WyoFile Feature

Running a small ski area in Wyoming has never been a quick path to easy riches, and a flurry of closures and sales among struggling ski hills across the state in recent years has prompted some operators to look for new business models to make their community slopes financially sustainable.

Just as Sleeping Giant, near Cody, reopened as a nonprofit operation in 2009 after a four-year closure, backers of some other small ski hills in the state are exploring similar options. Proponents point to the community-owned Bridger Bowl ski area near Bozeman, Mont., as a prototype for operating a successful nonprofit ski hill.

But going nonprofit doesn’t guarantee a ski hill’s viability, insiders warn, and nearly every ski area relies heavily on a core group of volunteers and active skiers for any shot at success.

New West Update

Schools in the Rocky Mountain West snagged four of the eight slots in a new list of the best American colleges for winter enthusiasts compiled by U.S. News & World Report.

The list steers students looking for a place to combine higher education with skiing or snowboarding toward these schools in the Rockies:

I’ve had debates with mountain bike supporters over the question of whether bikes and, by extension, other wheeled vehicles, should be permitted in designated wilderness. The mountain bike crowd feels their activity should be allowed in wilderness areas.

Many mountain bikers oppose any wilderness that does not permit biking and/or at least if designation closes a trail that mountain bikers have come to use. Since by definition of the Wilderness Act, mechanical access is prohibited, any lands designated under the 1964 Wilderness Act is automatically off limits to mountain biking. There are many reasons to exclude mountain bikes from wilderness--not the least is that recreation is not the prime reason for wilderness designation.

Skiing and Snowboarding

Yeah, you might have to get used to the feel of wearing a helmet, but at least a helmet doesn’t itch. And, yeah, you might get hot in the spring, but during the deep mid-winter, you will be toasty warm and comfortable.

Oh, and there’s the safety factor. Remember Natasha Richardson, the actress taking a beginner skiing lesson in Canada in 2009 who fell on the bunny slope and died from a head injury? If she could die of a brain injury from falling when she was probably going less than 5 mph, think about the brain injury you could incur, Ms. or Mr. Tree Skier (or Downhill Skier, Park Skier, Intermediate Trying-Out-Moguls Skier or Any Fill-in-the-Blank Skier)?

Snowblog Profile

Bird has coached several U.S. Ski Team members, including Mike Morse, Jeremy Cota and Eliza Outrim. He’s coached alongside Olympians Nelson Carmichael and Bobby Aldigheri. “I’ve had the great privilege to have been coached by and to learn from some legends of the sport,” he said.

Nate Bird is among the legends, at least in Steamboat. Ask anyone in town about him and a big smile typically results. He’s one of the most passionate people I know here: passionate about mountain biking, skiing –- life. 

FALL MUSKIES NOT FOR WUSSIES

Beware of Muskie Fever. It can ruin the life of a perfectly normal fishaholic.

And contagious? You betcha. I caught it even before I went anywhere near water where the mighty muskellunge lurks. Then, last year, I finally had my first chance at a muskie, and what an introduction! Six long days and 8,600 casts without a single hook-up. (Click here to read the gory details.)

But even such a royal butt kicking can’t come close to curing Muskie Fever. Instead of giving up and going back to trout, I couldn’t wait to go back for another beating. Catching a muskie was high on my life list, so it had to happen. All I needed was a better time and place, eh?

WyoFile Feature

It was 1866 when Samuel W. Hyatt moved to a scattered settlement at the confluence of Paint Rock Creek and Medicine Lodge Creek. But what he and other early settlers of what is now Hyattville didn’t know was that people had been living in that same area for the last 10,000 years.

For the ranchers and others who now make Hyattville home, it’s easy to see why.

Tucked away amid the red, rolling foothills of the Bighorn Mountains in north central Wyoming, Hyattville is only six miles from Medicine Lodge Archaeological Site, home to numerous petroglyphs and pictograms.

Over the years, Hyattville has had a doctor, newspaper, hotel, mercantile and grocery stores — even an opera house — that served a thriving ranching economy. Today, there’s a post office and two cafés, each with a bar. Groceries or gas are 17 miles or more away, in Basin, Worland and Ten Sleep.

Backcountry Skiing

“When the lead climber was approximately 100 feet from the summit the entire slope whoomped...The slide sounded like a jet engine taking off.”

The hard slab snow caught all three and dragged them over exposed talus for about 300 feet. The entire slide took less than 10 seconds. “Luckily we were stopped by the talus and escaped the 1,000-plus-foot slide that ran out on the flat area below the peak. None of us were buried, however we all sustained massive bruising, scrapes and one skier cracked two ribs. We collectively lost three poles and broke one binding so that one skier had to ski all the way out on just one ski.”

Skiing and Snowboarding

When it was my turn at EFX’s booth, I had to laugh. I’d just left a party where I had been offered (and gladly accepted) two free beers by one of the expo’s sponsors, Paulaner. I was also wearing my super-cute citified black boots with a sizable heel. It didn’t take much effort to tip me over while standing on one heeled foot –and the band was no antidote on the affect of two beers. I took a brochure but didn’t buy the band, leaving the booth more skeptical than when I arrived.

I noticed similar goings-on at the booth for EnergyForce, but skipped another demo, thinking I knew a scam when I saw one. Still, as I tried to trot quickly past the third booth, the sweet couple in their fifties from Boulder, Colorado, caught me with their sincere look and convinced me to try again. Their product is the Bionic Band and they clearly believe in it. Surprisingly, all of the demonstrations with the Bionic Band worked. I became a little less sure, a little more curious.

Hockey

Come November, diehard hockey fans celebrate cold, especially when their ice rinks are uncovered and exposed to the elements. Unseasonably warm, sunny days are as unwelcome as a surprise appearance by your future mother-in-law at your bachelorette party.

Once the weeklong ritual of making ice at the Salmon hockey rink begins, sunshine makes the all-volunteer ice making team sweat. Sure, that’s partly because the team’s uniform— insulated Carhartt coveralls—is not well-suited to neotropical temperatures. Also, the go or no-go decision of when to start making ice is much debated within the local hockey community. Start too early and get struck by mild temperatures and that godforsaken sun and the refrigeration unit works nonstop, which drives power costs through the roof. Start too late and the youth hockey teams can’t practice. That means the David-versus-Goliath matchups between our teams and those from bigger towns become even more lopsided.