Our new snowmobiles (made possible by our generous supporters) got us and professional arborist Will Nielsen up to Harts Pass where Will helped clean up some fallen trees that threatened one of our research stations. 

While we were up there we cut tracks of a Canada lynx, another endangered carnivore that prefers the snow cold and deep like many of you. We have already gotten several track observations through our community science portal from the Cascades this winter. Don’t forget to send us your snow track observations from your winter tours in wolverine country!

In the Early Winters watershed we got all of our stations up without event, and David survived a harrowing early season descent through thick trees on a shallow icy snowpack as his first backcountry outing of the winter thanks to the patience of the rest of the crew. During the descent he perfected the backwards downhill slide into a faceplant into the snow stop (Please reach out to him directly for this new off-piste technique for unsavory conditions).

In our trip into Holden Village, we navigated a huge winter storm that dumped a ton of snow, managing to get our stations in before avalanche hazard went up and trail breaking became ridiculous. Thanks to the generous hospitality and lovely facilities at the village, Steph and Dave weathered the storm comfortably.

On the westside of the mountains, our amazing volunteer Nick March both got in our ongoing station in the Mount Baker backcountry and, following up on several community science observations we got from backcountry skiers and hikers, is working on getting a second station in a new location installed in the Nooksack watershed.