ENVIRONMENT & OUTDOORS

Five instructor secrets every parent should know

BY TIM DIETZ

EBS CONTRIBUTOR

Skiing and riding are objectively fun. How, then, is it possible that kids don’t always share the same joy that we all get from sliding on snow? Turns out, having the right equipment, staying warm, and taking breaks can be the difference between giggles and tears. Hydrating and eating a good breakfast are game-changers, too. But still, there are a few more tricks to keep the stoke high.

Tapping the collective experience of our world-class children’s ski and snowboard instructors, here is the secret sauce to making every day on the slopes unforgettable:

1. Rule #1 is FUN

OK, this seems pretty obvious, but it’s also easy to forget.

The most common source of stress on the slopes stems from trying to “make the most of the day.” Here’s a little instructor secret – our goal isn’t to cram as many runs as possible into a day. Our goal is to make every run unforgettable. Be patient. Take breaks, have flexible plans and make sure everyone is comfortable. Think quality over quantity. One amazing run is worth a million hot laps.

Remember that vibes are contagious, and kids are amazingly perceptive. Keep calm and go skiing!

2. Motivation is Everything

One of the fundamental pillars of instructing is to tap into what gets kids excited. Everyone is different, but no one knows your kids better than you. A great example is how differently kids can respond to uncertainty. Is exploring new terrain a fun adventure, or an unnecessary challenge? Create an environment that fosters autonomy, sets realistic goals, and lets the little ones be a part of the decision-making process. If you have multiple kids in your crew, make sure everyone’s voice is being heard to keep things fair.

Try to focus on the right milestones. Kids, especially siblings, are inherently competitive. A race is inevitable. Remember, the “best” skier isn’t the one who made it to the bottom fastest, it’s the one who had the most fun. Look for semicompetitive alternatives – who can make the most turns, who can spray the most snow, who can follow closest to Mom’s tracks – so that everyone can be a winner.

3. Technique Over Terrain

“Technique over terrain” is the unofficial motto of children’s instructors. Kids progress a lot faster by mastering turns on familiar terrain than they do by simply surviving in challenging terrain. If your little skiers revert back to the dreaded “power wedge,” or little riders start sideslipping on their heel edge, it is a huge red flag that the terrain is too steep.

Simply put – if they’re not turning, they’re not learning!

There are essentially two ways riders progress – “New task, old terrain. Old task, new terrain.” This means that if you’re going to try to master a new technique, do so on mellow and familiar terrain. When you venture into unfamiliar terrain, fall back on the techniques you’ve already mastered. Make the mellow areas fun by trying new tricks. Progression can happen anywhere on the mountain – not just on more challenging terrain Don’t get too bogged down on trail ratings – they’re really not a good measure of skills. It’s good to have goals, but doing their “first blue run” isn’t the real accomplishment. The real victory is the practice and progression that got them there. Celebrate the small stuff!

4. Start Small, End Small

Never end on the most challenging run of the day. End-of-day fatigue can be a big safety concern, not to mention the rapidly changing conditions as the sun gets low. That last run is going to be the one they dream about, and the one that makes them stoked for tomorrow. Dial it back and make it an unforgettable one!

If you’re skiing back to your house at the end of the day, remember that some of those cat tracks can be grueling for even the most experienced skiers and snowboarders. Allow plenty of time and make it a fun adventure.

The same goes for starting the day or after lunch – start with a little refresher on a familiar run before exploring more.

5. Don’t Forget to Reflect

If you’ve been to any aprés scene, you’re probably aware of the most powerful phenomenon in snowsports – skiers LOVE talking about skiing. Maybe it’s the universal joy we all get from it, but skiing stories have a magical ability to take on lives of their own. Regardless of our tendency to exaggerate a little, these tales have value.

Psychology nerds call this “reflective observation” and “abstract conceptualization.” Together, these two concepts represent half of the experiential learning cycle. The human brain, especially young ones, has a remarkable capability to reflect on previous experiences and abstract future experiences. Just as we don’t have to touch fire to know that it’s hot, we don’t have to be skiing to know that it’s fun.

Encourage those excited dinner conversations. What worked? What didn’t work? What are we going to do tomorrow? If you take pictures or videos throughout the day, point out specific successes – “look at how good that wedge looks” or “wow, watch how many turns you make in this video!” Just because the boots are off doesn’t mean the learning stops!

Skiing and snowboarding inspire us all on a lifelong journey of learning. Progression means more time on the slopes, more terrain to explore, and most importantly, more fun! Regardless of age or ability, consider booking lessons for the whole family. The kids will have a blast skiing with their peers, and adults will be amazed by how much there is to learn. With a variety of group, private, and family lessons available, Big Sky’s Mountain Sports School offers something for everyone.

