KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — A search continued Tuesday for a backcountry skier reported missing near Big Mountain over the weekend.

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said the missing man is 62-year-old Jonathan Scott Torgerson of Columbia Falls, a physician at North Valley Hospital in Whitefish.

Torgerson was reported overdue Saturday night after skiing alone outside the boundary of Whitefish Mountain Resort just before a storm moved in, bringing strong winds and a foot of snow to the area.

On Sunday, wind gusts up to 50 mph and wind chills near minus 30 were reported near the top of Big Mountain.

Curry says Torgerson’s family told searchers he was wearing an avalanche transceiver but they had not picked up a signal.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A family says an Orem man they considered to be part of their family died in an avalanche in Wyoming.

The Deseret News reports Alex Marra of Orem died Saturday after being trapped in an avalanche near Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

According to Teton County Wyoming Search and Rescue, Marra was trapped in Rock Springs Canyon late Saturday morning.

Officials say Marra’s ski partner was not injured in the incident.

Seth Saunders says his family saw Marra as a son and brother.

The Marras and the Saunders family met in Bainbridge, Ohio, more than three decades have stayed close ever since.

Saunders says Marra enjoyed skiing and other outdoor sports, was adventurous and lived life to its fullest.

Rob Young has ridden a sled down Table Mountain.

One spring day in 2012, he watched Table from his home perch and knew when he saw the morning sun’s glare off the peak that conditions were ripe for a first descent.

He set out at 3 a.m. with similar intentions as a skier on a spring tour: beat the sun, be off the summit by noon. Except that he didn’t want the snow to soften into corn with the day’s heat. He wanted it as firm as possible for sledding.

He shouldered his European touring sled, called a rodel, to carry it up the steep Face Trail. On the plateau he leashed the rodel to his fanny pack and dragged it behind him. After he reached the summit he sat up there for what felt like a long time, enjoying the quiet and the views.

Then he descended. Rodels are carved from ash and have steering reins and mobile horns that the pilot can steer with gentle foot nudges and weight shifting. On Table, Young used a touring rodel with runners that had a 20-degree cant, better for planing than carving. He had waxed the stainless steel runners as methodically as a Nordic skier would.

He couldn’t sled from the summit block because it was too rocky, but he clambered off the face, sat astride the rodel, and started gliding downhill. He wanted to cover as much ground as possible without losing momentum, so he barely turned and instead rocketed down the hill, reaching speeds up to 60 mph. He slalomed through a couple tree groves and made it to the first flat step on the ascent before coming to a halt and hefting the sled back over his shoulders to hike back to the parking lot.

“Extreme becomes a rather worthless word and I don’t like to use it about sledding,” he said. “All I’m concerned about it the enjoyment.”

Young has lived in the Tetons full time for 40 years and has done every kind of skiing known to man. He got bored of it. That’s when he bought a ’65 Flexible Flyer, the iconic American sled with a cult following. He found it too flimsy, though, and impossible to control.

“Most of what we do in the U.S. is the slide-and-scream, where you find a short steep hill with a run out jump on whatever you can find,” he said. “If you turn it’s an accident.”

Google searches in English didn’t yield anything worthwhile but when Young utilized a little basic German he came across rodeln (sledding). Rodel types are broken into many categories, including rennrodel, which resembles luge on an icy artificial track. Young decided to order a sport rodel instead, from a company in the Italian Alps.

No one was around to teach him to pilot his new purchase, so he figured it out through trial and error. Now he has the technique dialed and enjoys teaching others on the Packsaddle Estates track, which he and his neighbors groom by snowshoe.

“Nothing says you have to go max warp speed with rodel because you have a good amount of control and braking power,” he said. “A beginner can feel really good on most slopes.”

Young has developed a small but dedicated sledder gang that includes his wife Karen and friends like Mike Piggot, Ben Winship and Greg Creamer. He explained that when he introduces some people to rodeln, they light up.

“The joy comes back,” he said. “They get something out of it that skiing used to provide. … As far as I know I’m the only one who brought rodeln here. I’ve been proselytizing and evangelizing. I’m not selling anything besides the idea, the concept. It’s something else to do that’s fun and applies to winter sports — it’s something you do out your back door and it makes use of terrain that’s normally ignored.”

