sibhusky

More pics from that day: Polebridge, Northern Lights Saloon: The Merc in Polebridge:

You'd be wrong. Siblet is the warrior. She kept her cool, and was ready.

Don't think so as we were coming up a rise and he was below us coming out of the lake. Siblet heard him shaking off. She then said, calmly, "Hey, bear." I was behind her and said, "There's a bear?" We started backing up and he reared up on his haunches, checking us out. We backed up a bit more, then headed off the trail up a hill leading away from the lake, because if he took to the trail, we wanted him coming up hill if he decided to charge. He, however, headed up hill parallel to us. We stopped moving. He angled above and around us. I was worried he was trying to get his own higher ground, but he kept going, thank God. I really wanted to take another picture, but they were afraid the camera clicks were going to piss him off.

It definitely saw us. If it had chased us, I wouldn't be here. Even though both Siblet and my husband had their bear spray out and ready, we would have had about three seconds or less to react. Although we backed up the trail, then left the trail to him and climbed up the hill above him, he went uphill as well, cutting an arc around us. Was definitely within 50 feet. This was actually our second bear of the day. One was walking along the road between Columbia Falls and Polebridge. Definitely a black bear, maybe 100 pounds less than this dude. We were in the car at the time, which is definitely my preferred viewing position.

Not my favorite event.

Hiking companion

I got an extra minute of sleep this AM, yay!

Can't wait for days to get shorter. Sunrise at 5:35 and set at 9:42 has me sleep deprived.

Having just given the website a gander to see how much we are talking about, I can only believe that they are trying to keep the riffraff out.

Maybe Jeff should change the forum name to Montage now?

Oh, thought it was maybe your patio or something. Which is why I asked.

What is it a picture of, other than snow?

You get used to it. I just tell myself, "You've been down this hundreds of times, you know the trail, just believe that." And I stay away from certain areas that I know will induce vertigo due to the lack of visual reference points. The Bowl, Inspo Ridge, Toni, and sometimes Moe-Mentum, are all things to stay off of due to lack of trees and changes in pitch that you really cannot see. Doesn't mean I don't appreciate visibility. Ideal is thick clouds hovering ABOVE my head. Brilliant blue days are only okay if it's in the teens or lower.

I'm jealous.

Unless you're doing seven days a week, I don't see the issue. Tune and wax the evening of the day you get home, then scrape and brush the next day. I ski five days a week, it's planned into my week. Using the Fiberlene significantly cuts back on the scrape time. Roto-brush cuts way back on brush time. Now the bulk of my time is edge polishing. Used to be scrape and brush was what I hated the most. I do look at the weather forecast to make sure the wax will be right, but it's no biggie.

Classic Whitefish humor

One of the men I took around was intimidated by the height of the mountain - his hill was 300 feet. But we took him down a bunch of things while he was here that he didn't think he could do. Crowds are very low here, which helps. You just need to sorry about yourself. What might be a problem for her is the fog. But if she comes, I'll help out. Big Sky is way more intimidating than Whitefish visually. Lone Peak, soaring into the sky, with those cliffs, makes for quite a sight.

Our terrain? Or Big Sky's? Both have tons of blue cruisers. What level skier is she?

Thinking about it, they are also doing a great job on social media, not just the mountain, but also the town. Plus, we had... yech.. The Bachelor a few months back.. People apparently watch that horror. And they are going to be filming a movie shortly.. Then Powder and SKI had us highly rated. Native Eyewear had a big contest we won. Huge ad campaigns in Seattle, Minneapolis, and New York. And, of course, there's my website.

Hadn't seen that yet. Thanks for the link. As to visitors, I had a new record of EpicSki visits, I know that much - five different visits. I think the last two years of having way more snow than Colorado is the reason this is happening. I bet Schweitzer is seeing even more increases than we are.

Totally agree. Told him today that I hoped that now that he has set a record unlikely to ever be broken, that he'd start exploring the 3000 acres of mountain we have and that I'd come across him in the trees next year. A friend and I had an uproarious time this year getting totally turned around and lost inbounds in some trees on the back. 45 minute journey full of bushwhacking in some beautiful trees. Can't do that if some number is important.

Anyone interested in SERIOUS vertical achievements. A guy here will crack 5.6 million vertical feet today...That's in ONE SEASON. When you factor in that not every scan registers, his actual achievement is much higher. Personally, I'm glad he's done doing it. He needs to explore the whole mountain, really, not just the straightest point between the top and the bottom, but in addition, I stayed the hell away from some runs this winter. He's a GREAT skier, but I didn't want to be in front of him.

Closing day, more fresh snow. Going to be really nice...tomorrow. No, I will not hike up.

Today. Snushing most of the time, but also had rain and graupel. Terrific soft snow, great fun. Sibby's in her glory in weather that sends most running home.

Before someone starts on about snow depths vs. snow fall.... The snow fall number is whatever the depth is on opening day without any regard to how much snowfall came in the prior months. Then they start adding daily new snow fall to that settled base starting point. Other mountains start counting their snow with the first storm in October and never report that all that stuff melted before the base started holding. They don't do it that way here. If we get a foot in October, and it melts, it is NOT included. Only the remains of that foot that are still around on Dec. 8 or whatever are included.