Salmon ID XC Ski Report

Friday Afternoon 01/19/07 Report – The 7th full report for the 06/07 year.

Click here for the TABLE OF CONTENTS for the “Extra Web Data” not in the email. This upper section will be used for minor updates during the week before the next report is prepared.

The Original Report Starts Here – The information above has been added since the Email
This report starts with the email I sent Friday, January 19, 2007 15:00 PM

Friday, January 19, 2007 15:00 PM
Cross Country Skiers,

*See below. The Richardson Ridge Ski is still on as planned for Sat. Jan. 20, @ 10:00 AM. HOWEVER, the Cabinet Cr Ski has been changed to Sunday, Jan. 28 – leave Salmon 09:30. Also note the ski lessons.

We received a moderate amount of snow and quite a bit of consolidation prior to last weeks report. There’s been very little measurable snow but some added consolidation since then. However I’ve checked out several trails and found them to be excellent. Thus I’m going to simplify this weeks report and only list the exceptions to Good to Excellent Conditions. Go to last weeks report to see a more detailed list of the trails or preferably review the trail descriptions and map (links below). And check back on the web later for a possible new ski condition map.

* CLICK HERE to see last weeks report. (You may need to go to the web version for this link to work.)

The web version of this report is at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskirpt.htm It will have some additional snow depth reports and additional XC ski web links. Also I usually add some updates to the web version before I send out another full report. If you have a current connection to the internet you should be able to just click on any of the web links in this message to go directly to the web page with your web browser. Otherwise you can copy the link and paste it into your browsers address box. Call me at 756-2085 with any questions.

Click the following link to see details about our recent ski trips: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/skitriprpt.htm (I just updated it.) Let me know of any trips you’ve made that I can add to the list or any changes that I should make.

PLANNED TRIPS:
* 1. Saturday, January 20, 2007. Meet at the Stagecoach Inn Parking lot at 10:00 AM for a trip to the Chief Joseph Pass Area. Those from the Bitterroot should plan to be at CJ by 11:15. I’m planning to do Richardson Ridge, but that could change by mutual agreement. I expect that some folks will want to only ski out to the point where the trail gets steep and then return to Chief Joseph. As long as we have more than one person doing this, it would be a good opportunity for less experienced skiers to join us. Otherwise they might want to ski the Chief Joseph Loops. I also want to check out the parking opportunities for a future Cabinet Cr. trip.

* 2. Midweek Trips. Probably Tuesday 01/23. Give me a call at 756-2085 if you’d like to go. I usually won’t leave before 10:00 AM and probably not later then 01:00 PM.. Also, if Chair 4 is running, I’ll also probably go to Lost Trail on Thursday 01/25/07 and most Thursdays after that.

* 3a. Saturday, January 27, 2007: I received the following email from Mel Mooers:
     “There will be cross country skiing lessons at the Chief Joseph ski area on Saturday January 27, 2007 beginning promptly at 1 PM. The parking area is located off Hwy 43 approximately one mile east of the intersection of Hwy 93 at Lost Trail Pass.
     Participants should plan on arriving in the parking area no later than 12:30 as they will need to have all there gear on and be at the lesson area at Picnic Meadow, approximately one half mile from the parking lot, on time.
     It will be necessary for those attending to furnish their own skiing clothing and equipment. There are several sources of equipment rental (in Hamilton) if they do not possess the proper skis, poles and boots.
     Lessons will include those who have not skied previously, those with minimal experience and also intermediate skiers.
     The lessons are free, and provided by members of the Bitterroot Cross Country Ski Club. ….”
     Check out their web site for any changes at: http://www.bitterrootxcskiclub.net/tours-and-events.htm
Also check out My Introduction to X-C Skiing page.

