Explore Big Sky - November 3 to 17, 2022

November 3 - 17, 2022 Volume 13 // Issue #22

LPHS FALL SPORTS DRAW TO A CLOSE

RESORT CONTINUES TO INVEST IN HOUSING 50 YEARS OF THE BSOA

LOCAL ACTORS REHEARSE FOR ‘CLUE’ THOUSANDS OF MILES FROM THE WORLD SERIES

OPENING SHOT

November 3-17, 2022 Volume 13, Issue No. 22

Owned and published in Big Sky, Montana

PUBLISHER Eric Ladd | eric@theoutlawpartners.com

EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Jason Bacaj | jason@theoutlawpartners.com DIGITAL PRODUCER Julia Barton | julia@theoutlawpartners.com

A young bull moose strolls past the Independent in Town Center on the afternoon of Oct. 27. PHOTO BY MEGAN PAULSON

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STAFF WRITER Jack Reaney | jack@theoutlawpartners.com EDITORIAL CONSULTANT Leslie Kilgore | media@theoutlawpartners.com

CREATIVE LEAD GRAPHIC DESIGNER ME Brown | maryelizabeth@theoutlawpartners.com SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER Trista Hilman | trista@theoutlawpartners.com

SALES AND OPERATIONS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Megan Paulson | megan@theoutlawpartners.com CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Treston Wold | treston@theoutlawpartners.com VP OF SALES EJ Daws | ej@theoutlawpartners.com MEDIA AND EVENTS DIRECTOR Ersin Ozer | ersin@theoutlawpartners.com MARKETING MANAGER Sophia Breyfogle | sophia@theoutlawpartners.com CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGIST Mira Brody | mira@theoutlawpartners.com EVENTS AND MARKETING COORDINATOR Tucker Harris | tucker@theoutlawpartners.com SENIOR ACCOUNTANT Sara Sipe | sara@theoutlawpartners.com BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT LEAD Patrick Mahoney | patrick@theoutlawpartners.com

CONTRIBUTORS Reed D. Benson, Ashley Dodd, Gus Hammond, Rachel Hergett, Derf Johnson, Cam Mcleod, Colter Nuanez, Shannon Steele, Tom Stuber, Paul Swenson, Cy Whitling, Maria Wyllie.

4 13 14 25 28 29 31 3

LOCAL 7 REGIONAL SPORTS 8 A&E BUSINESS 12 ENVIRONMENT OPINION 14 FUN

ON THE COVER: Clockwise from left: Senior running back and linebacker Pierce Farr, senior outside hitter Maddie Cone, freshman attacker Hanah Mittelstaedt, junior midfielder Cash Beattie. PHOTOS BY JASON BACAJ AND JULIA BARTON

Big Sky Resort will open for the ski season with 791 beds, and hopes to accommodate 1,000 employees by winter 2023-24 with the opening of the Levinsky Complex.

1972-2022; 50 YEARS OF THE BSOA Oct. 24 was a special day in local history, as the Big Sky Owners Association celebrated 50 years since becoming the first formal governmental body in Big Sky.

LOCALS SHARE TRICK-OR-TREATING STRATEGIES Explore Big Sky was on-scene as trick-or-treaters predicted the size and durability of their candy haul, shared strategies for maximizing their quantity and reported their favorite sweets.

THOUSANDS OF MILES FROM THE WORLD SERIES With the 2022 World Series approaching, EBS's Jack Reaney conducted an exhaustive survey of 170 locals, approximating the distribution of baseball fans in Big Sky. The Red Sox are a local favorite.

22

LPHS FALL SPORTS DRAW TO A CLOSE

25

LOCAL ACTORS REHEARSE FOR ‘CLUE’ ON NOV. 11 & 12

As volleyball reaches the divisional tournament, they are the last team standing for Lone Peak High School. Big Horn boys soccer and football both suffer first-round playoff defeat.

Dozens of locals have spent weeks running lines, building sets, sourcing props and having fun preparing for a stage performance of the 1980s cult classic film.

EDITORIAL POLICIES EDITORIAL POLICY Outlaw Partners, LLC is the sole owner of Explore Big Sky. EBS reserves the right to edit all submitted material. Printed material reflects the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the opinion of Outlaw Partners or its editors.

EBS will not publish anything discriminatory or in bad taste.

EBS welcomes obituaries written by family members or from funeral homes. To place an obituary, please submit 500 words or less to media@theoutlawpartners.com.

SCAN FOR TOWN CRIER NEWSLETTER. DAILY NEWS, STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX.

RESORT CONTINUES TO INVEST IN HOUSING

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the editor allow EBS readers to express views and share how they would like to effect change. These are not Thank You notes.

Letters should be 250 words or less, respectful, ethical, accurate, and proofread for grammar and content. We reserve the right to edit letters and will not publish individual grievances about specific businesses or letters that are abusive, malicious or potentially libelous. Include: full name, address, phone number and title. Submit to media@outlaw.partners.

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ADVERTISING DEADLINE For the November 17, 2022 issue: November 9, 2022 CORRECTIONS Please report errors to media@outlaw.partners.

OUTLAW PARTNERS & EXPLORE BIG SKY P.O. Box 160250, Big Sky, MT 59716 (406) 995-2055 • media@theoutlawpartners.com © 2022 Explore Big Sky unauthorized reproduction prohibited

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4 November 3 - 17, 2022

Explore Big Sky

LOCAL

NEWS IN BRIEF

LONE PEAK HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER SEASONS COME TO A CLOSE

DR. KATHRYN BERTANY NAMED INTERIM CEO OF BOZEMAN HEALTH

EBS STAFF

EBS STAFF

A successful season came to an end for Lone Peak High School boys soccer on Saturday, Oct. 15 in Missoula, with a 4-0 playoff loss.

Bozeman Health president and CEO John Hill is stepping down from his position, the Bozeman Health system board announced on Oct. 26.

Head coach Tony Coppola looks forward to having at least 15 returning players next season.

“The board of directors and I have mutually agreed that I will end my tenure as CEO of Bozeman Health at the end of this month,” John Hill said in a statement issued by the organization.

The girls team missed the Class A tournament, but head coach Kim Dickerson shared top scorers in an email to EBS. Freshman Harper Morris led with nine goals, followed by freshman Cate Leydig (eight), and junior Astrid McGuire (six). Senior keeper Josie Wilcynski recorded 117 saves on the season.

The Big Horns end their season with a 3-7-1 record, but Dickerson believes their record is outshined by the amazing effort this team gave while training and competing.

BIG SKY CONOCO CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS EBS STAFF The Big Sky Conoco station has begun renovating their fuel pump area to replace fuel tanks, product lines, pumps, and electrical systems.

The work is expected to take 4-5 weeks and the upgrades will include a high-tech digital interface at each pump, improved spacing, diesel availability at every pump and red-dyed diesel, according to workers onsite.

Hill's resignation followed a vote of no confidence from a group of staff physicians, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported. The board has selected Dr. Kathryn Bertany to serve as interim president and CEO starting Nov. 1.

As Bozeman Health’s president of Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital and Bozeman Health Big Sky Medical Center, Bertany has 30 years of experience practicing medicine as a pediatrician and nearly 20 years of experience in hospital/health system leadership roles.

BOZEMAN DAILY CHRONICLE OWNER PURCHASES SLEW OF SMALL-TOWN MONTANA NEWSPAPERS EBS STAFF On Nov. 1, Adams Publishing Group planned to finalize purchase of 13 newspapers of the Yellowstone Newspapers chain, which held the largest instate newspaper ownership.

The following newspapers are involved in the deal:

The Lone Perk Coffee and Espresso hut next to the Conoco will be unaffected by this construction.

The Livingston Enterprise, Miles City Star, Glendive Ranger-Review, Lewiston News-Argus, Dillon Tribune, Big Timber Pioneer, Laurel Outlook, Carbon County News, Big Horn County News, Stillwater County News, Terry Tribune, [Forsyth] Independent Press and the Judith Basin Press.

“We appreciate everybody’s patience and continued business, and hopefully this is going to be a ‘win-win’ in another month,” said owner Renae Schumacher in a phone call with EBS.

“We are confident Mark Adams and his new organization will take good care of our papers and our communities,” Yellowstone Newspapers President John Sullivan said in a release announcing the plans.

The convenience store remains open from the side entrance with normal hours, although the interior design will also be partly renovated.

WORKFORCE HOUSING: RIVERVIEW CLOSE TO BREAKING GROUND EBS STAFF In the final week of October, the Big Sky Owners Association and involved parties reached an agreement to transfer a 1990s easement that had delayed construction on a federally funded apartment complex.

The 100-unit RiverView complex is funded through Low Income Housing Tax Credit program.

Only a minor property line adjustment must be approved by Gallatin County before the land is officially purchased using resort tax money, said Dave O’Connor, executive director of the Big Sky Community Housing Trust. He cited construction costs as a hurdle for the project but hopes that crews can break ground before the winter or in early spring.

“BSOA came to terms with [Lone Mountain Land Company] and agreed on a value, so that easement was essentially purchased,” O’Connor said.

The Montana Free Press reported on the possibility that consolidated regional newspaper ownership—a national trend—may reduce the prevalence of local reporting in small Montana towns.

BETTER TOGETHER A biweekly District bulletin

Annual Business Registration & Renewal Deadline: Dec. 31st

All businesses (both tax collectors & non tax collectors) operating in the District are legally required, per Ordinance 98-01, to register each year. Registration is FREE.

Who?

Where?

When?

ALL businesses operating in the District

Including, but not limited to: • lodging & short-term rentals • artists & market vendors • restaurants, food trucks, & private chefs • contractors • non-profits • businesses based elsewhere entering the District to provide/sell goods & services

ResortTax.MuniRevs.com or scan QR code:

Registration is an annual task due December 31st.

If you plan to operate in Big Sky in 2023, please complete the annual registration task by the deadline.

Why?

Registration helps identify businesses required to collect Resort Tax. Annual Registrations also collect valuable data to inform funding decisions and support projects important to you and the community.

For more info visit: ResortTax.org/business-resources/ or call: 406.995.3234 Administered by the Big Sky Resort Area District, Resort Tax is a 4% tax on luxury goods & services.

OUR VISION: “Big Sky is BETTER TOGETHER as a result of wise investments, an engaged community, and the pursuit of excellence.”

Info@ResortTax.org | ResortTax.org | 406.995.3234 |

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7 November 3 - 17, 2022

L O CA L

Explore Big Sky

THE ROAD TO 1,000 WINTER EMPLOYEE BEDS BIG SKY RESORT WILL OPEN FOR THE SKI SEASON WITH 791 BEDS, HOPES TO ACCOMMODATE 1,000 EMPLOYEES BY WINTER 2023-24

For prospective employees, Nedved said that housing is “rooted into the application process,” because beds are “a limiting factor” for the resort, as is true for the community. Applicants who state they need employee housing will likely face a disadvantage in the application process, by nature of limited housing supply. Once an applicant receives a job offer, they can make decisions based on the types of housing they qualify for, he said.

As for the cost to rent, Nedved said employee housing is dramatically more affordable than market value. The Big Sky Resort employee housing webpage shows the average double and triple occupancy rooms cost between $12-15 per night per renter—roughly $360-450 per month.

Big Sky Resort’s Mountain Lodge employee housing unit was completed in summer 2021. PHOTO COURTESY OF BIG SKY RESORT

BY JACK REANEY As Big Sky Resort prepares to open for its 49th winter of slope-sliding, they’ve added 142 beds to accommodate employees in a challenging rental market. Resort officials say that they are processing a record number of job applications for the upcoming season and are striving to provide housing for 50% of the winter workforce by early 2024.

Troy Nedved, general manager of Big Sky Resort, and Stacie Mesuda, director of public relations, spoke with EBS to discuss the recent updates and plans for resort housing.

“We’re really trying to do our part on probably the most challenging issue we have in our community,” Nedved said.

Over the summer, Big Sky Resort converted the Huntley Lodge Short Hall into employee housing units, adding 142 beds.

“We realized how important it was, and how needed it was to house more employees,” Nedved said. “For lack of a better term, we ‘sacrificed’ those guest beds and converted them to employee beds [located] right in the central part of our village. It was a pretty big move for us, but we feel it was the right one.”

Nedved said the new Huntley complex is targeted for returning staff, and for key positions that require easy access to the mountain due to early-morning or late-evening work schedules.

The Huntley Lodge conversion comes just one summer after the completion of the Mountain Lodge housing complex, a three-phase project which added another 186 beds since the winter of 2019-20.

Just five years after planning to provide 500 beds in March 2019, Big Sky Resort expects to reach 1,000 beds with the completion of the three-phase Levinsky Complex beside Lake Levinsky. Under construction now, the project aims to provide apartment-style housing for resort management and families.

“That’s our first go at real, apartment-style housing.

We’ve already broken ground, and [phase one] will

be complete and ready this February,” Nedved said.

Phase one will add 36 beds, and Nedved expects employees to move into the Levinsky Complex mid-season.

After phases two and three are completed by the winter of 2023-24, the resort will provide more than 1,000 beds to employees, according to Nedved and Mesuda. That’s about half of their roughly 2,000 winter employees.

