It’s snowed in town, and it’s snowing even more in the mountains. Already people have been skiing and snowmobiling, and if all goes well, grooming will start any day at the Nordic Trails on Mt. Macpherson.
With that in mind, we touched base with the Revelstoke Snowmobile Club and the Revelstoke Nordic Club to find out what they have new for this year.
Snowmobile Club has busiest summer ever
It’s been a transformative summer for the Revelstoke Snowmobile Club. The Snowobile Revelstoke Society disbanded in the spring and the club has assumed all duties with running, marketing and advocating for snowmobiling in Revelstoke.
“It was probably the busiest summer in the club’s history,” club president Greg Byman told me recently.
The club has a new outside operations manager in Hank Krawczyk, who brings years of experience as a manager with Canadian Mountain Holidays. They also have a new office manager, to handle the inside work, and a maintenance manager to keep the club’s fleet of groomers running.
On the mountains, the club has built two new trails on Frisby Ridge, doubling its trail network there. The club now has about 100 kilometres of trails that it manages. It has added a groomer in order to groom the new trails.
“We want to offer the best snowmobiling product out there because we’re in competition with so many other towns,” said Byman. “Especially this year with the club taking over everything, we really want to put our best foot forward and do the absolutely the best we can in every aspect of the business we can.”
To go with all the changes, the club has also launched a new website that it is able to update instantaneously. It includes a comprehensive list of sponsors and maps and photos from all the local riding areas.
The club also attended snow shows in Fort McMurray, Edmonton and Saskatoon this fall.
The club is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year with a dinner and movie at the Hillcrest Hotel on Saturday, November 30. Tickets for the dinner are $25 and the Thunderstruck premiere that follows is free. Donations to the food bank are recommended. Call the Hillcrest at 250-837-3322 for tickets.
Nordic Club focuses on small changes
PHOTO: After successfully hosting the B.C. Midget Championships in March, the Revelstoke Nordic Club will be holding an Okanagan Cup race in December that will serve as a qualifier for the BC Winter Games. By Alex Cooper/Revelstoke Times Review file photo.
A burst of snow allowed the Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club to get out the groomers and open on the weekend, though conditions were reportedly marginal.
The Nordic club spent the summer working on facility improvements. The parking lot was expanded to accommodate another 25–30 vehicles, up from about 85 last year.
They also built a few new connector trails, expanded the length of the dog loop by 0.5 kilometres and replaced a bridge on BCIT. Some minor work such as replacing culverts, widening trails and removing a few trees was also done.
On December 29, the Nordic club is hosting an Okanagan Cup race that will serve as qualifiers for the BC Winter Games.
The lantern ski returns on New Years Day and the Team Scream Relay will be back this year.
Matt Smider, the club's coach, has expanded the adult ski program and added new classes. There is also going to be a toonie race series throughout the winter, much like the one run by the Revelstoke Cycling Association.
Find out more by visiting the club's new website at revelstokenordic.org.