A few weeks ago, one of my friends and I skied into Kintla Lake in the North Fork Valley of Glacier National Park to help with an ongoing wolverine study. Researchers and biologists are trying to get a population estimate of the number of wolverines who call Glacier their home. Wolverines are the largest member of the weasel family. They range in weight from thirty-five pounds in the lower forty-eight to forty-five pounds in Alaska and the far northern reaches of Canada. They are a very elusive animal, which not much is known about their daily lives and habits.
This study has been going on for nearly a decade and researchers started out setting these log cabin like wooden traps in the back country of Glacier with frozen dead beavers placed inside to lure wolverines into them. As soon as the wolverine would come into them a trap door would close locking them in. Researchers were alerted when this happened, so they could get there as fast as possible by cross-country skiing into these places with a veterinarian named Dan Savage, which then they would tranquilize the wolverine and surgically implant a GPS unit inside the wolverines. If the biologists don't get in there quick enough wolverines will eat and tear their way out with their razor like claws and powerful jaws known to crush through bones. Wildlife biologists have tried all kinds of methods tracking and radio collaring wolverines, but wolverines have such a huge neck that they can take the radio collars off by sliding and slipping them over their heads. The research being done is ground-breaking research of an animal that biologists know little about.
They are known to drive grizzly bears and other animals off of their kills and are known to be a fearless creature that dens in the alpine and is known to climb mountains in the park in record breaking time and up routes that climbers have tried to replicate and were turned back from. A wolverine known as M3 climbed up Mt. Cleveland, the highest peak in Glacier National Park at 10,466 ft, in the dead of winter in an hour and half.
After a couple of years of catching and trapping wolverines now the last couple of years researchers and volunteers such as myself have been volunteering their time to ski into remote places in the park in several drainages to set up ten foot posts that we stand erect and we lag bolt front quarters of deer legs (that we find outside the park), to the tops of these posts then we screw in twelve wire-mesh gun cleaning brushes along this post to snag wolverine hair as the skunk bear (wolverine) climbs these posts to get to the legs. We also wipe animal lure consisting of beaver castor oil and skunk glands underneath the frozen deer legs to attract the wily critter. Through this study they have estimated about 40-50 wolverines calling Glacier their home. Unfortunately, the state of Montana still allows the trapping of four wolverines a year throughout the state and they have no idea of how many live in the state. They only live in a few remote biological islands (areas set aside as wilderness areas and national parks).
My friend and I skied into Kintla for three days and two nights. The first day in there the sky was a gun-metal steely gray day with clouds hanging low enveloping mountain summits with the occasional glimpse of the white snow covered icy tops. We skied in there March 24-26 half expecting to catch a glimpse of the legendary grizzlies who sometimes stay up all winter competing with lions and wolves for their kills. On our ski in there we did not see many tracks at all of much life until about a mile below the foot of lower Kintla Lake where we came across numerous fresh wolf tracks tattooing the fresh coat of three foot deep snow.
Snowshoe hare, whitetail deer and elk tracks also graced the snow covered road we were skiing upon. We pursued canus lupus (wolf) tracks to the foot of the lake and skied over to the post at the dock and noticed no carnivore hair on the brushes, but looked as if down feathers from eagle and ravens on the top brush. They were landing on the deer leg and pecking away at the flesh and ate most of the meat. We took down the post and bolted another fresh deer leg to the post and then began skiing across the lake. At first we were little bit sketched about skiing across the lake due to the warming temperatures haunting the lower valleys this winter. We found it was sturdy enough to ski across but we only decided to after noticing other animals dotting the snow across the thin veneer of snow covering the lake.
We skied the five and half miles across the lake and were happy for this opportunity to ski it because if the lake is not frozen, one has to walk along the trail the seven miles to the head of the lake to the cabin because a rain/snow shadow that is cast over the western shore reveals a diaphanous amount of snow that is just a dusting creating a perfect wintering range for numerous animals. Kintla Lake is one of my favorite places to go to in the winter because of this weird weather phenomena attracting me like a long lost lover year after year that calls me back like a salmon going back to its birthing grounds. A few carcasses coated the snow copper with dried blood, deer hair and bones scattered on the lake ice.
We woke to lake ice communicating in a strange archaic language older than words as the spirit of the lake reverberated and echoed inward and outward as the lake ice thickened. The next day was a brilliant bright bluebird day with temperatures rising into the sixties. Avalanches thundered off of Long-Knife Mountain throughout the day sending warnings to animals on the slopes or in the path of the white freight train. After a casual morning of eating a nice breakfast and drinking coffee we hiked to the Upper Kintla Lake. We were not able to ski up there because the rain/snow shadow casts its mark all the way to the upper lake and only a dusting of snow lined the trail. Fresh giant grizzly tracks met us in the snow about a hundred yards behind the cabin. By mid-afternoon we were stripping off clothes and walking around in tee-shirts and shorts and boots. Our skin was soaking up the much needed vitamin D as we basked in the sun taking our time and enjoying the feeling of being so remote.
The griz tracks followed the trail most of the two point three miles to the foot of the Upper Lake. The griz tracks were probably from the night before or the day before. The bear probably just woke up from hibernation and might not be to excited about meeting us and might be terribly hungry. Numerous deer and elk tracks also dotted the snowy trail besides the G bear tracks. We were both surprised that we did not see any wolf tracks between the two lakes. Mountain lion tracks were noticed in the avalanche chute coming off Long-Knife Mountain at Long Knife Creek.
We found the post in the avalanche chute after searching for it for over two hours. The post was on the ground the meat was gone and what looked like wolverine hair or bear hair was all over the brushes. Whatever animal it was knocked the post over and took every last bit of it meat and bone away. That was one of the most glorious days I have had back there as far as warm temperatures in the five winters I have skied back there. The next day greeted us with warm temperatures and a glacier gray day hung over the valley with a slight mist falling from the sky. I found griz tracks down by the lake shore the next morning that were not there the day before. We also followed griz tracks along the eastern shore over half way down the lake that were not there two days before when we skied in.