Ten years ago, employees would spend one or two winters in employee housing before moving on to seek rental opportunities nearby, Nedved said.

Recently, the resort has been mapping out ways to add diversity to employee housing options, from dorm-style living to apartment or family-style housing. This allows employees a longer-term, more comfortable buffer before entering Big Sky’s competitive real estate market.

When long-term employees are ready to move on from Big Sky Resort’s housing, that’s when they intersect with the efforts of the Big Sky Community Housing Trust to provide a road map from entry-level work and affordable renting to middle management and property ownership.

“This is not a new mission for us,” Mesuda said.

“The resort has been building housing for close to 40 years now, acknowledging that [housing] was a challenge for the community. All these investments over time have really paid off to get us where we are, as demonstrated by how far ahead we are from other mountain communities.”

Record number of winter applications

“What we have found is that we sure have a heck of lot more beds for a high percentage of our employees than our [competitor resorts],” Nedved said with regards to top ski destinations across the country.

“In general terms, we tend to have all our housing allocated and spoken for by the end of October,” Nedved said.

According to the data provided by the National Ski Areas Association, 62 ski areas indicated that they plan to add an average of 48 additional beds over summer 2022. Slightly more than half of ski resorts—57%—offer employee housing, and of those that do, they offer an average of 119 beds.

“Big Sky is one of the major proponents of employee housing in the ski industry, often exceeding the national average of available beds and employees housed,” Adrienne Saia Isaac, director of marketing and communications with the NSAA, wrote in an email to EBS. Nedved said that Big Sky Resort also offers employee beds in Bozeman, and Mesuda acknowledged that many employees choose to live in Bozeman for various reasons. Resort employees get a free Skyline bus pass, which contributes to an ongoing community effort to reduce commuter traffic in Gallatin Canyon.

“We really are trying to focus on our housing investments that are in [the] Big Sky community, and preferably within walking distance of the workplace,” Nedved said. “We want to have enough available housing for those who want to live in Big Sky. But some choose Bozeman, and we have that option as well.”

For the winter of 2022-23 Nedved said that virtually all of the nearly 800 housing vacancies have been filled.

Mesuda said it’s a testament to how strong their hiring process has been this winter, especially after dealing with employee shortages over the previous two seasons since COVID-19 rippled through the industry.

“It’s the highest number of applicants we’ve ever experienced at the resort,” Nedved said. “It allows us to be more selective and make sure that we’re allocating and spending our limited beds on the right folks.”

Official snow prediction: ‘A banner season’ Mesuda said that after the recent October storm, mountain operations had a record-breaking snowmaking effort with 91 snow guns running simultaneously.

It was our best start for snowmaking ever,” Mesuda said. “And there’s more snow in the forecast for this week. And next week. I think we’ll be in a good spot.”

Nedved made a similar prediction: “We’ve already had a tremendous start with both natural snow, and favorable low temperatures for snowmaking. It certainly feels like we’re headed for a banner season.”

8 November 3 - 17, 2022

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Explore Big Sky

FIVE DECADES OF THE BIG SKY OWNERS ASSOCIATION

BY JACK REANEY Monday was a special day in local history, as the Big Sky Owners Association celebrated 50 years since becoming the first formal governmental body in Big Sky on Oct. 24, 1972.

“It’s a pretty significant milestone,” said Eric Ossorio, board director. “The BSOA has been one of the building blocks of Big Sky and led the way for many of those 50 years.”

Ossorio has lived in Big Sky since the early 1990s and believes that despite Big Sky’s recent emphasis on year-round community building, there has always been a Big Sky community. For a long time, he said, the BSOA played a key part in making that possible.

On Oct. 4, 1972, Montana Secretary of State Frank Murray’s signature recognized the BSOA as a nonprofit corporation with “a perpetual existence, unless dissolved in accordance with the laws of the State of Montana...To manage, operate, and maintain that area of Gallatin and Madison Counties, State of Montana, which is located in the West Fork area of the West Gallatin River that is more specifically described as the Big Sky of Montana, Inc. Resort...”

The first board members were chairman Chet Huntley, treasurer Ernest L. Larson and secretary J. David Penwell, documents show. In those early days, Huntley had many visions which came to life after his untimely passing. A thriving Meadow Village and a ski destination were the focus but, Ossorio explained, one part of his vision did not come to fruition: Based on European style from Zermatt, Huntley designed a cog railway to bring folks from the residential Meadow Village up to a pedestrian-access Mountain Village base, via the present day “poop chute”—the sewage fallout line between the Meadow Village and Lone Mountain.

The early board never officially filed that plan, and it was abandoned during a bankruptcy after Huntley’s death in 1974. Boyne Resorts purchased the resort and much of the surrounding land, and the funicular transport system was never built.

That’s a story told by Ossorio, who is known for his wealth of historical knowledge among the BSOA, according to Executive Director Suzan Phillips Scott. A timeline on their website shows some of the milestones the BSOA reached in the last 50 years: In 1987, Crail Ranch was added to the National Register of Historic Places and the BSOA took charge of restoration and preservation.

In 1988, they dedicated $5,000 to research the possibility of a resort tax district. In 1992, voters in Big Sky approved a 3% resort tax, which first went into effect that June.

In 1990, they worked with the forest service to secure a trail easement which would guarantee permanent public access to Beehive Basin.

In 2000, the BSOA helped secure a land donation to make the Ousel Falls trail public. Four years later, it was the most popular trail in Gallatin County, according to a timeline provided by the BSOA. The BSOA operated the Big Sky community post office until 2001.

In 2010, the BSOA transferred management of local parks and trails to the Big Sky

The new pond is designed toThis support the newthe Water Resource Recovery Facility.

PHOTO Community Corporation. allowed BSCC (now the Big Sky Community COURTESY OF THE BIG SKY OWNERS ASSOCIATION Organization) to focus exclusively further on expanding parks and recreation

Chet Huntley was the founding chairman of the Big Sky Owners Association and laid out early plans for the resort and town of Big Sky. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BIG SKY OWNERS ASSOCIATION

opportunities previously managed by the BSOA. Between 2001-2010, Ossorio said the BSOA stepped back from community leadership as other organizations including Big Sky Resort Area District and BSCO stepped up. Recently, the BSOA has found opportunities to deepen their community involvement in Big Sky through sustainability.

“I think the sustainability committee is one of the newest efforts to re-energize the relevance of the BSOA,” Ossorio said.

Little Coyote Pond One effort of the sustainability committee, Scott explained, is the Little Coyote Pond project that will add a new outlet for public recreation while improving river habitat. The BSOA purchased the pond from Boyne Resorts in the early 1990s.

“The ponds have silted in, and we’ve been trying to restore them for some time,” Scott said. “This time around, the board approved moving forward with construction to take Little Coyote Pond off the West Fork [Gallatin River], as it impedes spawning and fish passage. [Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks] truly supports this project, as it’s beneficial to the fisheries in the pond and the West Fork.”

The pond was originally designed to catch construction sediment from upstream.

Currently, the West Fork Gallatin flows into the pond and out toward the Gallatin.

After construction, the river will circumvent the pond.

The BSOA is working with the Big Sky County Water and Sewer District, FWP, the Gallatin River Task Force, BSCO and adjacent property owners, Scott said.

Construction efforts will include dredging the current pond, adding community fishing access with docks and a beach, building a trail around the pond, and adding a picnic area.

A quiet celebration Half a century after Chet Huntley first set wheels in motion to create Big Sky Resort, BSOA members are proud to share its history. But as far as champagne and streamers go, the Big Sky community may be surprised to learn that the BSOA is sticking to a casual bi-centennial celebration.

“Unfortunately, it’s been a little prohibitive in terms of celebration because we’ve been doing Zoom meetings for two and a half years,” Ossorio lamented. “Covid has had a pretty significant impact on everyone’s sense of participation. We’re all very happy that we’ve existed for fifty years, but I don’t think there’s any big celebration planned.”

Big Sky meadow in 1974. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BIG SKY OWNERS ASSOCIATION

Big Sky Medical Center now offers general, OB/GYN, vascular, and basic fetal ultrasounds.

Call 406-995-6995 to schedule an appointment for your ultrasound needs.

334 Town Center Avenue, Big Sky, MT BigSkyMedicalCenter.com

Do you love Montana’s open landscape?

Help support protecting it in perpetuity.

Working for Our Best Future Contact Jessie Wiese at jessie@mtlandreliance.org for more information Ad donated by supporters for open land | mtlandreliance.org | 406.594.1570

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10 November 3 - 17, 2022

Explore Big Sky

‘MAKING BIG SKY SAFER’: BIG SKY FIRE DEPARTMENT EXPANDS EARLY FIRE DETECTION PARTNERSHIP

NEW CAMERAS ON PIONEER MOUNTAIN IMPROVE TRIANGULATION, COVER BLIND SPOTS AROUND LONE MOUNTAIN Satyam answered a question about the possibility of using this technology for other uses including avalanche reporting, search and rescue, mudslides and other climate related disasters.

“As we look at the capability, it can be applied to many other areas and we’ve gotten great feedback from end users,” Satyam said. “As we think about moving into other spaces, we just need to collect a whole bunch of data and look through that.”

It was also noted that more wildfire detection technology would improve access to property insurance, which has become more difficult to afford in wildfire country.

The cameras use powerful HD zoom, which might concern nearby residents.

Fire Chief Greg Megaard talks about the value of early detection. PHOTO BY JACK REANEY

BY JACK REANEY Building on their only service in the state of Montana, Pano AI is launching its second hightech camera station in Big Sky to provide constant wildfire monitoring over the surroundings of Lone Peak and now Pioneer Mountain. Big Sky officials are considering adding a third station on Cinnamon Ridge in 2023, which would add a unique vantage point from farther southeast.

“Last year, Pano AI’s technology was integral in providing us with the tactical intelligence and precise triangulation needed to monitor and respond to the Shedhorn Fire, which was critical to limiting the damage,” said Big Sky Fire Chief Greg Megaard in a press release. “We are excited to expand our partnership to make Big Sky safer.”

Pano AI uses a 360-degree camera system with 30x tactical zoom to constantly scan for signs of wildfire. Plumes of smoke are first detected by AI with deep learning ability, but any alarming camera feed is then immediately reviewed by Pano AI’s human staff to prevent false alarms and send effective alerts to local forces. The network also uses satellite imagery and 911 calls. These methods are less useful for early detection, but they provide additional information for first responders including topography and possible causes or response hazards. With more than one Pano AI station in an area of coverage, the network can triangulate the location and provide critical information to first responders.

Three is the magic number for exact triangulation, however, which is a main reason for a Cinnamon Ridge station if the Big Sky community chooses to fund a third stage of the project.

The first station was funded by Big Sky Area Resort District, Spanish Peaks, Yellowstone Club, Moonlight Basin, Big Sky Resort and the Big Sky Fire Department. The Pioneer Mountain station was funded by contributions from Yellowstone Club and insurance broker Risk Strategies, according to BSRAD Board Chair Sarah Blechta. BSRAD has

allocated $40,000 in total resort tax dollars to the fire department for this technology.

Pano AI first installed a 360-degree wildfire camera system on Lone Peak in September 2021. Within the month, the system used artificial intelligence to detect smoke 13 miles away and triggered a response which ultimately contained the Shedhorn Fire to just 74 acres.

This validated the technology that had been used in California and Oregon, and in the ski industry only in Aspen, Colorado. In one year since the Lone Peak camera was installed, Pano AI expanded to Idaho, and to other Colorado resorts including Vail, Beaver Creek and Eldora. The company is working with many other resorts, according to Satyam. He said that ski resort communities are on the front lines of intensifying fire risk.

“We take privacy very seriously,” said Business Development Manager Kat Williams. “We are using this tool to confirm vegetation smoke, and that is all. [We] provide intelligence to firefighters that are responding to the smoke. Nothing else.”

During installation, the cameras are programmed manually with “hard pixelation” or blur overlayed on properties and community centers such as Big Sky’s Mountain Village and resort-adjacent properties.

Williams later clarified that nobody, even members on the Pano team, can disable the pixelation of human structures and urban environments.

“I can’t thank the [Big Sky] community enough for being one of the first movers on this,” said Pano AI’s Chief Commercial Officer Arvind Satyam.

“It doesn’t really change anything operationally for what [Big Sky firefighters] are doing,” Deputy Fire Chief Dustin Tetrault told EBS. “It’s another tool in the toolbox for us. The biggest benefit is the increase in our safety because of extra situational awareness. You’re able to see what kind of fire behavior these guys are going into—where are they going, what’s the fuel zone they’re going into, where are the safety zones.”

This technology can also be used for prescribed burns, according to Williams. The U.S. Forest Service this summer had a three-month pause on prescribed burns after a forest service team lost control of the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fires in April in New Mexico, creating the largest recorded wildfire in state history. However, Williams said, “I think we all know that prescribed fires are an incredibly important tool to prevent catastrophic wildfires.”

Pano collaborated with local forest and fire officials near Aspen, Colorado to track progress and identify threats in the prescribed Hunter Creek Fire.

