Monthly Archives: June 2010

The Blaze

Spanish Peaks from the Flying D
By Ben Nobel | Published June 24, 2010
Featuring: Fuze

Nothing like springtime in the mountains.   You ever been sitting around early on a Saturday morning sipping black juice with your buddies trying to come up with a plan for the day?  Should we head to the Gally?  Maybe run the Kitchen Sink, ride Leverich, or try to find some north facing couloirs to boot up?  It’s the fortunate problem we all run into living in Bozeman, and especially during the spring months.  As the snow continues to melt faster and faster with the warming days, we thought it would be wise to try and get in some big lines prior to full blown summer.  Gallatin Peak looks good, as does the Y Couloir on Big Black, but we thought that instead of the classic descent in the later months of July and August, we decided to have at the big NW Face of Blaze Mountain.

I was off the couch after a 3 week stint of travel and work so needless to say I was psyched to stretch the legs a bit.  The sun was blazing by 9 am and we trudged through the venerable stream that was the Spanish Creek trail, past one fork, and approached another.  Years … READ MORE >

Posted in Mountains & Trails, Mystery Ranch Employees, Skiing, Trip Reports | Tagged | 2 Comments

Hellmouth Couloir

Hellmouth Couloir is the anemic line dead center on Alex Lowe Peak.
By Patrick Odenbeck | Published June 8, 2010
Featuring: Fuze

Hellmouth Couloir is the thin aesthetic line dead center on Alex Lowe Peak.

In the Spring of 1997 Alex Lowe and Hans Saari made the first descent of an anemic ski line they nicknamed “Hellmouth Couloir” in the Gallatin Mountains of Montana. For years the exact location of this line had been lost and it gained mythical status. On September 15th 2005 a peak in the Gallatin National Forest was named “Alex Lowe Peak” for the memory of Alex who had unfortunately passed October 5, 1999 in an avalanche on the slopes of Shishapangma in Tibet. It was then unveiled to many that the Hellmouth Couloir was located on this peak. Kyle and a partner through research found a Summer photo of the peak and along with a brief description that Saari and Lowe had made they discovered the location of the line. Then in the Winter of 2006 they made the second known descent of Hellmouth Couloir. Over the past 4 years a few others have made the descent. Kyle has visited the area many times since 2006 but has been unable to make another descent of the couloir.

Jump to present day. Kyle just got back from a month long ski … READ MORE >

Posted in Mystery Ranch Employees, Skiing, Trip Reports | Tagged | 5 Comments

Only in Montana

sheds
By Steven Drake | Published June 4, 2010
Featuring: Big HornContour Pocketed WaistbeltNICE CrewcabNICE Daypack LidNICE FrameSaddle PeakSweetpeaTrucker Hat

As March came to a close, one of my favorite past times came into full swing – shed hunting! This was the year of the deer antler. Between my dad and I, we found fifteen deer sheds and two elk sheds.

Come April 10th, shed hunting turned into turkey hunting. Archery hunting for spring gobblers proved to be just as difficult as last year. I inadvertently found myself in bow range of far more elk than gobblers.

After four weeks of turkey hunting, winter came back with vengeance! The mountains around Bozeman got nearly fifty inches of snow in three days. I quickly steered some of my study time for college finals to the mountains. You can ask anyone who skied that storm and they’ll agree that it was the best snow of the year. As for finals – I passed.

Spring Black Bear hunting was next on the list. As a relatively novice bear hunter, the only sightings I’ve ever had were flukes. This spring, with the help of a friend, I turned my occasional bear sightings into multiples. Every day for about two weeks, I left work right at five o’clock to archery hunt a nearby mountain range … READ MORE >

Posted in Backpack Hunting, Mountains & Trails, Mystery Ranch Employees | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Spring in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem!

By Erika Matsuda | Published June 1, 2010
Featuring: Booty Bag

Spring is in full swing in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.  You name it, we’ve got it!  Wind, rain, hail, snow, sunshine a bit of everything in just one day.  One of my goals for this early Spring season was to start testing two of Mystery Ranch’s smaller packs, the Courier bag & Booty bag.  In conjunction with May being National Bike month, I thought this would be a perfect fit.  This Spring, I was fortunate enough to visit a good friend, Corrie in Jackson Hole, WY who is an amazing pastry cook in Teton Village.

During my visit I wore the Booty bag on a day hike in the Red Hills, biking up Signal Mountain, shopping around Jackson & kicking up festivities at a Grand Teton Brewing Company event.  The Booty bag worked well in all environments.  It rides well on my shoulders & carries both rain jackets, camera & snacks quite well.  Once the pack is on your shoulders, it slides closed so no need to worry about anything flying out of the bag when hiking or biking.  It is a perfect pack for short day hikes, town & trail bike rides & for cruising around town.

The Courier … READ MORE >

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