First archery elk

It's been crazy around here, things have been moving at a frantic pace since summer. But I did the get chance to disengage from the electronic world for 8 days. Nothing but wind in the sage, GPS screen (don't count) and the sounds of elk. Thank you to Tracy and MO for making it possible, you don't know how much I enjoyed it! I missed the kids, but the quiet woods were nice too. I think I may have repaired a couple chips in my sanity.

 My long time and regular hunting partner and I convened in elk central and hunted our assess off. We didn't miss a morning or evening the entire time, rising at 4 am everyday and usually not getting back to camp until several hours after dark.

He helped me get onto a bull and I was able to capitalize on a 35 yard shot with my bow. The draw and hold back pushed me to over a minute, but the arrow flew true to its mark. The harvest was big and the pack out rewarding. The opportunity to kill an elk with bow was not taken lightly. I think I may like bowhunting (end cheesiness).

Don't be a flake

With the thought and planning for some upcoming hunting trips. I thought this cartoon might be a good reminder for any would be flakes.

Thanks semi-rad.com

Don’t Focus On The Dog Shit

I thought this blog post provided some much needed perspective on the world's chaos as of late: 

http://semi-rad.com/2014/06/dont-focus-on-the-dog-shit/#comment-174418

 This little quote is pretty dang good as well, especially the last sentence.

There are a lot of things wrong with the world. There are 8 billion people on the planet, and plenty of terrible things are happening. Maybe those things are legitimate cause for worry, or action, or at least consideration. But sometimes they’re only worth consideration, and worrying isn’t going to make a bit of difference besides add to your worries in an otherwise pretty good life. Surrounding that one pile of dog shit is a beautiful park with a lot of places to set up your metaphorical picnic. [snipped from semi-rad.com]

Bison Range and Symes Hotsprings

We recently made a trip to the National Bison Range, just 45 minutes north of Missoula. A quick stop at the visitor center to learn a thing or 2 and we hit the drive that loops through the refuge. 

The picture on the left shows the disturbingly large pile of bison skulls. The death and destruction we reigned upon the American Buffalo is astounding, very hard to comprend. 

At one point their population numbered in the tens of millions, the Great Plains of North America. Hunted to near extinction by American market hunters, the once massive bison population was reduced to a mere 1,000 by the turn of the century. 

The wildlife viewing was great that day, the kids loved looking through dad's bino's. We spotted quite a few antelope, deer in velvet, lots of lone bison bulls and one newborn deer fawn. The newborn fawn was motionless on the side of the trail as we hiked to the high point on the refuge. The fawn did not move at all, we couldn't tell if it was just doing the new fawn thing, or was injured. I did find this on the web:

 Newborn fawns have almost no body odor and their reddish brown coat with white spots make young fawns almost invisible to predators. Fawns lie motionless on the ground surrounded by low vegetation. The fawn’s natural instinct is to freeze even when approached by another animal. As fawns grow and mature, they will initially freeze, but they jump up and bound away.
Despite what this picture looks like, G did not poke the fawn with the stick

3 of my favorite things: Family, Antlers and America :-)

Cool Willy

We rounded out the trip with a visit to Symes Hotsprings. Great water, just a slightly funky scene. Anybody here ever been there? What did you think?

Scot Schmidt

Scot Schmidt was one of my biggest idols growing up. Just as is mentioned in the video below, he is one of the most prolific skiers of my generation. If you ask any skier worth his salt that is between 30 and 50 years old, they'll know him immediately. Most have images of his ski movies burned into their brains. For me, he is the Michael Jordan or Joe Montana of freeskiing.

In my youth I had posters of Scot Schmidt plastered to my walls. I had seen all of his movies, including Steep Techniques, where I learned to emulate his turns and his style. I began skiing in 1985, during my 5th grade year. I remember seeing the 1983 Warren Miller film Steep and Deep and being awe struck by Schmidt's skiing. My buddy Ralph Turner and I started skiing at the same time, having as much fun as possible in the PTA ski program. Ralph and I and even had the 80's mullet to match. 

