Explore Big Sky - April 21 to May 4, 2022

April 21 - May 4, 2022 Volume 13 // Issue #8

EBS PHOTO CONTEST: AN HOMAGE TO WINTER VOTER GUIDE TO LOCAL ELECTIONS

DROUGHT BODES ILL FOR FIRE SEASON ‘SHOOTOUT’ CELEBRATES LOCAL SKI CULTURE BANKED SLALOM FOSTERS COMMUNITY IN BEEHIVE

OPENING SHOT

April 21 - May 4, 2022 Volume 13, Issue No. 8

Owned and published in Big Sky, Montana

PUBLISHER Eric Ladd | eric@theoutlawpartners.com

EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, VP MEDIA Joseph T. O’Connor | joe@theoutlawpartners.com MANAGING EDITOR Bella Butler | bella@theoutlawpartners.com

Heidi Lee (L), Jenn Williams (M) and Richard Sandza (R) were the winners of the Runoff Cleanoff 2022 event at the Big Sky Community Park on April 15 and 16. As a team they picked up 85 pounds of litter and pet waste to keep harmful pollutants from reaching the Gallatin River as snow melts into the watershed.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HEIDI LEE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Gabrielle Gasser | gabrielle@theoutlawpartners.com DIGITAL PRODUCER Tucker Harris | tucker@theoutlawpartners.com

CREATIVE GRAPHIC DESIGNER ME Brown | maryelizabeth@theoutlawpartners.com

SALES AND OPERATIONS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Megan Paulson | megan@theoutlawpartners.com CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Treston Wold | treston@theoutlawpartners.com VP OF SALES EJ Daws | ej@theoutlawpartners.com MEDIA AND EVENTS DIRECTOR Ersin Ozer | ersin@theoutlawpartners.com MARKETING MANAGER Sophia Breyfogle | sophia@theoutlawpartners.com CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGIST Mira Brody | mira@theoutlawpartners.com SENIOR ACCOUNTANT Sara Sipe | sara@theoutlawpartners.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER, LOCAL SALES Patrick Mahoney | patrick@theoutlawpartners.com

CONTRIBUTORS Scott Brown, Kristen Bykowski, Doug Chabot, Ryan Cigler, KG Content, Hillery Daily, Brian D’Ambrosio, Dan Egan, Elizabeth Garcia, Sarah Gianelli, Richard Hayes, Michelle Hiskey, Emory Hoelscher-Hull, Margaret-Anne King, Ann Kittlaus, Collette Kirchoff, Marian Kummer, Chance Lenay, Scott Mechura, Dave Pecunies, INOAH Photographer, Greyson Christian Plate, Andrew Robin, Nathan Rottier, Ethan Schumacher, Jennifer Steele, Shannon Steele, Ian Maxwell Stosich, Caitlin Tamposi, Michelle Uberuaga, Ned Vasquez, Benjamin Waddell, Cy Whitling, Todd Wilkinson

4 6 7 13 15 22 25 26 31 33

LETTERS 11 OBITUARY LOCAL 12 REGIONAL SPORTS 21 OP NEWS ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS 22 A&E OPINION 25

ON THE COVER:

Al “Daddy” Syverson performs a grab on Feb. 7 on a jump built by Kirby Grubaugh and Rhett Leuzinger. Al is the head terrain park groomer at Big Sky Resort and spends a lot of time enjoying the fruits of his labor, and it shows.

PHOTO BY KG CONTENT

VOTER GUIDE TO LOCAL ELECTIONS Gallatin County mailed local election ballots on April 15. Read up on candidates and mill levy requests before turning in your ballot on May 3.

‘SHOOTOUT’ CELEBRATES LOCAL SKI CULTURE Revived from pandemic dormancy, the Big Sky Shootout film and photography festival packed the Wilson Hotel on April 16 for an evening of dirtbag humor and local ski culture.

BANKED SLALOM FOSTERS COMMUNITY IN BEEHIVE More than 50 snowboarders competed in the Beehive Basin Banked Slalom on April 17. Though a competition, the story of the grassroots race is better told through the hugs, tears and toasts than run times and podiums.

EBS PHOTO CONTEST: AN HOMAGE TO WINTER We asked readers to show us winter in Big Sky through their eyes—or goggles. More than 60 photo submissions created a patchwork of memories from the past winter season.

DROUGHT BODES ILL FOR FIRE SEASON As a low-snow year comes to an end, experts suggest current climate predictions could lead to another bad fire season.

EDITORIAL POLICIES EDITORIAL POLICY Outlaw Partners, LLC is the sole owner of Explore Big Sky. EBS reserves the right to edit all submitted material. Printed material reflects the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the opinion of Outlaw Partners or its editors.

EBS will not publish anything discriminatory or in bad taste.

EBS welcomes obituaries written by family members or from funeral homes. To place an obituary, please submit 500 words or less to media@theoutlawpartners.com.

SCAN FOR TOWN CRIER NEWSLETTER. DAILY NEWS, STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the editor allow EBS readers to express views and share how they would like to effect change. These are not Thank You notes.

Letters should be 250 words or less, respectful, ethical, accurate, and proofread for grammar and content. We reserve the right to edit letters and will not publish individual grievances about specific businesses or letters that are abusive, malicious or potentially libelous. Include: full name, address, phone number and title. Submit to media@outlaw.partners.

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ADVERTISING DEADLINE For the April 21, 2022 issue: April 13, 2022 CORRECTIONS Please report errors to media@outlaw.partners.

OUTLAW PARTNERS & EXPLORE BIG SKY P.O. Box 160250, Big Sky, MT 59716 (406) 995-2055 • media@outlaw.partners © 2022 Explore Big Sky unauthorized reproduction prohibited

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ALL INFORMATION PROVIDED IS DEEMED RELIABLE BUT IS NOT GUARANTEED AND SHOULD BE INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED. INFORMATION AND DEPICTIONS ARE SUBJECT TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, PRIOR SALES, PRICE CHANGES OR WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT NOTICE. NO GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY HAS JUDGED THE MERITS OR VALUE, IF ANY, OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS ADVERTISEMENT OR ANY REAL ESTATE DESCRIBED OR DEPICTED HEREIN. THIS MATERIAL SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL IN ANY STATE OR OTHER JURISDICTION WHERE PRIOR REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED OR WHERE SUCH AN OFFER WOULD BE PROHIBITED, AND THIS SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE A SOLICITATION IF YOU ARE WORKING WITH ANOTHER REAL ESTATE AGENT. NOTHING HEREIN SHALL BE CONSTRUED AS LEGAL, TAX, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL ADVICE.

4 April 21 - May 4, 2022

LETTERS

Explore Big Sky

FROM THE EDITORS: THANK YOU, BIG SKY

Dear readers, Even before the hotel rooms are vacant and the ski lifts stop spinning, seasoned Big Sky residents feel the incoming shoulder season like a sixth sense.

First comes celebration. Closing weekend at Big Sky is always a riotous two days of spring skiing, PBR toasts and goggle tans.

Then comes rest, and perhaps retreat. The overtime adrenaline that fuels us during tourist season drops, and the fatigue of four blurry months hits with the force of spring runoff on the Gallatin. Some of us fall into a brief hibernation, while others find reprieve on beaches or in desert canyons.

Running a resort town is no small feat and it truly takes a village. You all make the wheels turn on this machine, and we’re grateful for you.

All winter, the Big Sky community sees countless faces come and go. We bag their groceries, bump their chairs, clean their bathrooms and cook their food. And then they leave. Such is the cycle of tourism. But what remains is our community—our neighbors. Whether it be a pandemic or simply another wild winter in Big Sky, we’re truly all in this together.

Recent events organized and celebrated by locals reminded us of this.

Erik Morrison this year revived the Big Sky Shootout, a film and photo festival featuring locally made content shot at Big Sky Resort in the spring over a two-week period (p. 12). Spectators packed into the Wilson Hotel for three Shootout showings on April 16, hooting and hollering as familiar faces from the tram line slashed powder turns and made

light of dirtbag culture on screen.

The following day in the backcountry, Kirby Grubaugh’s Beehive Basin Banked Slalom brought more than 50 snowboarders out to race and celebrate their community (p. 21).

These end-of-season events are so important because they give us time to pause and appreciate one another and give ourselves a pat on the back for another season well worked.

At the end of the day, you all are what make Big Sky so special. Thanks for your work, and here’s to another great season behind us and another ahead.

Cheers, The EBS Team

OP-ED: EARTH DAY APPEAL Dear Daughters and Sons, I am more than 4.5 billion years old. My history is one of immense change. My surface has swung from mild climates to periods with glaciers miles thick.

I have seen multiple mass extinctions during which more than 90 percent of my life forms ceased to exist. Most of those events were likely related to increased levels of atmospheric carbon from volcanic activity.

Until about 10,000 years ago, your species lived lightly upon me, as nomadic hunters and gatherers and in small communities.

Recently, you are increasingly dependent on the fossil fuels buried within me. This dead plant life has allowed you to live lavish lives: creating light, traveling and controlling your environment’s temperature. This has benefited you in innumerable ways, but it comes at a price.

The greenhouse gases emitted into my atmosphere (particularly in the past three decades) from burning fossil fuels have already warmed it by 1.1 degree centigrade. Current carbon emission levels make it likely that a rise of 2-4 degrees will occur by the end of the century.

Such dramatic changes will have profound impacts on everything that you currently take for granted. This is a path to catastrophe if the current trajectory of carbon emissions is not altered.

For thousands of years, you have quenched your thirst with my waters, stuffed your bellies with the fruits of fertile lands and filled your lungs with the clean, fresh air my forests produce. Now, disappearing high elevation snow and ice threaten your water supplies, heat and drought endanger crops, and ozone, smog and wildfire smoke choke your lungs.

I will not be destroyed, but will simply change and evolve as I have for billions of years. People speak of “destroying the earth,” but what your species is doing will render it impossible for current life to continue. Humans will bear this burden.

I need you to raise your voices as never before to advocate for local and national policies that shift toward lower carbon emissions. You have viable options to avert climate catastrophe, including a committed movement away from fossil fuels, the use of wind and solar energy, reforestation and so much more.

Ice sheets in Greenland and the Antarctic are melting and collapsing; the seas are rising and threatening to engulf island nations and inundate low-lying cities around the world. Weather has become more volatile and severe, with both recordsetting deluges and unprecedented droughts.

Now is the time to protect me from further temperature rises, and in doing so, protect the future for your children and grandchildren.

Over the last 50 years, wildfire season in the western United States has grown by two and a half months. American wildfires now burn twice as much land as they did in 1970. By 2050, wildfire destruction could well double again.

This op-ed was submitted by the following members of Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate: Ned Vasquez, M.D., Missoula Emory Hoelscher-Hull, student, Montana State University Hillery Daily, N.D., L. Ac., Hamilton Collette Kirchoff, M.D., FAACP, Bozeman Michelle Uberuaga, Moms Clean Air Force, Livingston Marian Kummer MD, Big Sky

These changes are likely to create a billion or more climate refugees over the next 30 years.

Sincerely, Mother Earth

BETTER TOGETHER A biweekly District bulletin

Project Proposals Part 1 of 3

We invite you to participate in this year’s application process by reviewing the requests below and reading project applications at ResortTax.org/funding. The District’s locally elected Board uses your feedback to help guide funding decisions. We strongly encourage you to get engaged in the funding process and share productive feedback for projects and their deliverables, goals, and milestones.

It’s important to note, that FY23 is the first cycle without operating requests from local government organizations. Those funds are committed through Interlocal commitments reviewed annually but applied for on a revolving 3-year cycle (Interlocal commitments for FY23 are $5,176,784.) This year’s project proposals total 66 projects sponsored by 21 organizations for a total of $8,765,234.

Share public comment by emailing Info@ResortTax.org or by attending District meetings.

IMPACT AREAS

ARTS & EDUCATION - $1,053,485 -

The aggregate effects of a project related to an area of focus.

Arts & Education Economic Development Health & Safety* Housing Public Works* Recreation & Conservation

31% 20% 24%

13% 8%

4%

*Includes Interlocal commitments and FY23 requests.

6

JUNE

Addresses multi-disciplinary, inclusive education, stewarding awareness and understanding of cross-cultural ideas and values.

Addresses balancing Big Sky’s tourismdriven economy by sustainability growing prosperity and ensuring a high quality of life for Big Sky workers.

Tuition Assistance Program - $325,000 Morningstar Learning Center

VBS Operations - $183,500 Visit Big Sky

2023 Music in the Mountains Concert Programming - $225,000 Arts Council of Big Sky

Big Sky Chamber Operations - $168,000 Big Sky Chamber of Commerce

Annual Cultural Programming at WMPAC - $225,000 Warren Miller Preforming Arts Center MLC Operations - $75,000 Morningstar Learning Center Library Programming & Services - $66,485 Friends of the Big Sky Community Library

Community Event Sponsorship - $90,000 Visit Big Sky Visitor Impact Research - $50,000 Visit Big Sky Business Skill Building Trainings - $45,000 Big Sky Chamber of Commerce Workforce Sustainability - $26,000 Big Sky Chamber of Commerce

3 & 4 Year-Old Programming - $55,000 Big Sky School District #72

Leadership Big Sky - $25,000 Big Sky Chamber of Commerce

Morningstar Campus Expansion - $50,000 Morningstar Learning Center

Destination Stewardship Plan - $15,000 Visit Big Sky

Early Childhood Tuition - $32,000 Big Sky Discovery Academy

All information is accurate as of 04/01/2022.

Project applications available @ ResortTax.org/funding

Application Review Meetings: Monday, June 6th @ 5:30 pm

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - $602,500 -

Thursday, June 10th @ 5:30 pm

10

JUNE

All meetings are open to the public and held via Zoom. Public comments are welcome and highly encouraged.

Visit ResortTax.org for more info.

Info@ResortTax.org | ResortTax.org | 406.995.3234 |

6 April 21 - May 4, 2022

Explore Big Sky

OBITUARY

CHARLES BURTON SEVERN After valiantly battling a number of health challenges, Charles Burton Severn passed away to join his beloved wife on March 11, 2022. Chuck was born on April 11, 1939 in Breckenridge, Minnesota to Kenneth and Doris Severn. He spent his childhood years in Fergus Falls, MN actively engaged in many sports, and graduated from Fergus Falls High School in 1957. From there he attended Carleton College in Northfield, MN for three years where he was the quarterback of the varsity football team, wrestled and played tennis, before graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1961.

After graduating from college Chuck spent three years in the Virgin Islands studying dolphin behavior and communication with Dr. John Lilly, and assisted in training the first Flipper.

After this adventure he decided to attend graduate school, and unsure of whether he wanted to study animal or human anatomy, he tossed a coin. He attended the University of Michigan where he received his Masters of Science in 1966 and graduated with his PhD in 1968 in human anatomy & physiology.

In 1967 Chuck married Eran May Dague whom he met at the University of Michigan, and after they both graduated

they moved to Omaha, Nebraska where he taught anatomy and pathology at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine for eight years before deciding to pursue his medical degree. While enrolled in medical school he was also an associate professor of pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. He received his M.D. in 1976 and completed his residencies in pediatrics and neonatology in 1979. Later that year Chuck and Eran and their three daughters moved to Bismarck, North Dakota where Chuck practiced neonatology as Medical Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for the next 22 years until he retired from medicine in 2001.

