We’re having a BBQ on the hill this Sunday, at the Lake Marie safety shelter at noon. Hope you can make it! It’s been snowing most of the week, should be a great weekend.
Be careful out there. There was a local fatality last Friday, and a skier died Sunday in central Colorado (he was the 3rd person down the slope, no sign of instability until it was too late).
Please find the February meeting minutes attached and quoted below. Meeting Minutes:
SRSC Meeting Minutes: February 2024. 18:00-19:00, located at 3C Guiding (and Zoom)
Attendance: Mitch (secretary), Cameron (president), Justin (VP), Sunny (treasurer), Heather (social media officer), Corey (WSSA District 1 rep). 18 people in total in person, a few more on Zoom.
Events: BBQ at Lake Marie safety shelter this Sunday, February 18th. We’ll provide food. Donations welcomed. We’ll be able to sign folks up for membership on site. Food will be ready around noon.
Next meeting is the 3rd Thursday of March.
WSSA Fun Days, weekend of March 1st in Dubois. They are finally getting some snow on Togwotee, should be a good time!
Treasurer Update: $18831.90, plus $445.82 in Paypal from recent memberships (transfer in progress).
We’ll need to file our 990-N postcard for federal 501(c)3 reporting with the IRS soon for 2023.
Secretary Update: Member count of 101.
Assorted:
Hooks for safety shelter at Lake Marie? Planning on a cage over the stove with hooks to hang gear, but need it off the mountain to build & install. In the mean time some folks have put up a rope.
Safety shelter went in the Madres, off of WY-70 near Haskins Creek last month. Not sure of firewood situation.
Time for our annual donation to search and rescue organizations in our area. $750 each to Carbon and Albany SAR. All were in favor.
WSSA Scholarship: We will donate $1000 for that. $250 of that will go to the Access fund. All were in favor.
Parking Lot
SWORC Meeting February 15th: USFS (including Frank, forest supervisor), WY-DOT. Cameron, Sunny, Heather, David, Corey were representing the motorized crowd. State Trails was there too (Josh). There is a need for a survey asking if people would use new parking lots to gauge usage/determine need. Need to work with the SWORC group to create the survey: they’ll want input on the questions. Heather will work with Brynn (SWORC meeting facilitator) to help figure the logistics out. We believe people will use the parking lots, but some data would be more convincing.
The non-motorized crowd doesn’t necessarily understand why we need improved parking near Greenrock. They had concerns about people riding the ditch or generally not using additional lots. Next meeting will be in April. There were also concerns about avalanches at Centennial Ridge with a trail on the road bed (Ehlin Road) and how that may impact other users. The idea is a trial lot (no serious dirt work) at the old RV dump station across from the USFS Visitor Center. Another concern is folks using Barber Lake Road after parking at the lower lot; fair point and this will need to be addressed via signage.
Aaron Voos (USFS) asked something to the effect of: Why do we want improved parking? Is there a consistent reason? Our response has been consistent: Safety is the #1 reason. There are people all over the highway near Greenrock, including children, its slick, it gets narrow, vehicles & trailers have been damaged, the whooped out ditch is very unpleasant to ride, snowplows struggle to get through, emergency access is sketchy. Albany County SAR struggles to find parking up top unless we deploy at night or weekdays.
Rico Vercoe from the UW Hobb’s school has been working with his students to study how many people go up there, there could be good usage data with them that may inform access decisions and motivate improvements to this challenging situation.
One key aspect is that this will be parking for all forest users, it will benefit many, not just snowmobilers. This should help garner broad support.
Next meeting will be in April.
Avalanche Information:
Cameron hosting a Level 2 avy course in April. Yes. Should be listed on the 3C Guiding page soon. The plan is to do a Companion Rescue class first then the Level 2 class: Friday through Sunday. April 12th-14th or the weekend prior. DJ Osbourne will be leading it. Up to 18 people. $695 per person for both Rescue & Level 2.
Fatal avalanche in Carbon County in the Sierra Madres on Friday, February 9th 2024. East facing slope around 10,200’. Deep slab that propogated very wide: up to 8’ deep and >2000’ wide. Two riders caught, one buried and killed. Be careful out there! Sincere condolences to the family and friends. Cameron proposed donating $500 to the victim’s family through the existing GoFundMe page. None were opposed, the motion passed. If members are interested in donating themselves, please visit:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/jacob-fluty or https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/qov631
In case you haven’t heard, there’s now a website for avalanche observations in our area: https://ewyoavalanche.org/
You can submit observations, (even if you aren’t a total snow geek), and they’ll be helpful for others to get a handle on the stability (or lack thereof) in our local mountains. Check it out, submit observations, especially if you see signs of instability or recent avalanches!