The third rule is technique over terrain meaning learning skills and using proper form on familiar terrain is more important than skiing hard runs. PHOTO BY TOM COHEN

Tim Dietz is an examiner on the AASI-NRM Snowboard and Children’s Education Teams, as well as a candidate for the 2021 National Demo Team. He has been a trainer and supervisor for Big Sky Mountain Sports since 2012.

Hey Bear! Why we yell it in bear country

BY MIRA BRODY

SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT

When Nate Bender goes camping or hiking, he makes it a habit to keep his bear spray to his right side—on the right-hand pocket of his backpack or to the right of his sleeping bag at night. On July 4, 2021, that habit came in handy for the first time. It may have even saved a few lives.

An avid outdoorsman and native of Hamilton, Montana, Bender grew up recreating in bear country with his family and continues to do so from his home in Missoula where he is attending the University of Montana for dual graduate degrees in research conservation and business analytics. This summer, he was camping alone, what he calls “cowboy style,” in the Mission Mountains when sounds of a bear growling woke him around 6 a.m.

“I can think of better ways of being woken up,” Bender said. “It all happened very quickly. When I opened my eyes after that sound I was looking right at the mama and her two cubs.”

The sow bear, which Bender identified as a grizzly, charged within five seconds, just enough time for him to reach to his right, grab his bear spray, pull off the safety and deploy a 30-foot pepper spray cloud that deterred her and may have saved both their lives.

Bear encounters are not only dangerous to humans but put bears at risk as well. Over Labor Day weekend in 2021, four grizzlies—a sow and her three cubs—were euthanized after improperly stored food habituated the bears into breaking into vehicles and residences. The sow had been a longtime resident of Glacier National Park and is said to have mothered at least 10 cubs over the years.

Bender did everything right: he stored his food away from camp in a scent-proof and bear-proof bag and had bear spray on hand, within reach, and ready to deploy at a moment’s notice; and he had practiced with his spray. He calls the encounter a combination of preparation and luck but asserts that everyone entering bear country should do so with a visitor’s mindset—you are entering a wild habitat in which wild animals live and thrive.

“Following these recommendations and being ‘bear aware’ adds layers of safety for people, but they also help keep bears wild,” said Morgan Jacobsen, Region 3 information and education program manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Bears that are habituated to gaining access to food, whether it be garbage, pet food, bird feeders or other attractants, according to Jacobsen, lose their natural drive to find food in the wild and oftentimes cannot be rehabilitated. “Keeping attractants secured not only helps keep you and your neighbors safe, it helps keep bears alive and promotes healthy bear behavior.”

While recreating, it is key to avoid startling bears, which many people do by yelling “Hey bear!” The brand Hey Bear has harnessed the power of these words and turned it into a movement. OUTLAW PARTNERS PHOTO

A small cousin of the grizzly, the black bear is found throughout the United States in forested mountains. Unlike grizzlies, black bears are skilled at climbing trees. PHOTO BY THOMAS D. MANGELSEN

BEING RESPONSIBLE IN BEAR COUNTRY

Hike in groups of three or more Make noise. We recommend yelling “Hey Bear!”

Store food properly when hiking and camping.

Carry bear spray, keep it within reach, and know how to use it.

Visit a bear safety class with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

If you see a bear from afar, Stay 100 yards away.

If you encounter a bear and it moves toward you, move slowly away and speak to it in low tones.

If a black bear charges, hold your ground and fight back.

If a grizzly charges, lay flat on your stomach, protecting your neck and head with your arms and do not move

NEVER RUN FROM A BEAR

Yellowstone National Park visitation numbers broke all-time records in both July and August of 2021, and Gallatin Valley is the fastest growing micropolis in the country. As more people visit and move to these wild areas, bear encounters will become more common. In addition to storing food properly, hiking in groups, and carrying and knowing how to use bear spray, it’s also key to avoid startling bears, which many people do by yelling “Hey bear!”

The brand Hey Bear has harnessed the power of these words and turned it into a movement.

“There’s been this massive population growth in bear habitat areas,” said Eric Ladd, the brand’s founder and owner of Outlaw Partners, publisher of Explore Big Sky. “You see more and more interactions with people and bears… and it prompted me to try and have an impact and create a solution for these problems.”

Hey Bear cobrands with a number of sustainable and ethical brands, such as Cotopaxi, selling T-shirts, hats, jackets and bear spray belts, and is subsequently creating a movement around education and recreation as well as partnering with regional bear habitat conservation efforts. Hey Bear is more than just a brand of sustainable and fashionable products—it’s a movement that advocates for those beautiful apex predators with whom we live. This is the ethos of Hey Bear.

