Stop skin track mutilation !

I'm sure we're all tired of our hard work making skin tracks mutilated by snowshoers etc. But what to do about it ? I'm going to try placing some glacier travel wands with "please, skis only" written on them with indelible marking pen in my skin track . Put them where there is room to start a new track . Pick them up on the way out. Other ideas ? (non violent)

Not much you can do, Joe.

I try and keep the multi use and skin tracks seperate, but I travel with mixed crowds often and multi users in the same track just happens - who wants to split the group just to keep the tracks seperate?

Usually, if a track gets snoeshoed then that's the track other snowshoe users will use. Just make a skin track next to that and all will be fine. Like the Zen buddhist, you just have to let your angst go. Enjoy the mountains and forget about being the Mountain Cop.

Two options:
-The snowshoed skin track is still better than no skin track. Skin it.
-The snowshoed skin track is too terrible. Make a new one.
Note that in either of these scenarios, you should be grateful for the fresh snow.

I've witnessed MW8 and his ilk snowshoeing a (day-old and 7" buried) skin track. I was grateful for the powder.

Nice turns last Thursday, right M? I was happy to skin your snowshoe track, except where it was too steep.

Then that was you, Sky. Fancy seeing you once again on a Powder feast day. Glad you made it out before the storm hit.
You're right, Sky, new snow is always a salve for pain.

[And indeed, a track buried in new snow is fair game - whether created by skin or snowshoe!]

Better snowshoes than snow machines!

Skiers appreciate aesthetics and elegant lines... like a spider weaving a beautiful web, they leave behind an efficient, optimal and graceful track to the top of a mountain.

Snowshoers, on the other hand, are destroyers of beauty.

There is nothing a snowshoer likes more than a good skin track.  When they set sight upon them, they begin to drool, and they just can't help themselves.  They must destroy it.  It's their nature.

Perhaps you have you heard this old parable?

Once upon a time, a skier and a snowshoer were standing at the base of the mountain.  The snowshoer was clueless,
and couldn't find his way to the top.  He asked the skier:

"Will you break trail and show me the way to the top?"

"No way!  If I do", said the skier, "you will follow me and destroy my beautiful skin track."

"Why would I do that?  If I did, I would be destroying the grace and beauty that is your skin track, and this would anger
the mountain gods.  I will walk along side your track."

The skier thought about it for a moment, and it seemed reasonable, so he broke trail and let the snowshoer follow him.
After several hours, he reached the summit and turned around just as the snowshoer was arriving.

He saw that the snowshoer had destroyed his skin track entirely, punching holes where before there was only a smooth
surface.

The mountain gods were angry at this desecration, and sentenced snowshoers to an eternity of moving slowly and inefficiently.

"Why did you do that?" shouted the skier. "Now your sport sucks!"

"I know, sorry... I could not help it - I'm a snowshoer - it is my nature."