The Blaze

Published 2010-06-23
Nothing like springtime in the mountains. You ever been sitting around early on a Saturday morning sipping black juice with your buddies trying to come up with a plan for the day? Should we head to the Gally? Maybe run the Kitchen Sink, ride Leverich, or try to find some north facing couloirs to boot […]

Hellmouth Couloir

Published 2010-06-07
Hellmouth Couloir is the thin aesthetic line dead center on Alex Lowe Peak. In the Spring of 1997 Alex Lowe and Hans Saari made the first descent of an anemic ski line they nicknamed “Hellmouth Couloir” in the Gallatin Mountains of Montana. For years the exact location of this line had been lost and it […]

Only in Montana

Published 2010-06-03
As March came to a close, one of my favorite past times came into full swing – shed hunting! This was the year of the deer antler. Between my dad and I, we found fifteen deer sheds and two elk sheds. Come April 10th, shed hunting turned into turkey hunting. Archery hunting for spring gobblers […]

Spring in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem!

Published 2010-05-31
Spring is in full swing in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. You name it, we’ve got it! Wind, rain, hail, snow, sunshine a bit of everything in just one day. One of my goals for this early Spring season was to start testing two of Mystery Ranch’s smaller packs, the Courier bag & Booty bag. In […]

23 days of living out of the Mystery Ranch G-6000 in the Khumbu Valley of Nepal.

Published 2010-04-28
When planning for my second annual trip to Mt. Everest, the preparation and effort required to fulfill the mission of our nonprofit organization far exceeds that required for my personal mission to survive the adventure. Regardless, surviving the trip to Mt. Everest Base camp and living in a tent placed on the rocks and ice […]

8 days, 80+ river miles, 1 backpack, and some of Utah’s finest wilderness

Published 2010-04-25
I first laid eyes on Desolation canyon when I picked up a guide book for hiking while I was driving through Utah in 2008. I sat in my truck flipping through the guide book after buying it and remember seeing the authors pictures. The pictures said it all. That was where I wanted to go. […]

Killer Snow

Published 2010-03-28
After four hours of driving through the interior of British Columbia we arrived at our destination: the Ymir Motel, in the forgotten gold mining town of the same name. This place is the staging area for most trips into the Ymir backcountry–and, it’s cheap, $12 per person per night cheap–by sharing rooms. Turns out the […]

More Golf Mahals Coming from the Mystery Ranch!

Published 2010-03-18
Here is the skinny for all you Golf Mahalics out there: We have slated another run of the Golf Mahal to start the end of April. This means that bags will become available, hopefully, by mid-June and shipping by the end of that month. There are 60 bags coming; 15 each in 4 different colors, […]

Trade Show Circuit

Published 2010-02-25
We work the winter trade shows in Salt Lake City and Denver, setting up early, talking shop late, and cram in as many days of skiing as humanly possible, because that’s what we do. With OR finished, we rushed directly towards the Wasatch Mountains. It’d been dumping while we’d slung packs in the SLC convention center, and […]

Frazier Basin

Published 2010-02-09
Last Friday, five of us met at the Daily Bread parking lot at 5:30 AM for dawn patrol. Kyle had made it up to Frazier Basin on Wednesday, they found stable conditions and the skiing excellent. Once I heard the possibility of going up on Friday, especially since Kyle has access to two snowmobiles slashing […]