* 3b. (CHANGED!!) Sunday January 28, 2007 Meet at the Stagecoach Inn Parking lot at 09:30 AM for a trip to the Chief Joseph Pass Area. Note the earlier start time. Those from the Bitterroot should plan to be at CJ by 10:45. I’m planning to ski the Cabinet Cr. Trail. Bitterroot Folks, please pass the word around. Hopefully we can get some of the Bitterroot XC Club to join us. It’s about 4 miles out on the Anderson Mountain Road to the start of the Cabinet Cr. Trail and the Cabinet Cr. Trail is about 3.3 miles long with another possible mile to ski up the road to our vehicles. CLICK HERE for my trail segment table. Some skiers may prefer to ski about 3 miles to a “big meadow” for lunch and then ski back to CJ. This needs to be set up in advance so that we don’t have skiers skiing alone.

* 4. Saturday, or Sunday February 3 or 4, 2007. Give me feed back on your desired day. Tentatively we’ll try and ski the North Moccasin or Muk Luk Trail. Give me your thoughts.

* 5. OTHER DATES of possible interest: 1. Missoula XC Club Races CLICK HERE for details and a list of other races. (You may need to go to the web version for this link to work.) OCR race 01/27/07 at Seeley Lake. Teton Classic Race at Driggs, ID 01/20/07. Go to Trailhead Web Page for details on: Telemark Ski Demos at the Telemark ski races at Missoula Snowbowl.

You might be interested several ski related articles in the Outdoors Section of the Ravalli Republic. Go to my Other Web Links Section of the On-Line Web version and scroll down a bit and click on the link. You’ll find an article about Chief Joseph Pass Ski Area. Also in my web pages see the Avalanche sections. There have been several snowmobilers and skiers killed.

General Snow and Weather Conditions:
Note that this year the Salmon Golf Course is closed to skiing. If we ever get enough snow, there are areas “mowed” for skiing at the Sacajawea Center. They are in the field near the river. See my introduction section (above) for general snow conditions.

* Use the following Williams Cr. Ski Trails Links to better understand the trail condition reports:
Trail Descriptions Trailhead Locations Trail Map Trail Segment table
Trail Condition Map (To be added later.)
All the William’s Cr. Trails are GOOD TO EXCELLENT with the following exceptions. On the (upper) Buckhorn Trail # 224 a little below the A-Frame there’s a steep pitch that may require caution. Where the (upper) William’s Cr. Trail # 078 leaves the Ridge Road it is very steep and it should be side stepped by most skiers. Further on this trail just before this trail crosses the creek heading toward the big fir trailhead there are rocks. The Meadow Trail # 222 fork that goes down to Cougar Point may have stumps and logging slash where the trail crosses the logging cutting unit. See my trip report for Tuesday 01/16/07 for both these last two cautions. The Perreau Meadows Trail # 624.5 should be good, but use caution because it’s not marked very well and you probably won’t be able to find our tracks so you might get lost. Don’t ski through on the North Moccasin Trail. It starts 2 miles north of William’s Cr. summit with plenty of snow, but there’s probably still not enough snow near the meadow at the bottom for safe skiing. I also wouldn’t recommend skiing the Muk Luk Trail from the top due to uncertain conditions. Ski it as an up and back if you wish. It should be fair for good skiers. Note also that the upper Shoshoni Trail is for advanced skiers. (These last two trails are not on the map. See the Trail Description Page for details.

Snow depths at William’s Cr. Summit and at the Meadow TH are usually slightly less than the Lemhi Ridge Snotel. I measured 22” on Jan. 7 and it hasn’t changed much since then. The Lemhi Ridge Snotel was about 24” at that time. This morning Lemhi Ridge was 23.4”. Click here for more recent data: http://www3.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/nwcc/sntl-data0000.jsp?site=576&days=20&state=MT These are daily readings which are usually less confusing than the following sites.

