I don't think there's anyone you can talk to that doesn't say I've never seen a winter like this.

There's years that we struggle and years that we thrive.

There's something about a tougher season that just really shows you how amazing your people are.

We're seeing the impacts of climate change.

We're not really sure how that's going to play out.

Glacier is seen as kind of the poster example of climate change.

Global warming, tourism.

They are things that I think about every day and worry about every day.

[♪ ♪] MELISSA WEDDELL: Tourism in Montana is one of the top industries.

If climate change increases, it's often hard for us to imagine how bad it can be and how to fight it.

Low snowpack, low rivers, Flathead lake is low.

You know, all these things start to happen.

Then people shift their travel behaviors.

BEN EISINGER: The best part of any day is putting on waders because, you know, you’re about to go do something fun.

To some people, fishing is not that important.

To me, it's my life.

It's it's what I live for.

When you're fly fishing, you can't think about anything else.

You know?

You're not thinking about what's going on anywhere else.

You're just simply looking at that fly, hoping that fish eats it.

And when it does, you're so in the moment.

There's a lot of things, whether it's zebra mussels, different kinds of invasive species that we're worried about getting in our river systems.

Global warming, tourism, they’re things that I think about every day and worry about every day.

[Rushing water] [Boat splashing] Your job is to build rapport.

Make sure that you're controlling everything that you can control, and making sure that they're having a fun time.

And we're fortunate enough to live in Montana where going down a boat on any river is second to none.

The trip itself, whether you're fishing or not, getting to go down these glacier fed rivers is amazing, and we're fortunate to have that.

When you talk about a river that's glacier fed, it's not necessarily coming from the existing glaciers.

If it was just those glaciers, we wouldn't have any water.

It's got to that point.

Westslope cut.

[♪ ♪] [Small rippling waves] STEVE THOMPSON: Glacier National Park is a international icon of the issue of climate change.

Glacier National Park, plus everything else in this area that is part of the crown of the continent.

Recently retired as a nonprofit, executive director and now volunteering quite a bit as chairman of Climate Smart Glacier Country, which is an all -volunteer organization, focused on trying to create local climate solutions here in Flathead County.

JEFF MOW: Glacier is seen as kind of the poster example of climate change.

I had a 34 year career with the National Park Service.

And I retired from the National Park Service four years ago as the superintendent of Glacier National Park.

You know, people have often said national parks are America's greatest idea.

[Rushing river] MOW: Where there's inheritance that we have in the in the United States, that you, it's not common elsewhere in the world.

This is where we live.

This is our community.

It is a gateway community for Glacier.

But, the people that live here, Glacier is some place we love dearly.

And this is our home.

We got a lot of issues here that we need to get our arms around.

Receding glaciers, really low river flows, wildfires, wildfire smoke.

They can all have a real disruptive impact.

We're seeing the impacts of climate change.

You know, rivers are low.

The waters are warm.

Because we haven't had the snowpack.

We're not really sure how that's going to play out.

[Waves splashing] [♪ ♪] JESSI WOOD: I've noticed them saying, “holy cow, how are you able to maintain such good snow with this little snow?” So I've got a very talented grooming staff that is maintaining thin coverage really well.

And my patrol is keeping this mountain safe and operating what we can operate, well.

So I'm proud of my crew.

In the state of Montana there are 15 public ski areas.

And everybody knows about Whitefish Mountain Resort and Big Sky.

Those are large resorts.

Blacktail is a small, independently owned and operated ski area, which is what most of Montana ski areas are.

And our mission is to provide mountain access to this community.

This year is a slow year.

It’s been, we've had a low snow year.

I do believe that there are peaks and valleys all the time.

There's definitely cycles.

I always watch the five-and ten-year cycles.

We've weathered several variations of winter in the 28 years that we've been here.

And I feel like no two seasons are alike, and we are constantly adapting and changing.

Bottom line is tough to hit.

And so we are trying to keep skiing and mountain experiences affordable for the community we service, and that's expensive.

So, we're we're always kind of trying new things and moving sideways to try to add opportunities here, and maintain a bottom line.

We are really fortunate to be an upside down mountain.

This is not the normal way ski areas operate.

We can operate just the top half so we are able to meet most of our days.

It impacts us in that we aren't able to operate our full ski area.

And I'm not able to maintain a full staff, because I don't have all of my operations open.

We could get- ELI SHERIDAN: Yeah, we could try that one.

The 39, for sure.

If we get that one down and that one down.

four and one, let's go to four.

[Crunching snow] [Laughter] Mountain goat..try and sidestep that.

THOMPSON: Yeah, there's an old saying that everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

37 [Snow clanging through tube] Right on the money.

Actually, that one’s high.

MOW: There are some things that seem to be occurring more and more often.

That is the the longer, drier summers.

The length of fire seasons.

How early in the season snowpack goes away.

