is, I drink wine because it tastes so damn good!

Here are two from smaller Napa Valley wineries I’ve recently discovered that are worth their weight in resveratrol.

A sports medicine physician and a United States Cycling Federation category 1 cyclist, Dr. Eric Anderson claims to be more of a health critic than a wine critic. He practices with Rockwood Sports Medicine in Spokane, Washington.

110

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

Why wine is still good for you

2012 Von Strasser Gruner Veltliner Von Strasser winery is located in the beautiful Diamond Mountain District of Calistoga, in California’s Napa Valley.

Winemaker Rudy Von Strasser is a graduate of the U.C. Davis Enology program and a spent time studying at Chateau Lafite-Rothschild in France. He and his wife Rita opened the winery in 1990, when they purchased the property on Diamond Mountain. Wine and Spirits magazine has named Von Strasser to its top 100 wineries for nine consecutive years.

Common in Austria, Gruner Veltliner is relatively new in the United States. Von Strasser is the first producer of this white varietal in California, and the wine is outstanding.

Crisp and fruity, it has much more body than a pinot gris or sauvignon blanc. This is an excellent alternative to a traditional Napa Chardonnay when you’re looking for a fruit-forward wine without the oak.

It pairs nicely with poultry, fish or pasta dishes, and is perfectly suited for a holiday dinner. vonstrasser.com

2009 Lamborn Family Vineyards Vintage VII Cabernet Sauvignon

Lamborn Family Vineyards is located in Napa’s well-known Howell Mountain appellation.

Bob and Mike Lamborn, father and son, bought the land in 1971 and produced the first vintage of zinfandel a decade later. Since bringing on U.C. Davis Enology graduate and accomplished Napa winemaker Heidi Barrett in 1996, Lamborn Family Vineyards has consistently produced exceptional, award-winning zinfandels and cabernets.

And this cab – wow! It is everything a cabernet sauvignon should be, with a deep blackberry color, an intense and complex bouquet. Big, bold and smooth, it pairs with beef or lamb dishes, and anything with dark chocolate. It is pricey; however, it ranks among the top cabernet sauvignons I’ve tried this year. lamborn.com

A continental bistro serving lunch and dinner, Monday- Saturday N O T E WO RT H Y W I N E L I S T • S P E C I A L T Y C O C K TA I L S • L O N E M O U N TA I N V I E W S Located in Meadow Village Center, 151 Center Lane #2 | Reservations: (406) 995-3355 or olivebsbigsky.com 111 explorebigsky.com MOUNTAIN

IF YOU WANT IT CLEAN, MAKE IT DUTCH CLEAN

Manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected, and realize your dreams.

406-209-0661 D U TC H C L E A N.N E T

Brad Daws State Farm Insurance Inc. 1716 W. Main, Bozeman (406) 995-3079 www.braddaws.net

112

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com

PHOTO BY JON MARSHALL

Enhance your landscape and extend your growing season with our beautiful hand-crafted Montana greenhouses.

6532 US Highway 287, Norris, Montana Just around the corner from the Norris Hot Springs!

406-685-3677 nye@frdmontana.com www.frdmontana.com

RIDE

LESS HOUSEâ&#x20AC;Ś

BY ERIC LADD

As long as there have been cars, there have been RVs. The first motorhomes and camping trailers came off the factory lines at Pierce-Arrow and Auto-Kamp Trailers more than 100 years ago, in 1910.

Road trippers and sports enthusiasts, look out: Outside Van is revolutionizing the 21st century RV with durable, functional and stylish rigs, built in Portland, Oregon.

Residents of the outdoor mecca, Hood River, Oregon, company owners Erik and Nicole Ekman spent two decades camping, surfing, skiing and mountain biking out of SUVs before deciding in 1995 to build the best recreational vehicles possible.

Built into the body of a Mercedes Sprinter van, Outside Vans are custom designed for each individual owner. You can bring your own van and have them retrofit it for mountain biking, or order from a range of Sprinters at outsidevan.com and design the setup around kite surfing, motocross, surfing or snowmobile skiing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; pick your sport.

114 114MOUNTAIN MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com explorebigsky.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF OUTSIDE VAN

Watch a video about Outside Van at explorebigsky.com/outsidevan

MORE VAN

THIS IS NOT A LIVING ROOM ON WHEELS explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

115

The vans can be customized for almost any outdoor sport PHOTO COURTESY OUTSIDE VAN

RIDE

WINTER? No problem.

Stud out the tires and let the road trip to British Columbia begin.

Hood River in the summer is like Pacific Beach in San Diego in the winter. Below: Outside Van Founder Erik Ekman prepares for a downwind paddle on the Columbia River. PHOTOS BY BRIAN NILES

COST? Starting at $50,000 WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? There is a six-month waiting list to get your Outside Van dialed out.