Arvind Satyam, Chief Commercial Officer of Pano AI, speaks at the Big Sky Fire Station. PHOTO BY JACK REANEY

“I have to tell you, this is my favorite Pano deployment,” said Pano AI’s Chief Commercial Officer Arvind Satyam. “It’s rare that you can be standing at a fire station and looking at a Pano station that’s deployed at 11,200 feet. Our Lone Peak station is right up there.” PHOTO BY JACK REANEY

Visit

BIG SKY COMMUNITY LIBRARY

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SCAN

Storytime Join us each Monday and Friday for storytime!

10:30 am at BASE on Mondays & Fridays

THOUSAND Books, Audiobooks, DVDs and other materials to check out

We currently have books in English and Spanish & digital eBooks and audiobooks.

Big Sky Besties Come to the library on Fridays at 3:00 to build community and connection in Big Sky with different generations.

One Book Big Sky We have multiple community reads followed by a visit from the author each year.

Our mission to promote a greater appreciation of literature and lifelong learning to encourage community awareness of the importance of fostering reading at all ages to provide equitable access to information for everyone in Big Sky

THANK YOU The Big Sky Community Library is supported by: Big Sky Resort Tax Moonlight Community Foundation Spanish Peaks Community Foundation Yellowstone Club Community Foundation Gallatin County Women's Club and all of you!

Thank you Sally and Scott Fisher!

BIGSKYLIBRARY

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EW TH

WWW.BIGSKYLIBRARY.COM

22 YEARS

serving Big Sky

Big Sky Community Library 45465 Gallatin Road Connected to the MS/HS librarian@bigskylibrary.com

School Year Mon, Tues, Wed Friday Saturday

Hours: 4:00-8:00 3:00-7:00 12:00-6:00

BIGSKYLIBRARY

This ad is donated by L&K Real Estate clients Scott and Sally Fisher

L O CA L

12 November 3 - 17, 2022

Explore Big Sky

TRICK? TREAT? A SPOOKY EVENING IN BIG SKY

PARENTS SHOWING REGULATORY TREND AGAINST EXCESS CANDY INTAKE imagination as to how one accumulates a massive candy supply.

BY JACK REANEY On the cool, half-moon night of Oct. 31, Big Sky locals young and old took to the streets in pursuit of Halloween candy and a good time.

Curiously, they say they only take one in these situations, and they never hit houses twice.

Ten-year-old Morty (from “Rick and Morty”) said his candy will last for two months, “knowing [his] mom.”

Explore Big Sky was on-scene to speak with trickor-treaters in the Ramshorn neighborhood in the canyon and the South Fork of Meadow Village.

Local kids predicted the size and durability of their candy haul, shared strategies for maximizing their quantity and reported their favorite sweets.

In the early footsteps of his trick-or-treat adventure, one Big Sky 3-year-old shed his yellow excavator costume, keeping only his regular clothes and yellow hard-hat. The excavator’s father had no choice but to carry the suit, as his mother’s hands were occupied pushing her “zero [year-old]" peapod in a stroller.

Later, an 8-year-old cop estimated that she would receive “100... thousand” units of candy. She said that amount would last her, “let’s see... forever?”

Her brother, 6-year-old Batman took a more conservative approach. When asked how much candy he’d eat on Halloween, he said, “probably two.”

Batman expects his stash to last fifty thousand million years.

This young hot dog declined to comment or smile, until the larger dog employed a tickle strategy. PHOTO BY JACK REANEY

One trick-or-treater, “Alien abducting me,” estimated the amount of candy he would receive.

“Probably like 30 million bucks,” he said, adding that his supply will most likely last one day.

One unicorn thinks he can stretch his candy for an entire year. He’s done it for two months before, so he just needs to pace himself.

His friend, “Man riding a blow-up turkey”, shared his strategy: “Go to every house, find the ones that don’t have anyone or any sign,” he said, leaving little to the

Morty’s friend is a monkey. He believes that running is the best way to amass a huge candy source, and he said he’s motivated by the prospect of trading in his candy to his mother for a KUIU hunting jacket.

EBS spoke with “‘Hangry’ expressed in a person,” whose mouth appears ready to consume candy at an unusually high rate to remedy the combined effects of hunger and anger. To keep up with his hanger, he explained his plan to get as much candy as possible.

“Go to houses that you’ve already gone to, and just don’t wear the mask,” Hangry said. “We’re gonna do that five times.”

Hangry will need to eat his candy in two days before his mom throws it away.

His family friend dressed as “Ghost that’s made out of electricity,” and hoped to collect 20 pounds of candy. Both Hangry and the Ghost agreed that their main goal is to get more candy than their brothers and sisters.

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13 November 3 - 17, 2022

Explore Big Sky

REGIONAL

CONSERVATION GROUPS SUE OVER MONTANA WOLF HARVEST RULES Parks does not comment on pending litigation, spokesperson Greg Lemon said Friday.

Montana officials authorized the killing of 450 wolves during the winter of 2021-22, but ended up shutting down hunting near Yellowstone National Park after 23 wolves from the park were killed in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. All but five of them were killed in Montana.

ASSOCIATED PRESS HELENA—Two conservation groups have filed a lawsuit against the state of Montana and its wildlife management agency alleging it illegally set hunting and trapping policies and quotas intended to reduce the gray wolf population by making it easier to kill the predators.

A total of 273 wolves were reported killed in Montana last winter. This year, Montana’s Fish and Wildlife Commission authorized the killing of 456 wolves, including just six in an area north of Yellowstone park. Hunters can take up to 20 wolves—10 by hunting and 10 by trapping.

WildEarth Guardians and Project Coyote filed the lawsuit on Oct. 27 in District Court in Helena asking for the new laws and resulting increased quotas to be overturned.

Montana’s Republican-controlled Legislature in 2021 passed bills that allowed the state to reduce the wolf population, authorize additional hunting methods, allow extended hunting seasons, allow an individual to kill up to 20 wolves and allow private parties to offer bounties for hunting or trapping wolves.

The conservation groups allege management decisions are being made based on a wolf plan

The conservation groups argue this year’s quota constitutes up to 40% of the state’s wolf population.

PHOTO BY JACOB W. FRANK / NPS

that was created in 2002 and was amended to use a new wolf population model without following state rulemaking procedures and without public participation.

The state Department of Fish, Wildlife and

Montana and Idaho changed their wolf hunting rules in 2021 urged by hunters and ranchers who wanted fewer wolves on the landscape. The changes included allowing night hunting with spotlights on private land, higher harvest limits, the use of snares and the use of bait.

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14 November 3 - 17, 2022

Explore Big Sky

SPORTS

OCTOBER IN THE BASEBALL DESERT

THIS MIGHT BE RED SOX—OR ‘I DON’T WATCH BASEBALL’—COUNTRY, ACCORDING TO RANDOM SAMPLE OF BIG SKY BASEBALL FANDOM

BY JACK REANEY BIG SKY — Bailey is the assistant manager at the Hungry Moose, and he’s getting ready to spend his sixth winter in Big Sky. “My heart’s a little broken,” he said, around an hour after his Atlanta Braves were eliminated by the Phillies in the National League Division Series.

“We just couldn’t get our bats goin’.”

As Bailey stocked the refrigerator on a slow Saturday afternoon, he stood 498 miles from Coors Field in Denver, as the crow flies. If Bailey wanted to see live Major League Baseball action, Google says he’d be driving nearly 11 hours on a 735-mile, roundabout route through Billings and eastern Wyoming.

That’s to see the troubled Colorado Rockies, who finished 43 games behind in their division.

Baseball fans like Bailey have another option if they’re willing to drive for two minutes longer.

T-Mobile Park in Seattle is 50 miles farther as the crow flies, but I-90 offers an 11-hour fast track across 710 highway miles. The Mariners made the playoffs this season, leading media coverage as they advanced to a division series for the first time since 2001.

The state of Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings time, so the Diamondbacks of Phoenix spend the baseball season in line with the pacific time zone, making the Rockies the only baseball team truly playing in Mountain Time.

All of this suggests why—just like every other major professional sport—Montana is the epicenter of America’s baseball desert. In fact, one bored Reddit user determined that the north-central Montana town of Turner is the American town farthest from any professional baseball. North of the Hi-Line and near the Canadian border, Turner is an equidistant 650 miles from both the Colorado Rockies and Seattle Mariners.

Big Sky is 283 miles from the epicenter of the American Baseball Desert. GRAPHIC BY ME BROWN

With the 2022 World Series approaching, Explore Big Sky conducted an exhaustive survey of 170 locals, approximating the distribution of baseball fans in Big Sky.

Almost half of respondents favor teams from the East “I’m from Boston, if that tells you anything,” said one man as he climbed into his van. He lives in Bozeman and works in Big Sky. “Though I don’t like to admit that in Montana. They’ll shoot people from California and Massachusetts.”

The data reflects a significant share of Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees fans, with 30 and 21, respectively. That might speak to the presence of East Coast transplants, many who move out West to ski, etc. In all, 47.8% of surveyed locals said they follow a team from the East Coast.

“I want them both to win … and I want them both to lose,” Adam said. “I want them both to be in the pennant race every year.”

A mixed bag of locals Natasha bartends at Tres Toros. She’s been in Big Sky for two years, having moved from Portland, Oregon where the semi-pro Pickles dominate the baseball scene. She grew up in Seattle and still has fond memories of the steroid era club.

“Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez, Joey Cora, Ichiro [Suzuki],” she said, listing her favorites from the turn of the century, all retired now.

While many come seeking mountain life, there’s one man around here that might have left the East by way of exile.

Adam said he’s a Yankees fan … and a Red Sox fan.

That’s not something I—as a New Hampshireraised Sox fan—have ever heard from one of the longest, most iconic rivalries in American sports.

Bailey wore his Atlanta hat to work, and their season most likely ended during his shift. PHOTO BY JACK REANEY

Adam was born and raised in Boston but went to high school in Connecticut—considered “no man’s land” by New England sports fans. As he grew older, he would go to Yankee games with his friends and remembers being at the old Yankee Stadium when David Cone threw his perfect game against the Montreal Expos on July 18, 1999.

Phil from Philly points proudly to the Phillies cap. PHOTO BY JACK REANEY

15 November 3 - 17, 2022

SPORTS

Explore Big Sky

Logo size corresponds to a team’s share of the random sample. Barely visible with only one fan: Brewers, Royals, Angels, White Sox, Rangers, Athletics, Reds. GRAPHIC BY ME BROWN

A pair of Marlins fans moved to Big Sky in the last two years. They still call their team the “Florida Marlins”, though they’ve been called Miami Marlins since 2012. They prefer the old Florida logo: a marlin wrapped around a black letter ‘F’.

Scott has lived in Big Sky since 2007. He couldn’t attend any of the Cubs playoff games in 2016, but he still watched on TV as they ended their 108-year World Series drought.

“My grandpa grew up in Chicago near Wrigley.

Ever since I was a kid, he was putting Cubs hats on me, making sure I was a Cubs fan,” Scott said. He grew up in Vail Valley; Rockies territory.

The Athletics have one documented fan in Big Sky. While bartending at The Independent, that fan called them “major league baseball’s farm team” in reference to their reputation for trading away homegrown talent.

Another bar hand favors the Miami Marlins’ former minor league AAA-affiliate, the New Orleans Baby Cakes. He said their mascot was “nightmare fuel” before they moved to Wichita, Kansas in 2019 and changed their name.

At BASE, one father and his two sons couldn’t decide on a team. A while later, their orange jeep pulled up beside me in Town Center. The back window rolled down.

“My favorite team is the Mets!” the younger boy declared. His father smiled in the front seat and drove off.

Multinational opinions

The Phillie Phanatic

Sunny and Josh moved here from India.

“We don’t do any of that baseball,” said Sunny, who prefers cricket. He made sure I would write that India has the best team.

Phil introduced himself as ‘Phil from Philly.’ He sipped a beer at Tips Up, celebrating Philadelphia’s playoff series win over highly favored Atlanta.

“But I’ll have the Yankees,” Josh added.

At Pinky G’s, one Turkish chef supports the soccer club Galatasaray S.K. but he doesn’t know anything about baseball.

Waiting for his order at Mi Pueblito Taco Bus with friends, Francisco told me, “We’re Mexican—we’re about soccer.”

He moved to Big Sky around six years ago, but said he’s been living the van nomad lifestyle around Helena in recent months.

I mentioned the recent story I’d seen online, that every time the Phillies win the World Series there’s an economic crisis.

He laughed, having heard the same thing.

Francisco supports Barcelona because, he said, “Mexico sucks” at soccer.

“Bring the recession,” he said, as his Phillies had just punched their ticket to the National League Championship Series.

The greatness of Justin Verlander

“If we win the [World] Series, I’ll take a couple bad years.”

“I’m a Detroit fan through and through,” said Marty Pavelich, four-time Stanley Cup champion with the Red Wings and local hero for 30 years.

The mirage of baseball interest

However, as he sipped coffee at the Hungry Moose, Pavelich said he likes the Houston Astros.

On the previous night, 39-year-old Justin Verlander pitched six innings, allowing one earned run and striking out 11 Yankees to help the Astros take a 1-0 American League Championship Series lead.

We then got slightly off track as Pavelich predicted another cup for the Red Wings in two years and a Tigers playoff bid in the same year (mark his words), but Pavelich said he’s a friend of Verlander from the starting pitcher’s 13 years in Detroit. With Verlander in a Houston uniform, the Astros have Pavelich’s attention.

