It’s always there – visible when you’re driving I-90 back to Bozeman from the west. I’ve looked at it for years, that vertical white stripe, because it stands out all summer. The blaze is the feature for which the mountain is named – a snowfield, as much as one hundred feet wide in places that runs vertically for 1200’ to 2000’ depending whether you’re there in June, July, August or September. I had heard it’s skiable year round so August seemed a nice time to check it out.

For about the last 10 years, and right about this time of year, I’ve made it a point to ski a classic line at the top of the Bridger Mountains. After all, you just can’t call it summer without some skiing in July. To me, this event marks the start of the summer season in Montana, regardless of the weather. Okay, to be honest, the only reason we wait until this late in the season is for the opening of the Forest Service road to Fairy Lake. This year due to a healthy snowpack, the road didn’t open until July 1st.&n

It’s late May in Montana which can mean only one thing – it’s time to go backcountry skiing in the Beartooths! In what’s now become an annual spring trip, six good friends, two dogs and I threw together camping gear, a bunch of great food and lots of beer and headed for Red Lodge, Montana. We left Bozeman early Friday, drove the 3 hours to the Beartooth Mountains and pulled into our usual camping place part way up the Beartooth Highway. As the pass had just opened that day, we quickly dumped our gear and continued up