Winter in the Gorge

By: Tyler Bradt

By KAVU

February 6^th, 2024

This year, for the first time in 20 years, I attempted something which for me is a bit challenging…...

Winter

I was born and raised in Montana and started skiing at the age of three, but since my freshman year in high school, I had yet to fully embrace a proper winter season in the Northern Hemisphere. My love for kayaking had always sent me packing for warmer climates as soon as the rain turned to snow. This year was a bit different. With a big film project taking primary focus, it was clear I would be ‘putting in the work’, and weathering winter in the North.

Luckily, I took a few measures to make it a bit more than survivable....

Living in a tiny house, it’s hard to find space for everything. So naturally, I decided to expand my horizons and add a bit of functionality and lifestyle to my already great living situation. I started these projects years back, but now with winter quickly on the way, it was time to get things finished.

The first thing I decided might be a nice addition... was a solid hot tub, sauna, shower set-up.

So, I found an 18 foot tiny house trailer, built a cedar deck for it, and on top of that placed a hot tub before building the sauna and shower room.

It still has a bit to go, and the story deserves an 'Adventure Story' of its own, but for this winter... the sauna and hot tub of the spa wagon have been firing.

Warmth and relaxation has been a welcome reprieve from the frigid temperatures.

Next, I finished up my office house, where I knew I would be spending a lot of time editing.

This was a tiny house which was given to me by my brother after an old growth Ponderosa fell on it making it only inhabitable for pack rats, squirrels and bats. It was a hard job tearing it apart and rebuilding it, but at long last, I have a proper office.

My good friend lets me stay on his property, right on the river, so these houses are nestled cozily in a forest by the water and only a literal 'stones throw' away from some of the best paddling on the West Coast. I sleep to the sound of the river, and wake up everyday feeling lucky to be alive in such a wonderful place.

This would also be a winter season to remember. After a warm, dry start, things escalated quickly with a blizzard coming right down the pipe of the gorge, leaving us with about three feet of snow and ice plastered into every crack and crevice. My tiny houses turned into a back country ski hut, and I spent a couple of weeks with skiing into the houses as my only means of access.

Next came the Pineapple Express, a warm atmospheric river event which doused the snow with multiple inches of rain over the course of a couple of days.