STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

The community is invited to toast 25 years of wild snowscapes with the Winter Wildlands Alliance on Wednesday.

The Alliance is sponsoring a gathering open to the public from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5, at the Sun Valley Museum of Art in Ketchum. David Page, the WWA executive director, will speak about past successes and plans and challenges for the next 25 years.

The Alliance deemed The Museum a fitting place for the celebration since The Museum just opened a new “Snow Show” celebrating winter, said Sarah Michael, founder of Winter Wildlands. One of the artists featured in the show—Sun Valley native and National Geographic photographer Sofia Jaramillo—is a WWA ambassador.

The WWA had its genesis 25 years ago in the midst of conflict between Nordic skiers and snowmobilers and an arson that gutted a backcountry ski yurt.

Five skiers and five snowmobilers sat down at a table presided over by a professional mediator. And, over nine months of negotiations, the Winter Recreation Coalition, as they called themselves, created a map that zoned 215,000 acres for motorized use and nonmotorized winter recreational uses in the Pioneer, Boulder and Smoky Mountains.

Snowmobilers agreed to a voluntary closure on powder slopes near three backcountry ski huts, and they helped rebuild the Boulder yurt, which was destroyed by an arson fire in April 2000.

Idaho U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo awarded the 10 members of the Winter Recreation Coalition the “Spirit of Idaho Award” because “they created a collaborative solution to a perplexing problem.”

The Winter Coalition Agreement still operates under the leadership of the Sawtooth Snowmobile Club and the Nordic and Backcountry Skiers Alliance of Idaho, which is presided over by Backwoods Mountain Sports owner Paddy McIlvoy.

“The success of the Winter Recreation Coalition in solving our conflicts in the Wood River Valley motivated me to work with other states to create a national organization, and Winter Wildlands Alliance was formed,” said Michael.

Now, 25 years later, Winter Wildlands Alliance has grown from three groups to 33 local/regional affiliates and 72 active SnowSchool sites across 17 states. The SnowSchools, started in 2021, have exposed more than a half-million youngsters to winter ecology and watersheds.

WWA represents a national movement of winter recreation advocates working to protect and steward sensitive winter ecosystems, quiet recreation opportunities and critical wildlife habitat.

“We have helped pass key federal legislation, saved cherished wildlands from commercial development, and reduced barriers to the outdoors,” said Michael. “We reach 40,000 people each year through the Backcountry Film Festival, and our national SnowSchool program has introduced more than 500,000 kids to snow science and the joys of winter, inspiring the next generation of climate stewards.”