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Skiers and snowmobilers: let's work together

Cooperation can fight threats to all backcountry users, such as development, trailhead vandalism, parking restrictions, and the opening of roads usually closed in winter.

By Lou Dawson
10th Mountain Division Hut Association

Are snowmobilies really that bad? Can't mechanized and nonmechanized users share much of the same back-country? Aren't the joys of both experiences equal, and the detriments less than benefits? Haven't we all enjoyed the smooth mechanized tracks when our tired legs could not break another foot of powder? Is there not something to be learned from combined lodge use, such as Electric Mountain Lodge on Grand Mesa, and Erwin Lodge near Crested Butte?

As a backcountry skier for 27 years, I value the right to use all Forest Service lands. I wouldn't want my rights restricted because we restrict someone else. I like it when sledders have packed a tough trail. Where they turn around, I keep going and never see them again. Without their work, I'd spend my day in dark timber instead of high in the alpine world that I love. Frankly, I don't mind seeing or hearing snowmobilers on the trails they frequent, though I agree that when they close in on a hut it can break the serenity. We all expect a certain backcountry experience, and when our expectations are blasted we resent it. Yet we must guard against the me vs. them mentality in our remedies.

There are more than 20,000 registered snowmobiles in Colorado. Their riders have organized a system of clubs, under the umbrellas of the Colorado Snowmobile Association and National Snowmobile Association, that should be the envy of backcountry skiers. Indeed, snowmobile registration fees pay for grooming of hundreds of miles of trails which are also enjoyed by skiers who pay not a penny. Snowmobilers have worked hard for trailhead parking, access and trail marking. Just as backcountry skiing ranges from the sublime to macho, "sledders" emphasize everything from family fun to extreme riding.

However they ride, the snowmobilers I know do so because they love the out-of-doors. Some are frail or disabled and have no other way to enjoy our nonwilderness winter backcountry. For example, 10th Mountain uses their snowmobiles to assist senior citizens' hut trips. Also, most huts are maintained with snowmobiles, and skiers like me use snowmobiles for access to remote backcountry areas. Snowmobiles are instrumental in most rescues of backcountry skiers. Back-country skiing and the snowmobile are inextricably linked. To think otherwise is to deny reality.

Nonetheless, just because we're linked doesn't mean we can't give each other room. For starters, while it's problematic to segregate use of more than a few trails, it's reasonable to keep snowmobilers away from the ski huts. I feel the best way to do this is to combine explicit signs with small permit areas around the huts. We do this in the summer with gated roads, why not in winter?

We should also address the noise problem. As 10th Mountain board member Rob Burnett said, "The sphere of influence of one snowmobile is greater than that of a skier." If the sleds were as quiet as an automobile, would that sphere of influence still offend skiers? Time is the key. It's one thing to build ten huts in as many years, and quite another to change deeply ingrained attitudes— and to convince industry to make quieter snowmobiles.

We skiers and snowmobilers have plenty of common ground. Let's work together, and we can fight threats to all backcountry users, such as development, trailhead vandalism, parking restrictions, and the opening of roads usually closed in winter. Working together, we could get manufacturers to make the machines quieter. Working together, we could keep renegade sledders out of legal Wilderness areas. Working together, we could mark "skier only" trails to the huts, off the snow-covered roads that snowmobilers like. Combine forces, and we are more than 40,000 strong. Those kinds of numbers make things happen!

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