For the past few years I've been working on the Hanging Lake and Beverley Creek backcountry ski trails in the Callaghan Valley. The Hanging Lake trail has become very popular because of the easy access it offers to the subalpine.  Trails like this one are particularly helpful in the low snow conditions that we are experiencing now.

Last year I got some financial support from the BCMC that allowed us to reroute the most difficult portion of the Hanging Lake trail to make access easier.  This work was done under a Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) section 57 authorization from the BC government.  This authorization is essentially just permission to build a trail, nothing more.  I would like the BCMC to pursue getting these trails established under section 56 of the FRPA, which would offer some management protection for the trail.  In particularly, I'm worried about increasing snowmobiling around Hanging Lake impacting the primary yoyo skiing area in the Hanging Lake bowl.

With the Ministry of Forests starting to ramp up on enforcing the 21 mile creek non-motorized zone, I'm afraid that many snowmobilers will try to ride Hanging Lake because it's outside the watershed and they can legally snowmobile there.  A section 56 designation for the trail would be the first step to getting recognition for the high value backcountry skiing around Hanging Lake.  The snowmobile access trail on the SW side of Sproatt is getting a section 56 designation this year, so I feel like we should try to at least keep up with that.

That sounds great, Scott. What do you need from the club to do this? Have you talked to Ben SP to see if he can help on this? He's now the Rec & Con Chair... 

Let's do it! It's a good strategy.