Category Archives: Mountains & Trails

Fire and Corn

By Steven Drake | Published July 7, 2010
Featuring: Saddle Peak

“We are having way more fun than they are,” said Jake. He wasn’t kidding!

On the 4th of July weekend, I found myself perusing through Yellowstone Park en-route to my family’s cabin just east of Cooke City. I had no expectations for the weekend and expected nothing more than a lackadaisical few days, all while enjoy the beautiful scenery that the Beartooths have to offer.

With that said, you’d be a fool to drive into the Beartooths not toting ski gear. I’m no fool! On the morning of the 4th I drove up to the Beartooth Plateau in search of snow. Things were looking grim at the Wyoming summit. After descending the last switchback before the Gardner Lake pull out, I turned around and was treated to a pleasurable sight. Gardner Headwall’s north and south lines were very skiable!

With my gear on in minutes, I hitched a ride back up the switchbacks to the summit and then anxiously trekked across the plateau to the top of the southern aspect of the headwall. The line hadn’t been skied for at least a week – I was more than happy to track it up with some big GS turns. Smooth, steep, … READ MORE >

Posted in Backpack Hunting, Mountains & Trails, Mystery Ranch Employees, Playing with Fire, Skiing, Trip Reports | Tagged | Leave a comment

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

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 >

Posted in Dana DNA, Mountains & Trails, Mystery Ranch Employees, Trip Reports | Tagged | Leave a comment

23 days of living out of the Mystery Ranch G-6000 in the Khumbu Valley of Nepal.

IMG_0074
By Gary Matthews | Published April 29, 2010
Featuring: G6000

When planning for my second annual trip to Mt. Everest, the preparation and effort required to fulfill the mission of our nonprofit organization far exceeds that required for my personal mission to survive the adventure. Regardless, surviving the trip to Mt. Everest Base camp and living in a tent placed on the rocks and ice of a glacier that moves 1 meter each day at 17,600 feet of elevation is no laughing matter.

The mission of the Himalayan Rescue Association – USA (Everest ER) is to provide altitude-experienced compassionate quality health care and preventative education to the climbing community, their support staff and trekking-through public in Mt. Everest base camp, using proceeds from this care to subsidize free/low cost health care for the sherpa people of the khumbu region of Nepal.

Raising money, acquiring the medical equipment and supplies, and coordinating the volunteer physicians to staff the clinic requires considerable effort throughout the year.

Now the easy part.

Flying from Bozeman to Kathmandu, Nepal can take anywhere between 30 and 50 hours depending upon airline schedules, layovers and connections. Landing in Kathmandu, it takes no time to realize that Nepal has one of the poorest economies in the world, with … READ MORE >

Posted in Mountains & Trails, Trip Reports | Tagged | 1 Comment

8 days, 80+ river miles, 1 backpack, and some of Utah’s finest wilderness

By Pat Gladics | Published April 26, 2010

I first laid eyes on Desolation canyon when I picked up a guide book for hiking while I was driving through Utah in 2008.  I sat in my truck flipping through the guide book after buying it and remember seeing the authors pictures.  The pictures said it all.  That was where I wanted to go.  It took me a year and change to finally do it but it was worth the wait.  Below are a select few of the photos I took while hiking this amazing piece of ground.  I will try to give somewhat of a short narrative of my hike while letting photos fill you in on the rest. Day 1.

October 20th 2009.

The mouth of maverick canyon… Almost ran out of water today – If I have to hike north from here will first try along river.  If bad – abandon everything but water supplies for hike to 9 mile creek. “ Day 2.

Day two, my journal entry is below.

“ October 21st 2009 Across river from Peters Point.  Day 2 feeling far more successful than day 1… Pack still heavy at end of the day – navigated “problems 1 and 2” without much difficulty.  … READ MORE >

Posted in Mountains & Trails, Mystery Ranch Employees, Trip Reports | 5 Comments

Why Aren’t I Smarter?

