Category Archives: Mystery Ranch Employees

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 >

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

Killer Snow

Ymir Ridge
By Patrick Odenbeck | Published March 29, 2010
Featuring: Fuze

After four hours of driving through the interior of British Columbia we arrived at our destination: the Ymir Motel, in the forgotten gold mining town of the same name. This place is the staging area for most trips into the Ymir backcountry–and, it’s cheap, $12 per person per night cheap–by sharing rooms.  Turns out the owner of the hotel is an art collector and purchased the 18 room hotel for his prized possessions, thousands of painting of all styles, covering every wall. Imagine a museum crossed with a nineteenth century brothel. We slept well under the smug smell of oil paint while dreams of pillow lines ran through our heads.

Back in November a group of us decided to plan a trip to a backcountry cabin or yurt in Canada. The beauty of the Ymir Yurts is its blend of cat skiing and your more standard backcountry self propulsion. The terrain and deep access was hard to beat. Using both snowmobiles and a snowcat, you’re dropped roughly 32 K from the nearest road.

Overnight the area had received much more snow than predicted–about two feet, and the next morning it was still nuking. One of the snowcat guides wore a … READ MORE >

Posted in Mystery Ranch Employees, Skiing, Trip Reports | Tagged | 3 Comments

More Golf Mahals Coming from the Mystery Ranch!

MR at the USDGC
By Levi Buckingham | Published March 19, 2010
Featuring: Golf Mahal

Here is the skinny for all you Golf Mahalics out there:

We have slated another run of the Golf Mahal to start the end of April. This means that bags will become available, hopefully, by mid-June and shipping by the end of that month.

There are 60 bags coming; 15 each in 4 different colors, 3 of which are new! We will continue to offer the bag in Multicam (a camouflage print made by Crye Precision), and will also offer:

- ACU (a digital camouflage pattern)
- Black with Foliage highlights (Foliage is a grey shade)
- Toxic Green with Foliage highlights

Pictures are included of the Golf Mahal built in ACU, Multicam, and Black/Foliage, but you’ll just have to wait to see the Toxic Avenger of Disc Golf Bags!

Yet again, a pre-order list has been started and names are pouring in. So, with only 15 bags of each color being made, make sure that you order sooner rather than later if a particular color strikes your fancy.

To pre-order all you have to do is call the Sales office at 406-585-1428 and put a credit card on hold. You will not be charged until the bag is shipped.… READ MORE >

Posted in Disc Golf, Mystery Ranch Employees, Stories from the Floor | Tagged | 22 Comments

Frazier Basin

Myself on the Hollywood Headwall
By Patrick Odenbeck | Published February 10, 2010
Featuring: FuzeNaya NukiSaddle Peak

Last Friday, five of us met at the Daily Bread parking lot at 5:30 AM for dawn patrol.   Kyle had made it up to Frazier Basin on Wednesday, they found stable conditions and the skiing excellent.  Once I heard the possibility of going up on Friday, especially since Kyle has access to two snowmobiles slashing the multi-hour skin to Frazier Basin to less than a 30 minute tow- I was in.  This was my first time to Frazier and I must say I was blown away.  The North Bridgers have so many aesthetic looking couloirs- it is like God himself has carved each mountain vertically with a giant fork.

The red glow of the sunrise hit us just as we made it to the saddle, we then prepared ourselves for our descent into the basin.  One at a time we skied down the North facing access bowl making huge GS turns.  The snow was soft, fast  and predictable, this entrance into the basin was the perfect indication that it was going to be a great day.  Because we went in on sleds, and the nature of the lines we intended to ski, we all had brought our “heavy” alpine gear- … READ MORE >

Posted in Mystery Ranch Employees, Skiing, 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

First Production run of The “Golf Mahal” to be available in February!

By Levi Buckingham | Published November 3, 2009
Featuring: Golf Mahal

So, I know a lot of you have been waiting a while to get your hands on the bag, but I have finalized the design and bags will be going into production by the beginning of January.  I thought we would be able to expedite this process and get the bags out sooner, but we are just so busy right now that this is not feasible.  I apologize to those whom I told the bag would be available sooner, but I assure you that the wait will be well worth it!  We are a small homegrown company that builds the most durable gear on the market, and because of this our bags are immensely labor intensive.  We have the highest quality standards fo backpacks on the market today both in our construction and inspection of our bags, and are privileged enough to employ Montanans to do so.  Designing the Golf Mahal is only a part of what I do here at the Mystery Ranch as most of my prior experience lies in pre-production, inspection, and finishing of products.  I now also train new employees how to sew and use the other various machines we utilize.  It is through a combination … READ MORE >

Posted in Disc Golf, Mystery Ranch Employees, Stories from the Floor | Tagged | 28 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