May 2005
Update from the Friends of the Routt Backcountry (FORB), Steamboat Springs, CO
Our season started with our annual Backcountry Ball Fundraiser and Ski Art show, with "bursting at the seams" attendance. Next year we will be enlarging our area! The increasing support for the work has been encouraging. In March, FORB hosted the 5th Annual Wooden Ski Festival at Columbine Cabins. In addition to the Men's, Women's, and Kid's Races, we had a "boil-em up" race that required participants to ski about 1/2 mile, boil a cup of snow, and ski the 1/2 mile back to the finish line. Johnny Walker got the most creative points in this race for boiling his water over a fire he started with flint, steel, and sticks! Our advocacy work on the Routt National Forest covers a large area. There are four distinct, yet interrelated areas of concern which include Rabbit Ears Pass, the ski area buffer zone (also known as the Toutes), Buffalo Pass, and North Routt/Hahn's Peak area. We are currently awaiting a decision on the first three areas in the USFS new Winter Travel Management Plan. Different committees have been formed to handle specific areas, as they each have their special issues.
The "Toutes" committee comprised of users of this ski area buffer zone recently met with Steamboat Ski Area representatives to discuss the proposed buffer zone. We were encouraged to hear that the ski area is "on record" for endorsing this buffer zone. FORB "spotters" report many snowmobile trespasses into non-motorized suggested-use zones, particularly in the Toutes area, Hogan park Trail, Walton Peak, and most recently in the proposed non-motorized area on Hahn's Peak. Blue Sky West, the snowcat operator on Buffalo Pass, has also seen a large increase in snowmobile trespass in their snowcat operating areas in the past two years.
On the other side of the "trespass" issue, I truly feel that there are many local motorized users who are trying to respect suggested use boundaries, particularly in the North Routt area. Trespass issues primarily occur during weekends and high-use periods, such as President's Day Week and other holidays; this leads us to believe that those not respecting non-motorized boundaries may be from out of town. These issues can be mitigated with education, maps, and signage.
A persistent question, which comes up with all of these areas, is how will the USFS enforce motorized closures in these areas? Who will pay for it? We're interested in learning about other areas which have come up with creative plans for enforcement of boundaries.
We are anxiously awaiting a decision by the USFS on their new plan, which has been delayed now until early spring. North Routt has seen many changes this year, beginning with the sale of Steamboat Lake Outfitters' entire fleet of snowmobiles to another snowmobile outfitter located at the end of Seedhouse Road. This takes considerable pressure off the access roads around Hahn's Peak to the north side which snowmobilers use to reach their favorite play areas. States Parks recently acquired a 161-acre property as a connector property for snowmobiles to gain access to these same trails to reach the other side of Hahn's Peak. It is these clients who need to be directed away from the suggested use skier area. The work in North Routt is a continual evolution.
FORB is working on a "member incentive program," offering a few extra perks for those who are members of our chapter of the BSA. One perk is the use of two new Tracker DTS avalanche beacons. The developer of the Tracker, John Hereford, donated one of the beacons in memory of a local skier, Michael Gebhardt, who died in an avalanche this winter on Buffalo Pass. Thank you, John! We also have discount coupons for cross-country packages to Yellowstone National Park. Please keep in touch as we anticipate the need for letters when the final winter travel plan is released sometime this spring.