Our 2024-25 Season in Review: What We Accomplished and What’s Next
- Michael Graw
- Jun 10
- 3 min read
With the 2024-25 season coming to an end, we want to highlight some of the work our team accomplished this year that we’re most proud of. We also want to say a big thanks to our community and partners—we couldn’t do this work without all of you.

Expanding Our Board
We kicked off the year with a recruiting drive and brought on four new members to our board. They’ve done a tremendous job diving right into projects and bringing new ideas and energy to Cascade Backcountry Alliance. (You can meet our full board here!)
We plan to accept applications for new board members later this summer. Interested in applying? Join our email newsletter to make sure you’re notified when applications open.
Achieving 501(c)(3) Status
Cascade Backcountry Alliance is now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit! That has a number of benefits for us as an organization and means your donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
We’d like to say a huge thanks to everyone who’s already donated—your contributions are crucial to protecting and improving backcountry access in the Pacific Northwest. If you’d like to help support our mission, you can donate here.
Hosting Backcountry Connections
We hosted Backcountry Connections in April, our first major self-organized community event. Backcountry Connections brought together nearly 100 community members to make new friends and touring partners—and win raffle prizes from our sponsors.
Thanks to everyone who joined us for the event, Old Stove Gardens for hosting, and to all the sponsors who contributed prizes. We can’t wait to hold this event again next year!
Getting Out Into the Community
While Backcountry Connections was the biggest event that Cascade Backcountry Alliance hosted, we spent plenty of time interacting with the community at partners’ events. Our board members hosted tables at Crystal Mountain’s Uphill Weekend, NWAC’s Avalanche Awareness classes, Snowbash, Feathered Friend’s The Bight, and more.
We can’t wait to meet more folks next season—keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram channels to find out what events we’ll be at!
Navigating Major Access Changes
This year saw significant changes to access at multiple critical access points around the Cascades, particularly around Snoqualmie Pass. We helped our community navigate the changes with a detailed explainer of the new Summit at Snoqualmie parking rules, news on US Forest Service layoffs, and updates about changing Sno-Park status.
Summit at Snoqualmie is making further changes to parking rules for next season. We’re working on an update to our parking map and policy breakdown—keep an eye out for that this fall.
Bringing Together Stakeholders to Address I-90 Challenges
We also hosted a roundtable discussion with representatives from the US Forest Service, Summit at Snoqualmie, the Snoqualmie Pass Community Association, Snoqualmie Tribe, The Mountaineers, Mountains to Sound Greenway, NWAC, State Parks, and other groups to address I-90 corridor access challenges. The goal was to bring together stakeholders and to identify challenges and potential opportunities for collaboration.
We’re grateful to our partners for showing up with an open mind to discuss some of these nuanced topics, and we believe that continued collaboration will lead to creative solutions. We are excited to begin working on some initial action items to help maintain and improve dispersed winter recreation at Snoqualmie Pass.
Building Relationships with Land Managers
Throughout the winter, we continued to build relationships with land managers, regional partners, and other stakeholders. These relationships are crucial to our long-term ability to effect change. A lot of our work happens behind the scenes in emails, phone calls, and one-on-one conversations!
We’re incredibly proud of everything we achieved this season, and we have a lot more on the horizon. Please consider supporting Cascade Backcountry Alliance by subscribing to our newsletter, following us on Facebook and Instagram, and making a donation.
Thanks so much for being a part of our community!
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