WRAC Wreport

 

Let's review: Most (all?) of the ski trails in the State that are groomed at State Sno-parks are on US Forest Service land (like Cabin Creek) or State Parks land; either way, the grooming at the Sno-parks is managed by State Parks, which works with either private contractors (like LandTek at Cabin Creek and Erling Stordahl) or State employees, and paid for with the revenues from the Sno-park permits we buy -- 100%, no property tax or sales tax, strictly user fees. Every year, the State Parks staff puts together a preliminary budget projecting next year's expenditures, including standard budget items as well as new funding requests from representatives of various Sno-parks for their various projects, based on last year's revenues. That budget is then handed to the members of the Winter Rec Advisory Committee, who represent all the different districts across the State. They discuss it at the summer WRAC meeting, make suggestions, ask questions of State Parks staff and the clubs who are sponsoring the funding requests, move some money here and take it away from there, and finally approve a final budget for the coming year. That meeting was yesterday, in smoky hot Yakima (but virtual attendance was an option); I attended (in person, because who wouldn't want to go to Yakima in August?) as a member of KSC sponsoring our request for continued funding for grooming at Cabin Creek and Erling Stordahl at the same level it was funded last year.

Summary, if this is all the reading you intend to do: 

The continued funding for grooming at Cabin Creek and Erling Stordahl was approved -- thank you, WRAC! -- and in a cool new development for those of us who are fans of the Iron Horse, Snoqualmie Nordic presented a request for new grooming on 12 Saturdays and two Sundays of that awesome little spur off the Iron Horse that circles behind the bathrooms and goes down the boat ramp road to Lake Keechelus, then climbs back up to the Horse. That mile-long route was designed by Don Brooks years ago for a Jente Loppet race, and it adds a little bit of fun terrain to an otherwise flat route. It's USFS land, and while the WRAC approved the grooming request, USFS approval to use their land is still required before this grooming can become a reality this winter. Marla is on it: the permit application is in process and all fingers are crossed. So it was a good meeting for Snoqualmie Pass skiers!

For those of you who like to see the sausage-making:

Here are more details of how the meeting went. This last winter did not provide the best snow conditions, as we all know, and the revenues available for the 2024-2025 season are just under $3 million, down about $221,000, or 7%, from the previous year. This is the first year that budget expenditures are exceeding budget revenues, but part of that is due to a large one-time expenditure from reserves for a new snowcat, and the hope is that a better snow year next season, especially early snow, will right the ship and increase revenues again for the following year. There was also some talk about whether the Sno-park permit fee is at the right level.

The Sno-park budget is divided into six priorities of expenditures. The first four are recurring (permanent) budget categories, for (1) administration (which saw some staff reductions), (2) snow removal and sanitation (includes the closure of some (mostly motorized) Sno-parks), (3) grooming, emergency response, enforcement and education, and (4) equipment replacement. Priorities (5) and (6) are new requests, and after any of them have been approved for three years in a row, they get moved into one of the first four priorities and are funded every year (which, of course, adds to the fixed expenses). Cabin Creek/Erling Stordahl's request was in two parts, the larger of which is already included in priorities 2 and 3 and the smaller of which has been a priority 5; now that this piece has been approved for the third year, it will move next year into priority 3.

There were ten priority 5 and 6 requests; they were ranked by the WRAC members in order of importance and then discussed, questioned, dissected, massaged, and adjusted. Number one turned out to be a request for a new Sno-park at Franklin Falls, which will be primarily for snow play and hopefully will pick up the overflow when the Gold Creek Sno-park shuts down for ten years beginning in spring 2025 (because for sure Hyak can't handle that overflow). This request generated a lot of discussion and questioning about the planned road plowing and Sno-park access, but was, in the end, ranked as number one. Number two was a new snowmobile for Mount Adams Sno-park; number three was the Cabin Creek/Erling Stordahl request for continued grooming funding; and number four was the new grooming on the Iron Horse/Jente Loppet spur. All ten items on the priorities (5) and (6) list ended up being funded, but some of the requested amounts were adjusted.

Still with me? 

If you're interested, here is the presentation I gave on behalf of Cabin Creek and Erling Stordahl:

Cabin Creek is among the busiest Sno-parks in the state, along with Hyak and Mount Spokane. Our trail counter last year totaled 75,800 (I pointed out that this is not bodies on the trail, but clicks on the counter, and those of us who do multiple laps will register multiple clicks); this is down about 30% to 40% from the pandemic’s highest levels in 2020-2021 but still above pre-pandemic levels, which can probably be attributed to the population growth in the Puget Sound area and maybe some pandemic-era skiers who decided to come back.

Being just east of the summit, Cabin Creek and Erling Stordahl are subject to all kinds of weird and changeable weather and snow conditions. Our long-time partnership with Nick and LandTek (we manicure the trails, they groom them) allows skiing at Cabin Creek to be maximized in all conditions. 

Trail work: We counted 2,000 hours of volunteer trail work last year, between Cabin Creek and Erling Stordahl. We had several organized work parties in the summer and fall with KSC members and the general public, plus small informal groups meet more often to work on trail projects, all strictly within the scope that the USFS allows, like clearing brush and small trees and cleaning out culverts along the road to prevent flooding. We have a sawyer crew that is officially trained and certified by the USFS who can remove trees that are down or leaning across the trail. Last fall there was a significant number of down trees, and removing them before the start of the grooming season allowed the groomer to spend his budget on grooming instead of tree removal. 

The summer and fall trail work and manicuring of the trail system allow the groomer to start prepping the trails with as little as six inches of snow, which is what happened last year: the USFS agreed to shut down the road when we had six inches of snow and Nick was able to start packing trails on December 2, which was earlier than most other Sno-parks. By carefully managing the budget and reacting to the changing snow and weather conditions, he was also able to continue grooming right up until the last day of the season, March 31, when we saw a significant number of people still skiing and enjoying the perfect conditions.

We had three races last winter at Cabin Creek, including the hugely popular junior races, and attracted skiers from all over the region. Races often seem to happen on tricky weather weekends, but LandTek came through like the pros that they are and provided us with excellent grooming that many racers commented on and appreciated. 

All season long, we count on Nick’s deep understanding of snow conditions, weather patterns, and machinery capabilities to provide the top-notch level of grooming all of us skiers have come to expect. LandTek’s expertise and hard work in the middle of the night in all kinds of weather are very appreciated!

On behalf of Cabin Creek and Erling Stordahl, we are requesting funding for 2024/2025 to be continued at the level it was last year, which is $159,411 in ongoing funding and $15,000 in additional funding. Thank you for your support.