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Steamboat Springs — Russ Lambert doesn’t personally know any members of the military, but he still has gratitude for the sacrifices soldiers make.

Lambert, the general manager at Steamboat Lake Outfitters, along with Rocky Mountain Rentals, will bring eight wounded veterans to North Routt on Friday and Saturday for Operation Healing Snow.

The six male and two female veterans will be treated to a potluck lunch at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Steamboat Lake Outfitters, before taking to snowmobiles in the afternoon.

Rocky Mountain Rentals and Steamboat PowerSports will provide the snowmobiles for the trip.

The soldiers are part of the Wounded Warriors Battalion in Fort Carson. The hope is to get the veterans to the top of Farwell Mountain on Saturday.

“That’s a nice trail ride,” said Jody Wagoner, owner of Rocky Mountain Rentals. “There is some hill climbing. You can see all of the Zirkels and all of the other mountains around here.”

The event is trying to follow the path of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing. That organization was founded in 2005 at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Its goal is to assist in physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active-duty personnel and veterans through fly-fishing outings. Although originally focused in the Washington, D.C., area, the program has expanded to a national level.

Operation Healing Snow isn’t working with Project Healing Waters, but the principle and outline are similar.

“I’ve participated in that program,” said Karl Gruber, who is one of the coordinators for Operation Healing Snow and has worked with Project Healing Waters. “We came up with the idea of, ‘OK, we can do this in the summertime, getting wounded soldiers on the stream, but can we get them on snowmobiles?’”

Lambert said he was contacted several months ago to see whether they’d be willing to do a winter adventure. After some planning and thought, Operation Healing Snow was born.

“They asked if the community could give back if they could, and we were approached by these guys,” Lambert said. “It’s a small thing we can do to show our appreciation for our military.”

The veterans will arrive Friday and stay at Steamboat Lake Outfitters. Lambert said the event would run similarly to those Project Healing Waters organizes in the summer. He said he hopes to make it an annual event.

“This is another way to help these guys get back,” Lambert said. “It’s another way to show a little appreciation.”