Spring Snow

Memories of Montana’s Big Powder Becoming Distant

By Brian Hurlbut, 6-01-11

	The author is starting to think that this looks much better than a powder-covered slope. Photo: Brian Hurlbut

The older I get, winter’s end comes a little bit easier to swallow every year. There were days when I hoped that the snow would continue, the mountains would stay white and summer would perpetually be put on the back burner, just so I could keep snowboarding.

But these days, I’m just as happy to see the rivers rising and the golf courses emerging from their winter blanket, local trails becoming brown again with the receding snow. Is it just an age thing? Or am I getting tired of putting on layers of clothes, being cold and making the effort to catch the last of the few spring powder days? Or maybe I’ve settled right into the family life, cherishing our time together more than I enjoy Backcountry Adventures With Random Dude.

It’s a question I pondered often recently when my wife, two kids and I spent two lazy weeks on a Florida beach, worlds away from the seemingly endless snowfall that was coming down back in Big Sky. While I was watching the kids build sand castles during the day and drinking canned Mexican beer by sunset, I was getting photos and texts about the huge snowstorm walloping the Montana mountains. One friend of mine even proclaimed the deepest powder day of the season—a week after the lifts had stopped running.

I have to say, a part of me wished I was back home. Making early dawn patrol runs into Beehive Basin, venturing into the seemingly empty Yellowstone Park backcountry or hitting my favorite mountain range—the Tobacco Roots—all sounded really good. After all, conditions were still epic all over the state. There was a time when backcountry snowboarding was all I could think about once the resorts closed, and I would hike for miles just to claim I made a few turns.

But that seems like a lifetime ago. With an energetic 4-year-old running around with his just-as-eager little sister, finding the time for spring snowboarding is getting more and more difficult each year. Some of my backcountry gear is aging almost as fast as my knees, and—for good reason—my wife is getting less and less accepting of the idea of putting myself in potentially dangerous situations. Let’s just say the excuses come easier these days.

Oh sure, I’ll get out there a few times this spring and summer; I always do. It’s just not a priority any more. After all, I got 70 days in this past winter, including more than two dozen with my son, and it will be a powder year we’ll be talking about for a long time. I certainly can’t complain.

As the hot Florida sun beat down on my chest, I watched my kids play in and out of the soothing water of the gulf. They seemed to forget about the snow as soon as they saw the sand, and I could tell their thoughts were miles away from Big Sky. It’s hard to admit, but I knew as I stared out into nothing but deep blue for as far I could see, that at that moment, mine were, too.

Brian Hurlbut is the author of the ”Insider’s Guide to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks” (Globe-Pequot Press). In addition to previous positions as the Managing Editor for the Big Sky Sun and the Arts and Entertainment Editor for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, his writing has appeared in the Oregonian, Montana Quarterly, Luxury Living, Big Sky Journal, Yellowstone-Teton Country, Big Sky Magazine, Western Art and Architecture, Outside Bozeman and more. He lives in Big Sky, Montana.

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