Chuck pursued other endeavors during this time such as obtaining his private pilot’s license and building the family guest ranch in the mountains of Montana where he was happiest and where his heart resided. He never tired of the views, the mountains or of life in Montana.

After retiring in 2001, Chuck ultimately failed to retire. He helped build the cabins at the Mountain Meadows Guest Ranch. He was a breakfast chef at the ranch until 2005, often assisting as a bartender, housekeeper, driver or wherever he was needed. He then cooked breakfasts at the Big EZ Lodge, worked

as a wrangler at Jake’s Horses, was a taxi driver and conducted tours into Yellowstone National Park for Alpine Property Management, sorted mail at the Big Sky Post Office, and assisted with serving breakfast at Buck’s T-4. He also did the plowing for his own house and surrounding area.

In addition to his intense love of the mountains, wild animals and his land, Chuck enjoyed cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, hiking, golfing, tennis, horseback riding on his horse Red, and reading. He was a fierce competitor in cards, and spent many hours playing family games of cribbage and hearts. He also enjoyed baking in his later years, and was a master of angel food cakes. He was particularly passionate about Yellowstone National Park, and greatly enjoyed his days as a tour guide. He especially adored his family and his dogs. He was not much of a traveler, although he enjoyed the beach, preferring instead to remain in the mountains he adored.

Chuck will forever be remembered for his huge heart, thoughtfulness, extreme generosity and perpetual smile. There was not a more loving, kind or humble man.

As a doctor he was beloved for his caring nature and compassion. Chuck embraced life wholeheartedly and lived his life on

his own terms. So too did he die on his own terms. There was not a better father, husband or friend. He was truly one of a kind and will never be forgotten.

Chuck is preceded in death by his father and mother, and wife Eran of 50 years.

He is survived by his sister Mary; brother John; daughters Elizabeth ( Johan), Katie (Scott) and Meg (Chris); grandchildren Annika, Rylie, Luke, Sydney and Olivia; his dog Chloe; cat Clancy, as well as one llama, one alpaca and one mini donkey.

A private celebration of life will be held this summer. In memoriam, donations can be made in Chuck’s name to Yellowstone Forever or St. Jude’s Hospital.

Li fe Wel l Li ved

NEW LOFT RESIDENCES, COMING SOON. WILDLANDSBOZEMAN.COM

7 April 21 - May 4, 2022

Explore Big Sky

LOCAL

NEWS IN BRIEF

BIG SKY RESORT 2022-2023 WINTER SEASON PASSES ON SALE

GLAMPING RESORT ON GALLATIN APPROVED TO MOVE FORWARD

EBS STAFF

EBS STAFF

BIG SKY – Big Sky Resort’s 2022-2023 season passes are now on sale.

Skiers and riders are encouraged to purchase passes before April 29 for the best prices and availability. The resort has also announced a few changes for the upcoming winter season.

GALLATIN GATEWAY – The Gallatin County Commission on April 8 denied an appeal to a floodplain permit granted to a proposed glamping resort in Gallatin Gateway.

Pass options range from a Flex 3 + Pass, offering three flex days along with early and late season access for $369 for an adult pass, to a Gold Season Pass with unlimited skiing, unlimited tram days and access to over 40 resorts with Ikon and Mountain Collective benefits for $2,299 for an adult pass.

2022-2023 updates: • Separate Lone Peak Tram access for most passes • Expanded paid parking zones • Incentivized carpooling and public transportation use • The Gold Season Pass will not include a dedicated premium parking lot, and the majority of the parking lots will remain free • Ikon Pass holders must make reservations Visit bigskyresort.com for more details and information.

Filed by a cohort of environmental groups, the appeal challenged a floodplain permit granted to the Riverbend Glamping Getaway resort.

While the county commission rejected the appeal, commissioners granted the appellants’ proposal to add a condition to the permit requiring the resort to remove accommodations and shut off utilities for part of the resort during peak flood season.

The glamping resort, proposed by Bozeman couple Jeff and Jirina Pfeil, will be situated on an island between two channels of the Gallatin River sitting in a designated floodplain.

The appeal addressed Gallatin County Floodplain Administrator Sean O’Callaghan’s interpretation of floodplain regulations and other laws in his permit approval.

All in-person public comment at the April 8 hearing was against the glamping site.

RIVER CLEANUP COLLECTS 166 POUNDS OF WASTE

YELLOWSTONE CULLS JUST 49 BISON THIS WINTER

EBS STAFF

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BIG SKY – Volunteers helped clean up 166 pounds of waste and trash at the Big Sky Community Park on April 15 and 16 to help protect the Gallatin River.

BOZEMAN – Forty-nine Yellowstone National Park bison were shipped to slaughter, killed by hunters or captured for relocation this winter well short of officials’ goal to remove 600 to 900 of the animals.

Hosted by Gallatin River Task Force, Big Sky Community Organization and Big Sky Sustainability Network Organization, the Runoff Cleanoff 2022 event aimed to keep harmful pollutants from reaching the Gallatin as snow melts into the watershed.

The park has about 5,000 bison. The herds are culled annually under a federalstate agreement that’s meant to keep their numbers from growing and to prevent bison from spreading the disease brucellosis to cattle in Montana.

Volunteer Team Leaders Jenn Williams and Richard Sandza, along with the Lone Peak Veterinary Hospital team, brought in 85 pounds of mostly pet waste on April 16.

“Pet waste represents one of the largest sources of water-quality degraded pollution across the upper Gallatin River watershed,” said Isabella Vendramin, operations manager for the task force, after the event. “So it is always great to see community members volunteer their time to take care of the Gallatin.”

The program depends on large numbers of bison migrating outside the park to their winter feeding grounds in Montana. But this year’s migration was not very large and many animals stayed in Yellowstone.

Twenty-seven bison were captured leaving the park and sent to slaughter, and 10 were captured and put into quarantine for future relocation, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported.

Members of tribes with treaty hunting rights in the Yellowstone region killed 10 bison, and state-licensed hunters killed two.

Officials end shipments of bison to slaughter by early spring to avoid capturing animals in late-term pregnancy. That means there’s only a window of about five weeks to reach the culling objectives, which have often been missed.

MORNINGSTAR LEARNING CENTER CONDUCTS FEASIBILITY STUDY EBS STAFF

BIG SKY – After receiving near half-a-million dollars in federal funding in February, Morningstar Learning Center is working on a feasibility study to assess current needs and decide how best to utilize those funds.

The daycare has contracted with 45 Architecture to complete the study which will assess the current building as well as the empty lot owned by Morningstar.

According to Mariel Butan, executive director of Morningstar, two uses for the lot are being considered: build a new child-care facility and convert the current building to housing or build new employee housing.

In addition to the feasibility study, Morningstar is asking the Big Sky community to provide feedback on current needs via a survey.

“We’re excited to engage in this research and really do our homework to ensure that what we do next is the best thing to meet the needs both of Big Sky as a whole and the children and families we serve,” Butan said. “It’s important to us that we get a lot of responses to this survey, so the information we base our decisions on really reflects the diverse and knowledgeable voices of our community.”

Visit surveymonkey.com/r/78HM7QN to take the survey.

JOIN US THIS SUMMER FOR

Big Sky’s Biggest Week WED. JULY 13 – SUN. JULY 16 Big Sky Art Auction

FRIDAY, JULY 15

Big Sky Community Rodeo Street Dance, Town Center Avenue

TUESDAY, JULY 19 Big Sky Bingo Night

Big Sky Community Day / Mutton Bustin’

WEDNESDAY, JULY 20

Big Sky PBR Golf Tournament at Black Bull Golf Course

THURSDAY, JULY 21

Big Sky PBR Basecamp Vendor Village Open PBR Bull Riding Night 1

FRIDAY, JULY 22

Big Sky PBR Basecamp Vendor Village Open PBR Bull Riding Night 2 Live Music Following Bull Riding, Tony Marques Band

SATURDAY, JULY 23

Big Sky PBR Basecamp Vendor Village Open PBR Bull Riding Night 3

Live Music Following Bull Riding, Hayes Carll

VISIT BIGSKYPBR.COM FOR TICKETS & INFORMATION BIG SKY EVENTS ARENA, BIG SKY, MONTANA

9 April 21 - May 4, 2022

L O CA L

Explore Big Sky

BIG SKY STUDENT AWARDED REGIONAL SCHOLARSHIP

ANNEL GARCÍA RECOGNIZED FOR PERSEVERANCE, FAMILY VALUES

BY BELLA BUTLER BIG SKY – In the downstairs hallway of the Big Sky Discovery Academy, junior Annel García points out a piece of her artwork hanging on the wall.

On the canvas, the woman painted in acrylic stretches her arms to the sky with a graceful bend in her back. She wears a red flower in her hair that matches her red lips, and her festive skirt fans out around her. A green field is painted behind her, and above the field, blue sky. The woman in the painting is a dancer, and Annel’s friend from Mexico.

“I got inspired by her…” Annel says. “And then the background is sugarcane, which is the primary export of the town we grew up in in Mexico.”

Annel, 17, is only a junior at Discovery Academy, but an accelerated high school program will allow her to graduate this June. As an artist, a dedicated family member and invested community member, Annel was one of four students in Gallatin County and the only student from Big Sky to receive the Corey C. Griffin Scholarship, a $5,000 scholarship awarded through the Yellowstone Club Community Foundation to graduating high schoolers who exemplify traits of Griffin, for whom the scholarship is named: perseverance, leadership, compassion and a drive for change, to name a few.

“It looks at just different personal measurements than usual scholarships,” said Casey Schwartz, founding director of YCCF, who was also on the scholarship interview panel.

One of those personal measurements that Schwartz said Annel exemplified was her commitment to her family.

Annel is the youngest of three, and her parents collectively own three businesses in the area.

“Their family really is her priority and the family’s priority,” Schwartz said.

“They work together. And that is very Corey.”

The scholarship panel also recognized her ability to overcome adversity.

“She finds a lot of joy out of difficult situations,” Schwartz said.

When Annel and her family moved to Big Sky from Jalisco, Mexico when she was 7, she said she didn’t know any English.

“That was hard,” she said. “Because I couldn’t communicate with teachers, I couldn’t communicate with my classmates. So I had to learn English as fast as I could.”

She doesn’t remember exactly how she learned, except for pointing out words in books to peers and teachers and asking them how to pronounce them, but she said she learned in just six months.

Language wasn’t the only cultural barrier for Annel growing up in Big Sky. “[Big Sky] made me the person I am because I went through a lot of things,” she said. “Like, some people didn’t really understand when someone from a different culture comes here … They don’t understand our food, they don’t understand culture.”

She said when she was young and other kids didn’t understand her, they’d make fun of her.

displayed around the school. She’s had a heavy hand in a mural the student body is collaborating on. She points to a blue macaw she’s working on, something that will remain long after she graduates.

In another one of her striking pieces hung on the wall, a woman drawn in charcoal wears a somber expression and holds her arms in tight to her bare chest. Her thick, black hair dances wildly in a background of pastel colors. Throughout the image, words, phrases and names are scrawled in black.

Despite those challenges, Annel has found her way into her own unique identity, and she’s leaving her mark on Big Sky. She volunteers two days a week at the Big Sky School District’s after-school program, and she was recently offered an opportunity to help with youth climbing at BASE.

“This one’s about a movement in Mexico where a lot of women have been submitted to hate crimes,” she says.

Down the hall from her painting of the dancing woman, Annel’s art is

In the fall, Annel will attend Montana State University to study film.

For her graduation in June, Annel plans to host an exhibition for her paintings and photography.

Her brother, Andrew, said she didn’t just learn quickly, she dove in head first.

“She really never let that stop her right, because as soon as she started learning English, first she started reading books—a lot. She read a lot of books,” Andrew said.

Annel is a still a big reader, and these days she enjoys a mix of fantasy, classics and mystery. Right now, she’s reading “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” which Andrew gave her.

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Big Sky Discovery Academy junior Annel García sits in the art room at her high school. PHOTO BY BELLA BUTLER

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10 April 21 - May 4, 2022

L O CA L

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LPHS GROWTH EARNS RECLASSIFICATION TO CLASS B

BY GABRIELLE GASSER BIG SKY – After 13 years as a Class C school, Lone Peak High School just got a B. The Montana High School Association determined that LPHS’s student population has grown large enough to be reclassified as Class B starting in the 2023-24 school year.

At an April 19 School Board meeting, Athletic Director John Hannahs announced the change in his activities report to the Big Sky School District School Board of Trustees.

“Any sign of growth for the district is a good thing,” Hannahs told EBS. “The town is growing, and the school should grow with. [There is] a lot of exciting stuff coming down the pipeline as far as our academic and athletic expansion goes.”

Hannahs learned of the change last week after the MHSA executive board meeting on April 11-12, though he said he anticipated the announcement. MHSA adjusted classification numbers at its

November 2021 executive board meeting defining Class C as schools with enrollment from 1-100 and Class B as enrollment from 101-300.

for boys’ and girls’ golf, according to MHSA. The high school will remain in the Eastern division for soccer, the

Southern division for eight-player football and the Southwest division for B-C tennis.

According to Superintendent Dustin Shipman, LPHS will be the largest it has ever been this coming school year with a projected enrollment of 121 students. The upcoming 2022-23 school year will be the school’s final year as Class C. LPHS is joined by six other schools in the jump from Class C to Class B including Ennis High School, which was also in District 12C. Five of the seven schools that moved up in classification are in southwestern Montana pointing to a larger trend in area growth, Shipman said at the meeting.

Four other high schools met the enrollment guidelines to jump to Class B but successfully petitioned the MHSA board to remain in their current classification.

LPHS is tentatively assigned to District 5B for basketball, volleyball and track and field and Division 3

At an April 19 School Board meeting, Big Sky School District Athletic Director John Hannahs announced that Lone Peak High School has been reclassified from Class C to Class B. PHOTO BY GABRIELLE GASSER

11 April 21 - May 4, 2022

L O CA L

Explore Big Sky

VOTER GUIDE: SCHOOL AND SPECIAL DISTRICT ELECTIONS

BY BELLA BUTLER AND GABRIELLE GASSER BIG SKY – Local ballots were mailed to active registered voters in both the Madison and Gallatin county portions of Big Sky on April 18, kicking off the 2022 election year.

For voters in the Big Sky School District, two levies appear on the ballot.

Candidates running for the Big Sky School District, the Big Sky County Water and Sewer District and the Big Sky Resort Area District were unopposed.

The Big Sky School District candidates currently appear on the local election ballot.

All other local positions will be elected by acclamation on May 3.

Ballots must be received at the Gallatin County Elections office or a designated place of deposit by 8 p.m. on Election Day, May 3. Ballots may be returned by mail or in-person. Gallatin County recommends ballots are mailed no later than Wednesday, April 27 to ensure they arrive on time.

General Fund Levy The general fund levy proposed by the Big Sky School District is an increase in local taxes to support the district’s General Fund in the amount of $70,000.

The purpose of this levy is to provide funds to pay for operating expenses associated with teacher salaries and will increase the taxes on a home with a market value of $100,000 by approximately $1.81 per year, and on a home with a market value of $200,000 by approximately $3.62 per year.

