Like a lot of people around here, Packy Cronin came to Bozeman to go to MSU (read: ski Bridger Bowl) and never left. During the fall of his freshman year, Rolling Stone Magazine ran an article featuring Tom Jungst, Doug Combs and company skiing The Ridge at Bridger. The iconic photo of Jungst skiing an impossibly narrow chute had a big impact on Packy, and he immediately set his sites on two goals: to ski like that and to take photographs like that.

Packy grew up in Hawaii, surfing the North Shore. His first camera was a Nikonos Mark IV, manual film camera. He would swim out to Pipeline and take 36 shots, then wait a week to see what he got. 

“The water angles of surfing back then were pretty new, and I really enjoyed sharing the experience. I was interested in continuing that theme in Montana.”

Not long after the Rolling Stone article came out, Cronin met his wife Melissa, along with her parents Lonnie and Mary Ball, who are very passionate about skiing and photography. Since then, Melissa has been his partner and model in all the adventures Montana has had to offer. The playbook is pretty simple, yet powerful: go have a ton of fun, take pictures, share them, share the experience. 

“I’ve been incredibly lucky to have a partner to share these adventures with. From skiing and snowboarding, to biking, climbing, kayaking, and now snowkiting,Southwest Montana has provided us with all of it. Sharing it through photographs is the natural extension of that stoke.”