Page 59 - Flathead Beacon // 10.5.16

MOUNTAIN EXPOSURE
OUTDOORS IN BRIEF
WHITEFISH MOUNTAIN RESORT NAMED 11TH BEST IN NATIONAL POLL
SKI Magazine readers named White sh Mountain Resort the 11th overall best ski area in the U.S. in this year’s annual Resort Guide. The local ski resort ranked in the top 10 in seven of 18 categories, including “No. 3 Service” and “No. 5 Value.”
White sh Mountain Resort also
ranked No. 8 for Grooming and No.
10 for Character, Kid Friendliness,
Lodging and Overall Satisfaction.
This year’s rankings tallied the most top 10s ever for the resort.
For the third consecutive year White sh Mountain Resort stands out among the resorts ranked in the top 10 for service as the only resort also ranked in the top 10 for value.
“This ranking re ects the dedication of our employees,” White sh Mountain Resort CEO Dan Graves said. “We are fortunate to have a tal- ented and knowledgeable sta and we thank our employees, and the com- munity members of White sh and its surrounding communities, for their role in making our visitors feel welcome. We would not have attained these scores without them.”
White sh Mountain Resort is scheduled to open for the 2016-17 season on Dec. 7. This winter White sh goes into its 70th season having invested over $10.6 million to improve the guest experience in the last decade. The resort is nishing its remodel of its mountaintop lodge, the Summit House, with a complete remodel of the café and kitchen while continuing the look and feel of the major remodel that began last season.
OUT OF BOUNDS ROB BREEDING BATTLE AT THE FENCE
PRONGHORN HAVE AN INTER- esting relationship with fences. Call it a quirk of evolutionary his- tory, but they don’t do them. Why prong- horn won’t jump fences has never been settled for sure, but it’s almost certainly a function of the ungulate’s adaptation of the billiard-table at Great Plains of the North American continent.
Other ungulates have no problem with fences. Deer leap over them. Elk do the same, but usually make sure they jump just high enough to break, rather than clear, the top wire of a four-strand fence. At least that’s what folks who are in the fence repair business tell me. You may know these folks by their more common name: ranchers.
Bison, of course, just walk through the dang things. That’s a big reason why folks in the fence repair business aren’t thrilled with the prospects of these great beasts being restored to the plains of eastern Montana.
Pronghorn are ba ed by these verti- cal obstructions. While they don’t jump fences, they do scurry underneath them just ne, especially if the bottom wire is lifted at least 18 inches o the ground. Even better, replace the barbed bottom strand with smooth wire, or pull the bot- tom two strands of wire together and run them through PVC pipe. This x is called a goat bar. I’ve seen pronghorn running full tilt duck under goat bars while barely breaking stride.
So we saw a curious thing the other day out on a sagebrush at favored by prong- horn. We came upon a herd of 30 or so animals, and they allowed us to drive up remarkably close. It turned out the herd was trans xed by a battle we hadn’t immediately noticed. There, right along a fence, a pair of bucks had squared o . Their horns were locked in a battle to determine who gets to pick his favorite baby mamas from that audience of does.
This time of year, that’s not all that curious. It’s fall, after all. That pair of
bucks may be fast friends the rest of the year, but for a few weeks they lose all per- spective. What really made this unusual was that the bucks were on either side of the barbed wire, perpendicular to the fence line, and their horns tangled right at the level of that lowest, and in this case barbed, strand of wire.
The bucks fought with a furious inten- sity, but neither seemed to be making any headway. In fact, they seemed xed in place. Then I heard the squeak of wire pulling through the metal staples that held it to the posts.
For a moment we were convinced the bucks weren’t just tangling with one another, but were tangled in the fence as well.
We leaned on the horn.
That got the attention of the does and a few smaller bucks who may have been trying to pick up jousting tips for that fall someday when they’ll get a shot at being the boss. The rest of the herd began to move o , but the dueling pronghorn remained intent on beating one another.
Just as we became sure we were going to have to cut the fence to free the pair of pronghorn, somewhat surprisingly the smaller of the two began to get the upper hand and pushed the larger buck back- ward, free of the fence.
Maybe the horn messed with the big- ger buck’s Mojo? He shook himself o , caught a glimpse of us out of the corner of his eye, and then bounded away, as did his rival.
I’ve killed elk and deer, but never pronghorn. I’m disappointed as they are my favorite big game animal. I’m a sucker for iconoclasts, those quirky critters that simply refuse to consent to modernity, in this case represented by four strands of barbed wire.
Pronghorn have uncompromising rules about the way the world is supposed to be. They respond to our changes with contempt.
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Rob Breeding writes and teaches when he’s not shing or hunting.
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OCTOBER 5, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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