Celebrating the Mountains

Sheena Pate may have grown up in the hills of Texas, but she always knew that the mountains were home.

“I love snow and I can’t stand heat and humidity,” Pate said in an interview last week.

Today, the Columbia Falls woman is the project coordinator for the Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council. Celebrating its 10th year of existence, the council promotes geotourism from Banff to Missoula, including a map of places to see to go and see.

Published in cooperation with National Geographic, the free map just had its 1 millionth printing.

But what is geotourism and what qualifies as a geotourist attraction?

“Geotourism is tourism that enhances the geographical character of the place,” Pate explained, including the environment, culture, heritage and aesthetics of an area.

For businesses, that means focusing on the local community, enhancing the integrity of a place, sourcing locally if at all possible, hiring locals and giving back to a community.

In other words, businesses that are good stewards of the towns and landscapes they live in.

“We’re looking at the well-being of communities,” she said.

Pate’s career didn’t start in the tourism field. Growing up in Texas, it was family trips to Colorado that got her hooked on the mountains. Most of her family works in the oil industry, so she has a well-rounded perspective on many issues.

“I can sit in the middle and see both sides of stories,” she said.

An avid runner and hiker, Pate and friend Mike Foote started a running club together at Colorado Mountain College. Foote went on to be a nationally-known endurance runner and they’re still friends today.

It was on a road trip with the running club that she first came to Missoula. She transferred to the University of Montana and graduated with a degree in environmental studies. She would eventually go onto become a hydrologist at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and met her husband Adam while working for the park service.

They didn’t make much money, but they had a lot of fun and caught a lot of fish, sometimes out of necessity — the fish made the protein part of an evening meal on more than one occasion.

Adam got into the fishing guide business and they decided to move to the Flathead, sight unseen, back in 2005, when Adam got a job with Glacier Anglers as a fly fishing guide.

After various jobs in the Flathead, Pate became the Crown Geotourism coordinator four years ago. Today she’s busy working on projects and building up its website, https://crownofthecontinent.natgeotourism.com which has cool features that allow visitors to plan their own itineraries, from where to hike to where to eat and stay.

For example, if a person chooses Bigfork, there’s a list of local hikes, activities and other things to do in the area.

But the site isn’t a tell-all, either. If it’s a sensitive location, they take pains not to advertise it, she notes.

She’s still working on a site specific page for Columbia Falls. Pate gets out in the field and hikes the miles she writes about.

The Geotourism Council is funded through the Montana Department of Commerce, Kootenay Rockies, Alberta Southwest Regional Alliance.

The executive committee that oversees the project includes the Montana Department of Commerce, Alberta Southwest Regional Alliance, National Parks Conservation Association, Kootenay Rockies Tourism, Blackfeet Nation, Alberta Parks and Environment, Alberta Culture and Tourism, Waterton Chamber of Commerce, Whitefish Convention and Visitors Bureau, Montana Tourism Advisory Council Member, and Travel Alberta.