“In order to attract and keep the best teachers, the school board needs to be able to offer a competitive salary over a multi-year contract and is looking for community support to maintain the high standards we have achieved in the Big Sky School District,” said BSSD Board Trustee Stacy Ossorio. “In order to offer multi-year employment contracts, with cost-of-living increases, the board is proposing this modest mill levy to fund this important initiative to allow our rapidly growing community to offer the best education and school facility possible.”

Building Reserve Levy The building reserve levy proposed by BSSD is intended to maintain local taxes to support the district’s Building Reserve Fund in the amount of $108,346 per year for five years, for a total amount of $541,730.

The purpose of this levy is to provide funds to pay for facility maintenance and repair, grounds maintenance and improvements, and equipment upgrades. This levy renews the current five-year Building Reserve Levy which is expiring and will maintain taxes on a home with a market value of $100,000 of approximately $2.81, and on a home with a market value of $200,000 of approximately $5.62.

“The Building Reserve Levy is important to support because that’s almost the only vehicle we have, outside of the general fund, to support the maintenance of our facilities and our facilities require maintenance,” said BSSD Superintendent Dustin Shipman.

Big Sky School District Two board trustees appear on the local election ballot for voters in the Big Sky School District.

Kara Edgar After being appointed to the school board in August 2021 after trustee Whitney Littman resigned, Kara Edgar is running unopposed for re-election. She hails from the East Coast and moved to Big Sky fulltime with her family of five in 2020. Prior to the move, the Edgar family spent summers in Big Sky and came out on longer visits since 2010. Now, Edgar’s three children attend Ophir Elementary and Middle schools.

Al Malinowski Al Malinowski will begin his first four-year term with the Big Sky County Water and Sewer District.

Malinowski brings experience from across Big Sky as the president of Gallatin Partners, contract manager of the Big Sky Post Office, a current member of the Big Sky Trails, Recreation and Parks Special District and former member of the Big Sky Community Organization and Big Sky Resort Area District boards. He has also served on several homeowners associations.

“I am running for the Big Sky School District Board because I believe in our public school and I want to keep our children at the center of the room,” Edgar wrote in an email to EBS. “As a parent, volunteer, current trustee and proud community member, I am impressed with the level of excellence we achieve and the standards to which we hold our educational system accountable. … I vow to seek creative ways to overcome the obstacles our public schools face in budgeting and beyond. I vow to be a bridge between the community and the board, and view communication and transparency as vital in making this happen.”

“The board and staff of [the water and sewer district] has a valuable blend of experience and representation from various community interests that has the organization positioned to handle our growth issues,” Malinowski wrote in an email to EBS. “I hope that my accounting and business background, my critical thinking skills and my predisposition for collaboration will make me a valuable asset to the board as we continue to address the challenges faced by [the district].”

Scott Hammond Scott Hammond is running unopposed for re-election to the school board for his second full three-year term. He originally came to Big Sky in 1994 and has held a variety of jobs in the community until he founded his own business, Hammond Property Management Inc., in 1997. He and his wife, Krisy, have two kids who have both attended Ophir Schools and Lone Peak High School.

“I’m very interested in the investment that the community approved, the $23 million bond that was passed a few years ago, and seeing that come to fruition and seeing that money spent as efficiently and intelligently as possible,” Hammond said. “I look forward to influencing a more ergonomic parking lot and drop off configuration. … I’m also excited to see athletics expanded upon, possibly a baseball team. And I look forward to seeing the athletic department continue to improve and expand. And to contribute as a community member of 29 years I want to see the high school and the school district continue to grow and improve.”

Big Sky County Water and Sewer District Two Big Sky Water and Sewer District board members will be elected by acclamation on May 3.

Pete Manka Pete Manka is preparing to begin his third four-year term with the Big Sky County Water and Sewer District. Owner and water engineer at Alpine Water in Big Sky, Manka brings apt experience to the water and sewer board.

These are “critical times” for water in Big Sky, Manka said.

“I think we (the board) are stewards of a vital resource and in that process I feel like the skills and experience I have kind of contribute in basically helping create a safe environment where we’re responsibly using our resource [and] disposing of our resource ... as responsibly used for the benefit of the community and resource,” Manka said.

Big Sky Resort Area District Two Big Sky Resort Area District Board directors will be elected by acclamation on May 3.

Steve Johnson Steve Johnson will begin his second four-year term as a board director with the Big Sky Resort Area District. Johnson is an active member of the community, serving on the boards of Big Sky Community Organization, Big Sky Fire District, Big Sky Trails, Recreation and Parks Special District and the Big Sky Zoning Advisory Committee. Johnson is currently the secretary and treasurer for the Big Sky Resort Area District Board.

“The board is responsible to its constituent voters to manage significant and growing public revenue for legitimate community priorities,” Johnson wrote in an email to EBS. “The Our Big Sky planning effort was an important step in identifying strategic priorities, but the uncertainties of current times continue to pose challenges. The challenge to our board is managing these funds with an appropriate balance among longterm investments, support for essential services and an appropriate reserve to handle opportunities.”

Sarah Blechta Big Sky native Sarah Blechta, who currently serves at the Big Sky Resort Area District Board chair, will begin her second fouryear term on the board. Blechta also works as the director for property owners associations at the Yellowstone Club.

“I love being a part of helping to shape a community that shaped me,” said Blechta, who moved to Big Sky as an elementary school student in 1991.

Blechta reflected on the changes the district has undergone since the start of her first term, including moving toward more objective meetings and allocation cycles. With increasing annual resort tax collections, she says keeping an eye on long term growth will be key for the board, and it’s something she enjoys doing.

12 April 21 - May 4, 2022

L O CA L

Explore Big Sky

BIG SKY SHOOTOUT FILM AND PHOTO FESTIVAL RETURNS

COMMUNITY RALLIES TO CONSERVE & CELEBRATE ITS MOUNTAIN CULTURE Events like the Big Sky Shootout give Grizzly Outfitters and our team the opportunity to say thank you to the community that supports us, said Andrew Schreiner.

SECOND SEASON

BIG SKY – Electricity was in the air the night of April 16. Clouds gathered and danced with anticipation, circling Lone Peak and welcoming the prevailing winds that would soon come carrying the spring snow. The first flakes began to fall softly upon the faces of the eager onlookers gathered on the patio of The Wilson Hotel in Town Center.

Moments before they were immersed in playing bottle toss, drinking beer and listening to the melodic beats of DJ Missy O’Malley as she welcomed festival goers to the Shootout lounge.

But the familiar and funny feeling of the dew-point drop was unmistakable to those gathered there.

The tribe instinctually paused, turned and cast their gaze to the peak just as lightning split the sky illuminating the clouds from deep within and revealing a stunning silhouette of the tram upon a blazing mountain top.

A moment later, as if on cue, the heavens opened with the bass drop and bore down upon the crowd with heavy snows driving them inside. It was clear winter had made its triumphant return and with it the return of the Big Sky Shootout Film & Photo Festival.

We all had that feeling it was probably going to storm that night, said Erik Morrison, festival producer and Second Season CEO. “Historically Big Sky has delivered some solid spring storms around the Shootout, hence all the classic powder segments like Higher Love and Snow Dreams that the festival has produced,” Morrison said. “It’s just that special combination of Lone Peak and this ski community’s stoke that seems to pull it in. With all of us coming together to honor this tradition and celebrate the festival’s return ... It had to snow. Fortunately for us the storm was a motivator for people to come celebrate.

We had over 400 people in attendance with the largest and rowdiest crowd at 7 p.m. right when the lightning struck and the storm was raging. You can’t make this up!”

Established in 2014 by Lone Peak Cinema owners Scott and Sally Fisher, The Big Sky Shootout was a full on visual celebration of Big Sky’s ski community. Open to all and focusing on content exclusively shot at Big Sky Resort over a one-week period, teams of six or less were invited to test their creativity and tell their tale on the big screen. Come showtime the community would gather in dayglow and denim for two sold out shows, vote for their favorite festival films and celebrate what makes Big Sky great. It was a time-honored tradition and one that was sorely missed with the pandemic and the closure of Lone Peak Cinema.

Years passed and many wondered if the Shootout would ever return. In the spring of 2021, Morrison approached the Fishers about his interest in Second Season collaborating with them to bring back the festival.

Since the pandemic we have seen significant change here in Big Sky and across the West. “If we are to preserve our traditions and mountain culture we must continue to create it,” Morrison said. “That is central to the work we are doing at Second Season and the reason we felt compelled to act.

“Locals are the heart and soul of Big Sky," he said. "Without them... Well we would live in a pretty boring and stagnant community. This is our home and we will always support core local events that cater and inspire outdoor activities and phenomenally fun evenings like the Shootout. Keep up the good work Big Sky and thanks for all your years of support.”

A packed crowd for at the 7 p.m. Big Sky Shootout showing enjoys homemade ski films shot at Big Sky Resort. PHOTO BY BELLA BUTLER

Once Scott and Sally gave us the green light we brought Shootout veterans Skylab Media and Peak Creative Designs onboard to the production team.

Community-minded businesses and organizations collaborated swiftly to support us and breathe new life into the Shootout. A sincere and heartfelt thanks to everyone one of them who stepped up.”

Huge fans of the Shootout tradition and never ones to miss out on a good party, the team at Grizzly Outfitters pulled out all the stops and gathered over $5,800 in cash and prizes. They invited GoPro to join the fun and generously donated six Hero 10 Black camera kits complete with handler, chesty, enduro batteries, and daytripper packs; a dream package for any content creator. This plus thousands of dollars in door prizes like skis, goggles, helmets and soft goods made for many a happy festival goer.

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS: 1ST PLACE VIDEO: MASTER BLADERS | "GROUP MASTERBLATION" 2ND PLACE VIDEO: SHOOTOUT VETERANS | "5 GUYS 1 LINE" 3RD PLACE VIDEO: BEET & JOJO | "THE DIRTBAG" 1ST PLACE PHOTO: INOAH PHOTOGRAPHER 2ND PLACE PHOTO: KG CONTENT 3RD PLACE PHOTO: HEATHER RAPP

Many of the other collaborators who supported the Shootout were on hand with their family and friends to celebrate and enjoy the show. Kevin Barton of Ace Big Sky, Beth Hoffman of Big Sky Build, Wes and Alex Hoeker of Two Pines Properties, and others were in attendance, some staying for multiple showings. Beth was rewarded for her spirit when her ticket was pulled for the grand door prize giveaway later that evening.

It was so great to have the festival back this year, said Wes Hoecker. “I loved seeing all the films,” he ssaid. “Lots of friends and coworkers contributed and made films. We love this community and are stoked to be involved. Already thinking about the Shootout 2023!”

With this community support the team at Second Season was able to significantly step up production and expand the festival to include film and photography. With 10 eclectic short films and 50 photos it was the largest number of submissions in Shootout history. All of the film and photo submissions for the Seventh Annual Big Sky Shootout Film & Photo Festival will be available to view at secondseasonco.com later this week.

Additional artist spotlights and their work will be featured the next two weeks on Second Season’s Instagram and Facebook. See the full list of awards at explorebigsly.com.

13 April 21 - May 4, 2022

Explore Big Sky

REGIONAL

UKRAINIAN STORIES TO SAVE UKRAINIAN LIVES HELENA-BASED INTERPRETER CONNECTS MONTANANS WITH THE UKRAINIAN EXPERIENCE

BY BELLA BUTLER “ You don’t really see the world if you only look through your own window.”

– Ukrainian proverb HELENA – Tatiana Lukenbill was visiting Montana in 1991 when an attempted coup d’état against the Soviet Union brought unrest in eastern Europe.

Originally from Ukraine, Lukenbill was afraid and impossibly far from the worldshattering events happening near where her family still lived.

Sitting in front of the TV in Helena, she watched tanks and armored vehicles driving down the street near her house in Moscow, where she was working around that time as a language interpreter.

“This can’t be true,” she thought.

Now Lukenbill is almost 70, and Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine is like déjà vu.

On Feb. 24, Lukenbill awoke to a text message from her niece, who was in Lviv, Ukraine with Lukenbill’s brother and sister-in-law.

“We are alive,” the text said. “We hear the air raid sirens,” Lukenbill’s niece told her when Lukenbill called her, “and we hear the explosions somewhere far away.”

Again, Lukenbill couldn’t believe what she was reading.

“The feeling was it can’t be true,” she recalled in a March 15 interview. “And then it turned out, yes, it is true. And it’s very sad.”

Lukenbill is at her home in Helena, where she’s lived with her husband, Ron, for 30 years. When she talks about family, she looks somberly out her window to gesture toward them. They are more than 5,000 miles away and looking out the window is merely symbolic. So, instead

she starts to look at her phone, where she’s saved essays from her brother. Today, this is where she looks to see her family; in the stories they give her.

Before her interview with EBS, Lukenbill, a Ukrainian-English and Russian-English since 1994, warned me that she’s “not a politician,” not an expert on sanctions, war strategies or international politics.

Instead, she’s become a storyteller, sharing the Ukrainian experience with her Montana neighbors by giving interviews, organizing fundraising events, speaking to clubs and anyone else who wants to hear what she has to say.

“I’ve decided those who are interested and those who care, they would hear my story because I talk to my family in Ukraine every day,” she said. “…I also feel it is only fair to share the information which is basically first hand.”

This is her service, and one she thinks can make an impact.

“It’s very important because it’s the life of the people that matters,” she said. “The women, the children, the elderly people, the babies that have not yet been born.

They are important. And what is the other way of protecting them from this side other than giving people here [in the U.S.] information about what’s going on?”

Sharing these stories does a few things, Lukenbill suggests: It fosters connection and lends credibility.

“Many people tell me they don’t trust mass media news for different reasons,” she said, adding that they don’t know when media is influenced by the people and platforms sharing it; they don’t trust news not to have an agenda.

“When I talk to the people, I tell them only what I know,” she said. “I tell them what I read every day, from my family, from my relatives.”

L-R: Lukenbill with her brother, Oleksiy, and sister-in-law, Olena during one of Lukenbill’s previous visits to Ukraine. PHOTO COURTESY OF TATIANA LUKENBILL

The other problem with watching a foreign conflict from afar, she says, is that distance tempts apathy. Unless we connect to the humanness of an issue, unless we feel the threat ourselves, we shrug it off.

The most recent message Lukenbill had received from her brother, Oleksiy Tykhonov, 60, was in the form of a long text message; an essay, she calls it.

Tykhonov had written it while hunkered in his apartment in Lviv with his own family and a family of refugees he had taken in as air raid sirens blared across the city.

“To help us is to help yourself,” Lukenbill said, translating a line from the essay. “Do all you can to avoid tears and bleeding of your children.”

Tykhonov’s words, as an old Ukrainian proverb suggests, offer an opportunity to see the world through another’s window; to see women giving birth to babies in war zones, as he describes in his essay, and to hear air raid sirens from bomb shelters.

Below is Tykhonov’s essay, translated

by Lukenbill.

To Tatiana Lukenbill From Oleksiy Tykhonov March 15, 2022, day 19 of war As I am writing to you, I hear that air raid sirens are howling again. Russian army is trying to annihilate our country, get rid of its existence on the world map, killing everyone: children and adults. In the war zones women are giving birth to babies, they have to hide in bomb shelters to hide from missiles, bombs and shelling.

