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Al Giddings was in his 40s when he almost had a total meltdown. And out of that near meltdown, came the rediscovery of mountains. Pushing off into Weber Lake in the Sierra Nevada of California in 1980—where he hadn’t been in twenty years—Giddings threw a fly into the lake, toward a big sunset. His two-day vacation turned into three weeks, and from there, into a move to Montana.

Reunited with his love of fishing and hunting, he called a friend in Livingston to ask where the best fishing in the country was. “This is Mecca,” she said of the Yellowstone River. That was all it took for Giddings to fly to Bozeman, rent a car, and eventually make the Paradise Valley his home.

“I drove into the Valley,” he recalls in a gravelly voice, “And I thought ‘this is Heaven’”. He bought almost 3,000 acres nestled below the Absaroka Mountains and built a two-level, log and cedar home with a wrap around deck and a hot tub facing the imposing 11,000-foot Emigrant Peak. He added three ponds and 2000 trees to create an idyllic site in the middle of an Angus grazed ranch.

What’s odd about this story is not that a four-time Emmy winning director bought a big spread in Montana, but that an Emmy winning underwater director and cinematographer bought a big spread in Montana—hundreds of miles from any ocean.

The ocean, until recently, is where Giddings worked and played. From directing and filming natural history documentaries, to shooting underwater scenes for Hollywood blockbusters, to designing underwater cameras, lighting and optical systems, Giddings goes full throttle into any project he gets involved in.

Giddings is best known for his undersea camera work and direction, seen in Hollywood blockbusters such as The Deep, the James bond flick—For Your Eyes Only, The Abyss and Titanic, of which he was a co-producer.

Additionally he swims in the world of natural history documentaries, listing Galapagos: Beyond Darwin, The Living Edens: Palau and Mysteries of the Sea, as just a few of the films that fill out his lengthy resume.

What is a man, so dependent on the ocean for his livelihood doing in land-locked Montana? He’s getting back to his roots. Giddings father was a fish and game Captain and raised his son with a fly rod in one hand and a .410 shotgun in the other. He spent his summers in the California High Sierra, hunting and fishing beneath granite peaks and domes.

Around the age of twenty, Giddings—a competitive swimmer in high school—got involved in a SCUBA business. It was that transition that took him out of the mountains and into the sea.

Giddings got excited about diving while spear fishing in the 50s and decided to figure out a way to make diving a career. A couple years later he traded his spear gun for a camera and started selling photos to magazines.

Emboldened by his quick success in selling underwater photographs, Giddings—along with a friend, Leroy French, opened a dive shop near his hometown in Marin County, California. Like most new businesses, the dive shop didn’t make a lot of money right away, so to subsidize his income Giddings began selling underwater camera gear that he had designed for his personal use.

From there, Giddings worked for National Geographic and his career really began to grow. Still photos led to natural history films and soon to theatrical features.

“I maintained a foot in two very different camps,” he explains. “I’d be working with scientists—discovering the Titanic, looking at life in the deep ocean—and then every few years cross the double yellow line into the theatrical world.”

Giddings was the first to film humpback whales underwater, the first to film great white sharks in slow motion, was one of the first divers to explore the shipwrecked Andrea Doria, filmed 240-foot deep breath-hold dives, fought off sharks, and the list goes on and on.

Besides being driven and talented, Giddings was lucky. He entered the underwater filming world at just the right time to pioneer equipment and techniques. It was a time when the world beneath the water was ripe for a momentous jump in technology and equipment.

While his first love is natural history films, “there was the financial reward of doing a Hollywood pot boiler every few years,” Giddings laughs. Beyond the money, he appreciated another difference between shooting documentaries and theatrical flicks: “Nothing had to be checked or rechecked; the sky’s the limit, nothing has to be real.”

One gets the feeling that there are no rules in Giddings’ life. He walks briskly and talks briskly, staring the listener right in the eyes. He madly pursues and achieves his dreams and visions. He’s charismatic and forceful. In his 60s now, Giddings is still a broad-shouldered force to be reckoned with.

It’s these traits that allowed an underwater cinematographer to operate out of the Paradise Valley. After building his sportsmans’ retreat-like home, Giddings built a state-of-the-art studio so that the “National Geographic, Discovery people etc., wouldn’t think I hung up my snorkel.”

The 20,000-square foot studio compound is home to movie posters and memorabilia from his vast career—hand carved wooden statues flank either side of Giddings’ desk. Purchased from the artist while paddling a small boat through Truck Lagoon in Micronesia, the life-sized figures, along with floats, nets and other ocean art, lend a nautical air to his mountain office.

Down the wide, blue-carpeted staircase is the film editing studio. There, Giddings and his assistant Donna Pace sorted through countless hours of film and video and distilled the “finest, most exciting material” into sixty categories (each an hour or two) of color-corrected, digitized masters.

Giddings credits himself for anticipating the move to HD (high definition) format. In a 1997 interview in Fathoms, he said, “My friends are saying this revolution is going to be something like the change from black and white to color. I disagree. I think the change is really going to be more like the change we realized going from radio to television!”

