Early Bird Turns!

Early Bird Turns near West Yellowstone, MT....Heads up snowpack this year. Wind+transportable snow= avalanches. Nick Stayner is pictured intentionally initiating a collapse (expected). The 2000+ foot runs visible near Hegben lake may have to wait a while.

Facet Schuss by Alex and Georgia Brown

Interesting crystal formation in calm and protected areas, making for a wintery feel..... The small amount of snow that blankets our mountains is slowly dying via sublimation and faceting morphology. Makes for consistent density, each and every turn. Heres to a great winter. Pray to the La Nina goddess!

Scrap-tastic approach complete with luge-esque exit has been the norm in the mountains around Bozeman. We need a little snow.

Late Summer Adventures

Lte summer/early fall has been the adventure of a lifetime. In late september i stood on Elephant peak and saw the sunset on every mountain range in the northern yellowstone ecosystem, and then rode out on the bike.... I have been using skis and a mountain bike to get around in the mountains, and here are a few videos:

http://vimeo.com/30329286

http://vimeo.com/29914315

13.1 what?

13.1 read the sticker on some woman's car at the gas station...that number needs a unit. I am diligent to include units on the reports and figure i produce, mostly because i spend a bit of my day looking at old reports that don't contain units, attempting to figure out what their spread sheets and graphs mean....it makes me wonder how presenting these graphs must have went...."as you can see, our monthly supply rises an unknown amount as the graph moves from left to right."

the woman bought $18 in lotto tics....maybe 13.1 is how many dollars she spends on the lottery every week....she could just put the money in the bank and pretend she won the $60000 jackpot that pays of in 30 years

Winter Break 2010-2011

Minus 5 temps...hair and wool fibers frozen

Saddle and Bridger peaks in the southern Bridger range
Two climbers clipped in on 'the dribbles' (WI4), a multipitch ice climb in hyalite canyon...
The same climbers...
...still visible as a speck on the wall.

Winter break 2010-2011 has been fun...Time off from school to hang with my family and enjoy the rocky mountains is always good. I ice climbed and skied every day for a month (almost), and that provides for a lot of adventure. ...Since this blog is supposed to be about science and adventure, some parameters that comes into play when climbing and skiing in the winter months has a lot to do with the condition of solid water in the form of snow and ice. Mass and phase (of water), air temperature, wind velocity/direction must all be judged to gain perspective on conditions, not to mention the rates and time values of these parameters ...not that that this is super difficult...bozeman and other mountain towns teem with amateur snow scientists, and some of them even get into it and get degrees.

Thanks again to all my climbing and ski partners and my family and friends for hanging with me and enjoying the winter holiday! (sorry no pics of me with the fam, just a few mountain images...note the climbers in the last 3 images as it zooms out, to see the scale of the mountains)

The Way of The Elk. Part 3

I was able to shoot two elk today, both of which were tagged by other hunters. The cards did not fall my way today, as I shot one cow 3 times in the front shoulder. The brave elk stumbled another 50 feet as I was sprinting towards her, but she succumbed to another hunter's shots and tag. The elk karma needs to turn my way, and quick if I am to fill my tag.

The Way of the Elk, Part 2

I have been back to the the elk hunting grounds out in hyalite, but have yet to see an animal. The rain turned to snow, and I went skiing, which was deep for october! Hopefully november will bring some better luck...

Photos: bridger, late oct, 2010

The Way of the Elk. Pt 1

It was pitch black by the time I made it back to the road from an overland (that means no roads, no people) hunt last night ...The new forest service signs marking the attractions in Hyalite canyon glowed in the reflection of my headlamp as I jogged past. I probably looked like a german foot soldier with the riffle in my hand, but I was glad to be on the road.... I did not want to reverse miles of deadfall in the dark. The road would provided a nice running opportunity for me anyways.

It began to rain hard, and I cam upon a truck with some human activity. The rain was coming down in sheets , but I was able to make out 3 people near the bed of the truck. They looked to be sportsman.....maybe they will swing me a lift back to my car. I tried to buddy up.

"Any luck?"

"Ya, got three of 'em"

"Three Elk !?" ....with all the shooting I heard, three elk seemed reasonable.

"No, three trout."

"Say, how much farther till the dam?"

"bout 2.5 miles" one of them said as they sped off in their nice truck. I suppose I cant blame them, as I probably looked pretty crazy, soaked to the bone and toting a weapon.

I will be back in the same spot tonight to hunt again, but the rain will have turned to snow, which may help decipher the age of the thousands of elk tracks I saw.