Visiting

A white Christmas means a green holiday season for western Montana ski areas, many of which are reporting a near record number of visitors over the weekend. At Whitefish Mountain Resort, on-mountain accommodations are fully booked, Discovery Ski Area had record-breaking daily revenue over the weekend and Snowbowl has been humming along with steady, big-number crowds. Despite the economic woes - or because of the concerns - skiers are flocking to the slopes.

By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian

WEST GLACIER – When the world turns an icy black and white, and the bones of the forest are laid bare by winter, then the time has finally come to go and see what seasonal stories are writ large upon the landscape.

There, in the meandering tracks of a squirrel, is an age-old tale of the hunt for food and warmth.

There, where raptor wings brushed and feathered the snow, is penned the hunt’s ultimate end.
There a coyote, there an ermine, there an otter’s slide, all spelled out on the blank of winter’s white page.

By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian

Watch a video of the Polson Polar Plunge

POLSON - Go ahead and ring out the old year.

Here, a couple hundred people prefer to wash it off.

As snow fell Thursday and the sign at First Citizens Bank up on the hill above Riverside Park showed a temperature of 27 degrees, Polson dentist Dave Bull began the countdown.

He hit “blastoff” on the first second of the first minute of the first hour after noon, on the first day of the first month of the new year.

Missoula is never too quick to give Bozeman its props, but when it comes to ice climbing, Cat Country has a leg up.

That’s a sole function of the proximity of Hyalite Canyon, Montana’s ice Mecca.

“It’s my new favorite,” said Missoula climber Brett Klaassen Van Oorschot, who spent a recent weekend at the Ice Fest in Hyalite. “There’s just so much to do there, it’s incredible.”

By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian

SALMON PRAIRIE - The tiny schoolhouse, all decked out in its sparkling coat of winter and tucked tight to the evergreens, looked just like the one under the Christmas tree.

Outside, fat flakes filled footprints, falling still through silent night, and the only sound was their crunch underfoot at 5 below. From inside, a steady glow kindled the snug promise of a warm stove, shining through windows and lighting the drifts.

It was, in a word, peaceful.

A crackling bonfire and a hot cup of cocoa greet all who seek a Christmas tree at the Copenhaver family’s 12-acre plantation in the heart of Missoula. This is the place for those who don’t have time to wander the woods for the perfect specimen, but aren’t interested in the grocery store parking lot variety. There’s even homemade cookies to snack on before or after the holiday tree hunt.

By BETSY COHEN / Photographed by TOM BAUER of the Missoulian

HAMILTON - Popcorn is not the first thing that comes to mind when most of us think about coffee roasting.

But walk into Zaxan coffee roasters, and that’s exactly what you, too, will think.

In this small business, where little batches of coffee beans are hand-manipulated to bring out distinct levels of brightness, flavor and body, the aroma is pure coffee shop - but the sounds are more akin to a movie theater.

By CHRIS ARNESON and MARK PAGE for the Missoulian

Snow is falling - finally - on Montana’s ski hills, big and small.

So grab your gear (and our annual ski area roundup) because there are loads of new runs, lifts, terrain parks and special attractions in need of your immediate attention.

Surf’s up!

DRUMMOND - Suffice it to say Vina Richardson is not shy at Montana Grizzly football games.

She's the little silver-haired lady with a seat high on the west side of Washington-Grizzly Stadium, “Cotton-Eyed Joe”-ing and “First Down Montana”-ing with her football partner, Retta Ekstrom of Rock Creek.

These days, Richardson has a lot to shout about.

By MARTIN J. KIDSTON Helena Independent Record

To create the perfect Blackfeet venison stew, you’ll need 3 cups of birch sap, eight wild onions, some camas root and a few arrowhead tubers, among other things.

If you’re hankering for some Hawaiian imu-kalua pork, you’ll need to prepare a roasting pit for starters, and grab a few bananas and a cup of kosher salt on the way to the barbecue.

The stew and salted pork are two of many succulent backcountry recipes collected from around North America and beyond by Montana siblings John and Lori Rittel.