SHERIDAN: Yep, this is the snow course measuring the depth of snow and the the water content in the snow.

SHERIDAN: So we'll go back to number eight Because there's snow up at the top of the mountains.

But mid elevation, low elevation, really low snow.

And it's going to affect everything.

Fourteen.

Fourteen.

SHERIDAN: but the snow on these hills and the at the Blacktail course, melts down into the valley and ends up as part of our data that we monitor.

What does the climate science tell us?

What have been the trends?

What are the projections?

One of the things we said is we're going to see diminished overall snowpack.

So our low is 31.

Oh.

So helps cut.

Low.

Definitely low.

A short way to put it.

There has to be water on the mountain to enjoy it.

MOW: You know, people who have come three years ago come back and they say, wow, look how much it's changed.

So it's something that visitors take away and they really sort of internalize climate change.

March 1st.

It was the warmest winter on record in West Glacier.

That's cumulative effects of climate change.

CLIFFORD FLAMMOND: You wouldn't have to check the snow like 15 years ago.

You just knew.

It's March, I can go to Big Mountain, I can go to Blacktail.

But now it's, “when’s the latest snow?

How long is it going to hold on?

If I do get up, there, is it going to be bad conditions for skiing anyway?” Like, it’s this question, you got to do a lot more research.

When before, we could just say, “Hey, grab your snowboard.

Let's go.” And it would be, “Okay, yup, let's grab it and let's go.” [Laughter] [♪ ♪] WOOD: We have, that that community that we serve is very loyal, and I'm very grateful for every one of them.

Our passholders come no matter what.

And we've definitely seen fewer visits from out of towners this year.

Oftentimes, people will be visiting the Flathead Valley to ski Whitefish, and they will do a couple of days here at Blacktail.

We've had less of that this season with the low snow year.

KRISTIN BLACKLER: This has been an abnormally warm year, by all accounts.

So, low snowpack, warm weather, winds, all of these things make for a difficult ski season.

WEDDELL: What I hear from our tourism partners on the ground, is they've actually had a decent winter because there was snow and people could ski.

By not having snow in the valleys, people would ski part of the day, come back into town, and go shopping, and eat, and hike, and do other things.

Visitor spend has actually been really strong.

MARTY SUNDE: So, it's definitely been a little harder I'm sure, for Blacktail Mountain and, a little harder for those of us that love it to you know, pursue it as aggressively and with as much enthusiasm as we used to.

I think I think we saw them adapt.

We knew we still liked to ski.

We wanted to get our 50 days in, if we could.

And, yeah, you know, we had to ski parts of the mountain instead of the full mountain.

And we just made them, you know, we said, let's make the most of it.

BLACKLER: It's been wetter.

And not the traditional coldsmoke powder that we think about.

Aspects of climate change that I think people struggle with is it isn't just all at once.

We might have a banner year, next year.

We might have we might just with the atmospheric rivers, be in a pattern such that we get a bunch of snow and people forget about this, but really, it's likely to be this kind of on off, on off.

And how do we, keep the momentum and, preserve skiing culture?

And so what we expect to see over the next coming decades is no snow at lower levels.

So, likely to get more snow, still get snow up on top of the ridge, but it won't be down in the base area.

So looking at how do we adapt to that with increased snowmaking?

ROSS SPENCER: It's just been a struggle of finding snow and being able to put it in the right places and open certain certain terrain, I guess.

Typical year, we're usually pretty close to being open around Thanksgiving.

We usually open around December 10th to 12th, is usually our opening date.

This year we just didn't have the snow.

We had the snow in October, but we didn't have it in November.

WOOD: We're doing our best to keep skiing affordable for locals and also pay our bills on time.

And so lower visitations makes that hard.

And there's there's years that we struggle and years that we thrive.

I ask a lot of my crew, and in a time where I don't have the ability to reward them as I should, you know.

I think recognizing the resiliency of small ski areas and seeing that there are 15 ski areas, 13 of us are little guys.

And recognizing that what we do isn't easy.

And we do it out of love for community and skiing and winter.

[♪ ♪] EISINGER: The rivers in the southwest portion of Montana have been Hoot Owled I think, 3 or 4 years in a row.

That's devastating to any business that is connected to fly fishing or fishing at all.

It doesn't feel good to catch fish because you know they're struggling already.

WEDDELL: Hoot Owl laws are around the idea of when hoot owls are out and when they hunt.

Our rivers will close down after 2:00 in the afternoon.

Personally, when things go on Hoot Owl, I just stop fishing.

You know, if the fish are that stressed, I just, you know, I'll fish another place or another year.

You know, Hoot Owl, where the river’s that warm.

So I think we're 71 degrees, and we might have hit 72 degrees one day.

And we decided as a group, my guides, my outfitter and I, that we were going to stay off the river in the afternoon as much as possible.