There were times in the past, when our life was not easy, but we knew we were free people. We were not afraid of being persecuted for expressing our own viewpoints or receiving any kind of information. If there were leaders we did not appreciate, we learned how to change them, elect new ones,

and those who were particularly inadequate were just removed from their “thrones.” They moved to a neighbor country. Our neighbors to the north did not like it.

Lack of wisdom and reason led to this war.

This is not war just with Ukraine. Other countries are taking part in it, both directly or indirectly. Countries are spending huge funds for military and humanitarian aid, providing for the refugees. In the future, the countries will face deficit in food produce. We should remember that Ukraine and Russia were the largest importers of grain and mineral fertilizers in the world. The war will make their export impossible. Developed countries of the world will have to support not only Ukraine, but also other countries for them to provide normal life for the population.

The most important thing for us today is lives of our people. We know that on the way to create the society where people would be more free and wealthier, we were making and correcting mistakes. We are not saying that someone else is to blame for our erroneous decisions. We are not looking forward to improve our life invading the territories and freedoms of other countries.

Why are we being bombarded? What wrong did our kids do? Why are they killed? Why are our cities, towns and villages destroyed?

Just because one individual does not like the idea of a free neighbor?

We don’t want to be slaves! We are strong but we need help of other countries before these countries start suffering. Helping us you are helping your people. Do all you can to avoid tears and bleeding of your children.

We appreciate all kinds of help: psychological, financial, empathy and understanding of what our people are living through.

To reach out to Tatiana Lukenbill to learn more about how to support Ukrainian people, email trlukenbill@msn.com.

L-R: Tykhonov with his daughter, Kateryna, son-in-law, Rick, and wife, Olena at Kateryna’s wedding in July 2020. PHOTO COURTESY OF TATIANA LUKENBILL

15 April 21 - May 4, 2022

Explore Big Sky

SPORTS

A DREAM REALIZED

LOCAL SNOWBOARDER HOLDEN SAMUELS QUALIFIES FOR FREERIDE WORLD TOUR

BY GABRIELLE GASSER BIG SKY – Standing at the top of the Three Forks chute at Big Sky Resort, freeride snowboarder Holden Samuels knew he had to put down a good line to keep his dream alive. Filled with nerves and cheered on by his hometown crowd, Samuels pointed his board down the fall line, taking off on a run that would earn him first place at the competition and help him secure a spot on the Freeride World Tour.

His win at the Big Sky International Freeskiers and Snowboarders Association Superfinal event was one of two podium finishes late in the 2021-22 season that propelled Samuels, 22, to qualify for the tour, a global competition circuit featuring the best freeride skiers and riders in the world. After tearing his ACL twice and making the switch from junior to adult competitions, Samuels’ hard work paid off and he realized a dream that he’s been striving for since he was 16.

“I had to be patient over the last four years to get to this point,” he said. “I couldn’t be more excited to have finally qualified. It has definitely been a dream of mine for a long time. Hopefully this is only the beginning because my goal is to win the world tour.”

Following a successful qualifying competition season in which he won three out of four events, Samuels faced three superfinal events where the best two of three scores for each athlete were tallied to determine who qualified for the world tour.

Samuels rides his line at the Big Sky superfinal event. PHOTO COURTESY OF HOLDEN SAMUELS

Samuels said he went into the first superfinal competition at Crystal Mountain in Washington feeling confident with a No. 1 rank. However, despite great conditions, he said he finished fifth after a lackluster performance.

“The biggest mistake that I had in the Crystal competition was that I didn’t ride very inspired,” Samuels said. “I was over competing at that point in time. I felt like I had done enough to qualify even though I hadn’t yet.”

A fifth-place finish at Crystal didn’t help him, Samuels said. He needed podium finishes in the

next two events to have any hope of qualifying for the world tour.

Samuels kept his dream alive by claiming the top spot at Big Sky and second place at the last superfinal qualifying event at Kirkwood Mountain Resort in California.

“I was really excited and relieved that the season was over and that I had done it,” he said. “At the end of the year, I won four out of the seven competitions and got second in one of them.”

Those wins elevated Samuels to the No. 2 overall ranking in the North American region in the 2022 Freeride World Qualifier season.

Samuels will start riding on the Freeride World Tour next January, traveling to places like Baqueira Beret, Spain, Ordino Arcalís, Andorra and Verbier, Switzerland, to name a few.

To prepare, Samuels said he’ll focus on honing his visual inspection skills since, unlike in the qualifiers, athletes on the world tour don’t get the chance to ride or ski their line ahead of the competition.

Though this adjustment will be tough, Samuels says he’s looking forward to the greater freedom that he will have in choosing lines.

As he heads to the world stage, Samuels remains tethered to his Big Sky roots. Growing up here, he learned to snowboard on Lone Mountain and was on the Big Sky Ski Education Foundation Freeride Team for five years. Recently, Samuels said a community member congratulated him on his success and noted that Big Sky kids have never before had an athlete from their hometown to root for on the world tour.

Holden Samuels stands on the overall Freeride World Qualifier podium for the 2022 season in second place. PHOTO COURTESY OF HOLDEN SAMUELS

“I am super excited to represent Big Sky on the world tour,” Samuels said. “…I don’t know anyone that grew up here and has been on the World Tour, so I am honored to be the first. …I am sure there will be more kids from Big Sky having success on the world stage, and I would love to be the inspiration for some kids to try out freeride and pursue it competitively.”

SPORTS

16 April 21 - May 4, 2022

LPHS SPRING SPORTS SCHEDULES TENNIS Day

Date

Explore Big Sky

GOLF Day

Date

Golf Location

Start

SAT.

APR. 2

BIG TIMBER (VARSITY)

10:00 AM

TUES.

APR. 5

BIG TIMBER (JV)

2:00 PM

WED.

APR. 6

TOWNSEND (VARSITY)

9:30 AM

WED.

APR. 13

TOWNSEND (JV)

1:00 PM

THURS. APR. 14

GARDINER TOURNAMENT @ LIVINGSTON (VARSITY)

10:00 AM

TUES.

APR. 19

MC INVITE @ COTTONWOOD (VARSITY)

9:00 AM

WED.

APR. 20

GARDINER TOURNAMENT @ LIVINGSTON (JV)

10:00 AM

Tennis Location

Start

THURS. MAR. 31

TOWNSEND TRIANGULAR

10:00 AM

MON.

APR. 4

BELGRADE JV MEET

FRI.

APR. 8

CHOTEAU TOURNAMENT

TBD

SAT.

APR. 9

CHOTEAU TOURNAMENT

TBD

TUES.

APR. 26

THREE FORKS INVITE (JV)

12:00 PM

FRI.

APR. 29

DAWG BITE @TOWNSEND

TBD

FRI.

APR. 29

ENNIS TOURNAMENT (VARSITY)

9:00 AM

SAT.

APR. 30

DAWG BITE @TOWNSEND

TBD

THURS. MAY 5

THREE FORKS INVITE (VARSITY)

10:00 AM

FRI.

MAY 6

BEST OF THE WEST @ MISSOULA

TBD

SAT.

MAY 7

LONE PEAK INVITE (VARSITY) TBD

9:00 AM

SAT.

MAY 7

BEST OF THE WEST @ MISSOULA

TBD

TUES.

MAY 10

DIVISIONAL GOLF @ SHELBY

TBD

12:00 PM

*Weather permitting, Lone Peak may host triangular this season May 12-14 Divisional Tennis Belgrade May 20-21 State Tennis Bozeman

* Lone Peak tournament pending approval / weather dependent May. 20-21 State Golf @ Sidney TBD

TRACK & FIELD Day

Date

Track Location

Start

TUES.

APR. 5 APR. 9 APR. 15 APR. 23 MAY 3 MAY 7

FLORENCE / DARBY MEET @ CORVALLIS TOWNSEND MEET @ EAST HELENA @ LIVINGSTON MC TRACK MEET @ GALLATIN HIGH TOP 8 TRACK MEET @ ANACONDA STILLWATER TRACK MEET @ LAUREL

9:30 AM

SAT. FRI. SAT. TUES. SAT. May 14 District Track Meet Gallatin High

May 20-21 Divisional Track Meet Frenchtown

12:30 PM TBD 9:00 AM TBD TBD May 27-28 State Track Meet Great Falls

Big Sky Medical Center now offers general, OB/GYN, vascular, and basic fetal ultrasounds.

Call 406-995-6995 to schedule an appointment for your ultrasound needs.

334 Town Center Avenue, Big Sky, MT BigSkyMedicalCenter.com

123 Snowy Mountain Dr Big Sky, MT 59716 USA 406.995.3670 bigskybuild.com

Ice Dams? Water Leaks? Smoke Damage?

We’ve Got You Covered and We’ll Exceed Your Expectations robert.kerdasha@assuredpartners.com assuredpartners.com 406.640.0375

18 April 21 - May 4, 2022

SPORTS

Explore Big Sky

LOCAL ATHLETES TRAVEL TO TANZANIA FOR SOCCER SERVICE TRIP

Cameron Pecunies kicks the ball during a 2021 Lone Peak High School soccer game against the Laurel Locomotives. PHOTO BY DAVE PECUNIES

Those funds will buy the devices needed to help build and improve facilities, like the brick press that was recently purchased to fabricate earth bricks that will build the locker room.

BY GABRIELLE GASSER BIG SKY – At first glance, the towns of Arusha, Tanzania and Big Sky, Montana don’t seem to have much in common. However, upon closer inspection, a unifying thread connects these two vastly different communities: soccer.

“Our culture[s] are different, and I’m excited to learn about them,” Terry said. “But the culture in the game is the same around the world and that’s why the game is such a uniting factor for cultures and communities. Being able to go over there and find incredible common ground with the New Vision soccer players and coaches is going to be incredible.”

Local nonprofit Gallatin Futbol Foundation will take 18 local players to Arusha on a service trip this summer to run a soccer camp for local children, improve onsite facilities, provide training in partnership with the New Vision Sports Club, and, of course, play soccer. Among these 18 youths is Big Sky’s own Cameron Pecunies, who will join players from across Gallatin Valley, competitors and teammates alike, in this immersive experience.

Terry and his close friend and former assistant soccer coach, Nathan Rottier, conceived of the exchange in winter of 2019 and were unable to bring it to fruition until now because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rottier, who now lives in Arusha and runs a soccer academy, is co-project director with Terry.

New Vision Sports Club, a Youth With a Mission sports ministry, is dedicated to helping local boys develop into men through soccer as well as education, scholarships and job training.

As part of the soccer camp, Terry says, the kids will all play in a “Cow Tournament,” in which the winning team brings home a cow, called “pamoja” meaning together in Swahili.

All players and volunteers will take off on July 10 with most returning two and a half weeks later.

This brick press is the first big purchase for New Vision. It will be used to make earth bricks to build the locker room. PHOTO BY NATHAN ROTTIER

The aim of the trip is twofold: education and immersion in a collaborative experience that will benefit all parties.

near Arusha, where she hopes the kids will be able to visit while on the trip.

“The one thing that really unites our program with their program is fútbol, soccer,” he said.

She added that she hopes this trip will expand Cameron’s worldview.

Terry hopes that this experience will be just as beneficial for the Montana players as it is for the Tanzania children.

“We’re not going there to change culture, we’re there to experience culture,” said Hunter Terry, co-project director of the Montana Tanzania Exchange, in an April 15 interview.

Cameron, 15, has been playing soccer in Big Sky since his family moved here seven years ago. He has been in club soccer that entire time and recently joined the Lone Peak High School soccer team for his freshman season. He will be the sole Big Sky player joining the trip.

“[This trip is important] because we’re trying to raise money for these kids that don’t have as much as we do,” Cameron said.

“I thought it would be a really cool opportunity to go out of the country and learn about other places,” he said in a March 21 interview.

Ahead of their departure this summer, Cameron and the other participants are working hard to fundraise, reaching out to family, friends and local businesses for support. Terry called player efforts the “business rush campaign,” adding that the organization just finished with an auction and a raffle and is looking to secure a couple of grants as well.

His mother, Callie, said that her parents helped found Precious Children’s Home, an orphanage

As of April 15, Terry said the players had raised a little over half of the minimum goal of $90,000.

The best part of soccer, according to Cameron, is getting to play it outside with his friends, which he did a lot growing up in Big Sky. “I like to play with my friends and kick the ball and make the team effort to win games and have fun,” he said.

No matter where it’s played, the sport of soccer, or fútbol as it’s more commonly known, remains a unifier.

“They’re growing up, playing soccer, enjoying it playing and just having fun with it,” Cameron said.

“And that’s the same thing that we’re doing here.”

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21 April 21 - May 4, 2022

SPORTS

Explore Big Sky

BANKED SLALOM CELEBRATES SNOWBOARD COMMUNITY

‘LAP FOR THE LOST’ OPENS CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH, HONORS LOST LOVED ONES

BY BELLA BUTLER BIG SKY – Roughly 1.5 miles into the Beehive Basin Trail on April 17, a speaker thumped with the rhythm of punk rock as a snowboarder cruised down a handdug slalom course. After crossing the finish line, out of breath but smiling ear-to-ear, the rider looked to his friend and exclaimed, “That’s some best-day-ofthe-year s***!”

In its fourth year, the Beehive Basin Banked Slalom is as much community as it is event. Though a competition, the story of the grassroots race is better told through the hugs, tears and toasts than run times and podiums. Established by Big Sky local Kirby Grubaugh in 2018, Big Sky’s only banked slalom race celebrates snowboard culture, friendship and gratitude.

Grubaugh has also dedicated part of the event to discussing mental health and hopes the slalom can be a bright spot for those struggling.

It’s the kind of event that’s painted in sense of place; colored by familiar faces, locally treasured landscapes and of course, winter sport.

“I love snowboarding to my core,” Grubaugh said. “I love the community it creates, and there’s very much a lacking of that … snowboard-specific culture in Big Sky. And so I just saw an opportunity to create human connection and meet people and give people something to look forward to and a reason to get out of bed for a week in the spring and come out and have fun and hopefully meet people and create relationships there.”

For many, the popularizing event is an anchor in their winter season. As Grubaugh kicked off the race, he asked the crew of more than 50 riders to indicate how many Beehive Basin Banked Slaloms they’d attended.

Several riders were banked slalom veterans, proudly announcing their annual attendance.

Earlier that week, Grubaugh and a volunteer crew trekked out to the race location to carve the course.

Four days later, the course was complete with 18 berms and two double-rollers.

Fourth Annual

Beehive Basin Banked Slalom Men’s Winners: 1st: Johnny Duty 35.65 seconds 2nd: Josh Lucas 37.63 seconds 3rd: Elijah Singer 38.48 seconds 4th: Jack Guthrey 39.01 seconds 5th: Frazier Hilliard 39.11 seconds

Women’s Winners: 1st: Olivia Kesterson 41.59 seconds 2nd: Whitney Kulich 43.24 seconds 3rd: Hayley Gelze 44.05 seconds 4th: Cassie Goodnough 46.99 seconds 5th: Talia Balma 53.39 seconds Volunteer diggers: Luke Maleski, Brandon Gerome, Tyler Simpson, Mason Parsley, Elijah Singer, Lucas McLain, Shelby Stubblefield and Trey Turner

Zach Bailey rips a smooth toe-side turn with Beehive Basin Peak in the background. PHOTO BY KG CONTENT

On race day, each racer took two laps and was judged on their fastest lap. At the bottom of the course, Grubaugh’s wife, Olivia, and volunteer Mati Tressler kept times and cheered on riders as they slid between two ski poles that marked the finish line. Other spectators whooped and hollered from homemade snow chairs and cozy seats next to a fire.