Step 3. Design your dream ride.

“This is not a living room on wheels,” Erik says, describing the vans as “functional gear garages on wheels that can be sprayed out with a hose.” Most other RV’s, he says, “are garbage, built with particle board.”

Step 4. Meet at Kite Beach for van delivery, eat fish tacos and get a downriver SUP paddle in before you drive the first mile in the new rig.

The diesel Mercedes Sprinter vans get 20 miles to the gallon and fit in normal parking spaces.

THE PROCESS: Step 1. Source a Sprinter van.

Step 2. Get deposit in place at Outside Van.

Step 5. Downsize your house, as you’ll no longer want to be at home.

OUTSIDE VAN FOUNDER ERIK EKMAN’S RECOMMENDED WINTER ROAD TRIP Drive your van to British Columbia…

1. Sniff out the tree stashes at Whitewater Ski Area, Nelson

6

2. Head up the Slocan Valley for a day of backcountry riding on Idaho Peak, New Denver 3. Relax at Halcyon Hot Springs, Nakusp

7

4. Snowmobile ski near Trout Lake 5. Schralp Revelstoke Mountain Resort – all 5,620 vertical feet 6. Find untracked lines at Powder King Mountain Resort, Mackenzie

5 3

116

MOUNTAIN

7. Score face shots at Shames Mountain, Terrace B.C.

4 2 1

explorebigsky.com

Other perks include hydronic forced-air heat, cozy beds, skylights, a fully decked-out kitchen with a drawer fridge, a built-in blender and pullout cutting boards.

Optional details include edgy coloring packages, custom wood cabinetry, off-the-grid power systems and hot water showers.

“I’m not a factory kind of guy,” said Erik – known to some Hood River locals as “Epic Man” for his habit of chasing the next swell, powder day, banked bike trail or windy down-river day – as he hand delivered a van kitted out for biking and skiing to its new owner at Hood River’s Kite Beach.

“These vans are meant to be at places like this beach.”

877.660.1177 | firesidejacksonhole.com

Your centrally located RV Park and campground for both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks Jackson Hole, Wyoming 800.563.6469 | yellowstonerv.com

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

117

I K S S É APR RTERS

D

UN

EN

OP

O R-R YEA

HEADQUA

ST BURGER BIG SKY’S BE NDLY FAMILY FRIE BAR INES • FULL W 0 0 1 • S R 100 BEE LIVE MUSIC

BOUTIQUE HOTEL AND DESTINATION FLY FISHING LODGE

Book your special event, wedding or simply relax with our award-winning accomodations 888.387.0148 | grlodge.com | info@grlodge.com

BREAKFAST, LUNCH & DINNER •DRINK DINE DEN • OPEN DAILY AT 11:30 A.M. LUNCH & DINNER LOCATED IN THE BIG SKY TOWN CENTER big sky, montana 406-995-3830

BIG SKY, MONTANA 5 miles south of Big Sky • HWY 191 Mile Marker 43 Menu online www.corralbar.com 406.995.4249

Theodore Roosevelt in Yellowstone, 1903 NPS PHOTO

OUTLAW

Theodore Roosevelt

BY TYLER ALLEN

Spanning the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Gardiner, Montana, the Roosevelt Arch is a monument to our country’s collective conscious, a symbol of the progressive conservation values fervently championed by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Standing beside the stone arch on April 24, 1903, after a two-week tour of the park, Roosevelt spoke to this symbolism as he dedicated the unfinished monument that would eventually bear his name.

“Nowhere else in any civilized country is there to be found such a tract of veritable wonderland made accessible to all visitors,” the president told the crowd in Gardiner.

Roosevelt had ridden his executive train, The Elysian, south through Paradise Valley on April 8, to Cinnabar, north of Gardiner. The trip was intended as a respite during an exhaustive eight-week domestic tour, and the president spent it hiking and horseback riding, and observing large herds of elk, blacktail and whitetail deer and pronghorn, as well as the last remaining bison in the Greater Yellowstone, captive at Mammoth.

Camping on the Yellowstone River below Tower Falls, he marveled at the bighorn sheep, and learned from a road crew camped nearby of the animals’ acuity negotiating the steep, icy precipices.

“When we first saw them they were lying sunning themselves on the edge of the canyon, where the rolling grassy country behind it broke off into the sheer decent,” he later wrote. “Before dark they all lay down again on a steeply inclined jutting spur midway between the top and bottom of the canyon.”

At the journey’s end, Roosevelt’s party rode north from Mammoth. A mile from Gardiner, they crested a hill to see a throng gathered, awaiting his arrival.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

119

OUTLAW

The strongest public lands advocate to ever occupy the White House, Theodore Roosevelt accomplished his initiatives despite daunting opposition from big business and land barons, who saw the West as an inexhaustible faucet of money and power.

