From Traction to Action: BSI 2026 Recap
What happens when you bring together winter recreation advocates, land managers, and Grassroots Groups to an off-grid backcountry hut?
April 8, 2026
By Brittany Leffel, Colorado Policy Manager
What happens when you bring together winter recreation advocates, land managers, and Grassroots Groups to an off-grid backcountry hut with no cell service instead of a conference room?
That’s the idea behind the Backcountry Snowsports Initiative (BSI), an annual off-grid hut trip hosted by Winter Wildlands Alliance in partnership with Colorado Mountain Club and 10th Mountain Division Hut Association.
“The BSI Hut Trip is an annual adventure that draws together winter backcountry partners and advocates. The time spent together off-grid, surrounded by wild snowscapes, fosters deep conversations and builds community connections. Each year, innovative ideas are spawned, new partnerships are formed and efforts to protect human powered winter recreation are bolstered.”
– Brian Bergler, Conservation Director, Colorado Mountain Club
BSI exists to do more than convene; it equips and connects a community working to shape the future of winter recreation. It first stepped into action following the 2015 Over-Snow Vehicle (OSV) Rule, when Colorado quickly emerged as the next hot spot for OSV Planning across National Forests. Since then, BSI has continued to serve as a conduit for elevating the most pressing challenges facing Colorado’s wild snowscapes and the people who rely on them.
Winter recreation is growing rapidly across Colorado, and the systems that manage it are struggling to keep pace.
From increased search and rescue demand to mounting pressure on winter wildlife habitat, and from declining snowpack to a widening funding gap, the challenges are complex and interconnected. Put simply, we are asking more of our winter snowscapes while investing fewer resources into their stewardship.
BSI creates space to confront that reality head-on with the people who see the impacts every day. It challenges us to think about how we can work better together rather than in separate silos.
BSI is intentionally held in a backcountry hut for a reason. Getting there requires effort, planning, and a shared willingness to step away from your emails for two days. That shared experience, whether it’s skinning up, melting snow for water, or cooking together, creates a level of trust and connection that’s hard to replicate in a conference room.
This year, participants included staff from the U.S. Forest Service, Friends of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, Colorado Search and Rescue, COTREX, Wintering Wildlife Conservation Initiative, the Town of Crested Butte, recreation advocates from Backcountry Together and VntrBirds, and Grassroots Groups like Colorado Rising.
Spending two days together off-grid allowed for candid conversations about management challenges, policy constraints, and opportunities for collaboration that rarely surface in more formal settings.
One of the best things about BSI is turning ideas into tangible outcomes.
A few years back, conversations were had about better protecting our wintering wildlife, which sparked the creation of the Wintering Wildlife Conservation Initiative.
This year, an a-ha moment emerged about the Snow Ranger program on how Colorado Mountain Club and Winter Wildlands Alliance leaped into action this season to sustain the program in the absence of federal funding. The conversation quickly evolved into something bigger:
What would it look like to scale this model?
That question sparked a deeper discussion about how Snow Rangers could help address capacity gaps across National Forests from supporting education, backcountry safety, and on-the-ground presence in ways that benefit both recreationists and the land managers who manage the wild snowscapes.
Solutions were discussed together. That’s exactly how we are going to steward our National Forests from the ground up and create long-term solutions for our wild snowscapes and the agencies that manage them across Colorado.
After this year’s BSI hut trip, I left feeling more than inspired. I felt optimistic about the future of Colorado’s winter backcountry. We are connecting, engaging, and empowering the people across Colorado who can make a difference in how we manage our public lands during the winter. These conversations and ideas will carry with me for the rest of the year as I work alongside communities and partners to advocate for sustainable winter recreation management across Colorado.
