When Karen Roth learned a volunteer group was forming to assist the forest service in patrolling the Cameron Pass area on cross country skis, she thought it sounded like fun. It would give her an opportunity to make friends in the Nordic ski community while serving the public in one of Colorado’s most iconic backcountry settings, located 70 miles west of Fort Collins.
That was in 1992, and she’s been a member of the Cameron Pass Nordic Rangers ever since.
“Number one, I like to ski,” Roth said. “One of the reasons I joined was to meet new people to ski with. I met some great friends through the Nordic Rangers. We hike in the summer and we do other things. It was to join a volunteer group, to feel good that you’re doing something while you’re enjoying the activity, but also expanding the people I could ski with. And it’s lasted for years and years.”
The Cameron Pass Nordic Rangers want to share the fun and are recruiting new members for this coming winter. There will be a training session on Dec. 5 at a forest service office in Fort Collins, followed by a field training session at Cameron Pass on Dec. 9.
The Cameron Pass area is one of the most spectacular backcountry destinations in the state with more than 30 miles of trails on the border of Larimer and Jackson counties. It features rugged mountainous terrain with above-timberline bowls and steeps, but it also has some moderate terrain for cross country touring and snowshoeing. And, because it’s a 140 miles from the Interstate 70 mountain corridor, it doesn’t get as crowded as backcountry destinations closer to Denver.
“If you go up Montgomery Pass trail or the Michigan Ditch, which is just a flat road, people take off from those trails and snowboard or ‘tele’ ski or AT ski down some of those bowls,” Roth said. “There is some high avalanche danger, especially in the Diamond Peaks area. We’ve had quite a few avalanche deaths up there. People definitely need to check the conditions before they go. But there’s all sorts of beginner to advanced trails and bowls up there.”
The Cameron Pass Nordic Rangers (CPNR) interact with the public, explaining backcountry etiquette and forest service rules, answering questions and offering tips about where to explore. Last winter they had 53 active members who conducted 154 trail patrols and made 468 “contacts” with the public, Roth said. Some members also volunteer for trail maintenance.
“They’re really the heart of our winter recreation program,” said Matthew Cowan, wilderness and trails program manager for the forest service’s Canyon Lakes Ranger District. “They’re out there educating the public, helping visitors who may not be aware of the terrain or the conditions. They’re promoting Leave No Trace practices, keeping up with signage, clearing trees. We really couldn’t do it without them.”
Keeping up with signage is important. Backcountry trails on forest service land are usually marked with blue diamonds. If they go missing, that’s a problem.
“They may have just fallen off trees, gotten damaged by windstorms or been on a tree that has fallen over,” Cowan said. “And trail junction signs as well — if those get covered up in snow, or they aren’t visible, people could miss their trail junctions and get lost.”
CPNR patrollers are required to carry two-way satellite communication devices so that if they come across someone who has been injured, they can summon help. Emergency situations are handled by the Diamond Peaks Ski Patrol, a separate volunteer unit that works in the Cameron Pass area on search and rescue operations.
“They have avalanche training and are much more well-equipped for emergency scenarios, whereas CPNR is much more of an education program,” Cowan said. “On any given weekend, you can expect to find patrollers with Diamond Peaks as well as CPNR. Our volunteers with CPNR usually stick to our system (cross country) trails, where as the Diamond Peaks folks will often go up into the higher country above treeline, into avalanche territory especially. Between those two groups, we really have a lot of patrolling and education going on across that landscape.”
To join the rangers this winter, there is required off-snow training session on Dec. 5 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the U.S. Forest Service office at 2150 Centre Ave., Building E, in Fort Collins. Required field training will follow at Cameron Pass on Dec. 9 from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. For more information and to RSVP, email CameronPassNordic@gmail.com.
