People & Place

C.M. (Charlie) Russell lived with one foot planted firmly in each of two centuries.  With the first foot, as a young adult, Charlie spent most of the latter part of the 19th century as a cowboy, exchanging sheep-herding for cattle wrangling, with planned side-trips and encounters with the last vestiges of the roaming Northern Plains Indians, while dabbling in drawing and art.  His other foot was planted in Great Falls toward the turn of the century, where he took up residency as a full-time artist, producing nearly 4,000 works of art during his remaining years.  Charlie was a cowboy, an artist, sculptor, writer, historian, and early environmentalist.  A bit of a Luddite, who abhorred the auto, his final wish to be carried to his burial by a horse-drawn carriage took place in 1926.

 The C.M. Russell Museum: Great Falls, Montana. “A place where the Old West is still alive.  Artist Charles M. Russell captured the...

As I swung my tool and it latched into a small pocket of ice, my feet cut loose from the small edge of volcanic rock I was balancing on.  I gingerly moved onto the ice, took a deep breath, thought about being light, and shared a look of confidence with my partner. I continued up the overhanging ice, topping out in deep snow and wallowing to a big pine for the belay.  The late season ice was warm and plastic, ideal conditions for a winter escapade in Hyalite Canyon, Montana.   

I belayed my partner up the pitch and looked down canyon and took in the views, much as one would savor a sip of fine wine. Twin Falls and the striking Cleopatra’s Needle framing the west, a bit north the Scepter and Mummy climbs, and in the lower canyon the novice-friendly Genesis area with the stout Unnamed Wall across Hyalite Creek. 

Tucked in the woods and hidden by...