Here’s a link to 3 hour readings which can be useful to monitor for more current snow and temperature:
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/nwcc/sntl-datarpt.jsp?site=576&days=7&state=MT

* LOST TRAIL is partly open. Today they measured 59” at the lodge and 65” on top and had Chairs #1, 2 & 4 running. All lifts should be open on weekends. I think they plan to have the “Saddle Mtn. Chair # 4 open on Thursdays and Fridays from now on. Here’s their ski report: http://www.losttrail.com/snowreport.asp Lately their readings for snow depth at the top of the mountain have been somewhat higher than the “Saddle Mountain Snotel” site which is not actually on Saddle Mountain but rather just off the Saddle Mountain Road, about a half mile NW of the top of Chairs 1 & 2. The latest daily reading was 47.7”. See the Snotel daily readings taken at Midnight Pacific Time (01:00 AM our time) at: http://www3.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/nwcc/sntl-data0000.jsp?site=727&days=20&state=MT. This report only lists daily readings, which is often less confusing. But to see the latest current depth or temperature, you’ll need to go to the 3 hour report at: http://www3.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/nwcc/sntl-datarpt.jsp?site=727&days=14&state=MT

* CHIEF JOSEPH The groomed Chief Joseph Trails should be excellent and the ungroomed trails good, although I haven’t verified that recently. Note that there may not be a parking place for the Shoofly or Cabinet Cr. Trails. Note that Maximum Temperatures at the Saddle Mtn. Snotel have been below freezing for several weeks except for Tuesday Jan. 09. Previously we found excellent snow on the Richardson Ridge Trail. Go to the Bitterroot X-C Ski Club snow conditions reports at: http://www.bitterrootxcskiclub.net/conditions.htm and also to the Missoula Nordic Ski Club grooming page and scroll down to “Chief Joseph”: http://missoulanordic.org/cgi-bin/snow_grooming/discus.cgi

Check this site: http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/b-d/news/ for any Beaverhead NF news releases.

My Cross Country Ski Web Page is at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/cksalxcski.htm
The Current “Ski Report” (This page) is: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskirpt.htm
My Introduction to X-C Skiing is at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/IntroToXc101.htm
Most all the links are now up to date. Let me know of any good links to add or correct.

I now have links to my William’s Creek X-C Area Descriptions which are repeated here:
Trail Descriptions:    http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskiwmscr_traildescr.htm
Trailhead Locations:  http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskiwmscr_trailheads.htm
Trail Map:            http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskiwmscr_trailmap01.jpg
Trail Segment Table:  http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskiwmscr.htm

I’m working on pages similar to the above for the Lost Trail – Chief Joseph Un-Groomed Cross Country Ski Trails:
I currently have a Lost Trail Chief Joseph Trail Segment Table in draft format. Go to the Web version if this link doesn’t work.

/s/ Cliff

Word Count: 1,799

The following is an abbreviated version of my standard report with last year’s format.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: (Click on the following to jump down to that section. Hit the Back Button to return here.)
1. PLANNED TRIPS:
2. PREVIOUS TRIPS:
3. Ski Trail Condition Reports: WILLIAM'S CR. TRAILS: , CHIEF JOSEPH - ANDERSON MT. ROAD AREA:
4. MISC.:
5. AVALANCHE:
6. OTHER WEB LINKS:

The last FULL REPORT # 6 was Jan. 11. All paragraphs changed since then are preceded by an asterisk (*). To find these, do an EDIT> FIND and type in an asterisk. If you close the find box you can call it up again with a CTRL-F and continue to find the asterisks. If I make any minor updates, I won't send out any notice but they will be preceded with two asterisks (**).

INTRODUCTION: To better understand planned trips and previous trip reports, I encourage you to get three maps. Go to the A. INTRODUCTION Section of my Salmon Idaho Cross-Country Ski Web Page for Details.

The current ski report will always be, posted on http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskirpt.htm. I saved the first report as http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskirpt0701.htm (ends in 0701) and the next report ends in 0702, etc. As I post new reports this year they’ll be labeled xcskirpt0703, ...0704, 0705, etc.