Plenty of Big Sky locals don’t bother watching baseball. Of 170 sampled, 30 didn’t give a favorite team, and a few offered names from football teams.

“I don’t have the attention span,” one said.

“My kids are more into skateboarding,” another said.

Most non-respondents simply shook me away with something like, “baseball? No, not me.”

By nature, I suppose there’s plenty else to do around here.

Edited by Jason Bacaj, disgruntled fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates

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17 November 3 - 17, 2022

SPORTS

Explore Big Sky

HIGHWAYS AND HISTORY BIG HORNS BREAKTHROUGH IN CLASS C

BY COLTER NUANEZ SKYLINE SPORTS

The Big Horns could have driven all the way to Calgary in about the same amount of time it took to travel to Culbertson for their first round game in Montana’s 8-man football playoffs.

Welcome to Class C. The Lone Peak High School football team drove nearly 1,000 miles—493 miles each way to be exact—for its postseason game against Culbertson, which sits between Glendive and Plentywood in northeast Montana. The windshield miles that accompany a deep playoff run are both imposing to consider and impressive to remember.

Those highway traverses are what unite some of Class C’s greatest football dynasties.

Lone Peak, which opened in 2009 and started playing 8-man ball in 2017, is a rarity in modernday Class C. More than half of Montana’s high schools have less than 130 students; most Class C schools are forced to wonder whether high school students might become a non-renewable resource.

Lone Peak, on the flip side, had 112 students last year but is growing as Big Sky continues to boom and is set to “move up” to Class B next year. LPHS will continue to compete in 8-man football despite the reclassification.

Most of Class C’s storied football programs have had to figure out a way to keep competing as enrollment declines. Maybe the best example of the impossible alliances forged by these hard choices is that of Highwood and Geraldine. What other name could the co-op football team go by than the Rivals?

Between 1992 and 2008, Highwood won 11 state titles in 8-man ball. That’s the most in smallschool history and the fifth-most ever across all classifications in the state of Montana. Butte High (15), Great Falls C.M. Russell (13), Great Falls High (12) and Helena Capital—all from Class AA—are the only schools with more football banners than Highwood.

Geraldine won five 8-man championships—1974, 1989, 1997, 2001 and 2003. Highwood and Geraldine are only 45 minutes apart, so when student numbers started to dwindle, the old adversaries had to rally together. After playing each other in five state title games, the newly formed co-op won its first state 6-man title in 2013 and repeated the next season.

Dynasties run deep in Montana Class C football, particularly since the classification separated into 8-man and 6-man classifications starting in 1982.

The Montana High School Association first revived Class C football in 1973 after an initial run from 1949-1952.

Coincidentally, during that inaugural ‘73 season, Bozeman Rosary High defeated the same Culbertson squad that hosted Lone Peak on Saturday. Today, Culbertson boasts 753 residents, which is just 68 less folks than in 1973 when Class C first came about.

The first great 8-man dynasty of the 21st century came in the form of Chase Reynolds’ Drummond Trojans. Reynolds—a record-setting running back who ran for the second-most career yards than anyone in state history ( Jordan Nees, of Hobson Moore/Judith Gap, surpassed Reynolds’ career mark by seven yards in 2018)—went on to become the all-time leading rusher in the storied history of the University of Montana Grizzlies before playing

The LPHS Big Horns showed grit and toughness in knocking off then-No. 6 Cascade High School earlier this season. PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

several years in the NFL. Reynolds and a handful of other Division I players helped Drummond go undefeated three years in a row between 2003 and 2005.

Of the five schools moving from Class C to Class B next year—all of which will continue playing 8-man—all but the Big Horns have played for state titles and all but LPHS and Darby have won at least one. Ennis has four titles, Superior has two and Fairview has one.

Lone Peak is something of an anomaly. Big Sky boasts about 3,500 people, which is more than three times as many as Fairview and almost 30 times the size of Class C towns like Reed Point or Melstone or Sunburst.

To see the shifting landscape and just how unusual Lone Peak’s growth is from its Class C competitors, look no further than Drummond. The ranching cowboy town boasts 272 residents these days. And to maintain its football tradition, the Trojan football team had to rally up with archrival Phillipsburg to form the Flint Creek Titans.

The co-op has been wildly successful, winning state titles in 2017, 2018 and 2020 under former head coach Mike Cutler. Flint Creek is undefeated this year again and a favorite again to win the state crown.

Lone Peak will likely never have to navigate forming a football co-op, nor how to maintain longstanding tradition against newly formed amalgamations of old rivals.

But this season saw the Big Horns put another layer on their own growing football tradition.

They notched a victory against then-No. 6 ranked Cascade High on the way to a top 10 position themselves. They’ve consistently had strong performances against traditional powerhouses, never once getting “out-athleted,” as head coach Dustin Shipman said earlier in the year. They made the program’s second playoff run. The first was in 2017 and ended at the hands of Flint Creek.

On Oct. 29, the Big Horns lost to Culbertson, 6416, overpowered by the Cowboys' physical running game.

While this season finished with a first round exit, this squad only had one senior, so who knows what the future holds.

Junior quarterback Juliusz Shipman looks downfield in a September matchup against the Cascade Badgers. PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

“They wanna win football games,” Shipman told EBS in October. “They love to represent their school and they love to represent their community.”

18 November 3 - 17, 2022

L O CA L

Explore Big Sky

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© 2022 .. All rights reserved. Engel & Völkers and its independent franchisees are Equal Opportunity Employers and fully support the principles of the Fair Housing Act. Each property shop is independently owned and operated. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. If your property is currently represented by a real estate broker, this is not an attempt to solicit your listing.

20 November 3 - 17, 2022

SPORTS

Explore Big Sky

‘HOW ABOUT THE GUYS THAT ARE PLAYING?’ ‘CATS KEEP ROLLING DESPITE INJURIES

BY TOM STUBER SKYLINE SPORTS

You have to forgive the media, and fans, sometimes.

Most of the time when injuries occur in sports the expectation is that there’s going to be a drop off.

In some cases, it’s a sky-is-falling feeling where the thought of someone else filling that role is impossible to wrap your head around.

That feeling is slowly being erased, however, at Montana State where the football team never seems to miss a beat when a player is hurt.

MSU head coach Brent Vigen had finally been asked enough times about a player that wasn’t suiting up on Saturday, Oct. 22 following the Bobcats’ huge 43-38 Big Sky Conference win over previously undefeated and fifth-ranked Weber State.

Blake Schmidt makes a tackle in the FCS semifinal game against South Dakota State University in December 2021. PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

“We’ve been talking a lot about the guys that aren’t playing. How about the guys that are playing?”

Vigen calmly asked. “We’ve got a good group of guys that are out there, and you’re going to have some guys that aren’t on the field one Saturday or the next. The guys out there, though, we trust completely, and they’re getting better and better.”

His timing was perfect.

The Bobcats had just seen its offensive line dominate Weber State for four quarters. The unsung heroes of every football team with a good offense, especially a good running game, are famous for not being famous.

On Saturday, Oct. 22 in Bozeman, center Justus Perkins, guards JT Reed and Omar Aigbedion, tackles Jacob Kettles and Rush Reimer outdid themselves. Aigbedion, a freshman, was starting in the place of injured starter Cole Sain at right guard. Kettles, a redshirt freshman who’s career was delayed early on by a knee injury of his own, was making his first career start at right tackle in place of injured Marcus Wehr.

The offensive line unit as a whole had played great all season, but they performed a masterpiece against the Wildcats.

All year, MSU has been averaging more yards per rush than their opponents had been allowing.

Saturday, however, they blew those performances away. Weber came into the game allowing just 2.7 yards per carry and MSU obliterated that number by gaining 6.5 per carry and finishing with 367 yards rushing against one of the best defensive units in the country.

MSU leads the conference and ranks second nationally by averaging 290 yards per game on the ground. And that’s with All-American Isaiah Ifanse out to this point of the season, San Diego State transfer Kaegun Williams ruled out for the season before the season even began and Lane Sumner in and out of the lineup so far during his junior year.

Plus, Jared White snapped his leg in his first career start in Week 2.

The Wildcats had only allowed one rushing touchdown on the season (six games) but gave up four to the Bobcats. MSU allowed no sacks to a WSU team that was third in the league with 15

Center Justus Perkins has anchored the MSU offensive line all season. PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

All-American running back Isaiah Ifanse has been sidelined all year recovering from a knee injury. PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

coming into the game and just one tackle-for-loss.

Quarterback Tommy Mellott was hurried just twice.

One particular play, which MSU football put out on its Twitter feed, saw the linemen and tight ends win every battle on the line. The play produced a 36-yard touchdown run by Mellott, who finished the day with 273 yards rushing.

It was highlighted by a devastating block on the edge by tight end Derryk Snell, pulling left guard Reed’s seal block and center Perkins’ block of the middle linebacker. The other tight end in the formation, Treyton Pickering, and the remaining three linemen (Aigbedion, Kettles and Reimer) all engaged their man and forced them away from the direction of the play. The same play produced another TD run by Mellott, this one of 42 yards, earlier in the game.

“What [the blockers] do is second to none, those guys are who deserve all the credit certainly for today,” said Mellott, who took all the snaps last week with Sean Chambers on the shelf. “I don’t think I broke a tackle to be honest with you. They opened a lot of holes. Tight ends as well and the wide receivers – they pride themselves on that.”

On defense Blake Schmidt, who registered a sack against Weber, has been playing in the shadow of budding star Sebastian Valdez. Schmidt, however, is third on the team in sacks, fourth in tackles-for-loss and second in quarterback hurries. MSU’s interior hasn’t had much fall off despite the graduation of All-American Chase Benson.

Nolan Askelson, who doesn’t start, but gets a lot of minutes at linebacker has the team’s season-high for tackles for a single game and is fourth on the team in tackles. Danny Uliulakepa, who like Schmidt plays in the shadow of captain Callahan O’Reilly, is the team's leading tackler on the season.

In the secondary, cornerback James Campbell is putting together a solid season. He leads the unit in interceptions and has 18 tackles. His partner on the other corner, Simeon Woodard, is fifth on the team in tackles and fourth in tackles-for-loss.

The Bobcats regularly rotate seven players (Valdez, Schmidt, Brody Grebe, Ben Seymour, Kenneth Eiden IV, David Alston, Blake Hehl) along the defensive line and have multiple combinations at linebacker and in the secondary. Safeties Tyson Pottenger and Kendric Bailey, cornerbacks Dru Polidore and Tyrel Thomas regularly see action.

“That’s a year-round deal,” Vigen said about the number of solid players MSU has both starting and rotating in. “That’s a [strength and conditioning coach] Sean Herrin, [running] Peet’s Hill, weight room thing. I think that’s just our players believing in one another and when you have good players believing in one another that’s pretty powerful.”

The Bobcats has a bye this week. MSU is in action again Nov. 5 in Flagstaff, Ariz. where they’ll take on Northern Arizona at 1:00 p.m.

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22 November 3 - 17, 2022

SPORTS

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BIG HORN VOLLEYBALL MAKES A POSTSEASON RUN

HEAD COACH BAILEY DOWD BELIEVES THIS YEAR’S TEAM CAN PLAY WITH ANYONE

The Big Horns celebrate their 3-1 win over Ennis on Saturday, Oct. 29. PHOTO BY JACK REANEY

BY JACK REANEY AND JULIA BARTON From Thursday, Oct. 27 to Saturday, Oct. 29, the Lone Peak High School volleyball team competed in the District 12C Tournament at Manhattan Christian School. Lone Peak played five matches in three days, nearly fighting their way from the losers’ bracket to the championship in the doubleelimination tournament.

Seeded fourth of 10, Lone Peak finished in third place after beating Ennis High School on Saturday afternoon. With their top-four finish, the Big Horns advanced to the Divisional Tournament alongside the district champion Manhattan Christian Eagles, the runner-up Twin Bridges Falcons, and the Ennis Mustangs, from whom the Big Horns stole the third seed. The Big Horns last reached divisionals in 2020.

“It’s great to be going further into tournament play and making a run for it,” said head coach Bailey Dowd. “Our seniors were a big part of the 2020 team.

[Maddie] Cone, [Emily] Graham, [ Jessie] Bough, I think it’s really important for them to finish their careers with a good playoff push on a strong team.”

and the Big Horns scored four of the next six points. Cone gave the Big Horns a 23-20 lead with a strong kill and did it again to punctuate a 25-23 win for the Big Horns, eliminating the Mustangs. “[It was] packed with emotions, because we had already clinched divisionals the night before,” Dowd said. “Everything beyond that was icing on the cake, playing for seeding. Being able to have the first upset of the tournament by taking down Ennis was really important.”

The Big Horns then faced the Twin Bridges Falcons to decide who would play Manhattan Christian in the championship on Saturday afternoon.

“It’s the most we’ve ever asked the girls to play,” coach Dowd said. “It’s usually two matches per week with plenty of time to rest and recuperate. Being asked to play the three of the hardest games of their season, versus the three-seed [Ennis] and two-seed [Twin Bridges], back to back—it’s just tough, physically.”