“If you’re going to coexist with a creature at the top of a the predator pile, like a bear, you have to treat them with a tremendous amount of care and respect, otherwise that interface is not going to turn out well,” said Ladd. “We should consider ourselves lucky to be stewards and to be living with a creature such as a bear.”

And we are lucky—lucky to share a space in this beautiful ecosystem with these bruins. Lucky, even, to be awakened by them at night while camping, or to see one on a hike or from a distance in our car so long as we’ve taken the precautions required of us to be good stewards in their home.

Visit fwp.mt.gov/conservation/species/bear/bear-aware for information on living, working and recreating in bear country, as well as what to do in case you encounter a bear. Visit heybear.com to shop products and learn more about Hey Bear!

Ryan Busse’s ‘Gunfight’ among most important books written about guns

BY TODD WILKINSON

EBS ENVIRONMENTAL COLUMNIST

Few topics are more “triggering” today in America, especially within red states, than discussions about guns. Perhaps no one, at this moment, understands this better than Ryan Busse, a self-described former “gunrunner” who has called out the firearm industry and the powerful National Rifle Association in his new book.

“Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America” is an insider’s account. Already called one of the most important books about guns in America ever written, it has placed Busse on a metaphorical firing line and is stirring up conversation nationally. No matter where one comes down on right-to-bear-arms issues, “Gunfight” ought to be a part of your reading list.

Four things justify a recommendation of the book. First, Busse enters the fray as a gun advocate, hunter, and Westerner. Second, he’s smart, self-reflective, draws upon first-hand experience and doesn’t deny having complicity in creating a problem that is tearing the country apart.

Third, as a father he really is trying to secure a better America for his family and doesn’t see that happening with a needless civil war driven by rhetoric or violence. Fourth, Busse is also, in a way, a fighter for free speech and sees the way the gun industry carefully controls the public conversation about the Second Amendment is an infringement upon the First Amendment of the Constitution.

The irony of “Gunfight” is that Busse himself, as a gun industry executive and strategist, helped frame up the arguments used as a litmus test by the gun industry to get politicians elected or defeated. None of the current problems in America are going to be remedied, and no one is going to have more freedom, liberty, and safety if it means having to stare up the barrel of someone else’s gun.

Fear sells, Busse notes in “Gunfight.” And in recent years, unsubstantiated claims that liberals are coming for hunters’ deer rifles and shotguns have also fueled paranoia as well as cleverly choreographed propaganda campaigns that have manipulated many into believing they’re true. Even though it’s a canard, Busse says, the truth doesn’t seem to matter. When objective reality becomes a casualty to an industry that uses power, influence and money as tools for evading accountability, the nation, he notes, is in trouble.

Busse did not write “Gunfight” to be a polemic. For him, a looming, frightening question is what’s the end game of the escalating rhetoric and the inability of America to have a rational conversation about guns within the context of maintaining law, order and a functional democracy?

I asked Busse some questions. T.W.: You have encountered some people who, in a knee-jerk way, claim you are undermining the Second Amendment of the Constitution which pertains to the right to bear arms. Tell us, in simple terms, where do you stand? R.B.: As I describe in the book, many of the best parts of my life have involved guns. That remains true now as I hunt and shoot with my boys. I believe in the right to self-defense and the rights of Americans to own guns. I also believe that a right of this elevated importance must involve a very large degree of responsibility. That either happens voluntarily or through government regulation. I refuse to believe that reason and responsibility are in any way “antigun.” Quite the contrary, I believe that being pro-gun mandates that we must embrace responsibility for the good of a functioning society.

T.W.: Within outdoor journalism, there’s an expression called “getting Zumboed” that applies to writers who have questioned the promotion/use of certain kinds of guns in hunting and suffered severe blowback from the NRA and gun manufacturers. In the case of Cody, Wyoming-based writer Jim Zumbo, a popular contributor at Outdoor Life magazine, he was fired from his job and it created a chilling effect on writers and outdoor columnists. Can you comment on this phenomenon?

R.B.: Yes, in 2007 Jim Zumbo expressed what was, at the time, a commonly held antipathy toward the overt embrace of “assault-style guns.” Jim dared to call them “Terrorist Rifles” on his blog after a day of hunting. Despite his revered status (he had authored 23 books and was a celebrity who regularly signed autographs at trades shows), his multiple sponsorships, editor status at Outdoor Life and his celebrity status were almost instantly revoked. That was a big turning point in the industry.

A few years later, Dick Metcalf, who spent 37 years as a respected editor at the largest gun magazines, dared to suggest that not all gun laws were “infringements” and he too was summarily fired almost immediately. Because of public executions like this, everyone else in the industry got the message; “Never criticize anything no matter how extreme or dangerous.” What developed from those events was a culture where ever-worsening extremism could only be embraced. If that sounds a lot like modern politics on the right, well it is. The world of gun politics is where it all started.