The full ski report is on the web. The message to those on the Salmon X-C Ski Mailing list will be highlights only. As always, if you want me to make changes on the email list, call me at 208-756-2085 or email me. You can get my email from the messages that I send to you or call me. Currently we about have 80 on the list, with many being couples.

PLANNED TRIPS:

See the above email.

PREVIOUS TRIPS:
For a short description of each ski trip to date for the current 2006-2007 season go to: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/skitriprpt.htm Scroll down, or click on the January 2007, or December or November 2006 link to jump to that section.
Last years trips can be found at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/skitriprpt05_06.htm including a Ski Year 2005/2006 Wrap-Up.

SKI REPORT: (See Web Links section below for links to trail descriptions.)

WILLIAM'S CR. TRAILS: See my report in the email message above.
* The LEMHI RIDGE SNOTEL snow depth reading at 01:00 AM on Thursday, January 11, 8 days ago, was 24.9" with a density of 18.1%. Maximum temperatures have ranged from +07 to +35; being above freezing for only one day, last Tuesday. Last week’s one warm day caused a crust below about 7,500' elevation, but this week that didn’t seem to occur. However the crust is still there. As of 01:00 AM on Friday, January 19, 2007, in 8 days Lemhi Ridge has increased about 0.4” and settled about 1.9” to 23.4”, (Based on daily readings) for a net change of -1.5”. Note that the snow depth is based on daily readings. See next paragraph.

Sometimes when one compares daily readings and there’s been a fair snowfall during the early part of the period, there will be settling of the snow before the next reading. Thus daily readings may understate the actual snowfall. I have the option of using 3 hour readings. However, there is always some fluctuation in the depth gauge readings even when we know there was no snowfall or appreciable melting. Thus sometimes the 3 hours reading actually overstate the snowfall. In other words, fluctuations in the depth gauge are reported as snowfall.

* Calculated Snow Density has ranged from about 18.1% up to 19.7%. The "current" (01:00 AM) value is 19.7%, 1.6 percent more than last week. Note that this is the density of the entire snow pack. The density of the top layer that powder skiers ski in will be somewhat lower than this. We’d actually like to see this overall density increase which will indicate that there is a better base for skiing.

* The midnight PST (01:00 AM MST) reading for Snow Water Equivalent was 4.6”, 75% of average, or a decrease of 7% since January 11.

* Weather Prediction: CLICK HERE for the 7 day forecast for the approximate location of William’s Cr. Summit. CLICK HERE for the Table Version of the forecast. Note that the table version sometimes gives a better display of snow accumulation.
CLICK HERE for an alternate more graphical weather forecast for William’s Cr. Summit. It looks like it won’t be as cold as last week but there won’t be any measurable snowfall.

CHIEF JOSEPH - ANDERSON MT. ROAD AREA See comments in my email message at the start of this page.

* The Saddle Mountain SNOTEL lists snow conditions similar to the top of the Lost Trail Ski Area and similar to Chief Joseph Pass. The snow depth reading at 01:00 AM on Thursday, January 11, 8 days ago, was 54.0” with a density reading of 21.9%. Maximum temperatures have ranged from +04.4 to +25.5; being below freezing all week. As of 01:00 AM on Friday, January 20, 2007, in 8 days Saddle Mtn. has increased about 0.6” and settled about 6.9” to 47.7”, (Based on daily readings) for a net change of -8.3”. The Snotel accumulation is based on daily readings and the actual accumulation is probably greater. See my comments regarding 3 hour readings in the Lemhi Ridge Section . CLICK HERE for Saddle Mtn 3hr readings.

