January 15th, 2026
Snowy Range Snowmobile Club Meeting Minutes
Secretary Update: 179 members in total. This breaks down to: 13 premium business memberships, 12 associate business memberships, 70 families, and 84 individual memberships. This is far and away our biggest season! Thank you for the support.
We need logos from many of our business members, especially new members this season, to put logos on our website and Facebook page.
Treasurer Update: $18,783.52 in checking account. Wyoming Trail Alliance has pledged $500 to go towards a beacon check station (note: these will be restricted funds, to be used exclusively for this purpose). Additional ~$1667 transfer in progress from PayPal to checking initiated 14Jan2026 from recent memberships.
How much should we contribute to WSSA scholarship fund? Local Search and Rescue donations? We will vote on this next month.
Beacon Check Signs: All are in place on the mountain and working. Albany, Green Rock, Chains End, Lake Marie. Third antenna on Green Rock beacon check station is broken. It is currently functioning but will need repaired in the off season.
Safety Shelters: All in place with plenty of wood. Please be sure to pack out all trash and encourage others to do the same. Bring an armful of wood in if you stop by. Two of us stocked Quealy on the 4th, it was nearly empty of wood inside.
Trails: are really solid and well groomed. Not a lot of sled traffic this season with the warm weather means less whoops too. Truck that got stuck above Albany was removed, no lasting trail impact from that.
Cameron recently talked to Stan (grooming contract holder). He said things are going well. They have added a cat based out of the Ehlin Road trailhead outside Centennial.
Access: Sand Lake Road is closed to riding with the logging operation off of Fallen Pines. They have been busy up there running logging trucks so please give them space.
Cameron checked with State Trails on the plowing contractor for the Ehlin Road trailhead as there were some issues with keeping the road open/plowed. Contractor was checking the webcam, which showed a dry parking lot, not realizing the road in the trees was blowing/drifting and needed plowed.
Heads up: the normal plowing above the State’s winter maintenance end point at Green Rock has ceased. If you park above the skier lot, beware it could blow in while you ride and may not be cleared for some time. It is getting cleared but not with the same regularity.
Snowpack: Snow has some bad ice layers in it with degrading interfaces. Decent total depth at higher elevations. Most riders report surprisingly good conditions (valley weather has been ridiculous & skews perception, but thankfully up high winter is still happening). Eastern Wyoming Avy Observation team has
reported better snowpack structure in the Snowies than in the Sierras, but neither are good. You should expect reactivity especially when a new snow load is added & travel with caution in all avalanche terrain.
Projects: Wyoming Trail Alliance voted to donate $500 towards a beacon check station to be installed at the Green Rock nonmotorized access point (primarily used to access Libby Creek backcountry ski terrain). Medicine Bow Nordic Ski Patrol wants to partner with us for this and Ken Cramer attended this meeting to discuss details. We need to work on finding out project cost and how to fit this in with permitting. Some additional funding sources were discussed, one being Albany County Rec Board grants.
Curtis with Wyoming Trail Alliance had a proposal for snow updates. Monthly video to be posted on social media outlets with digging a snow pit. Cameron was supportive and said he and Clyde would be open to filming their pits when they dig them as part of their guiding work. This could also be a collaborative effort with Med Bow Nordic Ski Patrol.
WSSA Updates: February 1st is the WSSA scholarship deadline. https://snowmobilewyoming.org/scholarship/
Fun Days is in Cody this year. Registration is open on the WSSA site: https://snowmobilewyoming.org/wssa-events/#!event-list
Safety: Article in Cowboy State Daily: snowmobile crash near Cody. Snowmobiler hit bridge, sled ended up in creek. Rider was hurt. There was some safety equipment stored in a nearby safety shelter that local rescuers were able to use to help the rider and eventually get him evacuated via helicopter. We may partner with Albany County Search and Rescue to cache some rescue equipment in a similar way in our safety shelters (several club members are involved SAR members). https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/01/13/snowmobiler-plunges-15-feet-off-bridge-and-survives/
Two avy deaths in Wyoming so far this winter. Snowmobiler southeast of Afton, WY in Labarge Creek. https://avalanche.state.co.us/report/62184da5-20ab-4158-8c93-eaee91b4f7d7
A skier south of Teton Pass. https://avalanche.state.co.us/report/5346271e-ce29-4c36-b2a6-09e21db1c9ed
Education Opportunities: Cameron reports there are 3 remaining openings in the upcoming Motorized Level 1 avy course, and several openings in the Level 2 avy course. They are at the end of this month, January 29 & 30th for Level 1, January 31st and February 1st for Level 2. Reach out to Cameron at 3C Guiding if interested. https://www.3cguiding.com/avalanche-classes/aiare-level-1/ and https://www.3cguiding.com/avalanche-classes/aiare-level-2/
Post Meeting Note: Apologies for those that had issues with Zoom tonight. Thanks for the emails bringing this to our attention.
Laramie, Wyoming