Twin Bridges won the fifth and final set, 15-13, knocking off the Big Horns and advancing to the District 12C championship.

The road to the top four

Coach Dowd said the Big Horns peaked at the perfect time in the season and played as a team.

The No. 4 Big Horns began postseason play with a matchup against No. 5 Gardiner High School Bruins. Lone Peak came out slow but came back strong, winning their first district game 3-1 to advance to face the top-ranked Manhattan Christian School.

“It’s what we’ve been working toward all season,” Dowd said. “They really gave it their all.”

The MCS Eagles—last year’s Class C state champions—came out strong, taking a commanding win in the first set. The second set was anybody’s game.

The Big Horns tightened up their defense, swung hard and ultimately won the second set 25-22.

The Big Horns stayed close in the third set but the Eagles took the set, and followed it up with a fourth-set victory for the 3-1 match win.

With one tournament loss on their record, the Big Horns moved into the loser’s bracket to face White Sulphur Springs High School.

The Hornets stayed close, but LPHS advanced to the tournament’s quarterfinal and secured their place in the Divisional Tournament.

The Big Horns opened the losers’ bracket against No. 3 Mustangs.

The game was competitive throughout. In the final set, the Big Horns turned a 4-4 tie into a 9-5 lead, but the Mustangs scored five straight to leapfrog into a 14-13 lead. With the score tied at 17, junior Ella Meredith scored on a block,

Near to far: Jessie Bough, Vera Grabow and Maddie Cone prepare to receive a serve from the Ennis Mustangs. PHOTO BY JACK REANEY

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Building Lunch & Learn: Defining Your Unique Leadership Culture Tues, Nov 15 | 12-1:30pm | BASE Multipurpose Room Register online at BigSkyChamber.com/LeadershipCulture $15 includes lunch This interactive session walks participants through identifying the unique leadership attributes, skills, and philosophies of their organization.

Armed with clarity about their uniqueness, participants walk away with clear best practices on how to build programs based on their organization's leadership culture. Presented by

HR Webinar: Benefits & Compensation Review Made Easy Thurs, Dec 8 | 9am | Virtual Webinar Register online at BigSkyChamber.com under Events FREE for Green Circle & Up, $60 for Base Level, $80 for non-member With retention at the top of every Employer’s mind, it’s a great idea to have answers to questions about benefits and who better to answer them than your employees? It’s a great place to begin and we’ll cover some easy ways for small businesses to conduct these surveys and get some great results and feedback from their employees and/or market research. Presented by TogetHR Consulting

Additional Training Topics Include Understanding Laws for Your Business ¨Maximizing Your Board of Directors ¨Health Insurance and Your Business ¨Business Exit Planning ¨Connection, Belonging & Community in the Workplace ¨

Connect with us for more information on dates and locations!

OUR COMMUNITY. OUR BUSINESS. BIGSKYCHAMBER.COM | 406.995.3000 | CAITLIN@BIGSKYCHAMBER.COM The Big Sky Chamber is a 501 (c) (6) nonprofit membership organization.

Additional funding for this programming and advertising is supported by Big Sky Resort Tax

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25 November 3 - 17, 2022

Explore Big Sky

A&E ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

BIG SKY COMMUNITY THEATER TO BRING ‘CLUE’ TO WMPAC

DOZENS OF LOCALS HAVE SPENT WEEKS PREPARING FOR A STAGE PERFORMANCE OF THE 1980S CULT CLASSIC FILM

BY JULIA BARTON BIG SKY—With a cast and crew of roughly 30 locals, the Big Sky Community Theater will bring their biggest show yet to the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center on Nov. 11 and 12.

BSCT has a rich history of bringing community members from various backgrounds, occupations and ages together through theatrical performances of shows such as “Nothing Serious,” “The Great Gatsby” and last fall’s show of “Almost, Maine.”

According to director Ashley Dodd, the community theater has been interested in a stage adaptation of the 1985 film “Clue” for years.

“We've looked at it a few times,” Dodd said. “It's funny, it'd be great for families to come to. We could really showcase a lot of our actors. It's bright and colorful and silly.”

The limiting factor that kept “Clue” off the stage for so long is the need for a large cast—one so large that BSCT just wasn’t sure there was enough interest in Big Sky to make it happen.

“After last fall’s production of ‘Almost, Maine’ we had a lot of new folks come out,” Dodd said. “We finally felt like we had enough folks to be able to get [‘Clue’] going. And it has been a challenge.”

The cast—Lone Peak High School staff John Hannahs and Jeremy Harder among them—has been preparing for weeks. The eight leading actors will have rehearsed twice weekly for about two months by the time the show debuts. Nine more actors have been at many rehearsals during that time as well, and another dozen community members have volunteered their time to build sets, paint props and help the cast.

Although it’s a tough undertaking, the “Clue” crew uses the theater as another avenue for recreation in Big Sky. “We do get to play a lot in this town,” Dodd said.

“Everybody gets to do all kinds of sports and outdoor adventures, but as adults, most of us don't get to have that kind of playtime, that make believe time that you have when you're a kid. I think people forget how fun that can be.”

"Clue" cast members rehearse at the Warren Miller Performing Arts Center. PHOTO BY ASHELY DODD

In the spirit of fun, BSCT is encouraging audience members to show up in their best “Clue”-inspired costume, prepared to interact with the cast.

Tickets to see BSCT’s production of “Clue” are available at warrenmillerpac.org.

POWERFUL May 28 – December 31, 2022 The Apsáalooke people of the Northern Plains are known for their bravery, artistry, and extravagance.

Celebrate the prominence of women, daring feats in battle, unparalleled horsemanship, and innovative beadwork. Alongside historical war shields and regalia, contemporary Native American art highlights how this bravery and artistry is alive today.

Ben Pease - Sacred Under the Cliff of Yellowstone

in the world to host Apsáalooke Women and Warriors outside of the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.

Apsáalooke Women and Warriors was jointly organized by the Field Museum and the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago.

Photo by John Weinstein, Field Museum

Wraps His Tail - War shield Photo by John Weinstein

Karis Jackson - Blessing of a Leader

Presenting Sponsor:

Stephanie Dickson & Chris McCloud

Ben Pease - Wherein Lies the Beauty of Life

Leading Sponsor:

Sheehy Family Foundation Contributing Sponsors:

In Memory of Ruth Sommerfeld The Michael G. Nast Foundation

museumoftherockies.org | 406.994.2251 | 600 W. Kagy Blvd.

Photo by John Weinstein, Field Museum

26 November 3 - 17 , 2022

A&E

Explore Big Sky

Q&A WITH CHRIS PATTERSON, DIRECTOR OF WARREN MILLER'S 'DAYMAKER'

BY JASON BACAJ BIG SKY—Ahead of the debut of Warren Miller’s “Daymaker,” EBS sat down and talked with Bozeman resident and the film’s director Chris Patterson.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

EBS: What does the title, “Daymaker,” mean and how did you follow that thread throughout filming?

Chris Patterson: The movie comes together based on conditions and athletes and opportunities. Some winters are more challenging than others. And the recurring theme this last winter was we kept having these incredible days, kept having the conditions we were looking for wherever we went. Every day there was some event that sort of makes that day special and we realized that everybody has that daymaker experience, whether you’re out like we are making the movie or if you’re just out skiing on your day off. It’s within those moments that really make skiing or snowboarding so special.

EBS: How do film concepts usually come together? It sounds like this one came about naturally over the course of the season.

CP: It’s different pretty much every year. This year, though, we made a plan beforehand of where we wanted to go and who we wanted to go with, which was a little different. We all got together, a lot of the creatives, and sort of made a plan of what the movie needed this year. Dealing with the pandemic was a little different, because we usually spend most of the winter on another continent filming but the pandemic shut that down. We ended up filming a lot in North America, which is not a problem because there’s a lot of opportunity here.

It’s funny to look back at the movie right now and think that the three times I went to Canada last year was a major process with leaving early and taking COVID tests to come and go from the country. So we stuck to the initial plan this year more so than in the past, which was fun and refreshing to know what we were going to do.

Usually where we go is dictated by conditions and invitations from different travel boards or resorts.

This year we were able to write our own tickets, so to speak.

EBS: Now that all the behind-the-scenes work is done and the film tour is on, are there any segments that stand out as particularly memorable?

CP: I’ve been doing this 30 years, so seen a lot, done a lot. You know, hundreds of assignments here, there and everywhere. But one that stood out—it’ll

Pete McAfee shreds some prime British Columbia powder. PHOTO COURTESY OF WARREN MILLER ENTERTAINMENT

probably sound a little odd—is this past summer we went and filmed grass skiing in Switzerland. We had these sort of like little tank track skis made in Czechia, the Czech Republic.

I’ve done a lot of unconventional work with Warren Miller over the years. We always stray toward the lighter side and the funnier, goofy parts within the sport. We brought one of our regular skiers, Connery Lundin. He’s game for anything, he’s a super athlete and we had a really wild and fun experience doing it. I think it’s gonna be memorable within the movie.

We decided it needed to be in an epic landscape with a cool reason for being there and skiing on grass. So we went to Switzerland and worked in cycle with the farmers there in the alpine. All summer long the cows eat this beautiful, lush grass that ultimately becomes the cheese they’re so well known for. As the farmers cut hay on these steep hillsides for cows in the winter we were right there with them skiing the grass. Ultimately, this is all about cheese.

EBS: Another segment that stood out to me was the adaptive backcountry one. What was it like putting that together?

CP: We had been introduced to Pete McAfee, this really great athlete who was in our movie last year because he had done a film project climbing and skiing Denali. We decided that we had to find another place for Pete, and rather than make him suffer through another expedition-like experience, we thought, ‘He’s a strong skier, why not go heli skiing where he could just let it loose.’

So that was filmed up in Canada at a heli ski lodge kind of in the middle of nowhere British Columbia. Pete invited this guy he had met but didn’t know that well, Dominic Davila, who has a great personality and great ability on a snowboard.

Dom’s background is different from Pete’s. Where Pete was born with a birth defect and had to have his leg removed while he was quite young, Dom lost his leg in an explosion in Afghanistan while serving in the Marines. They’re quite different in their personalities and riding styles, Pete’s a skier, Dom’s a snowboarder.

For me, on a trip like that, it’s really fun because they’re regular guys. They’re not professional athletes or influencers with some sort of agenda, they don’t go heli skiing every other week. It’s really a treat. And we had fantastic conditions, great weather, and good stability to get out high in the mountains. It was kind of the perfect trip.

McKenna Peterson explores Sun Valley in “Daymaker.” PHOTO COURTESY OF WARREN MILLER ENTERTAINMENT

EBS: Shifting gears a bit, how’d you come to work with Warren Miller Entertainment?

CP: It was kind of a seize-the-moment kind of thing. I had been in film school in Colorado. A Warren Miller film crew was filming at a ski area where I was living for the season, in Steamboat.

I told them I just wanted to follow along and see how they do it, offered to carry their stuff. I spent the week carrying backpacks and shadowing those guys, which was awesome. At the end of the week I shared some of my work with them and got offered a spot on the next trip to help carry packs. I ended up kind of doing that the rest of the winter. And that was the beginning of it. Haven’t gotten to the end yet.

EBS: How much skiing does a ski film director actually get to do? Do you ski or snowboard?

CP: I ski the majority of the time, certainly when working it’s just easier to get around. But I snowboard as well. But yeah, we ski a lot. We don’t ski quite like the athletes you see in the movie. We find a little more comfortable way to get around some of that gnarly terrain, and we’re always carrying backpacks with our cameras and batteries and lenses and big tripods. All kinds of other gadgets and gizmos like drones and GoPros and everything else.

We still ski a lot. It’s just a different kind of skiing and you get used to carrying 40 pounds of stuff on your back all day. After all these years I don’t really notice the pack at all any more. It’s more the days when I don’t have it that it feels weird.

I joke that by the end of the winter after lifting my backpack up several hundred times that I feel like I could rip doorknobs off because the arm is so strong from picking up that bag all day every day.

EBS: Last question, where’s your favorite place to go ski when you’re not working?

CP: I’d say my favorite spot is Beehive Basin. I can be found touring up around Hyalite too, so kind of very local stuff. Or closer to Yellowstone. Those are my local haunts. I tend to go in the backcountry more or less. If the kids are with me we go to Big Sky. We’ve lived here now 17 years and have just always loved being here. That’s why we live here.

I always find the quick access in Beehive and Hyalite great because my skiing is always in between other trips. I like the lower consequence, fun skiing where I don’t have to stress about it too much. I get enough adrenaline rush when we’re filming. I don’t need to do that on my free days. I can just go out, ski around the woods and be happy.

Skier Marcus Caston rips a line in “Daymaker,” the newest film from Warren Miller. PHOTO BY CAM MCLEOD

A&E

27 November 3 - 17, 2022

Explore Big Sky

BIG SKY EVENTS CALENDAR Thursday, Nov. 3 - Wednesday, Nov. 16

If your event falls between Nov. 17 - 24, please submit it to media@theoutlapartners.com by Nov. 9.

Screening: Thursday Night Football The Independent, 6 p.m.

Screening: Monday Night Football The Independent, 6 p.m.

Live Music: Marcedees Carrol Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

All Levels Pottery Series BASE, 6 p.m.