Snowmobile trails offer great opportunities for sledding. Young said that when the track is firm, Relay Ridge can be a phenomenal three-mile ride—after you hike all the way up, of course. Even true backcountry sledding is possible when conditions align perfectly, similar to cross-country crust cruising in skiing.

Young is advocating for Grand Targhee to allow rodeln on the Teton Vista Traverse, saying that it would provide a unique European experience to visitors with no more liability than alpine skiing.

He even has a dryland set-up, a rollenrodel, to play with during the summer. He and Wildwood Room owner Bill Boney have tried out their summer sleds on Old Pass Road and Ski Hill Road, right next to the long-boarders and road bikers.

Young is careful to specify that rodeln isn’t luge, however.

“That’s nothing more than throwing somebody down a trough,” he said. “When I go out I can watch the birds.”

On Young’s Table adventure, he recalls seeing a blue grouse and hearing a pygmy owl and a squawking swarm of Clark’s nutcrackers. When he hiked down from Table, he discovered fresh bear tracks heading in the same direction he had gone.

The Big Holes should be sledding well this week, since the Pedigree Stage Stop sled dog race just came through.

“They make the snow very compacted,” Young said. “It’s delightful, as long as you get around what the dogs leave behind. You can’t wax for that.”

You can watch some of his adventures on his YouTube channel “Turboganz.”

Coyotes have to be the ultimate survivor don’t they? Well, maybe they share the title with cockroaches, but I’m pretty sure that if a nuclear bomb hit in the middle of the country, the next day coyotes would be out hunting like normal, and probably reproducing and their numbers rising.

I see them everywhere. One time I lived in a small town in Colorado and while driving to work early one morning one was trotting down the middle of Main Street pretty as you please. Then another time it hit me as funny. About 8 a.m. I was driving to Boise to teach a varmint hunting seminar at Cabela’s. Right when I was getting on the interstate in Meridian, I saw a coyote working the fence line. So these two stories answer the question of where should you hunt coyotes? Answer: Pretty much anywhere.

In the old days, all we had were hand calls to call them. In those days they taught us to call for a few seconds and then set there for five minutes. Since those days we’ve learned that it works better to call non-stop.

You can still call them with a hand call but it works better to use an electronic call. That way you can set the call 40 yards away from you. That way when they come in they’ll be focusing on the call and not on you.

Start off with the volume a little lower in case one is laying nearby and then increase it. A lot of times I like to start off with a howl and then progress to a dying rabbit squeal. But don’t be afraid to experiment. I you live in antelope country try using a Montana Antelope decoy.

Many times I’ve just hid by a fence line or sometimes I’ll carry a piece of camo burlap and lay over two pieces of sage brush and hid behind it. Another thing I really like is the Throwdown Blind made by Ameristep.

It only weighs 1.2 lbs. and folds up so it is easy to pack around when you’re running/gunning.

Coyotes are nearly always going to circle downwind when they get in close so when possible setup so an open field is downwind of you. If it’s brushy then he’ll sneak in, smell you and leave and you’ll never know there was even a coyote in the country.

You’ll want to camo up good. Face net and gloves included and I like to use a cover scent. I use a lot of Tinks scents, like their Predator Mist.

It’s good to have a bipod to rest your gun on. If you don’t when comes in and you throw your gun up you’ll spook them. A couple of weeks ago while coyote hunting with Texas Best Outfitters the guide and I were setting together and a coyote came in hot. I barely turned my rifle around and it spooked. Luckily in a couple of seconds it came back and I got a shot.

Not that you ever know but try to have your rifle pointed the way they’ll most likely be coming in from and to your left side a little. It’s hard to swing to your right (if you’re right handed. Vice versa if you’re left handed).

What rifle is best? ARs are super popular now because you can have fast follow-up shots but I just got a Mossberg Patriot Revere in a 30-06 and slapped on a Leupold 4.5-14 3Xi scope. I’m headed back to Texas in three weeks for a hog/coyote hunt with it. I like ARs for varmint hunting but because I’ll also be hog hunting, I got the 30-06. A .223 just isn’t big enough for hogs. Plus, in a few more weeks I’ll be going axis deer hunting. For ammo I like using Hornady GMX ammo or some fast expanding bullet.

