Winter 2003-04

I’ve helped hundreds of people travel to literally every corner of the globe, and my pre-trip visits with some of them continue to amaze me. The eager explorer is always smiling and happy—and why not, he’s going on an…

The history of an early downhill-ski area. Bear Canyon is one of Bozeman’s greatest treasures. Home to the area’s first ski hill, Bear Canyon is now one of the most convenient recreation sites around Bozeman. A mere eight…

It’s 7:30 am and a frigid 14 degrees below zero at the Yellowstone Mountain Club. In the lingering morning darkness, despite the extreme cold, Rocco Altobelli and his canine colleague, a black lab named Japhy, load an…

At Bohart Ranch, there’s a point at the bottom of Psycho Pit when the groomed trail bends hard right. Only one pair of skinny tracks jumps the ruts, heading straight into the trees. I have chosen the path less traveled,…

Lone Mountain Ranch's sleighride dinner. As dusk creeps down the southern flank of the Spanish Peaks, the gusty alpine wind subsides and a pervasive calm settles over Big Sky. The day’s pale blue sky has turned gray; light…

"The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball."  –Doug LarsonMaturity and responsibility—as we age, it becomes increasingly difficult to defy the societal expectations that…

I get excited at the thought of fresh powder and start to salivate every time I hear, “a winter storm warning is in effect.” Obviously others share my obsession since each storm is followed by a shortage of workers in…

Connoisseurs can take ski waxing to an elevated art form; here we’ll just cover the basics. Before you wax you have a few simple equipment choices: ski support or vice, waxing iron, and lastly some scrapers and brushes.…

Free the heel, free the mind.Telemarking is one of those things, like rock climbing or perhaps fly fishing, that can’t be easily explained to outsiders. I mean, why make skiing harder than it has to be? It may be beautiful…

Where the wild things go. Now that it’s winter, it’s easier to observe some of our large grazing animals. Elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep, and bison cluster at lower elevations to spend the winter season. Biologists and…

Go to your bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know. —William ShakespeareIt’s been three months since I last visited the Lionhead area, and now, in the mid-December sunlight, snow sparkles around my skis…

ENDURANCE Shackleton's Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic Magellan, Columbus, Peary, Hilary, and Norgay. History has always lauded these men for their achievements: the waters crossed, the land discovered, the mountains…

Established in February 2002 by climber Erin Taylor and his wife Rebecca Hoddkin, Montana Mountaineering Association (MMA) is a Bozeman-based nonprofit organization that strives to promote the values associated with…

With this latest installment, the award-winning author of The Song of the Dodo and The Boilerplate Rhino presents readers with another sharp and informative masterpiece of natural history. In Monster of God: The Man-Eating…

For the past 20 years, the Gallatin National Forest travel plan has been evolving as a result of myriad management decisions. As a result, the current plan is an ungainly tangle of rules that may or may not accurately…

Montana—in a normal winter—is nothing if not cold. Snow drapes the mountains like a powdery blanket, the air is sharp and brittle, and even the stars huddle together for warmth. Just look at the Pleiades and you’ll see what…

For the last four years I’ve been teaching one day a week in Billings. Remarkably, there has been just one day when weather kept me from making the trip. There have been many days when I’ve driven past a dozen cars stuck in…

Twice a year, on June 21st and December 22nd, we observe the summer and winter solstices. In June, when the sun is farthest north of the equator in our hemisphere, it rises at its northernmost point on the horizon and…