Category: Meetings

December Meeting

📣 Attention Cross Country Ski Club Members! 🎿

Join us for our upcoming meeting and potluck! 🍲🤝

🗓️ When: Tuesday, December 5th, 6-8 PM

📍 Where: Rocky Mountain Grange Hall, 1436 S 1st St, Hamilton, MT

Let’s gather to discuss plans for the exciting ski season ahead, sign up for volunteer opportunities, and meet fellow skiers. We’ll also talk about important club updates and bylaw changes.

Your input matters! Share your ideas and help shape the future of our club. 🗣️💡

🍽️ Don’t forget to bring your favorite dish to share!

👉 Whether you’re a long-standing member or new to the club, we can’t wait to see you there!

Reflecting on our past traditions, you might recall that we used to have monthly meetings during the ski season. These gatherings were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we haven’t had a formal meeting since 2020. We’re now planning to switch to yearly meetings every December. However, if there’s interest and willingness among members to organize, we are open to resuming our monthly meetings.

March Meeting

Please join us for our March meeting on Thursday March 12 at 7 pm. The meeting will feature a presentation by Byron Bonny about wildfires.

Byron Bonny – was with the Forest Service from 1969 to 2001. Currently, he is a Community Forester with the Bitterroot RC&D. Besides his current role as a Wildland Fire consultant in the Northern Rockies, he works with private landowners in Ravalli, Missoula, and Mineral Counties dealing with hazardous fuels treatments.

The Fire Environment has changed over the past several decades because our climate is warmer and dryer.

Extensive research has confirmed that the best thing you can do to protect your home from wildfires is reduce fuels within 100 feet of your residence.

Byron will give a presentation about how best to protect your home from wildfire.

January 2020 Meeting

Photo Copyright Jeff Liu

Please join us for our first meeting of 2020 on Thursday January 9 at 7pm, at the Presbyterian Church, 1220 West Main Street, Hamilton, MT. This meeting will feature a presentation by club vice president Jesse Crocker.

In 2019 Jesse Crocker entered the 1100 mile Silk Road Mountain Race, an unsupported single stage bikepacking race through the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan. It has been described as the worlds toughest mountain bike race. Over the course of the race he froze in snow storms, sweated through deserts, stayed with nomads, and almost hit a camel.

Jesse lives in Darby MT where he spends as much time as possible skiing, but when the snow melts he’s on foot or bike. He has thru hiked the Pacific Crest Trails, biked the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, skied the John Muir Trail, and trekked through the Himalayas. When not outside he is one of the authors of the popular Gaia GPS navigation app.

November 2019 Meeting

Please join us for our first meeting of the year on Thursday, Nov 14 at the Presbyterian Church, 1220 West Main Street, Hamilton, MT. We’ll have a member’s meeting and presentation at 7 pm. We can always use more volunteers to serve on the board, so if you have interest in that, please join us at 6 pm. The meeting will feature a presentation by Torrey Ritter about Beavers and the ecosystem benefits they provide.

Torrey Ritter is a non-game wildlife biologist with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks out of Missoula. He went to Montana State University for a
bachelor’s degree in Organismal Biology.
He then spent the next six years working for various state and federal wildlife agencies on a variety of wildlife species including grizzly bears, elk, small mammals, peregrine falcons, sage grouse and best of all, beavers. Torrey returned to MSU in 2015 for graduate school and spent three years studying beaver dispersal and habitat selection in the Upper Madison and Gallatin river drainages in southwest Montana.
Torrey has become fascinated by beavers and their ability to modify stream and riparian habitat and is very excited that he gets to work on beaver-related projects in his current
position.

February meeting

The February meeting is scheduled for Thursday February 14 at 7pm, at the Presbyterian Church, 1220 West Main Street, Hamilton, MT.

The meeting will feature a presentation by Nate Bender, a Missoula trail runner, about his 2018 project to climb all of Montana’s 12000 foot peaks in 4 days. For more information about Nate’s amazing feat see https://fastestknowntime.com/route/montana-12ers-mt

January 2019 meeting

The January meeting will be held on January 10 at 7pm, at the Presbyterian Church, 1220 West Main Street, Hamilton, MT. Ken and Patrice will be giving a presentation on their latest desert adventure in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.