Bear Hunting in Idaho

Published 2015-06-21
Spring bear hunting is dear to my heart – public ground bears roaming large tracts of rough country with limited hunting pressure. I’ve been spring bear hunting in Idaho for the last seven seasons, learning the hard way. Limited on time, I spend the majority of my bear hunting efforts on the weekends and I […]

Built for the Mission

Published 2015-04-12
You may have noticed that we do things a little differently here at Mystery Ranch. We’re on a mission to create something that matters. There’s a lot that goes into a Mystery Ranch backpack. Forty years of experience, for starters. A design and production team that’s committed to our history of innovation and durability. A […]

Mystery Ranch ISO 9001:2008 Certification is Official!

Published 2014-09-10
If you had been visiting Mystery Ranch on a Friday at the end of June, you would have been surprised by all the hooting and hollering. If you worked at the Ranch, you would know that really, we do this all the time. But this celebration was something different. Dana Gleason, with great fanfare, and […]

Don’t Tell My Physical Therapist

Published 2014-08-28
The words of the surgeon cut through my oxy codone soaked brain more effectively than his scalpel through my shoulder. “I can’t believe I’m saying this… but I think we might have to go back in there.” We sat and looked at each other blankly. I came to two realizations during this silence (1) I […]

ISO 9001:2008 Certification

Published 2014-07-09
In the Fire Service, safety is priority number one, and we respect the established safety standards of all agencies in the fire service. That fact drove us, over two years ago, to make a significant decision: to become compliant for the ISO 9001:2008 certification, a commitment that affects every level of our company here. After […]

Innovation Invasion: The 3-Way Briefcase and Invader are LIVE

Published 2014-05-01
If you haven’t seen it yet, Inc. Magazine has featured Mystery Ranch in its list of the 25 Most Audacious Companies. The article defined an “audacious” company as “on the one hand…bold, courageous, even heroic. Yet, on the other, they are defiant, presumptuous, irreverent, and even cocky. They see a better way to do something […]

New Mystery Ranch Adventure Backpacks

Published 2014-04-15
We are excited to launch three new packs today, all designed by Dana’s son, D3. With backpacks in his blood, D3 designs with deep respect for and understanding of the history of pack building, and strives to improve on the classics using innovative materials and a fresh perspective on his father’s brand. Designing packs for Adventure […]

Going big and going home – The first ascent of the Pisce Wall

Published 2013-09-16
About a year ago, my friend Tom mentioned that there was an alpine wall way back in the Beartooth Wilderness that not only had not seen an ascent, but had no name. He had done a reconnaissance trip in 2009 to see what this thing looked like and exactly what it would take to get […]

Alex Lowe – The Greatest Mountain Athlete Of All Time

Published 2013-04-22
Words by: Jennifer and Max Lowe Alex Lowe was a Montanan who arrived on the national climbing scene in the early eighties with a voracious appetite for climbing in all disciplines. He became known as the “Jack of all Trades” and “The Fiend”, climbing big walls and difficult free routes as well as forging steep […]

NICE Metcalf

Published 2013-01-31
INTRO Based in Bozeman, Montana, Mystery Ranch has had a decade’s long heritage in hunting. Our Internal Frames from the old Dana Design Terraplanes in the 80’s and 90’s to the NICE Frame systems we have today, share a robust framing that controls the outlandish loads required to pack in a camp or pack out a trophy. […]