The Pitkin County commissioners on Tuesday declined a request by local advocacy group Powder to the People to set up a new planning process to manage a powder skiing area on the east side of Richmond Ridge near the top of Aspen Mountain.
In the process, Powder to the People leaders had the goals of their organization questioned.
“I think ‘Powder to the People’ is a misnomer,” backcountry skier Bill Seguin of Aspen told the county commissioners. “It’s ‘Powder to the Machines’ is what the organization is all about.”
His comments were echoed by Patrick Sagal of Aspen, who said he has been a backcountry skier on Richmond Ridge for 15 years.
“I don’t think Powder to the People is an appropriate group to represent the public at all, it is only 40 snowmobilers trying to get access to a couple of hundred acres, when they already have tens of thousands to start with,” Sagal said.
Those comments were made after Powder to the People leaders Mike Sladdin and Gary Gleason of Aspen made a brief presentation and requested that the commissioners support a new planning process to sort out conflicts among powder skiers on the east side of Richmond Ridge and come up with a management plan that would give the public, at least those members of the public on snowmobiles, greater access to the area.
Aspen Mountain Powder Tours operates a snowcat skiing operation with an exclusive permit to use Forest Service land on the east side of Richmond Ridge. It also has an exclusive lease to use private land on the west side of the ridge in Little Annie Basin.
On the east side of the ridge, Powder Tours maintains three winter-only, over-the-snow roads that are supposed to be used only by Powder Tours snowcats.
However, the roads also provide a way for local snowmobile-skiers to tow ski partners back up to the top of the slopes after making turns through fresh snow on the terrain’s mostly upper-intermediate slopes. Without the packed snowcat roads, it is nearly impossible to tow a skiing partner or two back up the hill through deep snow.
The area is open to backcountry skiers who “earn their turns” by walking back up the hill after skiing down. The terrain below the snow-covered meadows in the area is heavily wooded and cut with gullies, which make it difficult to ski all the way down to the Roaring Fork River valley. So most backcountry skiers ski out the ridge from the top of Aspen Mountain, ski the terrain off of the spine of the ridge, and then walk back up.
Powder to the People has been lobbying for several years for equal access to the federal land on the east side of the ridge.
Gleason called the area the “private kingdom” of Aspen Skiing Co., which operates Powder Tours. Powder Tours charges $350 for a day of untracked powder skiing on Richmond Ridge.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Gleason took issue with the descriptions of Powder to the People by Sagal and Seguin.
“I would like to clarify for the record that Powder to the People is not a snowmobile organization,” Gleason said. “We are about backcountry access, safety and etiquette.”
He also pointed to the organization’s efforts to raise awareness about avalanche safety, encourage training in the use of avalanche rescue beacons and build an informative Web site.
But Commissioner Dorothea Farris didn’t accept Gleason’s positioning of the local nonprofit.
“The goals that you mentioned as to what ... your organization does — allow safety and information and education and appreciation of the wild country — I think there is an area where that can happen, but the issue is, ‘Can we get a snowmobile to take us back up the hill?’ That’s the real issue,” Farris said. “It isn’t the issue of having access to, and education of, and promoting the best use of the environment.”
For the past two winters, Powder Tours and Powder to the People have had an informal agreement that allows snowmobile-skiers to use one of the winter-only roads inside the Powder Tours permit area.
But Powder to the People has consistently pushed for access to all three over-the-snow roads that are maintained by Powder Tours. During a previous public process on travel planning in the area, it urged its members to write letters to the Forest Service asking for “public access to public lands.”
Murray Cunningham of Powder Tours says open access to the three winter-only roads would likely lead to the powder getting skied out too fast for him to continue offering a quality powder product.
A U.S. Forest Service official at Tuesday’s work session also poured cold water on the idea of a new planning process.
“We could not support by funding or organization the establishment of a collaborative process,” said Aspen District Ranger Irene Davidson, explaining that federal rules prohibit them from beginning a new planning process while there is already a process under way.
The supplemental draft environmental impact study will set travel rules for areas throughout the forest, including the area on the east side of Richmond Ridge. It is now scheduled to be released in August and when it is, the public will have 60 days to make comments.
Davidson also confirmed that the draft plan is not going to change the management designation for the east side of Richmond Ridge and that Powder Tours will still be granted exclusive motorized use of the area.
Both Farris and Commissioner Jack Hatfield said they were against a new planning process, with Hatfield saying it was premature until the draft travel management plan is released.
Commissioner Rachel Richards, however, said she was open to a new planning process to sort out the user conflicts in the area.
Commissioner Michael Owsley was not at the meeting as he was attending the Aspen Ideas Festival and Commissioner Patti Kay-Clapper left the meeting before a decision was made to deny Powder to the People’s request.
bgs@aspendailynews.com