THURSDAY, NOV. 3

MONDAY, NOV. 7

Mosaic Art Class BASE, 10 a.m.

All Levels Pottery Series BASE, 10 a.m.

After School ARTventure BASE, 4:30 p.m.

Storytime for Toddlers BASE, 10:30 a.m.

Open Pottery Studio BASE, 6 p.m.

Screening: Monday Night Football The Independent, 6 p.m.

Screening: Thursday Night Football The Independent, 6 p.m.

All Levels Pottery Series BASE, 6 p.m.

Live Music: Marcedees Carrol Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

Live Music: Amanda Stewart Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

AA Meeting Big Sky Chapel, 8 p.m.

Trivia Tips Up, 9 p.m.

Story Time for Toddlers BASE, 10:30 a.m.

FRIDAY, NOV. 4

TUESDAY, NOV. 8

Story Time for Toddlers BASE, 10:30 a.m.

Big Sky Chamber of Commerce Board Meeting Big Sky Chamber of Commerce, 8:30 a.m.

Big Sky Community Theater's "Clue" WMPAC, 7 p.m.

Live Music: Chandler Huntley Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

Live Music: DJ Take A Chance Tips Up, 9 p.m.

SATURDAY, NOV. 5 AA Meeting Big Sky Chapel, 7:30 a.m.

St. Joseph’s Mass Big Sky Chapel, 5 p.m.

Live Music: Amanda Stewart Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

Live Music: Brice Ash The Independent, 8 p.m.

Live Music: Hanna & Robbie Duo Tips Up, 9 p.m.

SUNDAY, NOV. 6 St. Joseph’s Mass Big Sky Chapel, 8 a.m.

All Saints Big Sky Service Big Sky Chapel, 10 a.m.

Big Sky Christian Fellowship Service Big Sky Chapel, 4:30 p.m.

Community Art Class: Woodburning BASE, 6 p.m.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare WMPAC, 7 p.m.

Live Music: Tom Murphy & Kevin Fabozzi Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

MSU School of Music: Trombone Choir, Tuba/Euphonium Ensemble, Horn Choir Howard Hall, Reynolds Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.

AA Meeting Big Sky Chapel, 8 p.m.

FRIDAY, NOV. 11

Live Music: Chandler Huntley Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

MSU School of Music: Concerto/Aria Competition Finals Howard Hall, Reynolds Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.

Live Music: DJ Take A Chance Tips Up, 9 p.m.

TUESDAY, NOV. 15 Studio Art Practice BASE, 1 p.m.

American Legion Post 99 Bingo Riverhouse BBQ & Events, 5:30 p.m.

All Levels Pottery Series BASE, 6 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16 St. Joseph’s Mass Big Sky Chapel, 12 p.m.

Studio Art Practice BASE, 1 p.m.

Live Music: Looper Jam Tips Up, 9 p.m.

American Legion Post 99 Bingo Riverhouse BBQ & Events, 5:30 p.m.

SATURDAY, NOV. 12

Jumpstart to Oil Painting Class BASE, 5 p.m.

AA Meeting Big Sky Chapel, 7:30 a.m.

Trivia The Independent, 7 p.m.

St. Joseph’s Mass Big Sky Chapel, 5 p.m.

A more detailed version of this calendar is updated weekly on explorebigsky.comf

All Levels Pottery Series BASE, 6 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 9 Big Sky Resort Area District Board Meeting Big Sky Resort Area District, 9 a.m.

St. Joseph’s Mass Big Sky Chapel, 12 p.m.

AA Meeting Big Sky Chapel, 12 p.m.

BSSEF’s Wild West Ski Ball The Riverhouse, 6 p.m.

Big Sky Community Theater's "Clue" WMPAC, 7 p.m.

Featured Event

Live Music: The Damn Duo The Independent, 7 p.m.

Inspired by the iconic movie and board game "Clue," local actors will take the stage for two performances on Nov. 11 and 12. A comedy in plot and in characters, the show will offer an interactive experience to cult-fans and newcomers alike as they try to solve a who-done-it mystery during an unusual and murderous dinner party.

Jumpstart to Oil Painting Class BASE, 5 p.m.

Live Music: Amanda Stewart Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

Trivia The Independent, 7 p.m.

Live Music: Idaho Country Tips Up, 9 p.m.

Discovery Academy’s Fall Jam with Members of Pinky & the Floyd Tips Up, 6:30 p.m.

SUNDAY, NOV. 13

THURSDAY, NOV. 10 Mosaic Art Class BASE, 10 a.m.

Al-Anon Meeting Big Sky Chapel, 4 p.m.

After School ARTventure BASE, 4:30 p.m.

Open Pottery Studio BASE, 6 p.m.

Big Sky Community Theater's "Clue"

St. Joseph’s Mass Big Sky Chapel, 8 a.m.

All Saints Big Sky Service Big Sky Chapel, 10 a.m.

Big Sky Christian Fellowship Service Big Sky Chapel, 4:30 p.m.

MONDAY, NOV. 14 All Levels Pottery Series BASE. 10 a.m.

Story Time for Toddlers BASE, 10:30 a.m.

Do You or Someone You Know Need Help Getting Sober?

Contact A.A. - We’re alcoholics helping other alcoholics stay sober.

Call 1-833-800-8553 to talk to an A.A. member or Get the Meeting Guide app or Go to aa-montana.org for virtual and face-to-face meeting times and locations

28 November 3 - 17, 2022

Explore Big Sky

BUSINESS MAKING IT IN BIG SKY: BIG SKY FIRE DEPARTMENT

BY MIRA BRODY BIG SKY—In 1971, Big Sky began to grow from

a small ranching community to a place where people lived and worked, as did the need for a functional fire department. As they always do here, locals stepped up and formed the Gallatin Canyon Volunteer Fire Department, a team with scarce funding and donated equipment, led by Tim Prather, the first Fire Chief and General Manager of the Big Sky Resort. Their first firetruck was used from Powell, Wyoming and stored in the old log garage at Crail Ranch.

In 1979, two Gallatin Canyon Rural Fire Districts were formed; one each for the Gallatin County and Madison County portions of Big Sky, operating as one department, funded by property mill levies and by 1986, the McBride Family donated land in Westfork Meadows for the current Fire Station 1 to be built—the construction was done by Big Sky’s local tradesmen.

By 1992, the Big Sky Resort Area District was formed, providing a steady source of funding for fire and emergency operations in the area, allowing the station to create an ambulance service and hire a dedicated paramedic and first chief on payroll, Robert Stober, a retired Battalion Chief from the St. Paul, Minnesota Fire Department.

In 1997, Station 2 was constructed across from Big Sky Resort on land donated by Boyne Resorts, providing improved service coverage in the still-growing community. In 2003, the leadership button was passed from Chief Stober to Chief Jason Revisky, then in 2011 to Chief William Farhat who served until his retirement in 2020.

Today, BSFD is led by Deputy Chief of Operations Greg Megaard, the organization’s 10th Fire Chief.

Explore Big Sky spoke with Chief Megaard about his time at the fire department and alongside a compelling history lesson, like any good Chief, he reminded us about fire prevention month.

This series is part of a paid partnership with the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce. The following answers have been edited for brevity.

Explore Big Sky: I’d like to start with a little background information on you, when did you first arrive in Big Sky and what brought you here?

Greg Megaard: I’m born and raised in the Gallatin Valley; I grew up skiing in Big Sky and Bridger Bowl. I also have spent a lot of time hunting, fishing and hiking in this community over many years.

Chief Megaard says he is most thankful to work alongside a great team at the Big Sky Fire Department. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHIEF GREG MEGAARD

I started working part time for the Big Sky Fire Department in April of 2016. During that time, Fire Chief Bill Farhat approached me about possibly coming to work for the Big Sky Fire Department as the Deputy Chief of Operations. I decided to retire from the Bozeman Fire Department and took the position which started in August of 2016.

EBS: How big is your team?

GM: 31 members.

EBS: Tell me about the different services the fire department offers the community: GM: Big Sky Fire Department is responsible for all structural and wildland fire suppression, rescue services, ALS emergency medical services and transport, hazardous materials response, fire prevention and public education, and community hazard reductions to protect the life, safety and property of residents and visitors to the greater Big Sky area.

EBS: Tell me a bit about how you work alongside both Gallatin and Madison Counties to serve both county residents in Big Sky: GM: Big Sky Fire Department is unique in that our district covers two counties. It really comes down to creating relationships; we work with both Madison [and] Gallatin County Commissioners, Planning Departments and Emergency Management to make sure we serve everyone who lives, works and visits in the counties.

EBS: What is the best part of working at the Big Sky Fire Department?

GM: Without question it's the amazing team I get to

“

It’s fire prevention month, remember when you change your clock, make sure you change your batteries in all your smoke detectors.

Having working smoke detectors makes all the difference in the time of an emergency.

– Chief Greg Megaard, Deputy Chief of Operations, Big Sky Fire Department

”

work with every day at BSFD, and the community we get to serve.

EBS: What is the best business advice you have ever received?

GM: Challenge yourself to show up to work every day with the attitude that you must earn the right to have this job/profession.

EBS: Is there anything else that you’d like to tell the Big Sky community?

GM: It’s fire prevention month. Remember when you change your clock, make sure you change your batteries in all your smoke detectors. Having working smoke detectors makes all the difference in the time of an emergency.

29 November 3 - 17, 2022

Explore Big Sky

ENVIRONMENT

50 YEARS OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT MORE MUST BE DONE FOR MONTANA’S RIVERS, STREAMS AND LAKES

BY DERF JOHNSON The Clean Water Act turns 50 on October 18th.

Over the past five decades, it has proven itself as one of the most successful environmental laws on the books. It has cleaned up contaminated waterways, helped to assure that the drinking water coming out of your tap is safe for your kids, and protected the ecological integrity of rivers and streams. Indeed, without the Clean Water Act, Montana would not be the state it is today. But far more must be done in order for us to reach the promise of the Clean Water Act, which is to prevent, reduce and eliminate pollution in our waters.

In arid Montana, water is our most important and most limiting natural resource. Every aspect of our lives is tethered to and dependent upon access to clean, adequate water. Our tribes, our communities and our families are dependent upon clean water for our environment, health, economy, spiritual well-being and recreation. Whether you’re a rancher in Miles City, a restaurant worker in Kalispell, a mother in Laurel or an outfitter in Dillon, you need clean water every single day. Clean water is also essential for terrestrial and aquatic life, livestock, crops and ecosystems as a whole. With this in mind, one would think that Montana’s leaders would value and prioritize the protection and enhancement of our water resources. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case.

Our state government was granted the authority to implement the Clean Water Act through delegation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Montana Department of Environmental

Quality. In principle, the local stewardship of our water resources through an accountable state agency makes sense. But in practice, the DEQ has been starved of the resources necessary to fully implement even some of the most basic clean water protections, such as adequate water quality monitoring, development of pollution reduction plans and sufficient (and legal) pollution discharge permits.

The Montana Legislature oversees the funding and resources of the Montana DEQ. It also passes the state laws necessary to implement the Clean Water Act. Instead of upholding the values of fishable, swimmable, and drinkable water, the Legislature has instead endeavored on a race to the bottom in order to meet the bare minimum of water quality standards under the Clean Water Act, and nothing more (sometimes less).

For the past several decades, myriad bills have been introduced that would have weakened water protections and resulted in more pollution in our waters. Just last year, the legislature considered bills that would have allowed more selenium pollution in our water (failed in committee); weakened standards for nutrient pollution from industrial operations such as mining and municipal treatment plants, which choke out aquatic life (signed into law by Governor Gianforte); and allowed more pollution from subdivisions, which harms ground and surface water quality for everyone and everything downgradient (vetoed by Governor Gianforte).

If the idea of weakening water quality protections were put up for a vote by Montanans, it would

The North Fork of the Flathead River is seen here just north of Polebridge, Montana. PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

overwhelmingly fail. But these legislative proposals often come at the behest of a select few special interests with dollars at stake who have an outsized influence on the process.

The economic benefits of clean water are undervalued. Numerous studies have shown the enormous economic benefits of pollution prevention and the maintenance of clean waterways, rather than pollution management and attempts to clean up after water has been irreparably polluted. What’s more, many of Montana’s top industries, including agriculture and tourism, require clean water.

Protecting clean water is simply the cost of doing business.

Whether you’re dipping your toes into the Yellowstone River, allowing your cows to dip their noses into the Milk River, or casting a fishing lure into Flathead Lake, the water needs to be clean.

The last thing Montana needs is to weaken existing water protections. Instead, we should have the foresight and the wisdom to protect this resource for both this and future generations. Hopefully, the Montana Legislature and Governor Gianforte recognize this important reality and strike a new tone by prioritizing water quality protections, so that the next 50 years are a success for Montana’s water and everything that depends on it.

Derf Johnson is the Deputy Director of the Montana Environmental Information Center, a non-partisan, non-profit environmental advocate dedicated to ensuring clean air and water for Montana's future generations.

