WINTER SPORTS -- Work is progressing on a hut to serve as a Smith Gap warming shelter for snowshoers and backcountry skiers at Mount Spokane State Park.

• Park staff constructed most of the foundation. A contractor is coming in to build the enclosure, hopefully before winter. Volunteers will be needed to help with finishing the inside next season, according to Park Manager Steve Christensen. 

It's no surprise that Cris Currie, long-time leader of the Friends of Mount Spokane State Park, is in the thick of the volunteer action. The friends group is looking for a wood stove to install in the hut.

Here's a weekend update with these photos from Currie's wife, Nora Searing:

Cris working this afternoon underneath the floor of the new snowshoe hut at Smith Gap on Mt. Spokane. There might even be walls and a roof finished by this winter season!