They'd arrive via a Bitterroot Resort-operated snow coach and eat some lunch before turning their sights to the crags towering overhead.
“It would be a great backcountry experience,” said the Bitterroot Resort's CEO. “They wouldn't have to slog all the way up there. They'd be able to save their energy for turns.”
The Bitterroot Resort applied in March for a special use permit for nordic skiing operations on the Lolo National Forest and gladed alpine skiing and nordic skiing on the Bitterroot National Forest.
This is the third time the resort has asked for a special use permit.
Its original proposal called for developing about 11,000 acres above the Maclay Ranch on Carlton Ridge and Lolo Peak. The Forest Service turned down that proposal.
The resort then offered a scaled-down version, but a decision on that proposal was stalled when work on updating the Bitterroot forest's management plan stopped because of a legal challenge.
“This proposal works within the confines of the current forest plans,” Gill said. “We've tried to keep it pretty straightforward.”
Gill said the proposal, including maps, will be on the company's Web site, www.skibitterrootresort.com, for everyone to view.
“We want to give everyone a chance to take a look at what we're proposing,” he said.
Bob Clark of the Sierra Club said he'll be doing just that.
“We're certainly going to review the permit request,” Clark said. “We've anticipated that would be coming sometime soon. We're particularly interested in seeing the maps.”
The proposal has three components.
The resort wants to use the upper edges of the Maclay Ranch as a base camp where alpine skiers could load into snow coaches and either go on guided trips to the Carlton Lake area or ski through the thinned national forest lands.
The resort would thin 212 acres of national forest lands west of the ranch and south of Carlton Lake Road enough for skiers to schuss through and groomers to work their magic.
Stevensville District Ranger Dan Ritter said the practice of thinning a forest enough to accommodate skiers is called glading.
“It's very similar to what we do with fuel reduction,” Ritter said. “They would be able to groom in between the trees. If you looked up the slope, it would look like a stand of thinned forest.”
The proposal also calls for connecting nearly 19 miles of existing logging roads above the Maclay property with about the same number of miles of new trail that would serve Nordic skiers in the winter and mountain bikers during the warmer months.
The Forest Service has 60 days to evaluate the proposal using a two-tiered screening process applied to all special permit proposals.
The first part of the screening would consider whether the proposal was consistent with laws, regulations, and land and resource management plans. The second considers whether the applicant has the financial and technical wherewithal to complete the project.
If the resort proposal meets those requirements, the agency will begin an environmental analysis, which will include public comment.
“I'd expect that this type of project would probably require an EIS,” Ritter said. “The fastest that we've ever been able to complete an EIS is 18 months and that wasn't a ski area proposal. I'd expect it to take longer than that.”
Ritter said the agency left the door open for the Bitterroot Resort to reapply after it turned down its original request for not fitting within the confines of either the Lolo or Bitterroot forests' land-use plans.
“I think they will try to fit it to the existing forest plan this time around,” he said. “We'll have to check. ... This time, it's not anywhere near Lolo Peak. All of this stuff is down pretty low.”
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