What we run into, people planning their vacations, are calling and booking trips, and you know, they'll book four days on the Clark Fork in August, or on the Flathead.

And it's it's a difficult conversation to have on the phone that if the state puts Hoot Owl restrictions on, that our plans will change.

Overall, I feel like the lack of moisture has just made it a lot more unpredictable.

Like for example, this year we've had a really busy early season, which never happens in January, February.

But and then in the back of your mind, you're you're wondering, is that at the cost of August, September?

When we don't have enough water, the water gets too warm.

Cutthroat.

It's too cold to be out there, buddy.

The last few years with the low snowpack and so forth, I'm fishing a lot earlier, like June and July for sure, because you never know what August and September are going to be.

Just overall unpredictable.

And and that's the part that is a struggle.

With this winter, it's enabled a lot of people to get out and fish when they otherwise couldn't.

All righty.

Yeah, once we come down around this bend, we'll start fishing.

EISINGER: Most people are pretty optimistic.

But again, as a fly fisherman first, shop owner second, I can't help to think.

Are we going to pay the price in August if it gets too warm?

If we don't get more moisture?

It could change rapidly and it's great hearing the feedback when they come back in the shop and tell you about what a great day they had.

But again, will that flip-flop?

It might come off.

It's off, I think.

Oh, it's not.

Is it?

Nope.

Oh, there it goes.

Did it pop?

Yep.

[♪ ♪] MOW: Unpredictability.

And I've always said this about climate change is, you know, it's not that everything's going to be warmer or everything's going to be colder.

It's I always describe it's like somebody pull turns the volume up on the weather.

So whether it's going to be your hot and cold, it's going to be more extreme.

And I think that's one thing that is a challenge for those who live here and for businesses that, that serve the visitors that come here.

It's just the unpredictability.

I guess my main message is it's not a passive deal.

I think there's no question anymore that the Glacier National Park and our beautiful clean lakes and the and the rivers and the wildlife and the grizzly bears and the wolverines and this amazing suite of amenities that we have here.

We have agency.

We can do things to create trail systems and to protect our public lands.

This whole project of the Whitefish Trail and the conservation of lands and maintaining public access, and that's really a way of knitting our community together.

As time goes by, with with more disruptions in our climate and our weather, and those are the type of skills and practices that are really going to become more and more important.

We just can't take it for granted.

And at the same time, we can't just despair and throw our hands up and say oop, the climate is changing.

There's nothing that we can do.

In fact, there's a lot that we can do.

[♪ ♪] AUTOMATED VOICE: Press pound when done.

Press star to cancel.

WOOD: Good morning, snow riders.

This is Jessi with your Blacktail Mountain report for closing day Saturday, March 28th.

It is currently 38 degrees with winds of 5 to 10mph out of the west, and visibility is unlimited.

Groomers are reporting no new snow and a settled base of 30 inches.

We will be sliding today on packed powder and machine groomed runs with the Magic Carpet, Thunderhead, and Olympic lifts in operation.

We are skiing on the top half of the mountain today.

Thunderhead Skiers and riders will load at the midway station.

Please obey all rope lines and closures they are in place for your safety.

We are looking at some classic spring conditions this morning and looking forward to corn snow when the sun rises.

Come and join us as we celebrate this season.

Visit our website at Blacktailmountain.com for updates and information.

I'll see you on the slopes at Blacktail Mountain.

We make breakfast every Saturday morning for the staff, and we have a quiche tradition for two reasons one, the staff loves it, and two, it's a nice, easy breakfast.

There's something about a tougher season that just really shows you how amazing your people are.

We'd had some rain the week before that really kind of depleted our snowpack.

And so we made the decision to conserve our efforts and our snowpack for one big final day, today.

[♪ ♪] I love this day.

I love celebrating.

There's so many people that came out and just took one run and gave me a hug and said, thank you.

And, it's it's bittersweet because I love being here, and I'm so sad that I'm not going to see all these people next weekend.

We're, of course, looking into everything.

You know, we we are looking into plans for snowmaking, but whether or not that's something that's financially viable for Blacktail is a big question.

But most small ski areas you're going to find they're they're not making a ton of profit.

They are continuing to provide a service and employment.

And that's that's what the goal is.

Shortening seasons are a challenge.

And I just every, every season show up and cross my fingers and do my best, I guess.

EISINGER: I think it's just a matter of time before we deal with something that's so out of control that it could shut us down for a time period.

THOMPSON: It's incumbent on those of us that live here, to help be stewards of Glacier National Park and the communities outside, the the public lands, everything outside of Glacier National Park as well.

MOW: Maintaining what we can in a changing environment and a changing climate.

You know, that's part of the responsibility of maintaining public lands.

WOOD: Every year is different.

I'm hopeful for a big snow year.

We'll see if it delivers or not.

And we're optimistic.

I mean, we're we're here to say we're not going anywhere.

[♪ ♪]