What struck me about the article is that Kautz doesn't come across as just another partier, or even just another powderhound - instead, it seems to me that he was actually thinking about what it means to live a life well:
Friend Jenna Cropley said Kautz lived like we all want to: “purposefully and passionately.”This is the kind of person I want to meet here in Missoula - someone who is passionate and intentional, not just about enjoying the great outdoors (or great beer like Kettlehouse), but about thinking, about writing, about living, about community, about others.
Just a few months ago, Kautz quit his job as manager at Stiegler’s restaurant, took out a business loan and started woodworking full time—a trade he learned from his father.
‘“This is what I’m going to do to make money,” Cropley remembered him saying. “‘How is making wood things going to change anybody? My writing is my real work, that’s what will impact people.’”
Indeed, he always carried a book of poems or politics in his backcountry pack next to his shovel and extra layers. He even laminated his skis with inspirational quotations and had the phrase "lines to ski, stories to tell" taped to the back of his ski helment.
He wrote short stories, made a complete Powder Magazine mock-up with original photographs and writing, published several articles and had nearly completed a book of short fiction to be called The Ford at Penuel.
“Justin was passionate about skiing, true, but he would skip even the biggest powder day to write,” said former girlfriend Elise Stiegler. “And yet, even then, if you came by, all he wanted to do was make tea and talk.”
Friends say Kautz lived the change he hoped to see. He donated 10 percent of all the money he made selling wooden sculptures and engravings to Invisible Children, Inc., which works to educate people about children kidnapped and forced into military service in Uganda.
I know folks like this exist here - after all, Missoula has a reputation for producing people like Kautz - but I haven't run into many of them yet. Which probably means I just haven't searched hard enough.
Of course, I intend to keep looking, and the next time I find myself in Sean Kelly's I think I'll raise a glass to the memory of Justin Kautz...
