Introducing Cascade Backcountry Alliance

Hi Randy,

without being beholden to the generosity of the resort.

Given that the resort and parking lot are on USFS owned land and the area operates on a special use permit from the USFS. I think it is the public that is granting the resort a favor...

Would plowing the PCT lot be paid for using sno-park funds and require a sno-park permit to be displayed? Seems like this would be only partially effective in freeing up space at Summit West -- unless Washington adopted the Oregon model where *all* skiers/riders are required to display a sno-park permit - even when parking in "ski area" lots. I would think would be strongly opposed by ski areas -- even though it seems sensible to me.

If not where would plowing funds come from?

Perhaps the USFS special use permit could be ammended the next time it is renewed to require plowing of the PCT lot for backountry users without a fee.

This would benefit the resort on "peak days" when close to the resort lots fill up early and resort skiers need to park in the silver fir overflow lot and ride the shuttle to reach Summit West or go home sad (and with money in their wallets)

Nice Conrad, great idea. Look forward to helping support

Would plowing the PCT lot be paid for using sno-park funds and require a sno-park permit to be displayed?  Seems like this would be only partially effective in freeing up space at Summit West  -- unless Washington adopted the Oregon model where *all* skiers/riders are required to display a sno-park permit - even when parking in "ski area" lots.  I would think would be strongly opposed by ski areas -- even though it seems sensible to me.

If not where would plowing funds come from? 

Perhaps the USFS special use permit could be ammended the next time it is renewed to require plowing of the PCT lot for backountry users without a fee.

This would benefit the resort on "peak days" when close to the resort lots fill up early and resort skiers need to park in the silver fir overflow lot and ride the shuttle to reach Summit West or go home sad (and with money in their wallets)

Randy,

Your point about the paid vs. free parking is well taken- if there is free parking people will obviously go there first. The Oregon sno-park system is a bit more fair to all users in that sense, although I’m sure some oregonians could point out flaws. The main point here is that it takes money to make these things happen. At this point, we don’t know exactly how much funding would be required, nor how much would be available from the fs/dot/etc. In an ideal world, we as the CBA will be working to close a potential funding gap through events and fundraising efforts. We will keep you posted on where our talks with the FS go.

To add on here: another big part of our mission is to help distribute user impact to different areas outside of the current overworked spots. I would love to hear from people about access points that are currently underutilized or not available in the winter that we might advocate and fundraise for plowing.

To publicly answer some questions we have received by email:

What about carpooling?

Sure, we’re all for it. Obviously carpooling would go a long way towards improving congestion at crowded trailheads- Stevens Pass is the most clear example. We would love for more people to carpool. There’s basically two ways to get people to carpool: a carrot or a stick. Carrots being better parking, faster traffic lanes, etc. We don’t have much control over these sorts of big infrastructure projects, although we can certainly help resorts develop these incentives. We also might be able to partner with private companies that offer group transport to help them get the word out about their services. The only stick we have is shame: we can basically try and guilt people into carpooling more. However, there’s only so far that goes , as people are free to ignore you and drive separately. Carpooling and transportation in the Cascades is a huge issue, and we simply don’t have the tools to address such big systemic issues- although we will do what we can.

Why don’t you have any projects in the (Olympics, White Pass, Fill in the blank) area?

First, we only have the resources do so much. Second, some areas of Washington already have non-profit advocacy groups, such as El Sendero in Wenatchee. In the Olympics, the Hurricane Ridge Winter Access coalition made a big push for opening the road more, to limited avail. If you feel you have the time and resources to make a difference in a place we haven’t identified, or even in a place we already have, please let us know.

Thanks for all the responses thus far.

Cheers,
Conrad

Randy,

. I would love to hear from people about access points that are currently underutilized or not available in the winter that we might advocate and fundraise for plowing.

One access point that was recently lostvwas the East Bound Price creek rest area. When it was open it was underutilized, I think because only the very ancient Prater snowshoe book mentioned it and because of snowmachine usage.

Expanding the sno-park at Gold creek would help as well.

Hi Conrad,

I think a page detailing the members of your board of directors would be huge, similar to the winter wildlands alliance < winterwildlands.org/board/> ;. Speaking of which, I think it would also be telling to know how the CBA is to be structured. How will the board of directors be chosen? Do you have an executive director? Obviously you are probably still working out the details but I would be curious to know if you do have a plan. 

If you can gain statistical information about backcountry users you may be able to leverage that information into getting a piece of the pie provided by Washington's Recreation and Conservation Funding Board. I know little about the grant agency but have always been curious if we could shift a bit of the pie our way. Currently we have no representation on the Recreational Trails Program Advisory Group &lt; www.rco.wa.gov/grants/advisory_committees/rtp.shtml> ; The pie is sure tasty if we can get a piece of it < secure.rco.wa.gov/prism/search/projectsn...ectNumber=14-2094> ; < secure.rco.wa.gov/prism/search/projectsn...ectNumber=14-1833> ; < secure.rco.wa.gov/prism/search/projectsn...ectNumber=14-2104> ;. If you don't know you can search for grants using prism, you will find mucho funds appropriated to snowmobiling and cross country skiing with zero for backcountry skiers.

A whole other lift is getting state parks or the forest service to support backcountry skiing like they support cross country skiing, and snowmobiling. If you have any intention of accomplishing this lift you will have to bring in the other winter advocacy groups into the discussion.

Thank you for doing the heavy lifting of getting an advocacy group going, hope you enjoy politics (;