Lost Trail reported the following Snow Data:
                         New 24Hr Bottom Top | Snotel
Date/Approx-Time   Temp   Snow    Depth Depth | Depth (01:00 AM)
Thu11/30/06 12PM   10     06”    13”   18” | 18.5

See Last weeks report for these values

Sat12/30/06 06AM 19 00” 39” 45” | 42.1

Thu01/04/07 06AM 19 12” 45” 51” | 48.3

Sat01/06/07 06AM 22 12” 45” 51” | 48.2

Thu01/11/07 06AM -04 00” 59” 65” | 54.0

*Fri01/20/07 06AM 15 00” 59” 65” | 47.7

* Calculated Snow Density has ranged from about 22.3% up to 25.2%. The "current" (01:00 AM) value is 25.2%, 3.3% more than last week. Note that this is the density of the entire snow pack. The density of the top layer that powder skiers ski in will be somewhat lower than this.

* The midnight PST (01:00 AM MST) reading for Snow Water Equivalent was 12.0”, which is 77% of average, 9% lower than it was January 11. Overall the Salmon River Basin was 86.9% of normal, with better snow to the west and south of us. Salmon Basin (and other Idaho) readings can be found HERE. Scroll down to the Salmon Basin and select the Site of interest such as Lemhi Ridge or Saddle Mountain or the Basin Wide Summary. Then look at the Percent Departure from Avg. Column. Subtracting this value from 100 gives the Percent of Normal Value.

* Weather Prediction: CLICK HERE for "Lost Trail Pass" NOAA NWS Digital Forecast. CLICK HERE for the Table Version of the forecast. The table version gives a little bit clearer picture, but it doesn’t print out very well. Notice that the cold snap seems to be over, but maximum temperatures will probably be below freezing.
* CLICK HERE or CLICK HERE for two alternate weather forecasts for the Lost Trail area.

* Another good forecast is the backcountry weather forecast. Look for the Bitterroot – Lost Trail Pass area. This doesn’t cover as long a period so you need to check it again periodically. Notice that this lists the “Snow Level” (The elevation where rain changes to snow.)

Lost Trail Ski Area. See my comment in the email and the table in the Saddle Mtn Snotel Section.

Links to Lost Trail & Chief Joseph Ski reports:
If you want the link to Lost Trail and dozens of others GO TO "CLIFF'S SALMON IDAHO, CROSS COUNTRY SKI PAGE" at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/cksalxcski.htm

For Chief Joseph reports see my comments in the email above. Check the following links for any new updates
Missoula Nordic Ski Club: http://missoulanordic.org/cgi-bin/snow_grooming/discus.cgi Scroll down to "Chief Joseph.":
Bitterroot Cross Country Ski Club: http://www.bitterrootxcskiclub.net/conditions.htm Scroll down a ways.

CLICK HERE to see if there are any ski related news releases from the Beaverhead National Forest.
They have been posting quite a few updates lately, check ‘em out.

The following “No Bull Ski Reports” Forum used to have regular Lost Trail Reports, but the author moved to Vermont, so most likely any reports will be ones that I post. I’ll leave the link here for awhile.
http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards/viewforum.php?f=3 and go to the following:
http://www.skimovies.com/jande/ski.html for links to good ski photos. Jay’s also scanned the latest Lost Trail area map at: http://jandeproductions.com/2005/LTmap0405.jpg

MISC.:
Skating Party: Sometimes if the snow isn’t too soft it’s possible to skate ski at Chief Joseph after the ski trails are given the first grooming and before the actual tracks are set. That’s been called the “Skating Party” and is described as follows: "The skating party … refers to the fact that in the morning and usually until about 1pm on Fridays (the USUAL grooming day) you can skate-ski at Chief Joe. ... They do a very nice job dragging implements around to flatten and wipe out the old tracks and prepare it for the new tracks. The best trails to skate on are the wider roads like CD, Timber, and up around Sentinel meadow and back to the trailhead. ... At about 1:00 PM they start setting the track classic kick and glide track so one needs to plan to skate before this”. NOTE: It would probably be better to let the snow depth increase before doing this.