He was right. Currently, HD is all the rage and Giddings owns what is likely the largest library of underwater HD footage in the world. And it’s stored amongst a couple hundred Black Angus on a 3,000-acre ranch.

What Giddings didn’t anticipate when he first bought the ranch was that the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem would become a Mecca for the wildlife film industry. With the arrival of the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in 1991 came many of the movers and shakers in the industry. “All of the sudden the biggest gathering of wildlife film producers, buyers and sellers were meeting in Jackson,” Giddings recalls.

It wasn’t just wildlife film folks that were flocking to Giddings’ new home, it was his old friends, too. With an uncanny knack for keeping in touch with people, Giddings has had a steady stream of visitors since he first arrived. The man, who attended an elementary school reunion in his 60s, seems to always have a visitor or two around the house.

“I started seeing more people here than when I wasn’t in Montana,” Giddings laughs, his blue eyes catching the light. It turns out that Montana is a great place to be an underwater cinematographer and director.

In addition to the other souvenirs of his illustrious career, Giddings’ studio walls are adorned with pictures of the filmmaker with some of the eclectic collection of people he’s worked with throughout the years, Robert Shaw, Sean Connery, John Kennedy, Jr., Kim Bassinger, the list goes on.

Of course, there are pictures with Jim Cameron—Director of The Abyss and Titanic, both of which Giddings worked on. But, there is also a photo with Cuban President, Fidel Castro.

During his five expeditions to the waters around Cuba, Giddings and Castro became good friends. “Our common interest wasn’t political, but the underwater world,” says Giddings. Castro’s personal passion in life is diving, according to Giddings. Castro supplied his Navy personnel to help Giddings’ crew navigate the local waters for a month when he was filming Cuba’s Forbidden Depths. Castro even spent an evening on the ship.

These days Giddings is spending less time chumming around with Castro and more time restoring classic 1930's cars. He’s sold his HD editing system, and cameras are being pushed out the door by cars in his camera shop-turned-garage.

He beams when he explains, “I’ve turned my energies full force into vintage restoration and the car collecting world.” Giddings is working longer hours now than he did while filming, which equals a lot of hours for this non-stop worker.

“I’m enchanted with the engineering of the 30s, the art and the symmetry…there is a beautiful grace in these cars and their stunning history.” Specifically, he is enamored with Willys Knight cars. Currently, Giddings is restoring a1930 Willys Knight 66-B Plaidside Phaeton—the only one known to exist. It will be a candidate in the 2007 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, an automotive charitable event held each year in Pebble Beach, California, considered the most prestigious event of its kind.

From mountains to oceans and back again, Giddings has spanned the globe following his passions. “I’ve had a fabulous career; the whole of my career has been pretty charming.” He adds with characteristic enthusiasm, “I’m totally excited about the next frontier”.

Distinctly Montana
July 09, 2007

Spring Skiing Festivals

The days are longer, the sun warmer, buds are unfurling and insects are hatching, but it’s not time to store those skis, yet. Around the state, spring skiing festivals are in full swing, ushering in the change of seasons.

The common denominator in spring skiing seems to be craziness. Skiers and winter enthusiasts shed inhibitions—and sometimes common sense—along with their heavy jackets.

The 4th Annual Spring Run-Off at Big Sky Resort has folks navigating across (or into) a 100-foot pond on skis and snowboards on April 14th. If plunging into water doesn’t sound appealing, there is still music, food, drink, and an after party.

At Red Lodge Mountain Resort they also celebrate the end of the ski season with food, music and drink. But, they add a little something extra to the mix—the Locals Dash for the Pass Race. In an effort to win a season pass for the following year, skiers race from the top of a beginner run to the Bierstube pub. There they de-boot, dash into the restaurant and stuff their faces with yucky foods like jalapenos and cold French fries before washing it down with a pint of beer.

For those with sensitive stomachs and a charitable heart, Red Lodge also hosts the White Stag Race as part of the end of the season celebration. Guests “bet” on skiers to finish first and all the money is given to a non-profit organization. And on April 21st, the very hearty can skin to win in the Grizzly Peak Challenge. Before racing down the 3-mile ski hill, they must first climb 2,400 feet to the top. Prizes are given to the first person up, as well as the first to descend.

Don your light layers and get out early before the snow turns soggy and mushy, and enjoy great spring skiing. Then head to the lodge for an end of the season party.

Big Mountain hosts a Rites of Spring Party 406.862.2900
Big Sky Resort 406.582.4772
Red Lodge Mountain Resort 800.444.8977

Mushroom Hunting

Mushrooms and fungus and toadstools, oh my! That brown, nondescript lump lurking under last autumn’s leaf litter might just be the crux ingredient in tomorrow night’s dinner. There’s a whole world of delectable, dangerous, delightful fruiting bodies hidden on the forest floor just waiting to be discovered by an intrepid hunter.

