Shoshone National Forest

Photo by Zach Snavely

Draft Winter Travel Plan Delayed

The Shoshone National Forest in Northwest Wyoming bills itself as a wild backcountry forest, and indeed there are some amazing adventures to be had deep in the Wind River, Absaroka, and Beartooth mountains. What’s at stake in this travel plan, and where most skiers go, is the Shoshone’s relatively accessible world-class front-country terrain. Specifically Togwotee Pass and the Beartooth Pass.

Based on a public scoping process that ended in December 2017, the Shoshone National Forest has been working on developing and analyzing winter travel management alternatives. However, the process is currently on hold while the Forest fills vacant positions on the planning team.

During the scoping period, Winter Wildlands Alliance worked with Togwotee Backcountry Alliance, Montana Backcountry Alliance, and other partners to submit scoping comments and rally skier engagement. To catch up on what was going on during scoping, check out this blog post.

Skiing on Togwotee Pass, photo by Charlie Manganiello

Click on the links below to read the comments we’ve sent in to the Forest Service to date (pdf):

• Winter Wildlands Alliance Pre-scoping Comments (2015)
• Winter Wildlands Alliance round 1 Scoping Comments (2016)
  
• Winter Wildlands Alliance round 2 Scoping Comments (2017)

For more information and an archive of relevant documents, visit the Forest Service’s Project Webpage.

For updates, next steps, and specific action alerts on travel planning across the west and other important issues to the backcountry community, click here to join our Action Team and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Press

Wyofile.org 12/8/2017. Skis and Snowmobiles: National forest examines winter travel. 

Backcountry Magazine 7/17/2018. Understanding Beartooth Highway: Conversations on Springtime User Conflict Along the Montana/Wyoming Border.