Jr. had a sweet setup. He has a platform on top of his pickup. A ladder folds down and he has seats up top to set on and a padded rail around the perimeter to shoot off of. It’s great for calling off of at daylight and for spotlighting at night but it’s better to be on the ground during the day.

Well, grab yourself a call and go try to snag yourself a coyote.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

If you were to imagine someone who traps grizzly bears for a living, you’d imagine someone like Chad Dickinson. Large, bearded, deep-voiced. The kind of guy who would much rather be deep in the woods than in an office talking to a newspaper reporter.

His love of being out there is part of the reason Dickinson is slated for his 24th consecutive summer of trapping grizzlies.

“I still love to catch bears,” Dickinson said earlier this month. “For me personally, it’s just seeing them and being up close and getting your hands on them, and treating them the proper way.”

Dickinson’s official title is biological service technician, but he serves as the leader of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team’s field crew. The crew, an arm of the U.S. Geological Survey, goes out each summer and sets culvert traps for grizzlies around the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Once a bear is trapped, Dickinson and his team gather data that inform studies and fuel arguments about the management of the animals — like whether they should be protected under the Endangered Species Act or not.

Endangered Species Act protections were removed from the bears in 2017. Multiple lawsuits have challenged the decision, but delisting critics and supporters alike turn to data that begins with biologists setting a bear trap.

“Other scientists have disagreed with some of the findings, but in general we’re very supportive of (IGBST’s) work,” said Zack Strong, of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Debate is a good thing, and the more information we have to use in our debates the better.”

Delisting has ceded management responsibility to the states, but the IGBST is still largely responsible for monitoring and studying the population, meaning Dickinson still needs to go out and trap bears.

That’s all right with him. He has always liked bears. He grew up on a dairy in Ohio and hunted and trapped as a kid. Moving west was always something he wanted to do, so that’s where he looked when it came time to look for colleges.

“I kind of looked at the areas that had grizzly bears, basically,” he said.

After two years at a community college in Ohio, he landed at Montana State University. Shortly after graduation, he took a seasonal trapping job with the study team, beginning in 1994. He became a permanent employee in the early 2000s, which means his winters consist of data entry and that he oversees two other trappers each summer.

By now, he’s used to the hitch schedule (10 days on, four off), knows all the trap site safety protocols (truck always pointed toward the way out, the doors always wide open in case you need a quick getaway), and can stand the smell of bear bait (mostly roadkill). He’s used to horseback rides into Yellowstone’s backcountry, long drives up rough forest roads and bear encounters don’t scare him as much as the average person — he called it a “controlled fear.”

Usually, they set four or five traps in the same area. Once a telemetry device tells he and the other crew members when one of the trap’s doors has dropped, they head to the site as soon as possible.

If it’s a black bear, they let it go. If it’s a grizzly, the work has only just begun. They tranquilize it and lay it on a tarp. They check the pulse, temperature and respiration. If it’s a new bear, they pull a tooth, tattoo its lip and attach an ear tag.

Ear tags are often how they know they’ve caught a bear for the second time, Dickinson said. It happens once in a while, so there are a few bears he knows well, including one that was euthanized last fall that had been with him from the start.

“He was probably the second or third bear I captured, or helped capture, in 1994,” Dickinson said.

The first capture was in the western part of Yellowstone National Park. About a decade later, the bear turned up in the Gardiner area, on the north side of the park.

Then, this past fall, the bear was caught breaking into buildings and pilfering food in the West Yellowstone area. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks caught it and killed it, deciding its habit of breaking into buildings was too dangerous. It was 27 years old.

Dickinson, now 46, said it was interesting how the bear had reappeared throughout his career.

“We caught him as a sub-adult. He was probably a 2- or 3-year-old. And then to live that long on the landscape, making a living,” he said. “It was interesting to see him kind of move back where he came from.”

PROVO — Three animals were found dead in a residential backyard in Provo Monday, prompting wildlife officials to investigate whether a cougar recently sighted in the area is responsible.

