Usually it goes like this. I’m skiing in the backcountry, up Bear Canyon east of Bozeman or along one of the Yellowstone Park trails off U.S. Route 191 south of Big Sky. Much of the time I have the trail to myself, but occasionally I’ll run...
The images float before the viewer’s eyes, strange and otherworldly — like photos of the Crab Nebula from Hubble, or mixings from a hippie light show. They might be satellite shots of the Mojave, cell-section studies from an electron microscope, or hallucinatory paintings from a...
Thunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War by Daniel J. Sharfstein (Norton, $29.95), is a hefty and thoughtful examination of the widely studied 1877 Nez Perce War. Sharfstein, a professor of law at Vanderbilt University, offers a nuanced...
When a Bay Area family decided on Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as the location for their second home, they initially chose to live on a ranch. “We knew we wanted to be near a world-class ski mountain, and also have some kind of town where we...
The first time I raised a steelhead to a skated fly, I nearly wet my waders. That’s because I wasn’t really expecting a take, and when it happened I pulled the fly right out of a 15-pounder’s mouth. I didn’t get my hands on that fish,...
People find a lot of ways to get into trouble in Teton County’s backcountry. And when they do, Stephanie Thomas and her team at Teton County Search and Rescue are ready to help. The team typically responds to between 80 and 100 calls per year for...
When the light was right, it was hard to keep Montana photographer Charles Edward Morris indoors; he wanted to be out on the plains with his camera. He knew what he liked: the environment of Native Americans, the context of underpaid, laboring sheepherders, and the...
The Billings Petroleum Club is more than a restaurant: It’s an institution founded on the shoulders of the private social clubs that existed in the late 1800s, places where business meetings and networking opportunities transpired in an atmosphere of curated sophistication. [caption id="attachment_6128" align="alignright" width="212"] Established...
The wind is howling. But also mewling. Ornate wicker feelings rip loose and tear off down valley. Cabin: half buried in snow. Bed springs: if I were dead these would still creak. Blankets: could use another. A bruised light through lace curtains, maybe a baby’s finger of bourbon in the bottle. Something small’s...
With a minimum of brushstrokes, Montana artist Shirle Wempner twirls the light. Her paintings jump with color, intuitively hitting the right notes, at the right tempo. Her compositions, not crowded, not bare, stir the viewer to feel the movement. “I’ve always been drawn to the Impressionists,”...