Last month, we walked through the East Side and up Peet’s Hill. Several kids, one in a football helmet, were sledding the mini bowl. Clouds covered the Bridgers, but a huge vault of blue spread over the valley. Bench legs stood in green patches melted by the warm sun. A dozen chickadees were having a noisy frat party. A few sets of deer tracks broke the hill’s crunchy coating.

On the walk back, the front door of a house swung open. Someone went out for porch packages. We heard a grouchy, “I hate winter!” and their fast retreat. We laughed. Hate something and it often hates you back.

​How to deal with winter? There are many vids online about winterizing your house (change the furnace filter midway; ceiling fans clockwise, on low), vehicles (tires!), and garden. But how to winterize yourself?

Some tricks: Set up a bedroom lamp on a timer so you don’t get up in the dark. Staying hydrated isn’t just for summertime. Get a few real pairs of gloves.

​However, the biggest hack involves your mind. It’s about perspective and attitude. The reality is that winters in Bozeman aren’t that bad. For every out-of-stater reading this and scratching their head, three are saying, “Yes!”    

For one, we don’t have humid summers or humid winters. Damp cold fills your clothes and sinks into your bones. Here, if it’s 20ºF some clear morning, the humidity is low. At 1ºF it’s even drier. We’d rather hike or ski in 15ºF, 20% humidity weather than 35ºF and 90%. 

​As for winter temps, the average high in the valley is 37ºF, above freezing. Most of the top half of the U.S. can’t claim being that mild. Yes, it gets colder here. Sometimes much colder. But, when we get an Arctic blast of 10ºF or lower it doesn’t last nearly as long as it does to our east. Below-zero temps stick around in Minnesota and Manitoba for weeks.

Montana east of the Divide has sunny winters. People in NYC and Michigan—not just Seattle—don’t see the sun from late October to Saint Pat’s, or even Easter. Some sources claim Bozeman has 300 sunny days a year. Other data shows 200. Definitions make discrepancies. Digging deeper, Bozeman has 188 clear, bluebird days and 112 days with some sun—a full-sun afternoon after a rainy morning, and the blue-sky days with cotton ball clouds. That leaves only 65 overcast days. That’s just two months, spread around the calendar. It’s rare to have more than three socked-in days in a row in any season. Note that Montanans in Model T times called the bright, gray times “silver skies.”

Another local magazine recently used a cliché about fall being brief, even though people were still wearing shorts the first week of October (not rare), and it was 70 in the shade and 85 in the high sun the day after Halloween. That’s possible a couple years per decade, while two other years it’s snowy for much of November. It was even 20Fº warmer here than in Tampa for a few days. Fall isn’t short. And winter isn’t automatically longer; it’s December 1 to March 1 (meteorologically), and December 21 to March 19 (astronomically), like the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. The basic fact is that living in the Rockies means it can snow at middle elevations in the fall and spring. This is part of life in all mountain ranges, from the Alps to the Andes. Also, it could be worse. Bozeman’s snowiest month is January, but in Colorado Springs and Cheyenne it’s March and April. 

​Winters aren’t created equally around Montana. If there’s a foot of snow at Chico, there can be none in Miles City or north of Helena. Elevation is key. Winter weather is often milder or shorter in Missoula and Billings than in Bozeman. The east side usually has more snow than the western ‘hoods, burbs, and Belgrade. The west end of the Gallatin Valley, lower and in a rain shadow (and with a longer growing season), gets fewer flakes than the Fort Ellis area. Butte and West Yellowstone have harsher and longer winter weather. But, this flips during a temperature inversion. Cold air is dense. I once saw it +22ºF south of town at 5,100 feet, but -22ºF at Three Forks (4,100 ft.) during an “Albertan Visit.” Note that town can get that cold; the blast in 2022 was brutal but brief.

