Posted on February 10, 2008God Willing and the Pass Don’t Close Remember, the party is now at Missoula Notebook on NewWest.com: I see it like this: if Montana weren’t the kind of state where avalanche risk can close highways, it also wouldn’t be the kind of state where my wife and I can drive an hour from our house and snowshoe around on top of a hundred inches of snow so fresh and smooth and untouched it looks like some giant has arranged immense scoops of vanilla ice cream all the way to the horizon, which is the best way I can think of to describe the conditions we enjoyed up at Lolo last weekend.