Talia Balma, a Big Sky snowboarder, hiked out this year for her first slalom. She wasn’t originally planning on racing, but she said “peer pressure” pushed her into it, and she found herself in fifth place for the women.

“It’s just super awesome that we have this community and everyone worked so hard to put it on,” she said at the bottom of her second lap.

Zach Bailey rips a smooth toe-side turn with Beehive Basin Peak in the background. PHOTO BY KG CONTENT

Ellis Jannsen from Bozeman said it was the camaraderie that inspired him to return for a second year.

“I liked the non-competitive nature of it,” he said.

“Although it is timed and there are prizes, people are just here to have fun. It’s all about having a good time.”

Inspired by the Nate Chute Classic in Whitefish and the touring A-Rob’s Smash Life Banked Slalom, Grubaugh rallied the racers at the end of the event to participate in a “Lap for the Lost,” dedicated to a person of each rider’s choosing.

Following the path laid out by the Nate Chute Classic, which honors the life of a young snowboarder whom died by suicide, Grubaugh gathered the banked slalom community at the top of the course to talk candidly about mental health.

“We’ve all lost people to sickness, we’ve all lost people to suicide, and it sucks,” he said. “But we’re here to lift each other up, we’re here to be there for one another, we’re here to ask questions when somebody doesn’t look right. Be that friend and don’t be afraid to be that friend.”

Grubaugh dedicated his lap to his friend, Clay LaChance, who took his own life last year and invited other riders to make their dedication out loud. Out of the sea of helmets and snowboard noses, people began to speak up one by one, sharing stories of lost friends and family.

It’s on everyone as friends to be responsible for each other’s wellness, Grubaugh said, but it’s also on everyone as individuals to be responsible for themselves. Find the things you love, he said to the crowd. Maybe snowboarding is one of them.

“Whatever it is that makes you stoked,” he said, “do more of it, because it may be what’s keeping you alive.”

Grubaugh read aloud lyrics to “Bro Hymn,” by Pennywise, about those lost and the preciousness of life and friendship.

“Let’s rip to that song,” Grubaugh said.

Jack Guthrie chooses to jump the first two rollers rather than pump them. His decision paid off as he clinched fourth place for the men.

PHOTO BY KG CONTENT

22 April 21 - May 4, 2022

Explore Big Sky

OP NEWS

WINTER SEASON PHOTO CONTEST EBS STAFF

To commemorate the winter season, EBS hosted a photo contest. We received more than 60 amazing shots from 44 participants, but a few stood out. Enjoy these last looks at the season through the eyes of our readers.

FIRST PLACE: KG CONTENT

Our first place photo was taken by Kirby Grubaugh on Feb. 7. The photo depicts a snowboarder launching off a jump with glittering snow suspended in the foreground.

Grubaugh built the jump with Rhett Leuzinger and waited a whole month before enough snow had fallen for safe use.

SECOND PLACE: RICHARD HAYES

THIRD PLACE: RYAN CIGLER

Richard Hayes took this beautiful photo of a snowcat on Andesite Mountain while working a graveyard shift. The composition of the moon, Lone Mountain and the snowcat makes for a stunning Winter Solstice capture this past December.

Fiona makes the final ascent of her ski tour with photographer Ryan Cigler as the sun starts its evening retreat. Little did Cigler know that Fiona had packed a full charcuterie spread that the pair enjoyed before dropping in, chasing the setting sun.

From the photographer: “The person in the photo is Al “Daddy” Syverson who has one of my favorite methods in the game, which is the grab performed in this photo. Al is the head terrain park groomer at Big Sky Resort and spends a lot of time enjoying the fruits of his labor…and it shows!”

23 April 21 - May 4, 2022

O P N E WS

Explore Big Sky

HONORABLE MENTIONS

PHOTO BY ETHAN SCHUMACHER

PHOTO BY JAMES SANFORD

PHOTO BY CAITLIN TAMPOSI

PHOTO BY KRISTEN BYKOWSKI

PHOTO BY IAN MAXWELL STOSICH

PHOTO BY ELIZABETH GARCIA

PHOTO BY MARGARET-ANNE KING

24 April 21 - May 4, 2022

ENVIRONMENT O P I N I O &NOUTDOORS

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25 April 21 - May 4, 2022

Explore Big Sky

ENVIRONMENT

DROUGHT CONDITIONS BODE ILL FOR FIRE SEASON

BY GABRIELLE GASSER BIG SKY – Much of the western U.S. and southwestern Montana have been experiencing moderate to extreme drought conditions this winter, and the outlook for southwestern Montana remains dry. Though conditions can change with the seasons, experts suggest current climate predictions could lead to another bad fire season.

Natural Resources Conservation Service data reveals that the snow water equivalent, or amount of liquid water contained in the snowpack, for the Gallatin Basin is at approximately 74 percent of median as of April 1. Such drought gives way to dryer fuels, a recipe for the same smoky skies Montanans may recall from last fire season.

According to NRCS Hydrologist Eric Larson, early precipitation in southwest Montana was at first promising.

Precipitation measured at the Black Bear SNOTEL site near Yellowstone National Park set a record for December.

According to Larson, however, unseasonably warm temperatures and a lack of precipitation since mid-January have contributed to the record lows that many SNOTEL sites across southwestern Montana have recorded between Jan. 8 and April 1.

Lingering effects from last year’s drought are having cumulative impact, as well.

Coming off an exceptionally dry 2021, Larson predicts much of the moisture the region does currently have will be absorbed by dry soil.

“Consecutive dry years in a row are definitely not beneficial,” Larson said in an April 11 interview.

Current streamflow forecasts issued on April 1 by the NRCS predict the Gallatin River near Gallatin Gateway will be at 75 percent of normal flows from April to July. The National Oceanic and

The snow water equivalent, or amount of liquid water contained in the snowpack, for the Gallatin Basin sits at 74 percent of median as of April 1. GRAPHIC COURTESY OF NRCS

Atmospheric Administration released its Spring Outlook on March 17, predicting prolonged and persistent drought in the West with below-average precipitation likely. The report also forecasts aboveaverage temperatures for most of the U.S. in the next three months.

What does this mean for fire season?

The current National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook, published by the National Interagency Coordination Center, shows that Montana is forecast to have a normal wildland fire potential until July when

that rises to above normal for much ofthe state.

Dustin Tetrault, but that time frame is now expanding.

At this stage, much of the region’s fate rests in early season precipitation.

“When you look at snowpack as a whole, the big thing how it affects fire is that as soon as that snowpack comes off, now all that fuel starts drying,” Tetrault said in an April 1 interview.

According to Caleb Schreiber, West Zone fire management officer with the U.S. Forest Service, the moisture that southwestern Montana receives in June will be a big determining factor for the 2022 fire season.

Last year is a good model: Schreiber recalled the region had a normal spring snowpack, high temperatures and no moisture, which he said set off the big fire season in Montana last year.

“If we have [a] big, wet June then that will help us out a lot,” Schreiber said in an April 1 interview. “If we have another really dry, warm June that will tip the scales considerably.”

NRCS data predicts that the Gallatin River near Gallatin Gateway will be at 75 percent of normal flows from April to July.

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF NRCS

He emphasized that weather is difficult to predict longterm and while current climate predictions call for a warmer and drier summer, that can change quickly. He noted current La Niña weather predictions have brought cooler and wetter conditions to northwestern Montana, but the climate pattern’s effects on southwestern Montana were not as predicted. Fire season typically spans August and September, according to Big Sky Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief

As spring melting happens sooner due to a lower snowpack among other factors, fuels, such as grasses, trees and shrubs, dry out quicker, making fire more likely earlier in the season.

Fuel moisture is just one of the many variables that firefighters must monitor during fire season and, according to Tetrault, his crew are seeing fuel moistures a month ahead of usual.

“It really doesn’t matter what time of year it is that we’re seeing sustained fire just because fuel moistures are a lot lower throughout the year now than what they have been in years past just from the sustained drought and small increase in temperatures and things like that,” Tetrault said.

Tetrault said he and his crew will be watching fuel moistures in addition to a wide variety of other factors headed into the summer including wind, humidity and temperature.

In the meantime, the more moisture southwestern Montana can accumulate, the better.

“I just really hope that we do get more precipitation,” Larson said. “I don’t think we’ll fully be able to recover at this point, but any precipitation is welcomed, and any recovery is better than none.”

26 April 21 - May 4, 2022

ENVIRONMENT

Explore Big Sky

LOCAL AVALANCHE CENTER REVIEWS STATS FROM LOW-SNOW SEASON

BY DOUG CHABOT GALLATIN NATIONAL FOREST AVALANCHE CENTER

We just ended our 32nd year of operation. It was a low-snow year with snowpack totals 70-80 percent of normal. The first snow fell on Oct. 11, and our first recorded avalanche was on Nov. 7 when a skier was caught in a loose snow slide in the Bridger Range.

During the season we issued 12 early season bulletins before the start of our daily forecasts on Dec. 12. We ended with our 122nd and last forecast on April 10.

The Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center team of four full-time avalanche specialists remained the same, with me, Alex Marienthal, Dave Zinn and Ian Hoyer getting in the field, writing forecasts and teaching. This season Hannah Marshall was our intern and she was able to get out with us on many days.

We spent most of the year patiently waiting for the monster snowstorm that never came. Weeks without snow created faceted, weak snow at the surface that would get buried an inch or 2 at a time. As forecasters, we were challenged to not sound like a broken record in our forecasts and videos: “Once it snows…” we would say over and over again. Even with low snow amounts, there were weak layers buried and dangerous, especially on the heels of a snowstorm.

Tragically there were three avalanche accidents that killed four motorized users: three in Cooke City and one in Lionhead. Nationwide there have been 15 avalanche deaths (five ski/snowboard, six motorized, three snowshoers).

The Friends of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center and the GNFAC worked together to teach avalanche classes. We ran field classes and lectured both in person and online. In total we offered

80 classes to 3,349 people, including 403 kids under 18 and 330 snowmobilers.

GNFAC INDEX • Total number of people getting our daily forecast: 6,736 • Number of field days: 117 -Area with the most field days: Cooke City with 29 -Number of snow pits we recorded in SnowPilot.org: 169 • Snowmobile damage: 2 shocks, 1 tie rod, 1 handlebar, 2 a-arms and 1 actual arm (Dave’s dislocated shoulder).

• Sled miles ridden in Cooke City and the rest of the forecast area: 600 and 1,200 • Best quote of the season: “I’m pretty sure it will work fine,” my partner said as he showed me his cracked beacon that opened like a clamshell.

-His plan: tape it back together and call it good.

-Chances of doing his plan: 0 percent • Reported avalanche incidents (aka close-calls): 29 • Total caught, partially buried and injured: 9, 1 and 2 • The most avalanches recorded in a single day this season: 8 on Feb. 6 • Number of videos and total views: 127 and 1,388,347 views • Total number of minutes/days watched on YouTube: 589,926 minutes/410 days • Total followers on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter: 19,700; 16,073; 7000; and 2,311.

-Percentage increase from last year: 18 percent The GNFAC relies on many individuals and community partnerships to operate. The FGNFAC along with a grant from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks help fund our education program and

operations with 50 percent of our total budget.

Later this spring, we will send out a detailed annual report outlining all our programs, budget and community support.

Enjoy the spring and summer. We will be back in October to get ready for a long overdue storm-packed winter!

Doug Chabot is the director of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center.

Avalanche Season Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center by the numbers

29 9 1 2 4 8 (FEB. 6)

Avalanche incidents Total caught Partially buried Injured Fatalities Most avalanches recorded in one day

PHOTO AND DATA COURTESY OF GNFAC

CARPOOLING PROGRAM SAVES MILLIONS OF POUNDS OF CO2

BY GABRIELLE GASSER BIG SKY – A month-long carpooling incentive program for commuters driving from the Gallatin Valley to Big Sky saved millions of pounds of carbon dioxide emissions in the month of March.

The Big Sky One Less Car program, offered through local organizations the Big Sky Sustainability Network Organization and GoGallatin, was a pilot effort to reduce the number of cars driving the Gallatin Canyon on a daily basis. The program, funded by a Yellowstone Club Community Foundation grant, offered $15 gift cards to commuters who carpooled at least four times in March and logged their trips.

According to Lizzie Peyton, community engagement director of SNO, the goal is to start a year-long continuous incentive program based on the success of the pilot in March. SNO applied for a grant to support the new program and will continue working with GoGallatin to reduce single-occupancy vehicles in the canyon.

“Overall, SNO and GoGallatin are thrilled at the success of the Big Sky One Less Car commuter incentive program this March,” Peyton wrote in an email to EBS. “With over 70 individual commuters signing up for the SNO network, and 46 logging 4 trips to redeem $15 gift cards, we feel strongly that this program has vast growth potential to reduce carbon emissions and transit costs while growing a sense of community.”

View the graphic to see the program by the numbers.

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28 April 21 - May 4, 2022

Explore Big Sky

BUSINESS MAKING IT IN BIG SKY: CRYSTAL IMAGES

BY SARAH GIANELLI Janice and Marshall Tate, co-owners of Crystal Images Professional Photography, started managing the business for its original owners in 1982, just a year after moving to Big Sky to work at the resort.

They bought the business outright in 1990. As the official photography company for Big Sky Resort and centrally located in the Mountain Mall, the Tates and their staff of photographers and videographers are pros at capturing outdoor adventure shots, whether slope-side, whitewater rafting, or cruising across the sky on a zipline.

“

A We love the wild nature right outside and the fact that we can click into skis or hiking boots. and go as far as we care to go, right from our front door.

”

–Janice Tate, co-owner, Crystal Images Professional Photography

This series is part of a paid partnership with the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce. The following answers have been edited for brevity.

EBS: What are the biggest obstacles to operating a small business in Big Sky? J.T.: For many years, the biggest obstacle was finding good people to work with us. There was no permanent population and we often had to bring people in from Bozeman or even further away.

Now, Big Sky is an easier and better place to live and it’s easier to find people who want to stay and learn our business and participate in a more yearround way.

EBS: How has the business landscape changed since you started out?

J.T.: When we first started out, all the cameras were film cameras and we processed the film by

EBS: Why do you think some new businesses fold relatively quickly?

J.T.: We believe [it’s because] they fail to anticipate the slow business environment that occurs during the fall and spring off-seasons. It is challenging to keep the doors open and people employed when the tourist traffic slows down.

EBS: What advice would you give to small business owners just starting out in Big Sky? J.T.: Incorporate housing into your employee inducements package. Not being able to find a place to live, or being forced to live in an unpleasant situation is incredibly de-moralizing for an employee. Our company was fortunate to be able to obtain housing for our employees early in the game.

As part of this ongoing series, Janice Tate shared her thoughts with EBS on the reasoning behind their success and longevity as a Big Sky small business.

Explore Big Sky: What has been the key to your success?