I'm sometimes asked where a good place to “skate-ski” is. In addition to the above Friday Morning Skating Party at Chief Joseph Pass, some of the groomed snowmobile trails are suitable. Usually the skate skiing is best soon after grooming. Probably the best spot is the Ridge Road. Other possibilities include Carmen Creek, and possibly the lower Warm Springs Wood Road. When recommending these snowmobile routes for skiing, I always add that we need to use courtesy and give the snowmobiles the right of way. I point out that we can’t have it both ways. We DO prefer that the snowmobiles stay off the ski trails, so we should use extra courtesy when we use the snowmobile trails.

The Salmon Ridgerunners Snowmobile Club had a web site at http://www.geocities.com/salmonridgerunners/ but it hasn’t been updated since January 2004. Additional information can be found at: http://salmonchamber.com/recreation-winter.htm and possibly at the Idaho State Snowmobile Association web site

SNOWMOBILE / SKATE SKIING GROOMING REPORTS: (Also includes other snowmobile club info and Mountain Bike Club Info):

Here’s the latest Ski Skating / Snowmobile Grooming Report: I don’t have a current grooming report, but from personal observation on Wednesday 01/10/07 the Ridge Road was fairly smooth for snowmobiles and for classic skiing, but it didn’t appear to me to be smooth enough for good skate skiing.

In addition, periodically check out the Bitterroot Ridgerunners Snowmobile Club at:
http://www.ridgerunners.org/ - Check out the Announcements and Club Info link. They have some interesting information in their December meeting minutes and there’s also a list of 2007 events including some “fun runs”.

AVALANCHE:

The following site normally has fairly current reports of major avalanches for the US & Canada. http://www.avalanche.org/av-reports/index.html There are several listed with links to news reports.
The following site had a fairly good list of US Avalanches similar to the above list, but you might check it out in case it has something not listed above: http://avalanche.state.co.us/Accidents/UnitedStates/

The following link only has a list with no reports. It does however list world-wide accidents rather than just North America.
http://www.csac.org/Incidents/ If you want to see a list of earlier reports (Up through Dec. 2005) go to their database at: http://www.avalanche-center.org/Incidents/search.php

Avalanche conditions are rated as: Low, Moderate, Considerable, High, and Extreme. Go to http://www.avalanche.org/~svavctr/danger.php for definitions. You should try and become familiar with the critical slopes for avalanches. This time of year, 30 degrees (58%) slope is the start of concern, and real concern starts at 35 degrees (70%) slope. In some conditions (usually with wet snow) there is concern down to 25 degrees (47%) slope. When I laid out timber sales I used to be able to judge these slopes better. Note however that of our marked ski trails only the Upper Shoshoni Trail exceeds 47% (for one short pitch). Note that there are some undesignated trails that we ski that do exceed these slopes.

Go to my General Cross Country Ski Page to the Avalanche Section for these several web sites, including the following:

Go to the following link for the latest Sawtooth NF Avalanche Center:
http://www.avalanche.org/~svavctr/adv_current.php. Always check the date on these reports. Currently this report is updated only periodically, with the latest report to date being Monday, November 27. Later they will probably be updated daily.
There is an alternate link to the same site at: http://www.sawtoothavalanche.com/adv_current.php

* Go to the following link for the latest West Central Montana Avalanche Center prediction:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/lolo/avalanche/advisory.htm. Regular reports will be each Friday. There may be special reports from time to time. The most recent is one for January 19, 2007.

Here’s a link, not yet in my main ski page. CLICK HERE for a description of an Avalanche Danger Rose that’s used by the Utah Avalanche Center for some of their forecasts. I haven’t seen it used on our local sites, but it may be in the future. Here’s an actual forecast using the “Rose”.

