"As I look out the window there is patchy snow on the ground at my house in Darby, and it looks like there is a solid blanket of snow on the ground at Chief Joseph Pass." Jesse Crocker opened the Bitterroot Cross-Country Ski Club's October 2026 newsletter with that line in his president's message. He added that he wouldn't be surprised if someone had already skied it, "though your skis are probably much happier if you didn't."
In late October the ski hill down the road is still in its off-season. If you live in Sula, the first winter date to put on your calendar this year comes from that volunteer club. The club has also decided to spend its whole grooming budget on the trailhead at the top of Highway 43.
The snow is up there. The lifts have no date.
As of the last week of October, Lost Trail Powder Mountain's homepage still says it is closed and "already dreaming of next winter." It is hiring for the 26/27 season, but it hasn't posted an opening date or a weekday schedule. Its hours page still lists the lifts, kitchen and office as closed.
The only date floating around is a projection from OnTheSnow, and that page disagrees with itself. Its overview says December 10, and its projected-opening entry says December 11, 2026. Neither one comes from the resort. Last season Lost Trail ran four days a week, according to The Pulp in March 2026. That tells you how last winter went. It doesn't tell you this winter's schedule.
Here's what Lost Trail has set for 26/27. Season passes bought from October 1 onward cost $700 for adults 13 to 64, $600 for seniors 65 and up, $400 for kids 6 to 12, and nothing for kids 5 and under. First-time buyers pay $5 more for a new RFID card, and a replacement card costs $10. Pass holders get five $10-off buddy discounts and 20% off rentals and demos, both starting January 8, 2027, with buddy discounts blacked out February 12 through 15. Registration for the six-week All-Mountain program for ages 7 and up runs November 1 through December 31. Coaching costs $250, and the sessions fall on Saturdays or Sundays from early January to late February, with a break on February 13 and 14.
Those are all January dates. December on the pass belongs to the Nordic trails.
Why Chief Joseph Pass carries the whole club this year
Chief Joseph Pass trails are usually open December 1 through April 15, weather permitting, according to the club. That's one window, and it doesn't depend on a resort announcement.
The bigger change is where the club's grooming effort goes. In the same newsletter, Crocker reported that the board decided to stop grooming the trails at Lake Como. The club restarted that program five years ago, and by his account it worked. Some seasons had close to three months of snow, many hundreds of people used the trails, the club worked with the Forest Service to install a new gate, and volunteers laid out new routes to keep skiers off roads open to vehicles. The problem was groomers. "The majority of the trail grooming in that time has been done by a small handful of volunteers," he wrote. The board weighed paying groomers and decided that "the best use of our budget is focusing on Chief Joseph Pass."
So every grooming hour and every dollar the club has will go to the trailhead closest to Sula. That money comes partly from sponsors. Individuals, families and businesses can pay for a day of grooming at Chief Joseph Pass for $300, and Triple Creek Ranch has signed on to sponsor every Thursday this season. The club usually grooms about once a week, more when conditions call for it, so a standing Thursday sponsor covers a real share of the season.
The trails were also cleared before the snow got deep. The club's annual work day on Saturday, October 24, went after the four trails the grooming machine can't drive to clear them itself: Gold Medal, Joseph Creek, Middle Fork and Lost Trail View.
What the pass actually offers once grooming starts
The club runs two separate systems from two parking areas, and the rules differ between them.
- Ski trails: More than 13 miles, groomed with a PistenBully. Every trail gets classic track on one or both sides plus a wide skate lane. Difficulty runs from green to black, every junction has a map, and benches sit along the way. You reach them from the Chief Joseph Pass trailhead.
- Multi-use trails: Nearly 20 miles, open to skate skiing, dog sledding, snowshoeing, fat-tire biking and snowmobiling. They're wider and have no classic track. Parking is in the area just east of Lost Trail Pass.
- Touring trails: Marked but ungroomed routes for experienced backcountry skiers and snowshoers.
- Cost: The club says "there is no cost to ski at Chief Joseph Pass." Memberships, grants and donations pay for grooming, and you can donate online or at the trailhead.
- Hours: None set. There are no lights, so the club recommends sunrise to sunset.
