Changes at Mt Rainier -- road closed Tues, Weds

I think an advocacy group is a great idea. NWAC and the friends of NWAC are really the only region wide groups that deal with backcountry winter recreation, and their missions are focused on avalanche forecasting, avalanche education, and funding those goals. I think creating a single voice regarding winter backcountry recreation access will help bring what may seem to many as a few people occasionally out skiing into focus as a distinct user group on public lands that is larger than it may seem. With regard to the will when it comes to public meetings etc. I think its true that many of us faced with two days off with a public meeting in the middle would rather go for a tour, but having a group that keeps tabs on access issues could speak on behalf of us and help organize our desire to do nothing but hike and ski into a coherent position. I think it would be awesome if a group like this could be somehow connected to friends of NWAC seeing as how that organization currently is funded and in support of the NW snow sports community.

I think an advocacy group is a great idea ... I think it would be awesome if a group like this could be somehow connected to friends of NWAC seeing as how that organization currently is funded and in support of the NW snow sports community.

I agree. Any advocacy group and its members would benefit from close coordination or formal ties with groups likes Friends of NWAC (I'm one), the Mountaineers (I used to belong), Boeing outdoor groups (and others I'm not too familiar with), Tacoma and other S&Rs (I know there are people on TAY that belong), all three National Parks (we even have Park people posting on TAY occasionally), etc. I think such coordination would be the easiest part, most groups and agencies are eager to be kept informed and to have input. The hard part is forming a group and getting a large enough memberships to gain credibility and pay basic costs. As far a costs go, such an organization could/should be all volunteer, but there are some activities that are so time consuming that one can't expect 1 or 2 people on a board to do it all; but I've found that usually there is someone who can have his or her employee do copying of necessary communications and mailings if the cost of that employee and activity (postage) can be covered, or the materials can be given to a copying business. Thus, a membership fee might be all that is necessary (or, eventually, some very minimal annual dues).

The Washington Ski Touring Club (WSTC.org) Nordic Patrol volunteers are the ones that maintain the existing marked trails -- maintaining even those limited routes is a fair amount of work and sometimes it is hard to field enough volunteers.  On an annual basis the WSTC provides about 2000 hours of volunteer patrolling.  A siignificantly expanded set of marked routes  as outlined above would require something like twice as many volunteers.   Grooming the Paradise Valley road would require finding the funds to acquire, operate  and maintain a grooming machine -- as well as provide snow safety control on the avalanche risk zones above the Paradise Valley road -- especially the steep slope that crosses above Narada falls. 

The Washington Ski Touring Club (WSTC.org) Nordic Patrol volunteers are the ones that maintain the existing marked trails -- maintaining even those limited routes is a fair amount of work and sometimes it is hard to field enough volunteers.  On an annual basis the WSTC provides about 2000 hours of volunteer patrolling.  A siignificantly expanded set of marked routes  as outlined above would require something like twice as many volunteers.   Grooming the Paradise Valley road would require finding the funds to acquire, operate  and maintain a grooming machine -- as well as provide snow safety control on the avalanche risk zones above the Paradise Valley road -- especially the steep slope that crosses above Narada falls. 

Out of curiosity, what does maintaining and patrolling the trails entail exactly? Is this simply a mater of grooming, keeping the fences above the snow, and an afternoon trail sweep, or something more intensive? I ask because I'm curious how it would compare to some of the nordic centers I've encountered back east.

No grooming.  "Nordic" is a bit of a misnomer too.  They are really just "trails", used by tourers, BC-oriented nordic types and a fair helping of snowshoers.

They idea behind marking and patrolling them is so that people w/o much experience have a place to go when they want to "adventure" around paradise and not get hopelessly lost in the process.  Nordic Patrol does a lot of "Preventative Search and Rescue"....aka, help and advise people before they get themselves in trouble. Sometimes they end up being first responders to accidents.  Occasionally they assist true SAR efforts too, particularly when SAR requires a large number of competent skiers to dragnet a wide area.

Here is the info page:
www.wstc.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&clu...708&module_id=105465

There is no grooming and there is no machinery used.

All the trail marking is done with bamboo poles and similar signs that need to be reset each week after new snowfall or settlement.  The routes are set to provide low risk routes to reflection lakes from Paradise and Narada falls.  

Some weeks when there has been heavy snowfall, breaking trail and pulling up and reseting the poles takes all day.  Patrolling the unmarked routes happens less frequently, but has become  more important in recent years as more visitors are venturing farther from Paradise.

Most of what Nordic Patrol does benefits visitors with much less experience than people on TAY, but many search and rescue operations have been avoided and in a typical year Nordic patrol is involved with one or more search and rescue operations.