As time went on Ralph and I skied Snow Valley and did our best to work on imitating his style. We did his signature Schmear turn and tried to do the big airplane/re-entry turns off wind lips. We thought we were the shit. I even saved up enough money after ski instructing one year to get his jacket, the Steep Tech. It wasn't cheap I remember and it was made of some stout Cordura. Check me out, this was probably 1992, at Snow Valley Ski Resort, CA. Can you see that mud-flap coming out of the back of my hat?

Fast forward to 2000, when I moved to Bozeman and started skiing Bridger Bowl. Which coincidentally enough, he probably had influence on, hearing him talk about BB in his movies. Sam Cox and I ended up writing a book, Stepping Up: A Guide to The Ridge at Bridger Bowl, which included the Foreward written by Scot. Working with him was nothing short of a dream.

I only met him once in person, at ski film premier in Bozeman (The Prophecy....see autographed poster that is hanging in my garaged today) prior to me calling him to ask for his help in the project. This sounds corny and stalker-ish, but I was like a little kid before I called him, nervous and choked up. Just like anyone would be talking to one of their hero's. Turned out that during the next handful of phone calls, Scot was as nice as anyone could be.

Anyway....The reason I started this post was because of this video. Mike Douglas got to spend a week with Scot in the great state of Montana. Its great to see that Scot is still skiing so well and has rekindled the ski flame so to speak.

Thanks for reading and not judging me as stalker. :-)

Pacific Firehose, Atmospheric River, Gravy Train...Ruh 'Ohhh

I hadn't heard a few of those terms before... Pacific Firehose, Gravy train etc. Sounds like that is about to change and things are gonna get sloppy. But for now.....

Skiing back to the truck along Hwy 12 after a great powder run!

We've got a veritable winter wonderland here in Missoula, the 2 weeks have been full of snowfall and cold temps in the valley. The snowbanks on the side of the driveway are building to impressive levels. For those of you that have been in Kneetopia before you may recall my post on Snowbank Envy.. Being the snowbank nerd and #1 fan of snow-shoveling, I've been intrigued by the fat snow banks at our new residence.

 At our old house I had a much larger driveway to shovel, giving me plenty of time to practice the art of snow-shoveling. At the new casa, the driveway is 20 feet by 20 feet. Small, fast and manageable. This also allows me to pile all the snow in one spot, thus making my berm all that much higher. You see, I often fantasize about living in snowy climes that would force me to own a snow-blower to which I would manicure the side of my drive to perfection. Anyway, back to reality.....If you look down the street towards my house sometime, you may find me shoveling the street as well. Neighbors probably scratch their heads in confusion. Well, sometimes I haven't had my fill and I feel the need to push some more snow. I know, laugh away.

I'll leave you with the Waddling Will, he reminded me of that kid in Christmas Story while we were out sledding.

Gigantic avalanche in Italy

Get'er dun Mother Nature! Massive avalanche slowly overtakes homes

Winter came back with a vengence

 

 

You thought I was joking about the Polar Vortex, didn't you? Well, up here in Montana, shit is getting real again with winter. We're back in the deep freeze, with -20F temps in town and today it hit -63F up on top of Snowbowl (see below). Snowbowl was closed yesterday and today because of the XXXXtreme temps. We got over 2 feet of snow last week but with the 30 MPH winds on top of the mountain, the snow maybe have blown all the way to North Dakota. Stay warm out there.

 

 



Extreme drought in Cali

As I reported last week on the Polar Vortex, you all probably thought the we might be headed into another Ice Age, right? Hello, is this thing on? Well, guess what? California is burning and is in drought again. Burning like it's summer! Here in Montany, we are coming out of a big storm cycle that pounded the mountains with 3 feet of snow....but it looks like a high pressure sunny days for the next 7-10 days..........boooooooooooohiiiiiissssss

From Unofficialnetworks:
Satellite images from NASA/NOAA

The Snow Water Equivalents in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California is at a historic low for this time of year, as can be seen in this image comparing 2013 to 2014. The Sierra Nevada mountains are experiencing Extreme Drought with no relief in sight. This might be bad news for skiers but if the second half of the season does not bring much needed precipitation it could spell disaster for the entire state of California.
This image compares January 13, 2013 and January 13, 2014 snow cover as seen by the Suomi NPP satellite’s VIIRS instrument.

Polar vortex!

Supposedly the Polar Vortex has descended from the North and the cause for the recent frigid air. Here's to hoping some more snow comes along and produces some pillows like these: