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D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E
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S P R I N G 2 0 2 5
I called it Carlos. Yes, I gave my pulk a name, dreaming of Ant-
arctic expeditions and tales of grandeur told over evening beers.
Everything I thought I knew went out the window on my first day
out. Somehow, I weighted Carlos wrong, and he refused to move
properly through the snow. Any snow that was a bit rough he
would throw himself sideways and fall over. I would drag Carlos
like this until I either looked back or felt a drag and see him sadly
lying on his side, full of snow. This would happen repeatedly.
Frustration would set in—I had this idea that using a pulk was
easy. It's a simple piece of plastic, so how hard could it really be?
But what started as a comedy of errors opened up possibil-
ities I hadn't imagined. During the summer, I had put in over
600 miles in this mountain range in southwest Montana, hiking
and scrambling into every possible drainage and area that might
be feasible in winter. I documented my travels through photo-
graphs and journals. Most of what I did was by trial and error as
there are no written documents out there that go past the pop-
ular areas. Maps and learning to navigate this vast area became
paramount.
