Volunteers rebuild Boulder yurt
Skiers and snowmobilers hope for end to conflict
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
The Boulder yurt was resurrected last weekend.
Sun
Valley Trekking co-owner Bob Jonas and volunteer Jim McClatchy survey progress on a new
Boulder Yurt.
Fifteen volunteers, mostly backcountry skiers, rebuilt the yurt in a new
location in the Smokey Mountains’ Anderson Creek drainage, about a mile west of
Highway 75. Before it was destroyed in an apparent arson in April, the original Boulder
yurt, consisting of two Mongolian-style huts connected by a walkway, was at a site across
Highway 75 in the Boulder Mountain foothills.
No one has been charged with the apparent crime.
The volunteers worked through snow squalls Saturday to lay the groundwork.
Sunday, they completed the job.
Together, the two yurts will sleep 14 people.
Following the April fire, an undercurrent of finger pointing had resulted
as skiers unofficially charged snowmobilers with burning the backcountry hut, as part of a
conflict over the two groups’ use of the area.
With dramatically increasing numbers of backcountry skiers over the past
two decades, along with the invention of the "powder sled" snow machine in the
mid 1990s, coexistence of the two uses in the same area has become more difficult. The new
machines encourage riders to explore high-alpine slopes, laying ever-higher tracks, called
"high lines."
High lines, skiers say, ruin their skiing.
But the finger pointing from the yurt arson and a decade’s worth of
bickering appear on the cusp of resolution.
Winter Recreation Coalition members—five snowmobilers and five
skiers—early last month drafted plans to designate motorized and non-motorized areas
in the northern Wood River Valley. The Forest Service is scheduled to decide whether to
implement the plan by Oct. 31.
Group members said the chaos triggered by the yurt arson sparked growth
within the group and helped it reach consensus.
"This group decided the person who burned the yurt down is a
criminal, period," stated snowmobiler and group member Kim Nilsen at a press
conference last month.
For skiers and snowmobilers, last weekend was a time to further bury the
hatchet.
"I don’t think there is any conflict anymore," said Nilsen,
who helped rebuild the yurt, during an interview Monday. "It’s all put to bed.
"I had a good time up there Saturday. What could have been a real
tragedy in the community turned into a real good thing."
For Jonas, this fall’s resolution and the weekend’s yurt
building mark what he, too, hopes will be end to the conflicts.
In April, Jonas had predicted the yurt fire would heat the debate, forcing
resolution even farther away.
"I think it’s a no-brainer that [the fire] is going to
exacerbate tension and create more concern," he said at the burned yurt site in
April. "That’s sad. I don’t want to think that way."
His comments on Sunday showed a change of heart. "I’m really
pleased with the feeling between snowmobilers and skiers right now," he said.
"I’m excited about making it work. The energy is there. The commitment is there.
A lot of stereotypes have been broken down."
Jonas said two yurts his company owns in the East Fork of Baker Creek
valley will be open to snowmobilers this winter.
"Hey, we’re both out having fun," Jonas said about the user
groups. "The powder sledder—they love powder snow in their face; they love
making tracks. In that sense, they’re the same as us."
Nilsen concurred.