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31 November 3 - 17, 2022

Explore Big Sky

OPINION

LET’S TALK ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS TO MOVING BEYOND THE SCARCITY TRAP

BY SHANNON STEELE EBS COLUMNIST

As much as many of us are far away from where we grew up, we are all products of our environments of origin – physical and emotional circumstances that were mostly out of our control. These so-called social determinants can be more important than health care or lifestyle choices in influencing health. And the challenges of “trying to make it” in a resort town hits home regardless of if you felt abundance growing up, but even more-so if you’re arriving with a history of resource scarcity.

Many people in a resort town can feel squeezed by the high cost of living, especially during the shoulder seasons. It may be good to know that some of Big Sky’s community-based organizations are here to take the pressure off.

Sarah Gaither Bivins, operations manager of Big Sky Community Food Bank and Food Resource Center, has been connecting people to essential resources since 2013. The food bank has been agile and responsive to the needs of the Big Sky community. Big Sky leaned heavily on their services during the COVID-19 Pandemic, expanding their team, service hours, and resources. “Our model is simple: anyone can use the food bank. You don’t have to qualify or show any documentation. If you feel like you’re in a food emergency, you can come to us for help. We let people do their own shopping and offer additional help with wraparound services,” said Bivins. The expansion of the resource center is really about extending more security to the Big Sky community. “Most of our customers don’t have any type of savings, and only 44% have health insurance. On average my customers spend 43% of their income on housing.” Bivins added.

Bivins reinforced that utilizing the food bank is not just for emergency use only. “The food bank is for everyone, and we have access plenty of food. We are operating with an abundance of resources here in Big Sky, and community members shouldn’t feel that they’re taking away from someone else if they utilize our services,” she stated. Further, “people use the food bank when there are fewer hours at work, or they’ve just moved to town before work starts and have had to pay travel expenses, or first and last month’s rent. Other times of the year, people use the food bank when they can’t quite make their paycheck stretch to cover all of their living expenses in Big Sky or when they have had some type of emergency (e.g. torn ACL, flat tire or loss of housing).”

The food bank is shifting their framework to encourage customers to utilize their service BEFORE there is an emergency. You are encouraged to use their resources as a strategy to make your household budget go a little farther, build yourself a little bit of security in ways that you can.

When there’s constant stress and a feeling of insecurity around basic needs, our brains move into a scarcity mindset, deeply impacting our mental health and the way we feel and think. Our brains become hyper-focused on finding the resources we are lacking, creating tunnel vision and pushing us into primal functioning… aka “survival mode”.

To learn more about how scarcity impacts the way we think, listen to: NPR Podcast: Tunnel Vision The scarcity mindset is part of the human experience, and unfortunately a simple solution does not exist. Policy and systemic change are needed to ensure everyone’s basic needs are met.

However, grassroots organizations like Big Sky Community Food Bank are taking ownership of addressing the need and seeking to move our community beyond the scarcity trap.

Until systems and policy changes occur, Bivins believes community ownership of addressing basic needs can expand beyond the food bank. “What you can do to help is extend a little bit of security to our Big Sky neighbors. This is something that we’ve done so well during COVID, and I think is truly the character of Big Sky that we all know and love. If you’re in a position to buy someone a gift card, gas card or a bus pass, do that. If you’re in a position to offer a 6 month lease instead of Airbnb, do that. If you can extend healthcare benefits to some employees, do that. If you can buy lunch for someone, do that. If you can tip the housekeeper, do that. If you’d like to join us at the food bank, we have volunteer opportunities on the Volunteer Big Sky website.” When communities move beyond the scarcity trap, we may then move from “just surviving” to thriving.

Shannon Steele is the behavioral health program officer at the Yellowstone Club Community Foundation, and values a collaborative and community-centered approach to mental/behavioral health and wellness.

She has a background in mind-body wellness and community health, and is also a certified yoga instructor and active volunteer. Community, wellness and the outdoors have always been pillars in Shannon’s life.

FOOD BANK SERVICES Utilize the Food Bank for grocery shopping as a budgeting strategy Emergency Food Box Program: 5-7 day supply of food if in need due to an emergency.

Senior Grocery Program: Supplemental service for older adults 60+; monthly deliveries made by volunteers $10 Vouchers to Country Market Expanded Community Coatroom: Offering a variety of warm winter coats, hats, gloves, towels, bedding and toiletries to aid seasonal workforce or those in need.

Social Services: applications for SNAP (food assistance), energy assistance, tax preparation, healthcare insurance applications, COVID-related emergency financial assistance applications, assistance with resumes and job applications, and referrals to low-cost legal assistance Healthy Kidspack Program: Provides nutritionally balanced, kid-friendly foods on Fridays during the school year Summer Lunch: free lunch program for kids during the summer Laundry Facility Makerspace Conference and Training Room Computer Lab

47995 GALLATIN RD. GALLATIN GATEWAY, MT bigskyfoodbank.org (406) 995-3088

Additional Resources: Connect with Big Sky’s Peer Support Specialist John Kudrna John provides 1:1 in-person support and coaching to people who are experiencing mental health challenges, seeking sobriety or are in recovery, or navigating life’s challenges. Whether you need someone to talk to, you’re ready to set goals, or need to get connected to resources, he is here to help! jkudrna@rimrock.org (406) 409-1093

Wellness in Action Access sliding fee counseling (virtual & in-person) wiabigsky.org (406) 993-6803

BASE Community Center Connect with the community bsco.org/base (406) 993-2112

Big Sky Medical Center Access primary care, counseling or psychiatric services bozemanhealth.org (406) 995-6995

Community Event Calendar navigatebigsky.org

32 November 3 - 17 , 2022

OPINION

Explore Big Sky

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE A CREEPING LANDSCAPE

BY PAUL SWENSON Time to us human beings is a strange concept. You sit in a boring meeting, or wait for ski season, or go to a gathering where you don’t know anyone, and it seems like time slows down to a crawl. On the other hand, you go on a trip of a lifetime, have an epic powder day, or just met the love of your life, and time passes quickly, so fast that as your youngest is leaving for college you look in the mirror and say, “That was fast.” Our standards for time are a lifetime, a decade, a year, or a day.

But for geologists, a human lifetime is just an instant, just one tick on the clock of the universe.

Geologists need to understand the time scale of the Earth, from when it coalesced out of a molecular cloud with the rest of the solar system, to all the subsequent events since then that shape the planet around us. This perspective of immense time leads one to notice subtleties in the landscape that are caused by very slow changes.

An example of this is related to the last column on hummocky topography and landslides. We think of landslides as being a rapid, one-time event that takes a few minutes, then stops and that’s the end of the story. This, of course, is not true. An example can be seen in the picture to the right: the toe of a landslide across U.S. Highway 191 from the 320 Guest Ranch. The yellow aspen trees delineate the top and toe of the slide.

But the question I pose is, “Is it done moving or not? And if not, how does one tell?”

The answer in this case comes from the trees growing on the slide. If the ground is still shifting, albeit slowly, the orientation of the tree’s trunks should also shift. So what we need to look for are trees that are not growing vertically, have random orientations, or have a structure called a “J-shaped” trunk, see the below photo.

There are many reasons for tree trunks to become “J-shaped,” but around the Big Sky region slow movement of the landscape—or creep—is a major cause. Creep can be shallow with only the top several feet of the soil column moving slowly down

The toe of a landslide up the Gallatin Canyon along U.S. Highway 191. PHOTO BY PAUL SWENSON

a hill, especially when it is saturated with water, or much thicker as seen on the toe of the landslide pictured above. As the landscape surface slowly moves, the deeper roots of the tree stay “rooted” and the shallower roots get pulled along, causing the tree to tip. So why the “J?” Due to a process called geotropism, plant stalks and trunks grow vertically against the direction of the Earth’s gravitational field, and the roots grow vertically downward with in the direction gravity.

Therefore, if a tree or plant is tipped away from vertical, the plant will change the shape of new growth to approach vertical.

There are a number of other “tropisms” that plants display, but I will leave those for next summer when plants are in the height of their growing season and you can observe some of this behavior on a daily basis.

So for now as you go out hiking the last few weeks of hiking weather, or start skiing into the backcountry, see if you can spot creeping hill sides given away by J-trunked trees.

But how does a plant know “up?” Plants produce a growth hormone called auxin, usually in the newer shoots and tips of branches. This molecule is carried to other parts of the tree in a vascular transport system called the pholem. In the fluids of this system the auxin molecule is 10 times more massive than a water molecule. This mass is key. If the plant stem or trunk is growing vertically there is a symmetric distribution of the auxin around the trunk so all the cells in the trunk grow at approximately the same rate.

But if the trunk is tipped, the weight of the Auxin molecule causes a greater concentration of it on the bottom side of the stem. Auxin being the growth hormone then causes the cells of the stem or trunk to elongate more on the bottom than the top.

This differential in cell growth causes the upward curvature of the trunk.

J-shaped trunks on aspen trees at the leading edge of an old landslide. PHOTO BY PAUL SWENSON

A similar effect is seen in the roots of a plant, only here the auxin causes the opposite cell growth than in the stem, a higher concentration lessens the elongation of the cell’s growth thereby causing the root to grow downward.

A J-shaped fir tree along the Gallatin River that has lost support due to undercutting of the river and is now slowly tipping over.

PHOTO BY PAUL SWENSON

OPINION

33 November 3 - 17 , 2022

Explore Big Sky

WRITERS ON THE RANGE

NEW MEXICO COURT UPHOLDS PUBLIC ACCESS

BY REED D. BENSON WRITERS ON THE RANGE Every state in the West has some type of law declaring that its waters belong to the public. But what this means is disputed, and several state supreme courts have had to decide cases that pit streamside landowners against paddlers and anglers.

Recreational users have won most of these cases in the Rocky Mountain states, as courts have decided that public ownership of water gives the public a right to access the state’s waters.

Colorado was the first to put such language in its constitution, and several others followed suit, including Wyoming, New Mexico and Montana. Other states, including Utah, have such language in statutes.

But the beds and banks of many Western streams belong to the owners of adjoining lands unless the land along a stream is government-owned. That leads many landowners to see a stream as part of their property, while paddlers and anglers view it as a public resource.

Recently, the New Mexico Supreme Court further defined access, ruling that the public has the right to stand on privately owned streambeds to boat through or fish — a loss to landowners who want to exclude the public.

New Mexico decided the first case about recreational use of water that flows through private land in 1945, when its supreme court ruled that the public has a

constitutional right to float on waters that are owned by the public. Dissenting judges complained about destroying property rights, but the precedent was set.

Her spokesperson told the Albuquerque Journal that the ruling “provides needed clarity on the issues of stream access.”

Other state courts have reached similar decisions about their state’s public ownership laws. First, Wyoming, then Idaho, Utah and Montana all found that the public has a right to float the state’s waters because the public owns them. But specifics vary, especially about public rights to touch privately owned streambeds. For example, there is a right to wade in Montana but not Wyoming.

The governor had not advocated for public access, and was widely seen as having axed two game commissioners for their pro-access positions.

Only Colorado rejected public access, as a divided court in 1979 saw public ownership of water as less meaningful than ancient property rules favoring landowners.

Because Colorado has no public right to touch private streambeds, an angler is suing to have the upper Arkansas River declared “navigable” — meaning the state would own its beds and banks.

This issue flared up in New Mexico when the State Game Commission under former Gov. Susana Martinez (R) adopted a rule allowing a landowner to close off waters flowing through their property if the commission approved the landowner’s petition.

The rule was always legally dubious, but it took New Mexico’s recent Supreme Court decision to overturn it.

The court ruled unanimously that the right of public access includes walking and wading on privately owned streambeds as “reasonably necessary” for fishing and other recreational uses.

Not surprisingly, New Mexico’s recreation community loved the recent decision, while landowners did not. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) seemed relieved that the issue was decided, though not necessarily thrilled with the outcome.

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State elected officials and agencies have rarely led the charge for public access in the Rocky Mountain states.

Except for the early New Mexico case, all lawsuits have been brought by recreational users, not state agencies.

Sadly, elected officials are often reluctant to support access despite the popularity of outdoor recreation, perhaps because of the influence of wealthy streamside landowners.

That leaves the courts to play a crucial role, although they do not always get the last word. In Utah, the legislature soon curtailed the public rights recognized by its supreme court in 2008.

Disagreements continue about which waters are, and should be, open to the public. But except in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain courts have not allowed landowners to exclude recreational users, largely because the law declares that water belongs to the public.

The recent New Mexico decision is the latest to affirm that public ownership means public access.

Reed Benson is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He is a longtime kayaker and a law professor at the University of New Mexico, focusing on water law and policy.

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OPINION

35 November 3 - 17 , 2022

Explore Big Sky

BUCKLE UP

HEADING STRAIGHT INTO WINTER AFTER A MEMORABLE FALL IN BIG SKY

BY GUS HAMMOND Most years in Big Sky, it snows then melts. It’ll snow again and it’ll melt again. Typically, there will be snow on the ground by the middle of October.

In the past week, we have seen an accumulation of over 30 inches of snow in the high country. Unlike in previous years, there was no endless cycle of snow falling and melting. Nope, in an instant, it became a winter wonderland around Big Sky yet again.

Growing up in Big Sky, I have seen various weather patterns. It has snowed on the Fourth of July and then no snow until Christmas. However, never have I seen such a warm and fruitful autumn as we have in Big Sky this year.