Ryan Busse, author of “Gunfight: My Battle against the Industry that Radicalized America,” is a former gun industry executive and strategist. PHOTO COURTESY OF RYAN BUSSE T.W.: One of the first books I wrote was about whistleblowers and among the most effective techniques used against them is shooting the messenger. Have you experienced that?

R.B.: Yes, but mostly when I was still in the industry because the most effective tool is to threaten a person’s livelihood and social structure. It was painful for me, but I gave all of that up before I wrote this book so now the typical “let’s get him fired” tactics don’t work on me. Knowing that there are many former friends who now disown me is tough but I also knew that is the way it would go.

As we discussed with Zumbo and Metcalf (and others), there have been plenty of messengers who were shot, and it is an incredibly effective tactic. That is why no one in the industry even dares to think about criticizing people like the insurrectionists or Kyle Rittenhouse.

Todd Wilkinson: Before we leap into the fire, I want to know: Why do you live in Montana, in the Northern Rockies? How did you get here?

Ryan Busse: As a kid on a high plains ranch, I learned about Montana from my dad in stories he told me as a young boy. When he was in college as a very young man, he took a trip with his brother and couple buddies to Montana. I heard the resulting stories often. He slept in hayfields near famous rivers and told me about hearing big trout feed during the night. He described the valleys and mountains in ways that would have made Norman Maclean proud. So, in 1995, when I was a young man of 25, I jumped at the opportunity to move to Montana. I did it on a whim after a tiny rifle manufacturer (Kimber) was convinced that a couple guys could run a sales and marketing office from northwest Montana. It was all a romantic dream for me and it remains one today. T.W.: Is it not ironic that a segment of America decries the so-called “cancel culture” and yet there is an organized public relations machinery ready to silence anyone who exercises the First Amendment in talking about the Second Amendment?

R.B: Yes, I have experienced that the right is incredibly effective at canceling dissent and there are numerous examples in my book. I believe I lived through the formation of this tool and, regrettably, I now believe I even contributed to it.

T.W.: So, why is there so little tolerance for having honest discussions about guns? When did the era of severe muzzling start, and what has been the impact on how we in the hunting community talk, or don’t talk about, guns and the tradition of going afield?

drove a new, more militant gun business. Part of that change involved the harnessing of everincreasing radicalization. As we see in politics, this radicalization drives fearful voters and it drives gun sales.

T.W.: Part of your own awakening was triggered by what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut where, on Dec. 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 people, 16 of them being young kids. Please share a bit about how Sandy Hook shook you up because you mention it in the book.

R.B.: Our boys were the same age as those kids at Sandy Hook. It was horrible and shocking. Even hardened people in the industry thought things would change after that. But we were wrong and I played a role as a go-between for a U.S. senator and the NRA. Through the events in that part of my story I saw the inner workings of our modern politics up close. Very powerful people admitted to me that the stalemate that resulted was not about policy or dead kids, it was about political power. Being in the middle of that helped me see our changing politics for what they actually were. T.W.: My last question is intended to end on an upbeat note: As a hunter and angler, what ranks among your favorite days in the great outdoors and how do memories like that shape the way you see t he world?

T.W.: U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, a farmer by profession who grew up hunting and knows his way around guns, appeared at a public event alongside you not long after the book appeared in autumn 2021. What is your friendship with Tester like and what does it say to have him involved in necessary discussions that you believe need to take place?

R.B.: My time in wild places shapes everything about who I am. I think that somewhere inside every person who wants to achieve something is also a “reason” for wanting to accomplish. I believe that, subconsciously, my reasons all have to do with wild places. I hate picking favorites and I think it is because I am always looking forward to something. A bird hunt with a new puppy, a family fishing trip, an antelope hunt with my sons, a wilderness exploration with my wife, Sara. Those things are what keep me going. In other words, the next one is my favorite “Gunfight” was published in October 2021. because that is what gets me up in the morning. Todd Wilkinson is the founder of Bozeman-based Mountain Journal and a correspondent for National Geographic. He authored the book “Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek,” featuring photography by famed wildlife photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen, about Grizzly Bear 399.

R.B.: I have known Sen. Tester to be uncommonly courageous and to be uncommonly stubborn about it. I tell one story in the book about him casting a vote that he knew would result in powerful election attacks and he did it even though he knew that bill would not pass. He cast that vote out of principle. Senators these days do not cast those kinds of votes. I am not star struck by any politician, but I do believe that if we had more Jon Testers, we would have a lot more civility in our country. It’s going to take actions like his to break apart this dangerous political situation.

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