Local outdoor journalist releases book about Glacier

With 600 blog posts, 400 magazine stories, and 17 books on topics from all over the world, local outdoor journalist Bert Gildart is still going strong as a writer and photographer while living in Creston.

“I’ve always wanted to be a journalist, even though I majored in biology I wanted to be a writer,” Gildart said. “Traveling and telling stories about traveling go hand in hand.”

Gildart published his 17th book in January of this year, “Glacier Icons,” and his next book, Montana Icons, is due for release on October 1. Both books consist of photos he took over the last 50 years with adapted versions of stories he wrote for publications such as Field and Stream, Smithsonian, Montana Magazine and even the Bigfork Eagle.

Glacier Icons focuses on 50 aspects of Glacier National Park, ranging from grizzly bears to the melting glaciers to global warming.

Because the book draws on his entire life’s work he said it was difficult to limit himself to 50 topics.

“Some of the glaciers are still there, but Dr. Dan Fagre (Glacier’s climatologist) says by 2020 they will be gone from Glacier,” Gildart said. “But, regardless of whether or not the park has glaciers it will always be a reflection of the features created by glaciers. Those things will always be there, Glacier’s last chapter was written by glaciers.”

Gildart’s work as an outdoor journalist began with a summer job in Glacier National Park that lasted for 13 years during the 1960s and 70s. During that time he also taught science and English at Bigfork High School.

In 1967 he was one of the park rangers at the scene of the first fatal bear maulings to ever occur at Glacier National Park.

A few years after that incident he wrote about the maulings for Smithsonian and that the key to bear survival is to keep people and bears separate.

Bears are one of his favorite topics in “Glacier Icons,” along with global warming and the white tailed ptarmigan.

“All the stories are of interest to me,” Gildart said. “There are so many things you can write about Glacier.”

From 1975-80 his “Flathead Valley Outdoor Journal” was included in the Bigfork Eagle, Hungry Horse News, and Whitefish Pilot, which won several awards with the Montana Press Association.

Gildart’s work also gained recognition with the Outdoor Writers Association of America.

“I guess Glacier was the inspiration for a lot of the writing and photography,” Gildart said.

Glacier National Park may be the focus of “Glacier Icons,” but all of the stories and photos draw on Gildart’s experiences.

He went on to write for several different magazines, traveling as far as Egypt, Europe and Alaska where he often encountered some unexpected surprises.

While writing for Travel Holiday magazine he traveled down the Nile River and took photos of the pyramids and found an Egyptian man using a stick as a pretend gun while shouting “me John Wayne.”

Gildart said the most significant time in his life was spent observing porcupine caribou with the Gwich’in natives of Alaska.

“When you are in your tent and get out in the morning and you look out and there’s a thousand caribou that fan out and engulf your tent and then go on, it is just amazing,” Gildart said.

Traveling is still a major aspect of his work as a writer for Airstream Magazine, which mostly covers national parks and outdoor travel destinations such as Nova Scotia, Olympic National Park and Death Valley.

“Glacier Icons” is currently available at the Natural History Association in Glacier as well as bookstores throughout the valley, and amazon.com. For more information about Gildart and to see some of his work go to gildartphoto.com.