Janice Tate: Excellent customer service. We make an extra effort to learn about our customers, their names, where they are from. We ask them about their visit and try to help them with any questions or problems they may be having. We have clients that have been coming to us for so many years that we are now photographing the third generation of skiers in their family.

Snow Sports National Competition that was held at Big Sky several years ago. Several of the racers went on to compete in the Paralympic Games. We were honored to be able to help them by providing photos for their families, websites and sponsors.

Janice Tate (center) opened Crystal Images Professional Photography with her husband Marshall Tate 36 years ago. As the official photographers of Big Sky Resort, the Tates and their staff are pros at capturing year-round outdoor adventure shots. PHOTO COURTESY OF CRYSTAL IMAGES

hand in a dip-n-dunk lab … This was expensive and time consuming to say the least. As digital photography became better and better, we changed over to digital cameras and computers to show our photos. Although the cost of digital equipment still keeps our costs high, we are able to provide quicker turn-around, and more photos for the money.

EBS: What is it about Big Sky that compels you to stick it out through the hard times?

J.T.: We love the wild nature right outside and the fact that we can click into skis or hiking boots and go as far as we care to go, right from our front door.

EBS: What is one of the most memorable moments you have had as a Big Sky resident and/or business owner?

J.T.: One of the most memorable photographic experiences for our company was the Adaptive

EBS: What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve received?

J.T.: To invest in quality people and give them the opportunities and encouragement to bring their own style to the business.

EBS: Where do you see your business in 10 years?

J.T.: We are excited to see what the next decade will bring for our business. Digital photography has allowed us to experiment and learn new ways of providing great family portraits and outdoor action photos for our customers. Computer technology has allowed us to deliver the photos in creative and fun ways so that the customer can put the photos to use right away in their social media, albums, and sharing with family and friends. To really do our business right requires attention to detail—really caring about product quality, and our customers and their experiences before, during, and after their trip.

We try to be sure that our company contributes greatly to the quality of our guests’ vacations and we hope to continue being an asset to the Resort for decades to come.

This article was originally published in January of 2018.

BUSINESS

29 April 21 - May 4, 2022

Explore Big Sky

ENJOYING THE RIDE: SPRING CLEANING FOR YOUR FINANCES

BY SCOTT BROWN SPONSORED CONTENT

As I write this article on April 18, 2022, which happens to be both Easter Monday and Tax Day, I’m reminded how much we have to be grateful for and yet at the same time how busy and complex our lives seem to be. I can envision many of us enjoying the holiday weekend with family and friends while at the same time scurrying to finish filing our taxes at the last minute.

With that visual in mind, I thought we could discuss the potential benefits of “cleaning up” or consolidating many of your personal finance accounts and services. One way to accomplish this is to use an account aggregator (AA).

AA’s help individuals securely and digitally access and share information from one financial institution where they have an account with another regulated financial institution on the AA’s network. This would include banks accounts, loan information, credit cards, investment accounts, 401(k) accounts,

etc., all consolidated in a single platform to provide a holistic perspective on personal finances.

Some things to consider when choosing an AA would include breadth of data and connections (how many institutions they have on their AA platform), ease of use (do they have an app and is it user friendly for you to enter your pertinent account information), data cleanliness and accuracy (how quickly and how often will the AA refresh your balances, transaction history, etc.). Many of these services allow you to pull up your net worth and cash flow statements simply by signing on to the AA’s website or app.

Other ways to “clean up” or consolidate the management of your personal finances include limiting the number of credit cards you have, banks you use, investment companies and/or financial advisors you work with. Keep in mind, there are many reputable financial institutions that offer one-stop shopping for those services and many additional products and services. In fact, as your wealth grows, you may receive real financial benefits by consolidating your finances with one or just a few reputable companies.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly okay to have relationships with multiple finance institutions.

With that said, be sure to introduce all your centers of influence to include but not be limited to: your attorneys, accountants, wealth management advisors, etc. so that they have a strong working relationship and work as a team to look out for your best interest.

Always remember, the less time you spend managing all aspects of your personal finances the more time you’ll have to Enjoy the Ride!

Investment products and services are offered through Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC (WFAFN), Member SIPC. Shore to Summit Wealth Management is a separate entity from WFAFN. The opinions expressed here reflect the judgment of the author as of the date of the report and are subject to change without notice. The material has been prepared or is distributed solely for information purposes and is not a solicitation or an offer to buy any security or instrument or to participate in any trading strategy.

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31 April 21 - May 4, 2022

Explore Big Sky

A&E ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

SATSANG’S DREW MCMANUS CLIMBS FROM ROCK BOTTOM TO SACRED SONG

BY BRIAN D’AMBROSIO EBS CONTRIBUTOR BIG TIMBER – Music put Drew McManus on the threshold of a changed life. Montana secured him there.

Founder of the spiritual roots group Satsang, McManus once plummeted hard and deep into the dark pits of substance abuse. Luckily, he was able to discover those things that would help redirect his life from blight to bright.

“Music was my way of kind of reconnecting with myself,” McManus told EBS during a phone interview he took from his vehicle in early April. “It was my way of figuring out who I was and who I wanted to be. Montana gave me enough space to do that.”

A native of Billings, McManus’ mother’s family ran cattle near Roundup, and his biological father was a preacher. Although he grew up in the Midwest, primarily Iowa and later Illinois, he spent clusters of his youthful summers in Montana.

But McManus’ childhood was a far cry from a fairytale. McManus described his stepfather as an abusive tyrant who made the family’s domestic life insufferable.

He sold drugs for a living, a career which took him to all sorts of seedy, dangerous spots. He siphoned drugs for his own use and drank prodigiously.

“The stepfather who raised me was pretty abusive,” McManus said. “He’d kick the s*** out of me and my brother every day. We didn’t grow up in the best neighborhoods. We grew up having to deal with violence inside the house and outside the house, pretty much everywhere; Violence was a big part of our growing up. My brother ended up in prison for a little bit. I managed to stay out of jail.”

While in junior high school, McManus took to skateboarding and stuck with it for many years. Skateboarding introduced him to the rabid sounds of Los Angeles punkers Bad Religion and other left-wing punk activists such as Anti-Flag and Black Fag.

“I enjoyed the social commentary and anything outside of the mainstream,” he said. “I’d look at the back of the VHS and see what the name of the song was and go buy those records.”

Between ages 15 and 24, McManus said he abused alcohol virtually every single day. After intentionally slicing his wrist one night while supremely drunk, he entered treatment, but soon relapsed.

Shortly thereafter, he traveled with a friend to Nepal and stayed there for about five weeks. Getting to the country was “a long, crazy haul,” he said, but the Himalayas would in time fill him with a clarifying perspective, one that blessed his life with true believing and sanctified his darkest hours.

“Nepal planted the seeds of a future in music,” McManus said. “Those big, long trails make it a full day’s walk from village to village. And each village has a monastery and a little tea house, and so that’s what your day consists of, walking, thinking the whole time, sifting through your s***. It just healed me. Like Montana, it provides that quiet and that space to reflect. And I think if you’re a good thinker, you start asking good questions. You know, like, what kind of man do I want to be? What kind of legacy do I want to leave? What do I want to be remembered for?”

Around that time McManus said he decided he didn’t want to be remembered as some kid “that blew his potential” and miserably squandered his life away. A big part of the redemptive journey, he returned to Montana about 12 years ago.

“I always knew that I wanted to be back in Montana,” he said. “I moved out and followed a girl to Red Lodge and we’ve been married for 11 years. We’ve got a gaggle of kids.”

Journals from his trip to Nepal framed the songs that consisted of Satsang’s 2016 debut, “The Story of You,” in which McManus addresses the lonelier, wearier and more restless elements of the human experience. From the onset, he’s crosspollinated his rural roots and extreme

McManus’ band, Satsang, performs at Live From the Divide in Bozeman on April 21. PHOTO BY GREYSON CHRISTIAN PLATE

childhood with the glory of meditation and raw gusto of the landscape.

Montana has provided more than just a beautiful twilight, a beautiful goal and a beautiful rest; It’s added a visible, heartfelt sheen to his music that is wonderful and positive. Similar to the profound experience he felt in Nepal, Montana lined McManus’ spirit with gold.

Sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, he rolls the essence of life, death and that vast forever of home into one grand, spiritual ride.

“The first song, ‘From And I Go’, I sat down and wrote on a rock in the middle of the Stillwater River, loving the openness, and aiming to make it visual,” he said. “I see the Beartooths and tie my music to the places that I spend my time, so that’s such a huge thing for me…There is a stoicism here that’s kind of lost on modern culture and I kind of try to be a delegate and a representative of that with my art. Montana is just such a unicorn of a place to so many people, it’s just steeped in so much mysticism … people are so blown away that it’s even a real place.”

One sure thing that living in Montana has taught McManus is vulnerability, a

humbling aspect of existence here in Montana that has greatly informed his songwriting. For example, at a period when McManus felt the most desolate and lonely, his life overwhelmed by the constant struggle of taming addiction, he scribbled a few lines of self-reflection which he later titled, “I Am.” “In the beginning, ‘I Am’ felt like an overshare,” McManus said. “But that’s how most people find our music is from that song. It’s been a huge lesson for me: The more vulnerable the song, the more people seem to cling to it.”

Satsang’s hymn is immersed in the sacred strumming of inner self; Everything dynamic about their live music is predicated on being in readiness. Drawing from this crossroad of forces, McManus said he intends to make each new performance a critique on the last.

“Live is where the magic happens,” he said. “That’s what keeps me eternally tied to this craft. It’s somewhere between here and heaven. And we get to hang out in there for a while.”

Satsang performs at Live From the Divide April 21.

A&E

32 April 21 - May 4, 2022

Explore Big Sky

BIG SKY EVENTS CALENDAR Thursday, April 21 – Wednesday, May 4

If your event falls between May 5-May 18, please submit it by April 27 by emailing media@outlaw.partners.

THURSDAY, APRIL 21

Film: “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” The Independent, 7 p.m.

SUNDAY, APRIL 24 Winter Closing Day

Big Sky Resort, 9 a.m.

MONDAY, APRIL 25

Live Music: The Damn Duo

Montana Mondays: “A River Runs Through It” with tasting by Wildrye Distillery plus fly casting lessons by Gallatin River Guides

Tips Up, 9 p.m.

FRIDAY, APRIL 22

The Independent, 5:30 p.m.

L&L Site Services Earth Day Recycling Event

L&L Site Services Inc. 10 a.m.

TUESDAY, APRIL 26 Bingo Night

Powder Seeker Spring Series

Riverhouse BBQ & Events, 5:30 p.m.

Powder Seeker 6 Base, 11 a.m.

Water for the Earth: music, speakers and silent auction The Emerson Center for Arts & Culture, 6 p.m.

Craig Hall Trio Jazz Night

Film: “Mavericks”

The Independent, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY, APRIL 28

Live Music: Gilda House Tips Up, 9 p.m.

Big Sky Serenity Seekers Al-Anon meeting All Saints Chapel, 4 p.m.

SATURDAY, APRIL 23

“Go with the Flow – a Run for Water” 5K Gallatin County Regional Park, 9 a.m.

Gallatin Valley Earth Day Festival

Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture, 10 a.m.

Powder Seeker Spring Series

Powder Seeker 6 Base, 11 a.m.

Live Music: Love Darts Tips Up, 9 p.m.

Big Sky Christian Fellowship Big Sky Chapel, 4:30 p.m.

MONDAY, MAY 2 Live Music: Tycho The Elm, 7 p.m.

TUESDAY, MAY 3 Open Mic Night Tips Up, 9 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 4 Trivia Night

The Independent, 7 p.m.

Film: “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” The Independent, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY, APRIL 29

Montana Mondays: “A River Runs Through It” with tasting by Wildrye Distillery plus fly casting lessons by Gallatin River Guides The Independent is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the film “A River Runs Through It” for its Montana Monday's event on Monday, April 25. There will be a tasting provided by Wildrye Distillery before the showing of the classic film along with fly casting lessons taught by Gallatin River Guides. The tasting and casting will begin at 5:30 p.m.

Craig Hall Trio Jazz Night The Independent, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY, APRIL 30

Live Music: The Vibe Quartet with Lauren Plant The Independent, 9 p.m.

Big Sky Chapel, 10 a.m.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27 FEATURED EVENT: Trivia Night The Independent, 7 p.m.

The Independent, 8 p.m.

All Saints in Big Sky

Live Music: The Hu The Elm, 7 p.m.

SUNDAY, MAY 1 St. Joseph’s Mass

Big Sky Chapel, 8 a.m.

Do You or Someone You Know Need Help Getting Sober?

Contact A.A. - We’re alcoholics helping other alcoholics stay sober.

Call 1-833-800-8553 to talk to an A.A. member or Get the Meeting Guide app or Go to aa-montana.org for virtual and face-to-face meeting times and locations

33 April 21 - May 4, 2022

SKI TIPS

Explore Big Sky

OPINION

SALUTE TO WINTER OF 2022

BY DAN EGAN EBS COLUMNIST

Spring is the time of year when you can hear the mountains exhale, see the trees embrace the sun and the longer days beckoning us to play outside longer.

The warm wind always makes me ponder the inspiration discovered during the passing winter.

I found encouragement in the season starting in full swing with normal lift lines, full chairlifts and no masks—normal things calm me down. Seeing full faces always makes for a brighter day. Skiers and riders are nicer too this time of year. Unencumbered by thick coats, neck gaiters and mittens, smiles last longer, conversation flows freer and groups seem to linger longer passing the time gazing at the views.

At the beginning of the new year I really grappled with saying 2022. I kept thinking, “How is it that it became 2022?” After all, it seems like yesterday I was freaked out over Y2K. Then 02/02/22 came upon us in February and somehow that made me see the symmetry in getting older.

Ryan Cochran–Siegle inspired me this year by winning a silver medal in the Super-G at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. A month before the games I asked him on my podcast “Designed by Tradition” on Spotify if he was a “ski racer” or a “skier.” He answered, “skier.”

Learning to ski at his family’s resort appropriately named Cochran’s Ski Area and founded by his grandparents, this little community resort in Vermont has been punching above its weight for a few decades. Ten family members have made it to the world cup circuit and six have been Olympians.

His mother, Barbara Ann, won gold at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics in Japan.

Adding it all up, the “skier” discovered the natural line, while the best “ski racers” in the world struggled. No one skied the mid-section of the Super-G like Cochran-Siegle and he was rewarded with America’s only Alpine Skiing Olympic medal for 2022. And, just for perspective, he was 8 years old at the turn of the century while I was fretting over Y2K. Have you seen the documentary “Dear Rider: The Jake Burton Story?" If not, make a point to watch it. I love this film. It really brings forward Burton, who gave birth to the snowboarding industry.

The movie helped me understand the culture of snowboarding and the enduring freedom that is associated with it. It also brings to light just how young a sport snowboarding still is and how far the sport has come in just a few decades.

The film also made me appreciate Shaun White, whose career has spanned five Olympics and impacted multiple generations. His journey from a young teenager to the highest-paid athlete at the Olympics is fascinating. The movie brings to life how Burton looked up to not just him but the likes

Dan Egan finds inspiration during his annual camp in Laax, Switzerland. PHOTO COURTESY OF DEGAN MEDIA

of the legendary rider Craig Kelly, Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clarke and others.

