Regarding the digital topo map project, I am wondering if you ever investigated using Google Earth for such a task. With a bit of sorcery you can easily overlay a USGS topo directly on a Google Earth image. If you haven’t looked at this already, you might find this link useful :

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2006/03/best_topo_map_i.html

Any opinions you have on this would be greatly appreciated as I have thought of doing something like this myself to document my forays in the BC, and I am wondering how viable this approach would be. Either way, It would seem that having a set of waypoints for your annotations that I could download directly to my GPS unit would be super useful.

Regards,
Chris

Just a few comments from across the range here in cb about the snodgrass issue. You are correct in the fact that many people could care less about the “foibles of private business” but what you say just before this stands on its own. WHY TAKE AWAY PUBLIC LANDS IF THE RESORT DOESN’T NEED IT. There are also issues with the amount of snowmaking it would take to keep south facing slopes covered in “snow” and the geologic stability of the slopes in question.

Understand that the snodgrass debate has resurfaced in a time when the possibility of losing Mount Emmons “Red Lady Bowl” to The Lucky Jack Mine is a real possibility. That could potentially mean losing access to two significant backcountry areas at a time when backcountry skiing is at an all time high and resort skiing has been stagnent for many years.

Thanks for covering this issue in your blog. It is good to see media covering both sides of an issue, something done far to little in this day and age.

Jeff

Fun times in Idaho…sand skiing that is.

I had that dilema with K2 as well Jason. So I bid HIGH!!