Snomo in couloir

... I would support a reasonably scoped proposal, but that I saw what I'd seen proposed thus far as a bit of an over reach. ...

Thanks again. Please check out our maps referenced in this article of three different Proposals- www.justgetout.net/Wenatchee/21163

WMC has taken into consideration input from folks posting here and on Snowest. As well, we took into account input fram various stakeholders in meetings. Those ideas are reflected in the various Proposals. Thanks for discussion.

I see an interesting shift in the community from wilderness based adventure skiing to a more utilitarian concept of pursuing steeper terrain by what ever means necessary.

Perhaps the ease of skiing steep terrain with new gear helps shift the focus.

The bigger the gear, the more likely flat and moderate terrain is to be considered a slog... making the option of motorized access seem more appealing.

Funny reverence for motors and noise among a demographic formerly wilderness orientated.

Planners will need to deal with the motorized access issue sooner or later.

Thats an interesting and new idea TE. I'm not sure I agree that TAY has shifted the way you suggest( it would be great if it did .. but thats purely a personal preference) but I do agree that the steep skiing exploits and tr's being posted by TAYers recently is very impressive and suggest that the level of ski mountaineering in the Cascades right now is very high. Poor Lowell is working overtime keeping up with all the new descents.

The more powerful snomobile isn't going back in the box and is here to stay no matter how much the solitude of the forest crew wish it would. Just as better skis have promoted the advance of steep skiing as you suggest, the more powerful machines have advanced snowmobiling as well,  hence the colouir sled vids.
Shocking to some I know but as Splitter says why should snowmobilers be restricted to flat boring terrain and logging roads only. Skiers wouldn't like it if they were were restricted in the same way,would they?

I think everybody agrees that snowmobiles shouldn't be poaching in Wilderness areas and wish we could stop the renegades who do so and create such a bad rap for other law abiding snowmobilers but thats an enforcement problem thats going to be difficult to solve.

Louie Dawson ,son of the famous Lou Dawson of Wild Snow  blogfame and the doyen of Dynadevotees recently posted a TR on wild snow of a snowmobile assisted steep ski exploit on Baker. He didnt break any rules as far as I can tell.  He got some flak from those that hate snowmobiles anywhere in the mountains and there are many who feel Baker should be completely snowomobile free. If I was going to Baker and I hated snowmobiles I would avoid the area where they are allowed, not go there and then whine about it.

They are here to stay and yes some regulation and compromise is going to be required in the future but its still possible to completely avoid snowmobile areas if one chooses to do so as WMC admits.

Just like where mountain bike trails that have been developed and banned pedestrian traffic I think there should be areas that snowmobilers can use where skiers are banned so that the snowmobilers don't have to avoid them and listen to their complaints.

Likewise there should be areas where snowmobilers are not allowed.... oh there already is, its called wilderness.

In other places this issue also occurs. While Wilderness is protected those areas classified as such were places high (usually with low resource value) and remote.
The remoteness of these Wilderness Areas during the winter and spring focus most winter recreation into the more accessible terrain closer to towns and year-round roads. With increased use of these non-Wilderness sections of public lands, most National Forests seem to be making efforts to develop workable winter travel management plans. This appears to not be the case in the Wenatchee area referred to in this thread. Part of winter travel management planning is separating uses and enforcing the restrictions.

I have spent years working on trails with snowmachines and will accept the ride or tow occasionally, but noise is a factor for many skiers and factors into decision making process when creating travel plans for National Forests.

Figure this out at the local level so the regular users can have more input based on local knowledge and/of specific sites. Better the solution be local and community driven than dictated by groups and planners from outside the area.

WMC - thanks for re-posting the link to your site. Looking at your map for "proposal 3," I'm close to inclined to support it, though the Teanaway portion still strikes me as catering to a currently small group of skiers (those who can and want to sled roads to access tours, versus those of us w/o sleds or those who sled up to ridges and such to access terrain). You recently posted here a notion of including an ask for a sno-park at Beverly Creek. Are you serious about that proposal? If so, have you had any discussions with the folks who plow for sno-parks regarding how realistic that would be to achieve? That notion would make the "proposal 3" map a no-brainer to me.

I see an interesting shift in the community from wilderness based adventure skiing to a more utilitarian concept of pursuing steeper terrain by what ever means necessary.

I think of it as commodification of the backcountry. When people started talking about "getting the goods" a while back, the process was well underway.