Page 61 - Flathead Beacon // 1.27.16

MOUNTAIN EXPOSURE
OUTDOORS IN BRIEF
WHITEFISH MOUNTAIN RESORT HOSTS NEW BANKED SLALOM EVENT
White sh Mountain Resort is hosting a brand new banked slalom competition on Jan. 30, inviting both snowboarders and skiers to compete in separate divisions.
The rst White sh Banked
Slalom is slated to kick o with
registration at 9 a.m. The race-
course will run through the
lower portion of Goat Haunt
into George’s Gorge, a natural
ravine with steep sidewalls and
enhanced features. Each racer is
allowed two timed runs, and the best run wins.
The Gorge will be closed several days prior to the event, and sta will be on hand sculpting the course, building up the terrain and fea- tures and marking the route.
After the race, Moonshine Mountain will play an awards ceremony at Ed and Mully’s.
Pre-registration costs $15 and is available online. Day-of registra- tion costs $20.
Visit www.white sh-banked-slalom.eventbrite.com to register now.
Going on an adventure? If you would like to be featured in “Mountain Exposure,” email information to news@ atheadbeacon.com.
OUT OF BOUNDS ROB BREEDING JUMPING THE CORNERS
WESHOULDALLBERELIEVED to hear that Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti has determined chess is forbidden in Islam. The game is a waste of time apparently, and leads to gambling. So don’t expect speed chess tournaments in Mecca anytime soon.
No word on if will actually become law, but these are crazy times in the Middle East.
Chess, of course, is played on a board divided up into 64 squares — I know there are math nerds out there who’ll insist the number of squares is really 204, but we’re not going there. Pawns are the low- liest piece on the board, able only to move dead ahead. Pawns are so wimpy their primary value is that they can become something else. When a pawn makes it all the way across the board they can be traded in for more valuable pieces that have already been captured.
There’s another thing they can do. Pawns are allowed to move diagonally, across the corners, if the move captures an opponent’s piece.
Pawns moving across corners. That’s something many of us would like to see here in the West, especially on the plains where a lot of land is inaccessible because states have not passed appropriate laws allowing citizens walk to their prop- erty. You’ve seen the chessboards on the maps, usually yellow for BLM land and white for private. In many cases the land might as well be all white as far as the pawns who own it — that’s you and me — are concerned.
BLM land is public, despite what the nut job Bundy clan keeps insisting in their tragicomic occupation in Oregon. And for the life of me, I cannot fathom the idea that someone who owns that land can’t simply walk from one square to the next, avoiding the white squares just like a pawn exing it’s one bit of board game muscle.
I get that a vehicle is di erent, as is dragging out an elk. But that’s not what
I’m talking about. I’m talking about walking. Corners are often marked by fence lines, and when they’re not, GPS units can nd them. But in Mon- tana, where reports indicate more than 800,000 acres are locked up by the lack of a decent corner crossing law, or in Wyoming where the number is around 400,000, lawmakers haven’t seen t to write new rules allowing access.
That doesn’t seem to be the case in every state. I haven’t tested the law in Washington (nor anywhere for that mat- ter), but I’ve read that apple pickers cross corners freely. I’m not suggesting you go try it without doing your own research, but the fact that there is variation from state to state reminds us this remains unsettled law.
What we could really use is either a wealthy deep-pocketed access activist, or a group of rabble-rousers like the ones who challenged trespassing signs on the Bitterroot River a couple decades ago. You’ll need deep pockets because you may very well end up in court with some wealthy dude from back East on the other side. That’s what happened in the Bitter- root, but the trespassing charges didn’t stick when the rabble-rousers appeared before the local justice of the peace.
I’m not sure where a corner trespass challenge would lead. A 1979 Supreme Court ruling determined that the govern- ment did not have a right to build a road across private land to access landlocked public land, so that’s the law. But expand- ing that ruling to cover stepping over a corner pin seems a dangerous infringe- ment on public property rights.
Since 1979 technology such as GPS now makes reasonable identi cation of corners possible. GPS will also show that a lot of the fences out there aren’t where they belong and encroach signi cantly on public land, but that’s another matter.
Corner crossing reform is a doable thing. It’s our land. Pawns or not, we should be able to enjoy it.
er
Rob Breeding writes and teaches when he’s not shing or hunting.
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JANUARY 27, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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BANKER PROFILE:
JERRY BYGREN
Market President
More than 40 years at Flathead Bank A generalist. Working with commercial credits, depository accounts, community activities
jbygren@ atheadbank.com
837-1603
Jerry Bygren
If you don’t know banking you need to know a great banker