The North Summit Snowfield on Lone Mountain provided some wonderful days here in the late season. It's truly one of the most special runs in North America and a crown jewel of skiing here in Big Sky. It also, as we know, is a dangerous place.

The tragic passing of our own Chandler Pelletier from my home state of New Hampshire shook us all hard and serves as a reminder that all things precious are fragile and we all ride a fine line between life and death.

His loss makes me hug the ones I love a little longer and pray for those I don’t see often a little more. We are a mountain community, adventurous, transient, seasonal, and resilient. We mourn as one, we celebrate with many and embrace triumph and tragedy annually. I am going to use his passing to mend fences and meet strangers. What will you do?

This time of year, skiing the right aspects of the slopes matters. It requires more awareness and timing. It is a riddle of sorts, frozen chicken heads at its worst and velvet at its best. It is also invigorating. A slow start to the day can mean a magical late afternoon ending.

I’m heading off to Val d’Isére, France to extend the season for a few more weeks and ponder a bit more.

No doubt I’ll be taking these memories with me, to anchor me until winter starts again. I’ll fire back up in August with my annual pilgrimage to South America which bridges the gap to November when the days turn shorter, temps drop and snow flurries mark the start of another season.

Dan Egan pauses on the Headwaters ridge at Big Sky Resort during one of his steep camps this past March. PHOTO COURTESY OF DEGAN MEDIA

Extreme skiing pioneer Dan Egan coaches and teaches at Big Sky Resort during the winter. His newest book, “Thirty Years in a White Haze,” was released in March 2021 and is available at White-Haze.com. Visit DanEgan.com to preorder “All Terrain Vol. II.”

Want your piece of the 406 this winter?

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OPINION

35 April 21 - May 4, 2022

Explore Big Sky

THE NEW WEST:

JOHN MACLEAN’S MEMOIR GOES DEEP BEHIND ‘A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT’

BY TODD WILKINSON EBS COLUMNIST

It has been said and written that “A River Runs Through It,” the motion picture, changed everything in western Montana along with rivers in the Rockies found between New Mexico and Canada.

Robert Redford’s movie, based on the 1976 novella by Norman Maclean is, looking back now, portrayed as a big bang moment which hastened not only the adoption of fly fishing by millions as an outdoor passion, but also the sale and transformation of former working ranches with water on site into recreation properties.

I don’t need to wax on about how important the “fly-fishing economy” is to the larger Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, home to several nearmythic rivers known for their trout water.

Years before I ever touched a copy of “A River Runs Through It,” I was familiar with the writing of a different Maclean other than Norman. By then, Norman was an English professor at the University of Chicago, a city where I started my career as a violent crime reporter. At the time it was his son, John Maclean, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist for the Chicago Tribune whose byline I read regularly.

One reason: John, more than a generation older, was an alum of the same journalistic training ground as me: the City News Bureau of Chicago.

Only after I moved West to the Greater Yellowstone region, did I pick up a copy of Norman Maclean’s classic reflection about an anglingobsessed family who loved rivers with an almost religious zeal and whose drama is punctuated by the loss of Norman’s younger brother, Paul.

For years, I’ve been fascinated with how Paul’s end really happened in 1938 because both Norman Maclean and Redford treat it with a cloak of mystery.

Without giving too much away—you really ought to read “Home Waters”—John Maclean reveals that Paul was murdered in Chicago shortly after he started a job in the public relations department at the University of Chicago. Paul had earlier been a young journalist in Montana.

What I savor about the writing related to Paul’s end is its classic digging for facts and presenting them with the narrative method that both John Maclean and I were taught at City News Bureau of Chicago—itself known for being a training ground for young cub reporters.

John would go on to distinguish himself for his international reporting as a diplomatic correspondent, even traveling with Henry Kissinger.

During those years, he, just like his dad before him, made summer trips back to the family cabin at Seeley Lake, Montana.

And, just as Norman had written about wildfire, memorializing the smokejumpers who perished in the Mann Gulch fire outside Helena, John penned a riveting award-winning book, “Fire on the Mountain,” about the tragic Storm King Fire that claimed the lives of 14 firefighters in Colorado in July of 1994.

In “A River Runs Through It,” the Maclean family grieves the loss of Paul, and it is presented as a kind of meditation on the ephemeral, often fickle nature of life and that we peer back through time looking as much for what we want to see as blurring things that give us pain. In the Maclean family, fly fishing was both a source of memory and balm.

The circumstances of Paul’s homicide left me thinking of how a good reporter is continually searching, fueled by curiosity, led on by discoveries of detail and accumulated insight—the exact same way an angler appreciates the allure of rivers and instinctively knows how to read them.

After Paul died in a Chicago hospital following a severe beating, the Cook County Medical examiner interviewed Norman, John Maclean writes. “My father speculated that Paul had gone wandering through the neighborhood that night, as he had done as a reporter back in Montana, simply to acquaint himself with his surroundings.”

John quoted the actual report in which his father, who had to identify the body, had been interviewed by the coroner. “‘He liked to walk around in odd sections of the city,’ Norman responded to a coroner’s inquest. ‘He was a newspaper reporter by trade, and he was from a small town. He liked to walk around, just to see the town … I had warned him that this was not Montana.’”

Sometimes real-life stories, memoirs that explore classic earlier memoirs, are as fine as the original.

In many ways, they are exceeded. This is the case.

Great work, John Maclean. You started as a cub reporter but you became the kind of writer we all aspire to become. You did your dad proud.

Todd Wilkinson is the founder of Bozemanbased Mountain Journal and a correspondent for National Geographic. He authored the book “Grizzlies of Pilgrim Creek,” featuring photography by famed wildlife photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen, about Grizzly Bear 399.

This column originally appeared in the July 16, 2021 edition of Explore Big Sky.

I wrote about Redford’s filming of the movie around Bozeman and Livingston in the early 1990s and interviewed him.

In both versions, Paul has a penchant for drinking, playing cards and consorting with shady figures, then is murdered. This summer we’re treated to a new book by John Maclean that is a reflection on his father and uncle, the river—the Blackfoot—that he made famous and, interestingly, what really happened to Paul.

John Maclean’s memoir: “Home Waters: A Chronicle of Family and a River” is a fine read, for it serves as backstory to a slightly embellished tale that romanticized fly fishing so much, it created a shock wave of interest. That has, as an upside, helped bolster calls for river conservation though, as a downside, the resulting feeding frenzy has also spurred more commercialization of angling and spawned user conflicts.

(As a kind of parable, it sparks the question of whether, in a social media age, we should even be writing about the special places we love, knowing that it risks inviting lots of people to overrun natural destinations that can’t handle much human pressure. But that’s another topic).

John Maclean’s new memoir, “Home Waters” looks deeply into his father Norman’s iconic novella, “A River Runs Through It.” PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN MACLEAN

Paul MacLean, John’s uncle, in his 20s. PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN MACLEAN

36 April 21 - May 4, 2022

OPINION

Explore Big Sky

AFFORDABLE HOUSING SHOULDN’T HAVE TO TAKE A MIRACLE

BY BENJAMIN WADDELL WRITERS ON THE RANGE

Residents of the Westside Mobile Home Park in Durango in southern Colorado called it a miracle: They are under contract to buy the land their homes sit on, their rent will not go up and they proved that the housing cooperative they’d founded had staying power.

Westside’s fate was hardly a given. The New Yorkbased owner, Neal Kurzner, rejected their first offer, saying he had a corporate buyer who owned many trailer parks and was ready to pay $5.5 million in cash. He gave the community just seven days to come up with a cash offer.

“We knew what was at risk,” resident Darcy Diaz told me. “But how do you raise $5.5 million?”

Diaz, who grew up in Colombia and moved to Westside in 2018, knew their only hope was to organize. With a group of other determined residents, Diaz helped start the Westside Mobile Home Park Cooperative.

It launched a GoFundMe account, opened a Facebook page and prepared tamales, posole and empanadas to fundraise for the cause. Then Local

First, which supports development initiatives in La Plata County, granted Westside $140,000 in cash plus a $395,000 zero-interest loan, while the Durango community turned out in force, helping Westside raise just over $50,000 in less than a week.

In the meantime, Stefka Fanchi, who heads up Elevation Community Land Trust, shored up support from county officials, banks and a handful of nonprofits. Westside Co-op’s relationship with Elevation, which advocates for housing solutions for working-class people, provided the collateral needed to support the project.

The result: In just five days, Elevation and Westside pieced together $5.56 million in cash plus closing fees. On March 25, they submitted their offer.

For nearly a week, the community waited to hear back, with many residents saying they could hardly sleep.

Then, on March 31, Fanchi said she had news. Diaz and her fellow organizers gathered around a single computer in a neighbor’s kitchen.

“It’s been a really tough week,” Fanchi began over Zoom. “And I do have an update, and that is that we are buying the Westside Mobile Home Park!”

“They accepted!” residents screamed, crying and turning to each other in joy. Diaz hugged her

2-year-old daughter, and on the screen, Fanchi and her colleagues wept.

Westside’s success provides hope in a housing market where mobile home parks are frequently sold on short notice followed by large rent hikes or eviction.

But Westside’s success is an exception. Since 2020, when Colorado began requiring mobile home park owners to provide their residents with notice of their intent to sell, over a hundred trailer parks have been placed on the market and only four have successfully bought the land beneath them.

Now, Colorado needs to pass additional legislation that would grant first right of refusal to park residents, give them more time to submit an offer, and cap the percentage that parks can raise rent. A bill to do just that has been introduced by State Democratic Rep. Andrew Boesenecker.

Westside Mobile Home Park residents needed a miracle, and they got it. But access to dignified housing shouldn’t come down to miracles. It should simply be the way things are.

Benjamin Waddell is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, a nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He is a sociologist based at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.

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38 April 21 - May 4, 2022

OPINION

Explore Big Sky

AMUSE-BOUCHE Amuse-bouche refers to an appetizer, and by French translation means, “to entertain the mouth.” It offers a glimpse into what you should expect from a meal. Also it’s free, compliments of the chef.

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ALL YOU NEED IS A CARROT

BY SCOTT MECHURA EBS COLUMNIST A restaurant kitchen can be an intimidating place.

I’ve even seen some seasoned cooks walk in to certain big, bustling kitchens and have that look in their eye; that look of seeing everything happening around them and wondering where and how they’ll fit in.

Pans are clanging, several conversations are running at once, people dash around corners or up and down stairs with heavy boxes or stock pots. Often there are about 13 different things in various stages of completion in ovens and on stove tops.

There are pots and pans, dishes, glasses and silverware piled up to be washed … and on and on and on.

And someone designed all that.

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I’ve been a part of many kitchen designs, from a busy downtown steak house to a boutique hotel. There are people, often teams of them, all with their hand in it: chefs, architects, industry designers, owners, general managers and consultants all creating floor plans, computer aided design drawings and mock spaces to ensure that the day the kitchen goes live, it functions properly. And all of these things cost money—a lot of money.

But if you want to design a kitchen, all you need is a carrot.

When I have been involved in the design of a new kitchen, I think about something as simple as a carrot, or any vegetable.

Let’s consider the provenance of that carrot.

First, it needs to arrive inside the building, presumably through a loading dock or at the very least a back door of some sort. That door needs to be easily accessible first to the person delivering the carrot but then it needs to be received by someone who, once taking possession of the carrot, needs to bring it to the cooler. And since that carrot will probably be in a 50-pound bag of more carrots, it needs to be a clear path without obstacles and preferably without stairs that leads to adequate storage.

Next, someone will select that carrot to wash before they prep it. There needs to be a sink somewhere. And is that sink big enough for several carrots?

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Then it will more than likely be peeled, which will require a work surface on which to peel it. Then the peels will need to go in a trash can which should fit nearby.

Someone will need to cut that carrot. Where are the knife and cutting board stored? They should be stored close to where you are cutting and easy to return once they are washed somewhere else.

If we’re going to cook this carrot in a stock, that stock pot must be located somewhere easy to access by all staff, both big and small. It should be close by to where it will be used because it’s heavy.

Perhaps it will be cooked in a smaller pan or pot. This could be stored farther away from the stock pot but still close enough to a stove that makes sense.

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And there will be other ingredients to accompany that carrot. All the logistics, all the provenance of that carrot would be followed for each and every one of those ingredients.

In other words, there should be a sensibility to how food, people and equipment flow through a kitchen.

The dish with said carrot will need a plate or a bowl to serve it in. This plate needs to be kept right by where the carrot is cooked so it remains hot.

© 2021 .. All rights reserved. Engel & Völkers and its independent franchisees are Equal Opportunity Employers and fully support the principles of the Fair Housing Act. Each property shop is independently owned and operated. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. If your property is currently represented by a real estate broker, this is not an attempt to solicit your listing.

And when the server clears this dish from the dining room, what is the most efficient path to the area it will be washed, dried, and walked back to its original place on the shelf for the next carrot dish?

Until tomorrow morning, when the next carrot arrives at the back door.

Scott Mechura has spent a life in the hospitality industry. He is an executive chef, former certified beer judge and is currently the executive chef for Horn & Cantle at Lone Mountain Ranch.

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OPINION

40 April 21 - May 4, 2022

Explore Big Sky

LET’S TALK ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH: BIG SKY YOUTH SPEAK OUT ON COMMUNITY AND MENTAL HEALTH hard to know what normal is supposed to look and feel like.

Here’s what they want: welcome, inclusion, safety, respect…and FUN!

BY SHANNON STEELE AND ANN KITTLAUS EBS COLUMNISTS

COVID-19 impacts starting with isolation, loss and anxiety coupled with Big Sky’s rapid growth and tourist surges have created unique challenges for our young people to form the sense of community and connections they crave. As the effects of the pandemic continue to play out in Big Sky, our youth are raising their voices and providing an opportunity for community reflection and response.

Lone Peak High School seniors recently interviewed classmates to find out how they define community and their recent Big Sky experience.

Here are some takeaways: • • •

• •

It can be hard to feel grounded, to feel a sense of belonging, when everything keeps changing.

The expectations of a high performing school are “exhausting.”

There is excitement in the wonder of this place and the constant flux of visitors, but there is also a yearning to cling to the present and slow things down.

Big Sky is a great place to live as a teen, but more activities for locals are needed outside of school.

There’s a disconnection between what others think about Big Sky and what their community, their home, means to them.

A first-year student expressed this loud and clear: “As more people move to join us in our home, the community starts to feel separated.

I feel it is extremely important to remember each other and to keep the closeness of our friendships alive!”

When it comes to their hometown, a sophomore summarized for his classmates: “Community means a place where someone is always welcome to come in and to be listened to…. There could be a lot of people that have different thoughts and those thoughts should be respected.”

The long-term effects of the pandemic are still largely unknown and for young people moving from adolescence to adulthood in a rapidly growing community, it is sometimes

During the pandemic, high school students found themselves suddenly isolated, less physically active, in charge of their own learning, absorbing adult anxiety, and uncertain about their post-high school prospects. Forget about teenage FOMO, or “fear of missing out”—everyone was missing out.

Most increased their screen time, and many increased substance use and experienced a decline inmental health.

A meta-analysis of studies found that one in four youth around the world experienced pandemic-related depression compared to one in 10 pre-pandemic. Symptoms included sadness, hopelessness, lack of interest, pleasure and/or motivation, and physical symptoms affecting sleep, appetite and concentration.