​For some people, the pain point isn’t colder temps, it’s shorter days. Something many Montanans know: Vitamin D3 is your friend; enough in the winter greatly improves energy and mood. We now know D3’s role goes beyond calcium metabolism and bones. It’s crucial for immune function and serotonin formation. Serotonin brings the fuller sense of well-being vs. the fleeting enjoyment of dopamine. One is a really good, long meal. The other is a Labrador retriever scarfing a cookie. Most Americans are D3-deficient in all seasons, even those with lighter skin. Research also shows that as we age we make less D3 when exposed to sunlight. Look into D3 supplements.

​As far as day lengths, these could also be worse. Much worse. The earliest sunset in Boston is 4:11 p.m. The city is at sea level, so it’s pitch black before 4:30. In Seattle and Edmonton, sunset on Christmas is 4:20. This is 3:50 in London, 3:45 in Anchorage, and 2:50 in Stockholm. Imagine nightfall two hours after your lunch break. Instead, Bozeman’s December sunsets are like Denver’s. They’re south of us, but they’re also farther east in the same time zone. We beat them during the opposite side of the year, with an hour more light in the evening. 

A surprise for many people is that sunset and sunrise times are staggered. They don’t line up with the Solstices —the shortest and longest days. My Army Ranger grandfather pointed this out when I was young. If you’re reading this the second weekend in January, know that we’re already a month past the darkest. The earliest sunset in Bozeman is on December 9 and 10, although the shortest day is the 21st. Our latest sunrises are consequently after the Solstice, at New Year’s. (The same thing happens in summer, reversed. The earliest sunrises begin before June’s Solstice, and the latest sunset times extend into July.)

​An antidote to winter blahs is simply noticing the days getting longer. On January 10 we’re back to 5:00 sunsets and nine hours of light. On January 25 we have an hour more light than at the Solstice. Groundhog Day has sunrise at 7:45 and sunset at 5:30, meaning it’s still light out at 6:00+. Our first 10-hour day is February 6. Four days later, February 10 lines up with Halloween—at that point we return to October day lengths. Mark that on your calendar.

Things change quickly late January to late March. Our first 11-hour day is also in February, on the 26th. Farther north, the rate of change is even greater. Folks from Fairbanks will say they add seven more minutes of light per day, each day. Of course, they lose at the same rate in the fall.

​Montana isn’t so extreme. We’re not as far north as many Americans believe. Bozeman lines up with Northern Italy and Southern France. The Storm Castle area and Ennis Lake are due west of Venice. Head up to Helena and you’re straight across from Switzerland. Great Falls has the latitude of Budapest, and Glacier Park lines up with Paris. Sure, it doesn’t snow in most of Texas, although the Panhandle can have some wicked blizzards. Then again, they’re due west of Africa.

​Deep winter for the Ojibwe, Dakota, Lakota, Nakoda, and Blackfoot of Montana is Storytelling Time. The longer nights are filled with detailed histories and sacred tales. Snow on the ground means spirits are sleeping. It’s also more respectful to speak of bears, turtles, and frogs as they nap. 

​We get winter in Montana. It’s inevitable. There are tricks to handle the cold and shorter days. Get outside. Move. If you don’t have time, money, or the knees to ski, walk around your neighborhood. (Clear your sidewalks, people; it’s the law.) Head to the same routes—Sourdough, Sypes, Cherry Creek, Madison Buffalo Jump—as your fast summer treks. Boots pack down the trails; snowshoes not needed. Remember, there are miles of trails in town, and not just the Gallagator. Greenway and Harvest Park trails connect the Mall with Gallatin County Park. Above all, keep things in perspective. Montana’s winters are not humid, and do not have the prolonged cold or gloom that engulfs much of the northern U.S. and Canada. We can also get also warm chinook winds—taste tests of spring in the middle of winter.

Winter is a time to slow down—especially when driving—recoup, and regroup. Think of January as the Sunday Afternoon of the Year. With some practice, winter becomes a season which gives you vitality instead of taking it away.