The following footage is from Lane Lamoreaux, who jumps out of McCall with Sam. Before the 2010 fire season our repair guy retrofitted a stock Hot 3 for jumping. It was fairly straightforward: a few of the right buckles, seamed into the right places. Lane’s been exiting the aircraft with it ever since. 

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Dana Gleason and Luke Buckingham at the Official Ribbon and Tie Cutting Ceremony!

Moving into a brand new building this January was quite the event!  We captured the three day process through the camera lens… it only took 10,369 photos stitched together to make this video!

Dana had more fun than should be allowed... check it out!

Did you win?!  Watch the video to find out!!!

The entries have been received, the chads dimpled, ties settled with sewing machines at 20 paces and recounts recounted. We are proud to announce and showcase the winners of the 2011 Mystery Ranch photo and video contest. Congratulations to grand prize winners Ryan Krueger, Matthew Irving and KGB Productions and thanks to everyone who entered your unbelievably awesome photos and videos.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Author, Steven Drake, arcing big GS turns down the Gardner Headwall

“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.

Pilot and Index Sunset

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!

Gardner Headwall from Gardner Lake

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, corn laden turns funneled into a tight dog leg; followed by big turns down to Gardner Lake.

At the shore of the lake were two guys who had just descended the north line. While sharing our enthusiasm I realized that one of the guys was none other than Paul Gleason, a Mystery Ranch pack designer. Paul was there skiing the headwall with his friend, Jake. We were all wearing Mystery Ranch packs. After a steep climb out from Gardner Lake we piled into a truck and hitched a ride back to the Wyoming summit. A smooth shot between a set of switchback, followed by a second descent of the headwall, awaited us.

Paul Gleason Skiing the Beartooth Plateau

At the top of the headwall, while preparing for our second descent, Jake looked across the drainage to the onlookers and said, “We are having way more fun than they are.” It was a very fitting comment. It was mid morning on the 4th of July, the sun was shining, the snow was perfect, and we were about to drop into one of the most aesthetic lines on the Beartooth Plateau.

Author, Steven Drake, navigating the dog leg on the south line of Gardner Headwall

Big grins were plastered across our faces.

Jake full of smiles after run #2 on Gardner Headwall

After a great day of skiing I headed down to Cooke City for the fireworks. The Cooke City Fire Department, while parading down Main Street on 4-wheelers and retro fire trucks, sure know how to entertain!

Cooke City fireworks over the 1988 Yellowstone Park burn area

The steep canyon walls that surround Cooke, made for an incredible light show. It is the loudest 4th you’ll ever experience.

What happens when you give 20 guys drip torches and tell them to burn as much as they can.

It’s early may in region 3 (Arizona and New Mexico for all you non-forest service folks) – this is the time of year you usually see big wildfires around here.   It’s hot and dry.  The season has been unusually slow though, which is strange since region 3 had an extremely dry winter.  I was expecting to get the call to go somewhere – like the Coronado in southern Arizona (where temp’s are usually above 90 and erratic winds usually make for some big fires)  or the Gila.

So when we found out we were going to go do a prescribed burn up near Hatch I was more than a little surprised.  I was shocked when I heard we were only going to be there for 1 shift. Usually when a hotshot crew does a prescribed burn we are there from start to finish not just for a little piece of it.  I was told we would be there for black-line operations and they would bring a heli-torch in to light the rest.  Black-lining is a process by which a crew will light fire around the edge of a prescribed burn, making a buffer of burned fuels around the perimeter so they can light the interior safely – a heli-torch is a device that attaches to a helicopter and drops a material not much unlike napalm to the ground to light a fire.

So we arrive and it’s a typical island mountain with desert all around it.  It was starting to make sense- once we black-lined to radio towers at the top there was a long ways to go before the fire could get to anything.   The burn boss (aka the guy in charge) seemed pretty gun-ho about putting a lot of fire on the ground and told us basically to burn as much of the mountain as we could in one day.

The photos show you what happens when you tell a hotshot crew to “get as much of this mountain burned as you can” -  we had 15 people with drip torches – as you can see- it burned really well.

We covered a lot of ground that day- which is normal for a hotshot crew- we hike everywhere we go – our lives depend on the gear we have, the most important piece of that gear is our backpacks- which carry our fire shelters, water, food, and all the equipment we use to do the job (usually they weigh in at 40-50lbs as a base weight and then with a drip torch or bladder bag that weight can often be doubled).

I consistently hear things from the guys on my crew like “this is the best pack I’ve ever worn”  or “this is the only pack that doesn’t hurt my back after a 16 hour shift.”  All I can say guys is keep up the good work- I know 20 guys that have their backs to thank you for.