After the snow melts and spring rains fall, mushrooms—the reproductive part of a much larger, underground fungus—begin to sprout straight from the ground. In general, they can be found throughout the forest, under logs and leaves and occasionally right out in the open.

But the best place to search for mushrooms is in areas that burned last summer or fall as they provide ideal growing conditions, especially for tasty morels. Be careful, though, because many edible mushrooms have toxic look-alikes. Only those who are experts in identification should pick mushrooms.

A visit to the local National Forest Ranger District office can lead to many places to explore. Pour over maps with Forest Service staff to find out where fires prepared the land for perfect mushroom growing conditions. Then grab a mushroom identification guide and spend the day—or a few hours—looking for hidden treasures.

If you aren’t an expert, but want to hunt shrooms safely, take a hike with a fungal expert.
Members of the Western Montana Mycological Association (just sign up at their website www.fungaljungle.org) can participate in a morel mushroom hunt with those in the know. Dates depend on the weather. It’s also easy to hook up with other fungi-ophiles at the website.

Wildflower Walk

As swollen creeks rush full from snow-capped peaks and critters care for their new young, spring wildflowers begin to pop from the ground. Gracefully bowing glacier lilies and flushed throated spring beauties follow retreating snowpacks; in moist soil, rosy wild onions being to unfurl and in open fields prairie smoke nod their pink heads.

Head into the woods, prairies or mountains this time of year and new life abounds, but nothing puts on a spring show like wildflowers. Around the state U.S. Forest Service biologists lead curious flower lovers searching for rare and common blooms. In some places they team up with local nature centers or outdoor schools to bring a unique perspective to flower-finding.

After meeting at a trailhead, groups head into the field with plant identification guides and magnifying glasses. Most Forest Service walks include an introduction on how to use a wildflower guide, a quick lesson on what flowers to expect where and one-on-one assistance on identifying found flowers.

By the end of the walk, everybody can tell fairybells from fairy slippers—buttercups from balsamroot—and know a little something about the botany, medicinal uses and the significance of the flowers as well.

The Montana Wilderness Association also leads hikes around the state—some of them focused on wildflower identification. These walks explore mountains, canyons, prairies and forests and cater to all levels and ages of hikers.

Local gardening clubs and botanical societies are good sources for spring wildflower walks and identification slide shows. By tapping into local knowledge—garnered by years of exploring—much can be learned.

In addition to being able to pick out and name spring flowers, learning about local wildlands through one of their most beautiful inhabitants can instill a connection that lasts throughout the season.

Montana Native Plant Society http://www.umt.edu/mnps/
Montana Wilderness Association 406.443.7350 ext. 107
U.S. Forest Service http://www.fs.fed.us/

Biking in the Parks

Crisp morning air, steamy hot springs and bison grazing on just emerging grass blades await springtime cyclers in Yellowstone National Park. Capping the north end of the state, Glacier National Park is home to cascading waterfalls, mountain goats with fluffy white kids and returning bird songs.

Both Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks open their roads to bicyclers, roller bladers, walkers, joggers and other non-motorized users in early spring—before cars are allowed access to the roads. It’s a way to experience the Parks that few people take advantage of, but more should.

Summer crowds can make biking the National Parks challenging, if not dangerous (and in many places not allowed), but in the spring the roads—and the Parks—belong to those willing to work for it. Instead of driving from one designated look-out point to the next, barely noticing what’s in between, bikers get the chance to enjoy their journey at a slower pace and notice the small details.

The plowing begins on the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park the first week in April. Plows start at the bottom and work their way up to the pass, clearing the way for bikes as they go. The road opens for cars in late May or June. Camas Road is also open to bicycles, but it isn’t plowed, so bikers may hit drifts of snow along the way.

From about mid-March (depending on the weather) until the third Tuesday in April, the road between the west entrance to Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs is plowed and open to non-motorized traffic.

Glacier National Park 406.888.7800
Yellowstone National Park 307.344.2109

Kite Festival

No one knows exactly how kite flying got started, but it is believed that kites in one form or another were hanging in the sky in China over 2000 years ago. Rumor has it that the first kite was born when a Chinese farmer tied his hat to a string to keep it from flying away in the wind.

The kite sailed from China to Korea to India, and eventually on to the United States, morphing forms with the uses different cultures expected from it. Today, the kite is an intrinsic part of Helena’s rites of spring.

Child Care Partnerships (CCP) hosts the 17th Annual Kite Festival in Ryan Park May 6 from 12-4 p.m. The kite festival is CCP’s way of giving back to the community each year and brightening up the sky with every color of the rainbow.

Everyone attending the festival is given a kite if they don’t have their own. And while kite flying is the central part of the day, there are a plethora of family-centric activities as well.

St. Peter’s Hospital puts on a child car seat clinic, food vendors doll out yummy treats, Clydesdale horses pull wagons full of kids (and their parents) and faces are painted. Each year holds different surprises, but live music, good food and multihued kites can all be counted on. The history of the kite lives on in Helena.

Child Care Partnerships 406. 443.4608

Distinctly Montana
April 16, 2007