By Chad Nicosia | Published December 10, 2009
Featuring: NICE 6500

What can I say about backpack hunting that would fully describe it to the uninitiated? Nothing, it is one of those gloriously miserable experiences that requires boots on the ground and gear on the back. There is something very rewarding and fulfilling, in retrospect of course, about carrying everything you need to not only survive but to insistently make you body do task it is not accustomed to. Since at the time I am asking myself why do I torture my middle aged body so? The answer to that is I am sort of a masochist I guess. In continual need to push and test myself, do I know why, heck no. My wife and family think I am crazy and I really can’t argue. Sure upon initially meeting me you would think I am just like most guys in my mid 30’s, family, career and just trying to find my way in general. Now I am very fortunate to have an amazing wife and kids, good job and generally a fantastic life. But there is always this little voice, no not literally a voice I am not that crazy, time to go and stretch your legs a little.

When … READ MORE >

Posted in Backpack Hunting, Mountains & Trails, Trip Reports | Tagged | 1 Comment

Reflections on this Year’s Deer Hunting

rifle look thru
By Steven Drake | Published November 25, 2009
Featuring: Contour Pocketed WaistbeltFlip Top BoxNICE CrewcabNICE Daypack LidNICE Frame

 

As luck would have it, I tagged out on a beautiful bull elk on the fourth week of this year’s archery season.  With eight more weeks of hunting, I had the opportunity to broaden my horizons and focus hard on finding myself and two others some wall hanging bucks.

October 25th, opening morning of the Montana rifle season, friend and co-worker, Kyle Christenson and I trudged through knee deep snow and headed into high country.  At first shooting light we were surrounded by mule deer.  We saw eight bucks that morning but never took a shot.  Two weeks later, we went back to the same vicinity and Kyle took a gorgeous whitetail.  It was his first big game animal, one he’ll have a hard time topping.

The next week, friend and roommate, Sean Schroff and I went in search of mule deer. Frigid temps and inclement weather pushed some of the larger bucks down into the lower elevations offering us some great opportunities.  Sean was able to reach out and touch his first mule deer.

With seven days left in the season it was my turn to give it a go.  I went to an area that … READ MORE >

Posted in Backpack Hunting, Mountains & Trails, Mystery Ranch Employees, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

What it Takes.

what-it-takes
By Robert Montague | Published October 20, 2009
Featuring: Big Sky

I am lying in the tent at high camp on Denali and staring at the bright yellow nylon walls and although it looks sunny outside and feels warm in the tent, I know outside the storm is still going strong. I know, because for the past four days I have fallen for the trick countless times, sticking my head out of the tent only to find a grey sky and blowing snow. The barometer too has been holding steady and giving no encouragement of a change in the weather. We have two more days of food after today which means tomorrow is our last chance at a summit.

Our expedition went very smoothly for the first ten days and we rode the good weather into our camp at 14,000 feet to take a well-deserved break. The main challenge for our team was communication. My seven clients were all from Japan and did not speak much if any English. To complicate things, I did not speak any Japanese nor have I ever been to Japan. For the guides this made for some frustrating situations since we could not communicate easily with our clients. We overcame this obstacle using a mixture of … READ MORE >

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

Speed Goatin’

By Steven Drake | Published September 10, 2009
Featuring: Contour Pocketed WaistbeltFlip Top BoxNICE CrewcabNICE Daypack LidNICE FrameSaddle Peak

After three weeks of countless spot and stalks on Montana speed goats my patience and motivation was wearing thin.  It was my last evening of hunting before college started and the pressure was on.  In a last ditch effort I snuck down a coulee on a barren piece of public land.  I failed to spot any goats before I headed in.  Regardless, my hopes were high.

Two large snake skins and a musky smelling puddle of urine had me on full alert as I crawled my way down the coulee.  A half mile into the section I poked my head out to take a look at the surroundings.  I spotted a mature buck bedded on a hillside about two-hundred yards away.  It was time to try my luck at flagging.  I ducked back into the coulee, pulled out a white tee shirt from my pack, and held the shirt in the air as to get the buck’s attention and hopefully spark his interest.  Sure enough, he zeroed in on the white shirt and began running right towards me.  Right then, adrenaline started pumping through my veins, my heart rate spiked, and my breathing became rapid and somewhat uncontrollable.  The buck … READ MORE >

Posted in Backpack Hunting, Mountains & Trails, Mystery Ranch Employees, Trip Reports | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments