Hopping into a car for a ride to work or to town is more complicated on the mountain than it is for valley residents. Daines, now retired, drove to the city to start work at 7 a.m. when he worked at the Clark County Fire Department. Still, wintertime driving does involve skills valley dwellers don't necessarily have. Mitchell says neither he nor his wife had ever driven in snow before moving onto the mountain. It's a close community up there.
People really do care about one another.
I've got to tell you, at first I was shaking in my boots going down that hill. I had no experience. I'd pull over and let people go ahead of me until I was comfortable with it. Now, Mitchell commutes into town each day to his job as vice president of sales for a printing company, and says he's not bothered by the snow and ice. I will admit I had a couple days where it was an exciting trip down.