Summer WRAC Meeting

KSC board member Jeff Eustis headed to Leavenworth last weekend for the summer WRAC meeting, representing KSC's request for grooming funds for next year and additional funds to clean up some annoying problems (flooding culverts and tippy port-a-potties). He was successful -- thanks, Jeff! -- and his report is below:

Summary of WRAC Meeting

This year I attended the summer meeting of the Winter Recreation Advisory Committee, or WRAC, which advises the Washington State Parks Department on the dispersal of funds collected through the SnoPark program for such activities as grooming. In brief, the Parks Department proposed and the WRAC recommended approval of $2.3 million across all of its categories of programs, including $191K for grooming at Cabin Creek and $2800 for ditch cleaning and leveling of the port-a-potty area in the parking lot. In short, the snow gods allowing, Cabin Creek skiers are in for another good year.

As you should know by now, the maintenance and grooming of the Cabin Creek trails come through the hard work and financial support of many. Maintenance, including brushing, weed abatement, and work on the trail and road surfaces, is almost exclusively done by Kongsbergers. Over the last ski season, this amounted to over 3500 hours of volunteer effort. Grooming of those trails is performed by Nick Whitman of Land Tek and compensated through the SnoPark program. Keeping the trails in prime skiing condition over the last season involved over 500 hours of grooming time, covering a cumulative distance of over 2500 miles.

Each year the Parks Department dispenses funds earned through the purchase of SnoPark passes. Some funds pay for grooming on state-owned lands, such as Crystal Springs. Other funds pay for grooming on non state-owned lands, such as Cabin Creek and Erling Stordahl. On state lands, about $413k were awarded for grooming. On non state-owned lands a total of $309K were awarded. Of those awards, about a quarter would support grooming at Cabin Creek, a share in part due the numbers who use those trails.

 Apart from Cabin Creek, funds were awarded to 13 state-owned areas and seven other, non state-owned areas. Several new projects will also benefit I-90 corridor skiers, including grooming at the Lake Keechelus Boat Ramp road, several Parks Department projects for Hyak and Crystal Springs, and a trailhead ambassador program by Mountains to Sound to advise users as to where to best find their desired recreation. Funds were also approved for non-grooming activities, such as snow removal, sanitation, equipment replacement, education and enforcement, and administrative overhead.  

As a first-time attendee of a WRAC meeting and a skier of over 40 years in the I-90 corridor, I was impressed by the financial magnitude and the geographical coverage of the SnoPark program. Even with recent increases, SnoPark passes provide great benefit for the cost.