NEWS: Posted on May 9, 2023

Spring is here. It’s a time for growth and reckoning. While our state, the second driest in the Union, is temporarily grappling with the watery consequences of natural hydrologic processes, we here at Mountain Trails are contending with a different sort of flood.

Around the first of the year, we blew past budget projections for winter grooming. Now it’s May (what!?) and, as we’ve just barely put the grooming equipment away, I had a chance to run final numbers on our hard costs for this past season. As QuickBooks spun, processing the winter grooming expense report, I braced with squinted eyes and clenched jaw. Then, pulling up my big girl pants, I drew a ragged breath, forced an eye open and saw numbers I never, in 10 years at MTF, imagined I’d see. We are about $80,000 over budget for winter grooming. Gulp.

Every cloud has a silver lining and ours is this: like the water that is filling Utah’s reservoirs and aquifers, MTF has had a flood of support this season. Wonderfully generous donors filled our reservoir, and because of this, Mountain Trails is in the fortunate financial position to cover the excess. It won’t be comfortable, but it is doable.

So, on behalf of the many thousands of people who enjoyed Park City’s groomed trails this past season, I offer the most sincere thanks to the 531 people who donated since winter began last November. THANKS to each of you for being a raindrop in the flood of support that keeps MTF’s hard-working crew paid, machinery running, and our world class trails in tip top shape. We couldn’t do what we do, year round, without support from people like you.