• Espresso and coffee drinks • Fresh squeezed organic juices • Daily baked goods

The man who found respite homesteading and hunting the wilds of the Dakotas – escaping public life after his mother and first wife died on the same day in 1884 – and who led the Rough Riders into battle during the Spanish-American war, rarely backed down from a challenge, either political or physical.

Elected governor of New York in 1898, Roosevelt installed a wrestling mat in the executive mansion in Albany, sparring with official guests for sport.

While serving as vice president under President William McKinley, Roosevelt was elevated to the executive office on September 14, 1901, when McKinley succumbed to an assassin’s bullet fired eight days earlier. The 42-year-old Roosevelt retained McKinley’s cabinet and vowed publicly to change little; privately, however, he articulated a new direction for the Republican Party, away from the special interests he believed were exploiting the country’s impoverished and its natural resources.

In the late 19th century, logging was nearly unrestricted in the West, and mining claims were staked unencumbered by federal oversight. President Grover Cleveland set aside 21 million acres of forest reserves before leaving office in 1897, but McKinley suspended the order after entering the White House. Roosevelt and his Forest Service Chief Gifford Pinchot began zealously conserving western forests after the president’s landslide reelection in 1904 and the creation of the Forest Service in 1905.

In 1907, Idaho Senator and land baron Weldon B. Heyburn pushed an amendment to a spending bill through Congress that stripped a president’s authority to create new National Forests without congressional approval.

The bill had to be signed to keep the government running – considered essential at the time – but Roosevelt had a week. So, he and Pinchot spread maps of the West across the White House floor, and added 16 million acres of National Forest land by executive proclamation. Roosevelt then signed the bill, preventing any president from doing such a thing again.

50 Ousel Falls Road, Big Sky Located adjacent to Lone Peak Cinema in the Big Sky Town Center

(406) 995-7175

ouselandspurpizza.com

Livid, Heyburn and his allies were left without recourse.

The National Forest system now totaled almost 180 million acres.

Pizza • Pasta • Salad Beer • Wine • Cocktails

A procession passes beneath the Roosevelt Arch in June 2012, after a ceremonial agreement to improve infrastructure around the park’s entrance. The arch Roosevelt dedicated in 1903 today represents the 26th president’s determination to conserve public land.

PHOTO BY EMILY STIFLER WOLFE

Open 7 days a week • Dine-In, Take-Out

April 24, 1903, was a warm spring day in Gardiner.

Storefronts were decorated with American flags and red, white and blue bunting. Trainloads arrived from Livingston, and the crowd was an estimated 3,700 by the time the president arrived, just after 4 p.m.

Before his speech, a group of Masons from the Grand Lodge of Montana placed a box of memorabilia including copies of four regional daily newspapers, a 1903 World’s Almanac and the Bible in a cavity inside one of the stones. Roosevelt spread mortar atop it with a trowel, and then the cornerstone, etched with the date, was lowered into place using a block and tackle.

Roosevelt spoke that day about the “essential democracy” of national parks.

“Here all the wild creatures of the old days are being preserved, and their overflow into the surrounding country means that the people…will be able to insure to themselves and to their children and their children’s children much of the old time pleasures of the hardy life of the wilderness.”

Then, Roosevelt rode north to Cinnabar, leaving on The Elysian at 6 p.m. He never visited the park again or saw the completed arch that represents the heritage of his ideals.

As long as the Roosevelt Arch stands, it will represent the 26th president’s determination to conserve the country’s resources for future generations, and his rejection of those who use our collective treasures for profit.

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

50 Ousel Falls Road, Big Sky Located adjacent to Lone Peak Cinema in the Big Sky Town Center 121

(406) 995-7175

ouselandspurpizza.com

OUTLAW

“Here all the wild creatures of the old days are being preserved, and their overflow into the surrounding country means that the people… will be able to insure to themselves and to their children and their c h i l d r e n ’s c h i l d r e n much of the old time pleasures of the hardy l i fe o f t h e w i l d e r n e s s . ” -Theodore Roosevelt

122

MOUNTAIN

ILLUSTRATION BY KELSEY DZINTARS

BUILDING EXCEPTIONAL HOMES & RANCHES SINCE 1987

PHOTOGRAPHY: AUDREY HALL ARCHITECT: PEARSON DESIGN GROUP

GENERAL CONTRACTING, TIMBER & CABINET WORKS BOZEMAN, MT 406.586.1500 | JACKSON, WY 307.733.0733 | ONSITEMANAGEMENT.COM

explorebigsky.com

MOUNTAIN

123

124

MOUNTAIN

explorebigsky.com