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VALEMOUNT, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Famous guides, wild rides
Guided tours and amazing scenery make Valemount a top destination
by WHITNEY BLACK
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LEARNING CURVE: The Big Ride teaches groups how to sled safely in the mountains; after the lessons, snowmobilers can play in Valemount’s plentiful powder.
—photos courtesy Tony Parisi |
From the logging and sawmill community of Valemount have come some of the pioneers in mountain snowmobiling. The loggers who built the roads would take their snowshoes and snowmobiles on the weekends and head out beyond the ends of the roads to see how far they could go.
“We from Valemount come from a culture of guides anyway, because of the Rocky Mountains and the horse industry,” said Tony Parisi, owner of Snowfarmers, a local tour guide company in Valemount. “So, handling people and guiding and taking on those responsibilities is second nature to us.”
Experience The Big Ride
After over 30 years in the mountains of Valemount, Parisi is putting his expertise to work. Snowfarmers has been doing guided tours of the region for the past nine years. Having provided ski, snowmobile and horseback tours through the area, Parisi and his business partners, Vinnie Clark of Alpine Country Rentals and Sue Marko of the Cougar Mountain Lodge, are now promoting The Big Ride. This is a new program aimed at getting snowmobilers from Ontario, Quebec and the rest of Eastern Canada to come out and ride the mountains.
The Big Ride targets snowmobilers who have at least an intermediate level of knowledge and experience; Parisi wants those sledders in the East to know that they are capable of coming to the mountains and riding.
“Easterners, with all the pictures they’ve seen, are actually quite ignorant that this is accessible to them,” he said. “They see it, but it feels remote. What they needed was an all-inclusive package with a price on it that included everything so they could have this experience.”
With guides like world champion hillclimber Vinnie Clark and X-games gold medallist Carl Kuster, along with Parisi himself, teaching sledders who have never ridden on mountains is much easier and safer.
“There are a lot of machines and there’s a lot of accommodation, but there are very few guides,” Parisi said. “It’s very specialized because you have to know everything from the spark plugs to avalanches—also, how to handle and take control of a group that is sitting on 150-horsepower sleds and they’re all very excited in a huge landscape of big mountains.”
Perfect for everyone
The Big Ride, however, is only one initiative Snowfarmers runs. Parisi and his guides are more than happy to take someone who has never been on a snowmobile and train them as well.
“Valemount has great scenery and it has great snow,” said Parisi. “It has a lot of areas that we can bring people to. The fundamental is finding people the good snow.”
Whether you are a beginner hoping to see some of the magnificent scenery Valemount has to offer or a thrill-seeker looking to climb high into the alpine, Valemount should be on the top of your list for places to visit.
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