One in five youth experienced anxiety, including excessive worry, physiological hyperarousal and/ or debilitating fear. Emergency departments and children’s hospitals saw increases in substance abuse crises. Here in Montana, youth suicides doubled according to Shodair Children’s Hospital in Helena.

The experts tell us that to pull life back together for young people, youth need a return of routines, resources and relationships. They also need their adults to be okay.

•

• •

•

Big Sisters continue to offer mentorship and preventative programming, and the Arts Council of Big Sky began art classes April 18.

Big Sky School District added a school counselor to its workforce and the other learning entities, Morningstar Learning Center and the Big Sky Discovery Academy, are making mental and behavioral health support a top priority.

Bozeman Health Big Sky Medical Center offers child and adolescent psychiatric services.

Wellness in Action continues to offer support for youth to access counseling and enrichment opportunities, and there’s more support in the works across organizations.

BSSD added a school counselor, an addition to the two existing counselors who have continued to support the student community.

On a personal level, adults in the community need to keep checking in on and really listening to not only our young people, but also one another.

There’s so much light and strength within a community that rallies together to address complex mental and behavioral health issues.

Shannon Steele is the behavioral health program officer at the Yellowstone Club Community Foundation, and values a collaborative and community-centered approach to mental/behavioral health and wellness. She has a background in mind-body wellness and community health, and is also a certified yoga instructor and active volunteer.

Community, wellness and the outdoors have always been pillars in Shannon’s life.

Ann Kittlaus is a writer and communications consultant working with the Yellowstone Club Community Foundation.

NEW & CONSIGNED GEAR FOR ALL YOUR OUTDOOR ADVENTURES

The Lone Peak students offered these suggestions: 1) creating spaces for young people to connect, 2) building a positive relationship with oneself, and 3) empowering and being a support for others.

Their struggles have not gone unnoticed. Our community foundations, nonprofit organizations and community leaders have collaborated to provide programming for youth including but not limited to the following: •

BASE Community Center offers a space for young people to connect, providing daily

•

programming specifically for them. The high schoolers have noticed and are enthusiastic.

Shodair will be providing virtual peer-to-peer support groups for young people to connect with other Montana youth around these complex issues.

•

•

Thrive and Big Brothers

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41 April 21 - May 4, 2022

OPINION

ILLUSTRATION BY CY WHITLING

BIG SKY

BEATS TOP 10 APRÈS SONGS

BY TUCKER HARRIS SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS: JENNIFER STEELE AND CHANCE LENAY As you plan your end-of-season celebrations, EBS wanted to bring you a little help from the experts of après: DJs Take a Chance and Jenn N Juice. From weekly parties at Big Sky Resort’s Base at Westward Social that filled the patio with overflowing champagne bottles and beats, to the new alpine bar at the Spring Powder Seeker Series, Big Sky Resort’s resident DJs know how to turn up the volume.

For our latest Big Sky Beats, we present a playlist curated by DJs Take a Chance and Jenn N Juice. Big Sky Beats: Top 10 Après Songs is an energetic mix reminiscent of some of your favorite après sets from the season. Enjoy this playlist on closing weekend and keep the party going as you carry the après spirit with you into your spring and summer activities.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

“Saint Tropez” by Jenn N Juice “Move Your Body – Tiësto Edit” by Öwnboss, Sevek, Tiësto “Junglerok” by Dimibo “Vibes” by Breathe Carolina, Raven & Kreyn “Renegade” by Big Gigantic, Party Pupils “Liquor Store” by Joel Corry “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” by Sgt Slick, Freejak “Don’t Forget My Love – John Summit Remix” by Diplo, Miguel, John Summit “peeker seeker” by Jenn N Juice “Cold Heart – PNAU Remix” by Elton John, Dua Lipa, PNAU

Explore Big Sky

42 April 21 - May 4, 2022

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BACK 40

Explore Big Sky

For Explore Big Sky, the Back 40 is a resource: a place where we can delve into subjects and ask experts to share their knowledge. Here, we highlight stories from our flagship sister publication Mountain Outlaw magazine.

Noun: wild or rough terrain adjacent to a developed area Origin: shortened form of “back 40 acres”

FEATURED OUTLAW TOM WEISKOPF TAKES AIM

BY MICHELLE HISKEY In 1968, Tom Weiskopf made his first trip to Montana. Then 26 years old, he had won two tournaments on the PGA Tour, and his name was rising in the Nicklaus-Palmer era of professional golf. One of the most beautiful, powerful swings in the sport’s history belonged to him, and he would win the 1973 British Open. But Weiskopf didn’t come to Montana in 1968 to golf; he set his eye on bigger targets which, as his celebrity rose, would come to mean freedom for the Ohio native.

“I came and hunted down by Red Lodge in the Pryor Mountains and had a great experience with antelope and mule deer,” Weiskopf recalled. “I have great pictures of the wild horses still in that area. A good friend of mine, Tom Culver, and I had permission to hunt on a couple of ranches there. We hunted the Hi-Line, near U.S. Route 2, everything north to the Canadian border, from Plentywood to Sidney.”

The most enduring trophy of that trip could not be spotted through a gunsight or mounted on a wall. It was a feeling that beckoned in a much later season of his life, after he retired from competition and built another celebrated career as a golf course designer. “I just love Montana,” said Weiskopf, whose portfolio includes the courses at the Yellowstone Club and Spanish Peaks in Big Sky, and Black Bull Golf Course in Bozeman. “The character of the people, and everything about the scenery. The people here, they don’t make quick decisions. I just like the lifestyle and character that they project and that if you give them enough time, they’ll figure out if they like you or not.”

From his home overlooking the Yellowstone Club’s 14th tee, Weiskopf is now 78, no longer a tourist since moving from Arizona eight years ago. He is appreciated but not glorified, with a deep circle of friends who didn’t need much time after all to figure out that they liked him and his wife Laurie.

They quickly pitched in for the Weiskopfs when he revealed his battle with pancreatic cancer last year. While his life is scheduled, for the time being, around chemo treatments, good days and not so good days, Weiskopf is nailing down plans for the hunting, fishing (and yes, golf ) seasons ahead. He has become one of the Montanans he admired from afar, and at local businesses like Schnee’s, his hunting trophies are displayed without signage.

“There’s nothing there that says Tom’s name or where or what happened,” said Bill Ciccotti, director of golf and clubhouse operations at the Yellowstone Club. “This fits Tom from what I know about him. If you know, you know; if you don’t, you don’t. And that’s the way it is.”

Natural flow has been on brand for Weiskopf since the 1960s. Golf fans admired his ultra-smooth swing, soaring ball flight and unfiltered reactions to bad breaks. Some even called him “The Towering Inferno” (which in fairness was a blockbuster with a dramatic ending). What you see with Weiskopf is what you get, and that holds true for the golfers who play his 80 courses across the world. “At end of the day, all you hope for as a course designer is a compliment,” he said. “I hope each player will like it. I’ve had enough controversy as a tour player.”

Those memories remain near. Weiskopf spoke with Mountain Outlaw right before watching the 2021 U.S. Ryder Cup team—an all-star lineup of American pros—demolish their international peers. In 1977, Weiskopf declined his Ryder Cup selection. He was chasing a grand slam away from golf: big game hunting’s four most coveted North American sheep trophies. Weiskopf still jousts with golf ’s stuffy status quo; in late 2020 he opined that superstar Rory McIlroy lacked “that determination and will to be the best.” Weiskopf ’s drawn such criticism himself, after finishing second in the Masters four times and in the U.S. Open once. Jack Nicklaus was asked what Montanans reading this article should know about Weiskopf.

Weiskopf enjoys an Arizona sunset at TPC Scottsdale. The course, designed by Weiskopf, hosts the annual Waste Management Phoenix Open. PHOTO COURTESY OF LAURIE WEISKOPF

“Tom was one of the finest strikers of the golf ball to ever live, and if he ever believed that he was half as good as he was, he would have won a lot more tournaments,” Nicklaus said. “Tom had this hang-up that he couldn’t beat me, and he shouldn’t have that. Because Tom was a terrific player, and certainly a lot better player than he gave himself credit for.”

All that talent and near misses—what does that do to someone? That question may be impossible to answer, but as Weiskopf sorted it out, Montana’s bigness and relative remoteness became even more attractive.

“He’s kind of a cowboy golfer,” said Ed Sneed, Weiskopf ’s friend of 60 years, a former PGA Tour winner who like Nicklaus and Weiskopf attended Ohio State. “That little bit more laidback lifestyle in Montana suits him. I don’t think he’s under pressure, not under a microscope. On tour, playing in front of people and media, even in our day, Tom was still scrutinized much more than the average player.”

“I feel like I was always thought of as regular person, maybe an outspoken one,” Weiskopf said as he considered his image. “I’ve never been afraid of voicing my opinion and if someone disagrees, that’s fine. Montana was a perfect place for me to come because it had everything I needed to satisfy me and the challenges that the outdoors give. People don’t recognize me, only occasionally. But I wasn’t hiding from anything when I came here. I just thought this was a great place.” ***

Weiskopf’s era of pro golf gave way to a new generation of superstars like Phil Mickelson. The two played at Yellowstone Club in 2016. PHOTO COURTESY OF SAM BYRNE

Very few professional athletes go on to create a playing field—it’s not like Wayne Gretzky can bring anything special to a regulation hockey rink.

Golf course design demands the confidence to turn raw acreage into a competition site that welcomes everyone. In October 1999, Weiskopf ’s second coming to Montana was for a job interview: could he design the Yellowstone Club’s golf course? “I

43 April 21 - May 4, 2022

BAC K 4 0

Explore Big Sky too punishing, “Tom spent 20 minutes teaching me how to land my tee shot on the green, which was surrounded by hazards,” she said. “Then he left me there to hit that shot 50 more times.”

Weiskopf has a wicked sweet tooth, and the Brakeleys never minded him sneaking Sue’s homemade chocolate chip cookies, which they hope keeps his weight up during the cancer fight.

The Brakeleys flew to Houston to support the Weiskopfs during treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center. “Tom is never ‘Woe is me,’” Sue said. “He’s always, ‘Let’s go get this thing.’” Lee Levine, a close Montana golf and hunting friend of 20 years, sees Weiskopf drawing from the mental strength of all those major tournament rounds.

“With golf, you’ve got to be positive that you’re going to win, that you’re going to beat this guy or that guy,” Levine said. “That’s the same mentality he has with cancer.”

Weiskopf cruises across the 18th green in the final round of the Open Championship at the Troon Golf Club in Scotland, 1973. PHOTO COURTESY OF LAURIE WEISKOPF

stood on the helipad with four-wheelers, horses, and a topographical map of 15,000 acres, and the owner wanted to build the most exclusive club in the world,” he said. “I thought, ‘This is nuts.

How are you going to do this?’” The same way, actually, that you rise to the highest level of golf competition: uncanny vision. As a competitor and course designer, Weiskopf could always see what’s not there yet.

“The most important element of every golf course is visual,” explained course architect Phil Smith, who in 1999 left Nicklaus to work with Weiskopf.

“Does it look like it’s always been there? You have to make sure you don’t create something inorganic.

That’s the trick behind a great course design. If it hurts your eye, you’ve done something wrong.”

Weiskopf draws on vast mental archives. “He and Jack Nicklaus have this amazing ability to play any golf course and remember every golf hole,” said Smith. “That memory bank is what made them great players. When Tom and I walk a raw site, he has the ability to tell you how far something is in the distance. It’s uncanny, his keen eye for distance and sense of scale.”

Golf course design is a humbling profession because the land itself can limit your vision, and a famous name doesn’t mean you get free rein.

Success, Nicklaus points out, is when the boss—the course owner—is happy. At the Yellowstone Club, Sam Byrne says Weiskopf is “a zen master,” because he communicates his vision and life lessons.

memories beyond the final scorecard, and his success at the Yellowstone Club can be measured in the more than 9,000 rounds played there annually.

“The best thing about mountain courses is the exceptional views and long days,’’ he said. “You have all these animals, the elk and big horn sheep and Rocky Mountain goats and mule deer, the grizzly bears, wolves, and black bears. You never know what animal you’re going to see and how close you might get to them.”

Between recent cancer treatments, he and Laurie drove their Sprinter Van the 1,350-mile round trip to Black Desert Resort in St. George, Utah, one of his current projects. “Beauty meets playability” is its tagline, shorthand for Weiskopf ’s design philosophy. “I want every golfer to be rewarded properly for a properly played shot,” he said. “I want my courses to err on the side of forgiveness [rather] than to force every player to be so precise.”

Hap and Sue Brakeley started playing Weiskopf courses like some people collect state quarters.

The inspiration came from five years living next door to the Weiskopfs on a street renamed Tom’s Track. “A Weiskopf course is very approachable.

It’s not trying to penalize or torment you,” said Hap, a 9.1-handicap player. “There’s always a way to get to the green.” When a good player struggles, Weiskopf takes it personally. And when Sue, a 15 handicap, found Yellowstone Club’s easiest hole

Laurie Weiskopf chokes up when recalling the community support of the past year. The couple’s mountain home was no longer practical for accessing winter visits to the hospital, but the Weiskopfs had stayed in touch with the buyers of their previous home in the Gallatin Valley. Our house is your house, they told the Weiskopfs.

“When we came back, we drove by the Yellowstone Club Village Club and probably 200 people were out waving flags and welcoming us,” Laurie said.

“The whole community here is helping us make it through.”

The Yellowstone Club’s Ciccotti, 34, is among that community, and he grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a Weiskopf fan. It still blows his mind that he got to play his first round of golf at the Yellowstone Club with his idol. Weiskopf explained then how he manages risk and reward, and his strategy. Figuring the distance, weather and terrain, Weiskopf visualized his optimal route to the hole.

After his tee shot, he recalculated the strategy and made the plan for his next shot. Rinse and repeat on every hole, every swing.

“Some players simply hit the ball as hard and far as they can, but Tom always has a reason for what he’s doing,” said Ciccotti, who understood Weiskopf ’s affinity for Montana over traditional golf destinations like Florida. “People are in Big Sky because they want to be, not because they have to be,” Ciccotti said. “We’ve all chosen Montana for a reason.”

An earlier version of this story first appeared in the winter 2022 edition of Mountain Outlaw magazine.

“Becoming wise is a process. Not many people get there and are willing to share what they’ve learned,” said Byrne, 56, managing partner and co-founder at Boston-based CrossHarbor Capital Partners, which owns the YC. “Tom has become that guy. He’s had a full, extraordinary life with unique, valuable things to learn from. He was a guy who lived at the highest heights of his sport in the NicklausPalmer era, and had extraordinary heartbreaks and frustrations at the Masters and the unique high of winning the British Open. He has a unique demeanor, and he’s willing to share advice that never seems judgmental or preconceived.” *** In Montana’s higher elevations, golf course construction is lengthy and the season for playing is short—about 110 days a year. Amid the kaleidoscope of colors that bounce off sheer rock faces, Weiskopf loves making space for exceptional

Weiskopf and his wife, Laurie, are backdropped by the golf course at Italy’s Castiglion del Bosco, which Weiskopf designed in collaboration with club owner Massimo Ferragamo. PHOTO COURTESY OF LAURIE WEISKOPF

Enjoy incredible Lone Mountain views!

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