Congratulations to the winners of the 2012 Freeskiing World Tour in Revelostoke!  Here are a few shots from our very own Meg Haywood Sullivan. Thanks again Meg.  For full coverage, follow this link:

http://espn.go.com/action/freeskiing/story/_/id/7429572/kye-petersen-angel-collinson-win-revelstoke-freeskiing-world-tour&Asf

The next stop on the tour travels to our neck of the woods.  Good luck to everyone at round 4 of the tour, at Moonlight Basin, Montana.

Poppin new Saddle Peak colors..

Fresh

Finally, somewhere has snow this winter...

Yarrr, this old barnacle don’t like t’ sound so ‘motional, but ye mateys done me proud! 81 of ye commented that ye’d like a Booty Bag, and near e’ery one of ye’s got a proper salty tongue. Fer that, we’re givin’ away not one, but two Bags o’ Booty from the Mystery Ranch Treasure Chest.

One o’ these gems we’s givin’ away ‘t random. Our apologies, but our crab trap got ‘eld up in customs, so we’ll have t’ do this one with the help o’ Random.org.

The other, we’re givin’ t’ the scurvy bilge rat who spoke in the most pleasinest pirate parlance.

So let’s get t’ pickin’. Anchors away and raise the sails!

Yarrr! 66 be a fine number. And the 66th urchin t’ comment be:

Greg Stucky, you’s goin’ to make Cap’n in no time with all the booty ye’ll be able t’ haul. YO HO to ye!

The second part o’ this ‘ere’s giveaway was a tough one. Ye all spoke such perfect pirate that this ol’ mango heart o’ mine got tenderized, like ye t’rowed it into a Booty Bag with a heft o’ cannon balls. But not t’ worry, I toughened up t’ make me pickin’s!

Fer mentionin’ me t’ree fav’rite types o’ booty – AARRR-gyle socks, AAARRR-rated DVDs and AAAARR-madillos – and fer callin’ the Booty Bag a “portable treasure chest,” Tim Hoffer be the other winner t’day. A hearty YO HO to ye!

That be all fer t’day mateys. Now off with ye! Don’t ye have some pillagin’ or plunderin’ to look after?

To we o’ the Seven Seas, it be all about the booty. Whether ye be collectin’ booty from a boarded ship, or haulin’ a few belayin’ pins to the crow’s nest to keep on the lookout for e’er more booty, ye needs a good sack. To that end, The BOOTY BAG be a fine, seaworthy scabbard o’ good portent. It’s been known t’ ferry prized possessions t’rough the most violent o’ squalls, while keepin’ pilferin’ fingers off yer loot.

If ye wants t’ call this treasure yer own, ye can navigate the digital seas from here, ’round Cape Shopping Cart, and into the Check-Out Lagoon. OR, ye can try yer scurvy luck at this here’s contest.

Five sunsets from this day, we’s openin’ the Mystery Ranch Chest o’ Treasures t’ one lucky urchin.

WANT TO GET YOUR GEAR-GRUBBIN’ HAND INTO THAT CHEST??

RUN YER ROT BELOW, in yer best Pirate parlance, with what kind o’ booty ye’d haul in the BOOTY BAG. We’ll scribe yer name on a crab and set it loose in the factory. First crab t’ pinch the staff wins. Or perhaps we’ll just use Random.org t’ do the winner pickin’…

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!

Ryan Walters recently sent us this Video that breaks down his 2010/2011 Skiing Season… it’s worth checking out… a few times!

Tailgate AK 2011

Tailgate Alaska takes place each spring on Thompson Pass, Valdez Alaska.  For more information about the event check out http://www.tailgatealaska.com/

This video was shared with us by Erik Morrison who along with a few other Montanan’s made the journey north for the event.  Erik was wearing a Mystery Ranch Blackjack AE prototype during his trip.  For more information about our Blackjack pack, check it out here… http://www.mysteryranch.com/s.nl/it.A/id.34217/.f

Special thanks to Erik for putting this video together and sharing it with Mystery Ranch!  We hope you all enjoy watching it as much as we have!

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.

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.