STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

As the temperature climbed towards 90 in Sun Valley Monday, naturally people’s thoughts began turning towards winter.

Muffy Ritz is broadcasting that cross country skiers can sign up for the 2020 Zions Bank Boulder Mountain Tour, which takes place on Feb. 1,  for the discounted rate of $75 if they do so by July 31 at https://www.skireg.com/zions-bank-boulder-mountain-tour

And the Blaine County Recreation District is looking ahead to a second season at Quigley Nordic.

The new trails at Quigley Nordic debuted in what is the longest season ever for the south valley, opening in early December and running through the first of April.

Quigley was the No. 2 destination of Nordic skiers this winter, eclipsed only by the dog-friendly trails near the Sawtooth National Recreation Area headquarters, said BCRD’s Executive Director Jim Keating.

Keating estimates the Quigley loops got between 13,000 to 14,000 skier days. It also served as a hub for some of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s Nordic programs.

The North Valley Trails got an estimated 65,000 skier visits, based on a formula BCRD uses. That would make the 2018-19 winter season one of its biggest years.

“And that’s a conservative estimate,” Keating said. “We know that in our community people ski more days than the national average. And those figures don’t even include the bike path.”

While Quigley Nordic enjoyed a stellar season based on the number of days it was open, it did get a hiccup from creek water getting backed up and spilling over onto one of the main trails during mid-winter.

“Sheet flooding changed some of the character of the land. We’d never seen that happen before,” Keating said, referring back to when BCRD groomed trails in the area years ago.

Crews rerouted the trail to get through the winter. And they hope to rework the area a little more before next winter.