I first started traveling to Bozeman, Montana nearly 20 years ago and over time, because of my friends who chose to base there, I forged a connection to the place that was grounded far before Big Sky lift tickets cost $270/day and average houses were selling for $750k. While the scene has certainly changed, the mountains, the outdoors and the experiences that can be created certainly have not, which is why I wanted to explore Cooke City as a location for a future Flow Immersion.
Fortunately an all star crew assembled for this backcountry ski/splitboard trip based out of an alpine cabin just on the edge of Yellowstone National Park. In the early season it was shaping up to be a great snowpack, however January and February had little to no snow, making it one of the driest years the area had seen. Many locals we ran into stated how they'd never seen such little snow there. This was clearly noticeable on our drive in, as were the unseasonable warm temperatures that allowed us to skin up in our t-shirts. While it wasn't looking ideal, it did allow for an easy way up as the skin track was soft and it made our transition to the alpine enjoyable.
After offloading our gear in the hut, we transitioned to our much lighter day packs and went out to explore the nearby terrain. Recent avalanche signs above along with rapid changes in the snowpack made us weary of exploring too far outside of our comfort zone. On the way down I actually remotely triggered a class 1 while still riding in non-avalanche terrain - helping me to acknowledge the inherent risks of playing in the mountains again. By this time, the weather changed and a quick burst one wind was followed by snow, coming down heavy by the time we returned to the cabin. We hoped for a long stormy night and plenty of fresh to follow.
The cabin has ample room for up to 10 guests. There is plenty of firewood to warm the hut and snow to melt for water. Our meals were exquisite and nobody skimped on food, drink or any creature comforts for the long weekend away.
On this trip we opted for two days of guided skiing, so at 9 AM the following morning, our guide Nina showed up and gave us the run down. We had a "magical 4 inches" of snow on top of the frozen sunbaked crust from the day before which actually made conditions about as ideal as we would have hoped for given the weather we walked into.
We spent the next two days crushing thousands of feet of vertical and riding fun mellow, non-avalanche terrain in the heart of burly mountains. There was plenty of time on the skin track for meandering conversations and to bathe in silence amongst the nature around us. My mind set to work on a 2023 winter Flow Immersion.
This future trip will include three nights in the hut, 2 days of guided skiing, up to two nights at a local hot spring hotel, transportation to and from Bozeman along with all the personal growth and flow education you'd expect from one of these experiences.
Spots will be extremely limited on this particular trip, so ensure you are on the prospective list to be the first to know once the dates are live. Sign up for the Email List here.
See you on the road.
- Colin