Before you click into your bindings, sign in at the trailhead. The club asks everyone to do it on every visit, because the visitor counts help it win grant funding. The club's homepage also says you don't need a membership to use the trails.
The dog rule depends on whose page you read. The club says dogs aren't allowed on the ski trails but are allowed on the multi-use trails. The Recreation.gov page for the area asks visitors not to bring dogs onto the Chief Joseph ski trails in winter and points dog owners to nearby Forest Service Road 1260 and backcountry trails. A 2023 Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest release went further and said pets aren't allowed at the cabin or on the trails. If the dog is coming, the safest choice is the multi-use lot or Road 1260.
The cabin is the best part of the system. The Gordon Reese Cabin sits on the CD Trail about 0.7 miles from the trailhead. It's a day-use warming hut for anyone on the trails, open December 1 through April 15, and you can rent it overnight through the Wisdom Ranger Station or online reservations. Recreation.gov lists the cabin under Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.
The December the pass has scheduled
Lost Trail's calendar starts in January. Here are the dates on and around the pass between now and the end of December:
| Date | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Nov. 16, 8 a.m. MST | Rust Buster registration opens | Online |
| Nov. 30 | Camp Sula RV park closes until May | Sula |
| Dec. 1 | Usual opening for trails and Gordon Reese Cabin, weather permitting | Chief Joseph Pass |
| Thu., Dec. 3, 6 p.m. | Club annual meeting, potluck and board elections | Rocky Mountain Grange, 1436 S 1st St, Hamilton |
| Dec. 14 | Rust Buster entry fee goes up $5 after this date | Online |
| Sat., Dec. 19, 10 a.m. | 5th annual Rust Buster 10K classic race | Chief Joseph Pass |
| Dec. 30 | Camp Sula's longer-stay cabin discount starts | Sula |
The Rust Buster is a 10-kilometer classic race. The listed entry fee is $18 and the field is capped at 70. There's no 3K this year, and the newsletter says there's no separate kids division either, though racers of all ages can enter the main race. The trails stay open to everyone else during the race. RunSignup puts the parking warning in capitals, "There is NO PARKING on HWY 43," and asks racers to carpool. With 70 entries and a lot that holds a limited number of cars, carpooling makes sense.
The December 3 meeting is a change of guard. Crocker wrote that he'll step down as president when his term ends in December after five years, though he'll stay on for trail maintenance and grooming. The club had one candidate for the job as of the newsletter. George Corn, the longest-serving board member, is also stepping down. The newsletter describes the evening as mostly social, with a short business portion for the elections.
Some Sula winter spots run on their own clocks. Lost Trail Hot Springs posts a winter schedule that runs from early September to the end of June: Friday noon to 9 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. The resort notes that pool and restaurant hours differ and holidays shift them, so call ahead. If you have guests coming in winter, Camp Sula takes 10% off three-night cabin stays, 15% off four nights and 20% off five or more, and lists December 30, 2026 through February 28, 2027 for the longer-stay offer.
What keeps the grooming going
The club didn't drop Lake Como because skiers stopped coming. It dropped Como because too few people were running the grooming. Chief Joseph Pass depends on the same volunteers, and the club is asking for help with more than money.
It needs one or two people to post grooming reports. The grooming crew texts or emails what got done, and someone posts it to Facebook and the club website, several days a week and promptly. Crocker wrote that it helps if that person skis regularly and can add notes on conditions. The board also wants one or two new members, and the Rust Buster needs race-day volunteers.
The kids' program shows what the club can do when it has enough people. Last February the club held youth clinics every Saturday at Chief Joseph Pass. Ten kids split between skate and classic, and 10 volunteer instructors taught across the sessions. A Ravalli Electric Co-op Power of Change grant paid for gear, so rentals were free. The club plans to run the clinics again this February with the same equipment, and families can sign up for updates through the form linked in the newsletter. The grooming reports go up on the club's trail report page. Check it before driving up early in the season.
Clint Roberts is a fourth-generation Montanan who spent years on a volunteer fire crew, so he knows what a volunteer-run winter in the upper Bitterroot depends on. If you're thinking about land or a cabin near Sula and want to know how it sits relative to Chief Joseph Pass, the Lost Trail lots and the Highway 93 corridor, Clinton Roberts can walk it with you. You can also start with a free property valuation.
