How Bridger Bowl wound up in the crosshairs of that storm is a meteorological quirk, as that was nearly three times the snowfall of anywhere else in the state. That trend continues, as Bridger’s received over 30" in the last three days. Sometimes, when we get a northwest flow aloft, with just the right combination of temperature and humidity…. If the folks at the National Weather Service are right, the Rocky Mountain Front and Glacier Park area are next up, though, with up to two feet of snow forecast there for tonight.

So, after five consecutive years of drought (and with only a couple of exceptions, more like 23 years!) the moisture is more than welcome. All the same, I bet a lot of ranchers, construction workers, and others whose immersion in the fluff is not really on a voluntary basis are finding the situation growing a tad wearisome. All I really have to do is keep our driveway plowed, but even that is eating up more time than I’d like, and we are likely looking at another two solid months of heavy snow potential (not to mention April and even May snowstorms that can dump prodigious amounts of heavy, wet white). Not to complain, though, we sure enough need it, but a nice, gentle, three-day June rain is sounding kinda nice, too.

Here in the more outdoor recreation-oriented areas of western and southwest Montana, nobody’s really complaining too much, particularly not the snow removal contractors and body shops (the roads have been a fright!). It’s when you get out into the Big Open country of eastern and north central Montana that winter can lose its shine in a hurry! I’ve recently been re-reading Spike Van Cleve’s book "A Day Late and a Dollar Short". He was a ranch kid from Melville, on the east slope of the Crazies, and a third-generation stockman (heck of a horseman, too….). He wasn’t just your average bumpkin, though, as he wound up with a scholarship to Harvard. He bagged higher learning after a couple of years, which could say something about the pull that country can exert on those so inclined, although romantic interest in a certain ranch girl perhaps figured more heavily in the decision. In any case, he left us all a rich legacy with his books "Forty Years Gatherings" plus the aforementioned "Day Late &….". Highly recommended reading…. Anyway, he has a chapter about the tribulations stockmen (not to mention livestock) endure during winters like this one. A particular object of ire are the urban weather forecasters who gleefully report the chance for yet another big snow dump. Back in the thirties and forties, it was not uncommon for the temperature to never get above zero for a month or two hand running (as Spike would say). Feeding livestock with a team of horses and bobsled under those conditions would be a special sort of ongoing torture. There’s folks in eastern MT who are living that right now. A lot of country from roughly Lewistown east received around two feet of snow in the Christmas storm, but perhaps more noteworthy was the subsequent wind and chill factors down the -50 range.

Oh, things are a bit more automated now, but as Spike points out; machinery can be recalcitrant when the mercury goes below the zero mark, where a team of horses will start no matter the weather. That Christmas storm caught pretty much everybody by surprise, and I recently read a report by some ranchers in the Jordan area who were unable to even get to their livestock for two days afterward. They raise sheep, which can take salty weather (another Spike’ism) somewhat better than cows, and reportedly death loss was minimal. Still…. More power to ‘em, but you gotta wonder. It would be one thing if it were an even modestly lucrative venture, and I’m trying to be tactful here, and certainly respect their efforts, and have no doubt that they have as much or more stuffing than any folks anyplace, but…. Raising sheep strikes me as requiring a special type of lunacy! And yeah, maybe Grandpa did OK with it back in the forties, but…

That’s harsh country. It gets a little emptier every year, and it seems to me that those who’re going to stick it out long term are going to be the ones who capitalize on the unique qualities their neighborhood boasts. Oh no, I’m having a flashback to a stultifyingly dull college economics class, that even the efforts of madcap genius professor Gale Cramer couldn’t make exciting, but the concept of comparative advantage really holds true. It’s no wonder that worldwide sheep production is dominated by Australia and New Zealand, where they don’t have an abundance of large predators or howling blizzards. We work with ranchers in the Missouri Breaks who offer "working ranch vacations" (an oxymoron if there ever was, but folks love ‘em), and outfit hunts for trophy-class deer, elk, and antelope, not to mention upland birds and waterfowl. There’s very few other places on the planet (OK, none come to mind right off) that offer that rich diversity of wildlife in combination with the stunning scenery and solitude of the Breaks, and you gotta work with your strengths, right? And, nobody’s hitching up a team or firing up the tractor to go feed deer or elk (it’s illegal to feed wildlife in Montana, for one thing). And I haven’t even mentioned the native cattle to this region, bison! The nastiest weather doesn’t appear to trouble them unduly, much less so even than the other native species mentioned. In fact, there were reports of a herd of antelope that were out on the ice of Fort Peck reservoir & fell through. Some 80 head perished. Mother Nature is unforgiving, and we’re bound to see some wildlife winterkill this year, but it’s looking probable that a lot of snowmelt will go into the ground next spring, which if we’re blessed with even a modest amount of spring rains will result in abundant forage growth, and I’ll stick my neck out and predict a lot of does running around with twin fawns next June. Survival of the fittest, & all that. Anyway, the point is that the only sensible course of action is working with nature, instead of against it. That’s small consolation when a blizzard is howling outside, I realize, but buffalo ranchers find that situation less vexing than beef buffs, no question. Not that either is necessarily a license to print money….

Of course, most of you aren’t toughing out a flashback winter in the Breaks, and are more interested in taking advantage of the recreational possibilities the season affords. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade, and if you’re blessed with record snow; go skiing. It’s a no-brainer…. Of course there’s snowmobiling, but our personal preference runs toward the non-motorized versions of snow travel. As mentioned, the skiing at Bridger has been phenomenal, and we’re heading up to Big Sky this coming weekend. Backcountry ski ventures are on tap, and a week ago I narrowly missed strapping on the snowshoes while accompanying some folks on a late elk hunt on the Flying D Ranch. If you’re contemplating a unique Montana winter adventure, we still think those backcountry Yurt trips are hard to beat. A few hundred generations of Mongolian nomads have learned a thing or two about winter comfort, and a stove-heated yurt makes for a dandy sanctuary from the cold.

Be careful out there, though…. Remarkably, there haven’t been any avalanche fatalities yet this winter, or even reports of near misses. A combination of increased risk awareness, education, caution, and luck no doubt, and let’s hope it holds. Tragically, a skier and snowboarder have died, though. The ski fatality occurred at Bridger Bowl after the Christmas storm. A local guy skiing by himself jumped off a cliff in Avalanche Gulch. Upon landing he apparently augered in headfirst, was unable to extricate himself, and suffocated. A couple of days later a friend noticed his car still in the lot, and after checking around reported him missing. The ski patrol started searching after the area closed on New Year’s Eve, and found him about 10:00 PM, thanks in large part to the avalanche transceiver he was wearing. Last week a snowboarder perished in the backcountry outside Showdown ski area, in the Little Belts near Neihart. He’d ducked under a boundary rope, ignored sign cautioning that a return to the area would be impossible beyond that point, and followed the siren song of steep & deep. Similarly, someone noticed his car still in the lot a couple of days later, and a search was initiated. Luckily it hadn’t snowed, and they were able to follow his tracks. He’d gotten into some extremely rugged terrain in the Jumping Creek drainage. One-piece snowboards are particularly ill-suited to backcountry travel, and the snow was too deep to get anywhere on foot. Searchers spotted his body from the air, in such a difficult spot that helicopter retrieval was even quite problematic. The common thread was solo ventures. I’ve gone on a lot of solo adventures myself, and expect to continue, but I draw the line at backcountry deep-snow explorations. The cost of miscalculations or just bad luck are too high, and besides, it’s more fun with companions.

See you on the slopes….