Sounding off on heli-skiing

It seems like once a week, someone comes up with a bad idea for the North Fork of the Flathead.

Our friends in Canada propose coal mines in the headwaters (the latest scuttle is that a company is now doing test drilling for gold in Howell Creek, a main tributary of the river.)

Down in our neck of the woods the annual (no, weekly) debate is on whether to pave the road and how rough the road is and blah, blah, blah.

Lemme just say this: Folks down here haven't even seen a rough road until they've driven the roads in the Canadian Flathead. They are rough with a capital "R." Rough enough to jar the fillings right out of Larry Wilson and Bob Grimaldi's teeth.

But the latest and truly bad idea for the North Fork comes from the fine folks at Triple-X Helicopter, which proposes heli-skiing up on Coal and Winona ridges, just outside of Glacier National Park.

Anyone who has lived here for any amount of time knows that the best time in the North Fork is winter. The snow makes the road bearable, even pleasant, and it's fantastically, wonderfully quiet. It's a nice break from the roar of summer traffic.

(Although last winter I must admit some yahoo in a helicopter buzzed right over me as I walked in Big Prairie in Glacier Park. He dropped down low enough that I could almost see the pilot. I saluted him with the appropriate finger.)

Now Triple X wants to buzz their helicopters up the North Fork to take people heli-skiing on a permanent basis — conveniently asking the state because, if they asked the feds, the answer would be a resounding no.

You'd have to be extremely naive to think that Triple X won't swing that little helicopter of theirs right over Glacier Park for a look-see. We already listen to helicopters and Harleys ad nauseum in Glacier Park, running over Logan Pass all summer long.

But winter is, and should remain, a time of peace and quiet in the Park.

Triple-X touts their business on the radio as "extreme." It's extreme, all right. Their North Fork plan is an extreme-ly bad idea.

You can weigh in on the matter yourself by commenting to Nicole Stickney, Stillwater State Forest, P.O. Box 164, Olney MT 59927.

Chris Peterson is a reporter and photographer at the Hungry Horse News.