KSL.com said a woman reported that a cougar was in her yard in the area of 2770 N. Foothill Drive approximately two weeks ago, Provo City officials reported on their Facebook page Monday. A resident in the same area found three animal carcasses — a dog, cat and raccoon — in their yard Monday. The animals were all mauled and partially consumed, Provo officials said.

Provo Animal Control officers and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources officials are examining the animals to determine if they were killed by a cougar.

“Reminder — we all share habitat with Utah wildlife,” Provo officials said in the post. “It’s one of the great things about living in Provo. Cougars are secretive animals and nocturnal hunters so sightings are very rare, but if you see one in the city, please call the police or Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.”

DWR officials also offered some safety tips for encountering a cougar:

• Running will provoke an instinctive prey response and the cougar may pursue you.

• Make eye contact with the cougar because they consider that a threat, wildlife officials said. Make yourself look big by opening your jacket, raising your arms and waving at them. Speak loud and firm to the cougar.

• Try to pick children up before they panic and run. When you are picking children up, keep eye contact with the cougar and try not to bend over too far or turn your back to the cougar.

• If a cougar attacks you, you should protect your head and neck, as the neck is the target for the cougar. If the cougar thinks it is not likely to win its fight with you quickly, it will probably give up and leave.

On the evening of Friday, Feb. 9, a young man and his friends decided they wanted to drive up the groomed Teton Canyon trail. Disregarding the road closure signs, they made it as far as Reunion Flat Campground near Alta, Wyoming, almost two miles in, before getting stranded. The driver was unsuccessful in getting help from any friends to tow his Ford Explorer out.

Law enforcement officers were authorized by the forest service to go in and attempt to extract the vehicle on Saturday, but their truck got stuck as well. An attempt to recover that vehicle was successful but the SUV is still there.

District Ranger Jay Pence said that the driver will receive violation notices, fines, and will have to pay for the expensive recovery attempts. The forest service will be hiring a contractor to tow out the SUV.

“It’s a violation of Idaho, Wyoming and federal law, plus a very rude thing to do,” Pence said. “It’s very hard without specialized grooming equipment to buff out those ruts.”

Many of the trail users in Teton Canyon pay for the privilege, whether through snowmobile registrations or donations to Teton Valley Trails and Pathways’ grooming program. According to TVTAP’s grooming report, most of the damage from the two vehicles was repaired by Tuesday morning.

Pence said that every winter, the forest service sees a couple of stranded vehicles on closed roads, but that it’s a more frequent occurrence in the Big Holes. This year the Teton side of the valley has seen several wayward cars —there are currently two up Darby Canyon in the same situation, one with Minnesota license plates.

“When it gets nice people tend to think they can treat groomed trails as plowed roads,” Pence said. “Then they hit a soft spot.”

He advised that all users check online or at the district office about road closures before they go on federal lands.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho officials don’t have to immediately destroy information from tracking collars placed on wolves and by illegally landing a helicopter in a central Idaho wilderness area where engines are prohibited.

U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill earlier this week agreed to an Idaho Department of Fish and Game request to delay his order to destroy the information while the state appeals to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Fish and Game in January 2016 put collars on four wolves and 57 elk in the Frank Church Fire of No Return Wilderness.

Western Watersheds Project sued. Winmill then ruled that the U.S. Forest Service broke environmental laws by authorizing Fish and Game to land helicopters in the wilderness.

Fish and Game also collared wolves though it didn’t have authorization.

SODA SPRINGS — Whoever wins first place at an ice fishing tournament on the Blackfoot Reservoir on Saturday will win an ATV.

Tightline Outdoors is holding the event from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. The fishing guide service, which holds multiple ice fishing events throughout the Rocky Mountain Region every winter, said there are thousands of dollars in prizes, with door prizes being given away every few minutes.

However, the grand prize is an ATV.

“No gimmicks!” the tournament’s website said. “The single heaviest fish wins. Period.”

The event organizers are encouraging participants to register early because events may be capped due to conditions. Registration and additional information can be found at www.tightlineoutdoors.com. It costs $45 to register early, while it costs $55 on the day of the event.