After a few days of seeing family, we packed up the truck and drove across the plains to visit our friends Zach and Grete in Whitefish, MT. The snow seemed to follow us from Japan and we were treated to some of the best snow Whitefish had seen all season.

Two days of stormy powder skiing later, the skies parted and we were able to get into Glacier National Park to climb and ride Mt. Stanton. The approach wasn’t easy as we walked several miles on the road and dry trails with our boards on our back. Eventually, we hit snow and climbed our way up the mountain.

The views were stunning from the top and we rode perfect corn all the way down to the snow line.

So back to the title of this blog…yes, bear spray was a part of our backcountry kits! The bears this year seemed to be waking up earlier than usual, so we took the extra precaution of carrying a can of bear spray (and being loud on the trail).

Big thanks to Zach and Grete for letting us crash at their place for a week and showing us around!