IMAGINE, FOR A MOMENT, a stereotypical snowmobiler. If mullets, heavy metal, diesel trucks, and garish neon apparel trimmed with checkered flag graphics come to mind… you’re not all wrong. But the clichés of that culture don’t represent the whole story, especially in the mountains, where...
DIE-HARD MONTANA SKIERS KNOW THE DRILL: Every Monday, check the weather around the state to find out where it might snow the most. Read the snow reports and see which ski area has the best chance of a powder day. Start calling or texting friends:...
THERE ARE CERTAINLY A SOLID NUMBER of fair-weathered fly anglers out there. Once the low temperatures hit, ice starts to form on the riverbanks, snow flies, and the thermal layers and gloves are no longer optional, many hang up their rods and waders and wait...
WITH ONE WEEK LEFT OF SKI SEASON, Erik Borge has very little to do. It’s 10 a.m. on a Friday in late March, and the 33-year-old owner of Maverick Mountain is sitting on a stool at the ski area’s bar in the base lodge, pint...
AT 7:30 A.M. ON MARCH 1, 2019, as commuters were slowly making their way from the Teton Valley in Idaho to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a skier triggered an avalanche above them. Snow came cascading down Twin Slides and onto Teton Pass — a winding mountain...
SEPTEMBER IS A MONTH of transition here on Central Montana’s high plains, often beginning with temperatures that near triple digits and ending with a cold front that reminds us of winter yet to come. This particular year, the first storm of the season had arrived...
IN A ROOM ON THE LOWER LEVEL OF THE Livingston-Park County Library in Montana, a group of more than 15 people listen to Marco Restani talk about ospreys. He starts by discussing how, after World War II and up through the early 1970s, osprey populations...
MY ABIDING LOVE OF THE MISSOURI BREAKS was earned through sustained hardship, a little like how stubborn streptococci earn resistance through repeated exposure to antibiotics. [caption id="attachment_14751" align="alignright" width="300"] A short-horned lizard warms itself in the sun.[/caption] I arrived in the Breaks later than some, sooner than...
AT LAKE McDONALD, IN GLACIER NATIONAL PARK IN JULY 2018, my moment came late in the day, after the trailhead parking lots had emptied, after the swimmers had docked their giant pink dragon floatie, after the families had retreated to campgrounds to roast marshmallows, after...
BIG SKY COUNTRY IS ALSO BIG BEAR COUNTRY. Most estimates suggest that Montana has between 13,000 and 17,000 black bears (Ursus americanus) and roughly 800 grizzly bears (Ursus arctos ssp.). Most of the grizzlies in the contiguous U.S. live in and around Glacier and Yellowstone...