OTHER WEB LINKS:
In evaluating ski conditions I've found the following SNOTEL link helpful: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/sdr.pl?state=MT Select Saddle Mt. or Lemhi Ridge for snow conditions near Lost Trail; or near Lemhi Pass, which is usually comparable to William's Creek Summit. If you want TO SEE THIS LINK and dozens of others GO TO "CLIFF'S SALMON IDAHO, CROSS COUNTRY SKI PAGE" at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/cksalxcski.htm
There's also a link to the latest Salmon, ID X-C Ski Report (The Current Page) at:
http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/xcskirpt.htm.

In addition to those pages I have links to several related to the Williams Creek Cross-Country Ski Trails Area as follows:
  a. General description - http://www.salmonbyway.com/salmon/ski.htm
  b. Cliff's Williams Cr. Ski Trails Sites:
   Trail Descriptions     Trailhead Locations     Trail Map       Trail Segment table
This last table gives the mileage for each segment of a trail and indicates where there’s a trail junction. The total miles from the trailhead is listed for each segment, with the last "Miles From TH" being the total miles one would ski to get to the end of the trail, which is often at another trailhead. I've still got some work on these, so let me know of additions, corrections or changes needed. You may copy this; just give credit if you publish it.

I’m working on pages similar to the above for the Lost Trail – Chief Joseph Un-Groomed Cross Country Ski Trails:
c. I currently have a Lost Trail Chief Joseph Trail Segment Table in draft format.

I also have four pages for PREVIOUS TRIP REPORTS:
a. Current Season 2006_2007. Now edited through November 28, 2006.
b. 2005_2006 Season, c. 2004_2005 Season, and d. 2003_2004 (Partial) Season.

Links not yet in "CLIFF'S SALMON IDAHO, CROSS-COUNTRY SKI PAGE:
Here's a link to a site that describes the TEN ESSENTIALS to carry on the trail. He's added a few additional items:
http://www.isu.edu/outdoor/ten.htm

Some folks may want to do some skiing in Stanley Basin or the Sawtooth Valley:
The following site has links to the summer recreation report (last updated in September) and to some general info re winter recreation:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/sawtooth/recreation.htm.

The Outdoors Sections of the Missoulian and the Ravalli Republic on-line newspapers often have articles of interest.
CLICK HERE for the Outdoors Section of the Missoulian On-Line. Check out the latest Outdoors News Briefs. Although I don’t see too much of interest except the Chief Joseph Snow Report. I was especially interested in a previous ARTICLE ABOUT THE SUGAR LOAF CABINS AT THE MT. HAGGIN XC SKI AREA.

CLICK HERE for the Outdoors Section of the Ravalli Republic. Currently I see at least two articles of interest. One is about Chief Joseph Pass and the other is about the Lost Trail Ski Area and some recent changes.
Last years articles are no longer listed but the following links to some interesting articles still work: An article relating to the Lost Trail Ski Patrol, another that relates to Nordic Skiing including areas to skate ski, and another on snowboarding at Lost Trail Ski Area called Battle On The Border.

CLICK HERE for the Outdoors Section of the Butte Montana Standard Newspaper.

Here's an interesting link to some history of ski (mountaineering) equipment:
http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/ms/rei-catalogs.html

Here's Lou Binik's "Foxwear" web site:
http://www.foxwear.net/. Be sure to copy or type this correctly. "foxware.net", "foxware.com" and "foxwear.com" are all different sites.

Tawna Skinner services cross country skis and equipment. She will also give cross country and telemark ski instruction.
Details are at: http://home.custertel.net/~ckeene41/TawnaXCski.htm

Here’s another club with similar interests in trail development. The Lost Trail Coalition was formed in January 2005 to benefit all bicyclists in the region.

Pray for snow,
Cliff Keene, Salmon, Idaho

Initial Word Count 4,728
Revised Count:    4,728 after minor edit.
Previous Full Update:     01/11/2007 19:30 PM
Latest    Update:         01/19/2007 15:00 PM
Minor Edit (see **): N/A