The first significant snowfall of the year is always glamorized in Big Sky, because of the quite extensive ski and snowboard culture in town. Big Sky Resort, which began operating in 1973, is the town’s local ski resort. It’s also known as “The Biggest Skiing in North America.” This year our local resort has some new features to improve learning for beginner skiers and snowboarders.

“These improvements will significantly improve the beginner experience on Andesite,” said Christine Baker, the vice president of mountain sports at Big Sky Resort. “Beyond the improvements to skiing terrain, we’ve also reintroduced Headlamp Night Skiing, where skiers go out with a guide and headlamps to ski Andesite trails under the stars from 6-8 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday.”

The first snowfall of the year is a big deal to all of us who reside here in Big Sky and the surrounding area.

Big Sky Resort annually opens on Thanksgiving day, which typically doesn’t provide the best conditions.

However, with snowfall like the most recent one, conditions look better than in previous years.

To prepare for the winter months ahead, remember there are about nine months of the year with snow on the ground, so buckle up. There is a lot to look forward to in all categories of the resort, on and off the slopes.

“We are working to create a more lively atmosphere beyond the ski day by adding more live music on a weekly basis and opening up a new Umbrella Bar in the base area as a place to gather during or after the ski day,” Baker said.

As a native Montana kid and growing up here my entire life, I look forward to these new experiences.

Our winter sports begin in Big Sky, Montana.

A LA CARTE

SURVIVING SPOOKY SEASON

BY RACHEL HERGETT EBS COLUMNIST

Spooky season feels like the start of the larger fall holiday season, filled with friends and family and pumpkin everything.

There will be costumed candy gathering, fetes and feasts. And it’s all dangerous.

Festivities make us thirsty, it seems. Nights of revelry, thus, may lead to mornings in misery.

The science says nothing will “cure” your hangover, but replacing electrolytes, nutrients and fluids is key to getting back on track. What this means differs wildly from person to person. Everyone seems to have a remedy.

“Clam chowder,” my cousin Trevor tells me with confidence. “Or a banana milkshake. Milk settles your stomach. Look it up.”

I did. Milk can coat your stomach lining and slow its absorption rate for things like alcohol, but it’s only a temporary fix.

“I’m afraid it would curdle with the alcohol in my stomach,” his girlfriend says, and my stomach seems to agree.

Eggs are certainly common—benedict, on toast, scrambled with vegetables or potato. Both my dad and sister told me sausage was key, in scrambles or biscuits and gravy. Mexican food, especially chilaquiles (saucy tortilla chips often topped with eggs) or menudo (a tomato-based soup with hominy and tripe), is popular. And let’s not forget

potatoes—hashbrowns, french fries and tots were all cited in my limited poll. For beverages, people cited electrolyte packets that you put in water, coffee and Coca-Cola.

I first encountered my personal go-to hangover food on the morning after my cousin Eric’s wedding. I was out all night, yet my mom insisted that way too early in the morning was the proper time to hit Uwajimaya, the giant Asian market where we load up on foods that are still hard to find in Montana. Uwajimaya is a staple of every trip to see family in Washington and filled with ingredients necessary to make some of the dishes my Japanese grandmother taught me to cook. At Uwajimaya, you can find fu—the delightful little gluten balls I love so much in miso soup though grandma prefers fried tofu—fish cakes, bonito flakes, pickled daikon radish, more types of soy sauce than I could name and on and on. And like most Asian markets, Uwajimaya traffics in foods from a wide swath of countries on the other side of the world. It’s a shopping mall of flavor possibilities.

On this particular morning, I couldn’t delight in the aisles, trying to decipher labels in languages I surely can’t read, eyes wide at what may be inside. I was sure I was dying. I lumbered to the food court, quickly ex-naying stalls selling pastries, ice cream and boba tea. I needed real food and a Coca-Cola, stat.

Ahead was a stand selling rice bowls known as donburi. Hangover food Asian-style is often carb heavy, with rice or noodles to fill your stomach.

My bowl came out steaming, with panko-fried pork cutlets (tonkatsu) in an egg and onion sauce topping the mound of white rice. I took a bite. The donburi was both savory and sweet and full of carbs and protein. It was divine.

Homemade katsu don is rumored to cure most ailments stemming from holiday-related overindulgence. PHOTO BY RACHEL HERGETT

My grandmother Keiko used to make these same pork cutlets with fries for my very American grandfather. So with nostalgia on its side, katsu donburi may always reign supreme on my list of rice bowls. But the dish doesn’t have to be that complicated.

To make a simple donburi, cook 1 c. of broth or stock, ¼ c. soy sauce and ¼ c. mirin (or any sweet cooking wine) in a shallow pan. Add a tablespoon of sugar, more if your wine is less sweet. Add onions, usually sweet or green onions. Add other vegetables or meat, like some mushrooms, bamboo shoots or rotisserie chicken. Once it’s all heated or cooked through, beat eggs in another bowl and slowly add them into the boiling mixture in your pan. Cook the eggs for a couple minutes, then pour or spoon the entire thing over bowls of cooked rice.

I can’t say the donburi cured my hangover that day, but it certainly helped. Maybe any food you love will.

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39 November 3 - 17 , 2022

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BIG SKY

BEATS WINTER WELCOME

BY JULIA BARTON The first snow of the season has come and gone, plunging Big Sky into another season of ice-crusted windshields, frosty breath and sweet, buttery powder turns.

In anticipation for the upcoming winter, I’ve compiled a list of soft jams that elicit feelings of warmth that, paired with a cozy jacket or a steamy cup of coffee, help combat the cold weather.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

“White Winter Hymnal” by Fleet Foxes “26” by Caamp “Love on the Weekend” by John Mayer “Feels Like” by Gracie Abrams “Wintering” by The 1975 “Something in the Orange” by Zach Bryan “Snow On The Beach” by Taylor Swift “U&ME” by alt-J “Lucerne” by Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners “Cardinal” by Mt. Joy

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Let me be your community connection. ©2021 Engel & Völkers. All rights reserved. Each brokerage independently owned and operated. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. If your property is currently represented by a real estate broker, this is not an attempt to solicit your listing. Engel & Völkers and its independent License Partners are Equal Opportunity Employers and fully support the principles of the Fair Housing Act.E&OE. Published by REAL Marketing (REM) | www.REALMarketing4You.com | 858.254.9619

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Michener Ranch Big Sky, MT Listed at $4,250,000 | 65± Acres This incredible 65± acre legacy estate has multiple, world-class homesites to enjoy diverse wildlife, and captivating views of Lone Peak, Spanish Peaks, Beehive Basin, and the Gallatin Range Hyalite's. With minimal restrictions and no HOA, this parcel allows you to build your dream home, guest house, barn, and shop with nearby power and fiber internet. With the proper approvals, you could also subdivide into three 20± acre parcels. The beautiful stone accent entry leads to multiple roads for recreation including hiking, biking, horseback riding, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, 4 wheeling, and snowmobiling. Additional features include a seasonal creek in a mini canyon as well as close proximity to the Gallatin River for Blue Ribbon trout fishing. Located 10 minutes to Town Center, relish in the quick access to restaurants, shopping, grocery stores, hospital, and just another 10 minutes to world class skiing at Big Sky Resort. This is a rare opportunity to own a private Big Sky ranch!

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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. If you currently have a listing agreement or buyer broker agreement with another agent, this is not a solicitation to change. ©2016 LK REAL ESTATE, llc. lkrealestate.com * Membership upon approval

42 November 3 - 17, 2022

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BACK 40 RISING UP ON IDAHO’S FALL RIVER

Capturing the beauty and power of Sheep Falls’ turbulent waters in the early evening light. PHOTO BY MARIA WYLLIE

BY MARIA WYLLIE Only my hands and face were exposed to the relentless mosquitos, but I could still feel them biting through my DEET-soaked clothes. “This must be what it’s like in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters,” I thought.

It was early July, normally my favorite time on the river. But instead of the bikini-lounging, beer-drinking river float I’d hoped for, I was wearing wool socks with my Chacos. My warm campfire clothes had turned into 24/7 protection. The four of us ate dinner inside our tents that first night, at Alta, Wyoming’s Cave Falls Campground on the banks of the Fall River.

In the morning, I awoke to a thick blanket of the tiny devils covering my tent, testing me, or perhaps warning me of what lay downstream. Convinced it would be better on the water, we slid the boats down the steep, overgrown riverbank, shotgunned a beer and pushed off.

The two rafts were packed full with every convenience: coolers, fishing gear, cooking equipment, tables, chairs, hammocks, Paco pads, and even a groover to make that most important of experiences more comfortable. We were dialed for an epic, multiday float trip down a new river. The only thing missing was more bug spray.

Relief and a feeling of freedom washed over me as the river carried us beneath bluebird skies and the beating sun. A cool breeze kept the mosquitos at bay, and all was right in the world. I knew my 18-month-old son was safe with my parents. I could finally unplug, decompress and just be.

——— The Fall River begins in Yellowstone National Park’s remote Cascade Corner and continues south for 64 miles, dropping 3,800 feet until it reaches the confluence of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River near Ashton, Idaho.

Recommended primarily as a wading river for anglers, we found little beta planning the 20-mile stretch between Cave Falls and the Fall River Hydroelectric Plant. We only knew of one cement diversion dam that we could either run river right, depending on flow, or portage.

There were more unknowns than usual, but Kyle and Ryan, first cousins with 25 years’ experience running rivers together, were confident they could pull it off.

The current ran fast with white-capped rapids pushing us along; we must have covered five miles in two hours. When the water slowed, we experienced an eerie silence followed by the sound of big water crashing. A veil of mist rose from behind a large lava boulder blocking our view of what lay ahead.

We pulled the boats ashore to scout the rapid and hiked along the rising shoreline to the top of a 20-foot cliff, mosquitos giving chase. Mist rose from below, and we looked down upon the roaring Sheep Falls. It was a massive waterfall, barreling over lava ledges and running through narrow basalt canyon walls with force and fury, a tumultuous channel of white foam demanding respect.

“It takes your breath away,” said Kyle, mesmerized by the raw beauty and power.

But this was no diversion dam. How could we have missed this in our research?

My heart dropped into my stomach. There was no way around, not that I could see.

The river opened up at the base of canyon, the water only slightly less turbulent, and the men plotted an entry, weighing the consequences.

My mind spiraled around “what ifs.” Fears of dying and leaving my young son behind blurred with frustration for even being in this situation, which led to anger about the goddamned bugs, and then fears of inadequacy and displacement. “What am I doing here?” I thought. “I’m a city girl with uncallused hands who just happens to live in Montana.” I wanted to cry.

My biggest fear was being useless. I wanted to help but also didn’t want to get in the way.

Kyle and Ryan blazed a trail for the rafts as they brainstormed pulley systems to lower the boats down the steep, 60-foot hillside and into the Class V rapid.

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It was our only choice; they had to get me, Ryan’s wife Dixie and Zeke the dog safely off the river. But they needed encouragement.

“That I can do,” I thought.

Suddenly, the bugs didn’t seem so bad. Strengthening my resolve, I decided to ignore the swarm of mosquitos gnawing on me. If I was going to help, I couldn’t let them get in my way.

We ate dinner quietly and quickly at our camp atop the waterfall; it was clear we had fully shifted from vacation mode to survival mission. “Guess I didn’t need to bring my fishing rig!” Ryan joked.

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In the morning, splattered mosquitos peppered my eggs. “Take this!” I thought, swallowing them without hesitation, disgusted and surprisingly satisfied at the same time. Extra protein?

I began hauling gear down the steep single-track trail that meandered through the willows to the base of the canyon. Back-and-forth, up-and-down I went, again and again. With each heavy load, I felt myself growing stronger. Walking along that trail, watching my feet carry me, I was reminded to stay calm and focused—to remain present as we tackled each obstacle step by step.

I couldn’t change the bugs or the river or the canyon walls or the trees that forced us to carry the boats up the steep hillside, but I could control my point of view. And being in charge of that made the difference.

Holding tightly to the line, I kept one foot on the boat and one foot on shore as we prepared to launch. My job was to make sure the river’s fury didn’t sweep our boat away. I proudly assumed my position.

——— We covered 15 miles that day and portaged the boats three more times. Along with mosquitos, I learned I don’t like dams. But anything seemed doable after Sheep Falls.

Nearing the takeout, we caught some big flowing wave trains that rewarded our hard work. The gift, however, was short lived. There was no boat ramp in sight, a metal ladder our only way out. We deflated the boats and began unloading and hauling once more. Up-and-down, back-and-forth. A smile grew on my face, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

Maria Wyllie is a writer and marketing professional based in Bozeman, Montana.

While she proudly identifies with her Richmond, Virginia roots, she’s forever grateful for the lessons learned while exploring the mountains and rivers of the American West.

A version of this story first ran in the Summer 2021 issue of Mountain Outlaw Magazine.

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Home Decor, Gifts, Women’s Clothing & Fine Jewelry 223 Town Center Avenue, Unit A1, Big Sky, MT | 406.995.2655 Monday–Saturday: 10am to 5pm Sunday: 12pm to 5pm Kyle and Ryan rig their boats, carefully strapping down gear (and Zeke) in preparation for a challenging launch at the base of Sheep Falls. PHOTO BY MARIA WYLLIE

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