more snowmobile cabins

[jaredszakacs]

Just wondering how the snow and mud community could go about doing some fundraisers to get some new cabins started or old ones fixed up?? it is obvious that from all the different posts that sledders are getting a bad name fast!! We have seen more and more closures of areas and now more cabin closures!! Just trying to see if there is anyway of how we could maybe put together a fundraiser or some donations to getting maybe some new "sled only" NO SKIIERS cabins or some sled only areas like the ski tourers and heli ski guys do. With the closing of the mcmurdo cabin and dave white hut permanetly to sledders i think it is time we stand up and start fighting like the skiiers are doing and start getting some of our areas and cabins back. any one with info on how we may go about doing this or anyone willing to help then lets do this our sport needs it and needs it now!!!

 

[sledderdoc]

Just wondering how the snow and mud community could go about doing some fundraisers to get some new cabins started or old ones fixed up?? it is obvious that from all the different posts that sledders are getting a bad name fast!! We have seen more and more closures of areas and now more cabin closures!! Just trying to see if there is anyway of how we could maybe put together a fundraiser or some donations to getting maybe some new "sled only" NO SKIIERS cabins or some sled only areas like the ski tourers and heli ski guys do. With the closing of the mcmurdo cabin and dave white hut permanetly to sledders i think it is time we stand up and start fighting like the skiiers are doing and start getting some of our areas and cabins back. any one with info on how we may go about doing this or anyone willing to help then lets do this our sport needs it and needs it now!!!

Nice idea ........... I think ulimately it would come down to the individual clubs as they would have to maintain it.

 

[LID]

More cabins is a great idea! Day use and overnight rentals. And with hidden cameras so we can post pics of dummies leaving all of their garbage there.

 

[jaredszakacs]

Couldnt agree more cameras in and around the cabins to catch the idiots who wreck them. These should be put in place anyways!! It would be a great idea if we did that and had people rent the cabins i'm gonna get in touch with the cranbrook club and the crowsnest club see if they would be interested in something like this cause cranbrook has one sled cabin and it is basiclly for members only it is a major safety thing for backcountry users and i think it would be in the clubs best interests to build atleats one more cabin each or even a couple other make shift cabins withjust a stove would be awesome for the backcountry

 

[whitegold]

This is a cabin that we are working on right now. We had to go thru a lot of red tape and get all the different user groups to agree to it. The snowmobile club had to fund it but when it came down to actually paying for it, a lot of local contractors came forward and paid the bills. In the end we figured it will cost under $4,000. The labour was all donated, including the backhoe!!

As for making it "sledding only"..... good luck with that.... I think all you're going to do is make enemies, the more people you can get to agree to the cabin the better off you are.

 

[LID]

Silent is a bit of a safety thing there too. It would be hard to do, but getting a cabin up above the waterfall climb would be sweet. It would be great to warm up and dry out before the long haul back to the parking lot. Having a spot to hang out when it's socked in would be nice too.

 

[LID]

As for making it "sledding only"..... good luck with that.... I think all you're going to do is make enemies, the more people you can get to agree to the cabin the better off you are.

I think the ski vs sled thing is blown out of proportion by people on both sides that don't understand the other sport. If everyone had some respect, there would be no problems. Look at the garbage left at Quartz cabin in Golden. The majority of "sledders" are getting sick of the behavior of the minority of "sledders" that are giving all of us a bad name.

 

[jaredszakacs]

good looking cabin that would be perfect!! Yeah it would be nice to have a warmup above the waterfall!! Thats why i like riding fernie area there are warmup cabins skattered everywere it is perfect!!! I'm with you on everyone using it but it usually turns into a pissing match with the skiiers in our areas wich is unfortuante cause they use our sled trails to access there areas and then complain that we are ruining the enviroment. I have always volunteeered my time to build a cabin even volunteerd my own company gas card to fill up the volunteer vehicles and had a buddy volunteer a mini hoe but so far havent even had a person bat an eyelash at our proposed plan wich is to bad it would be well worth it for this area

 

[whitegold]

I think the ski vs sled thing is blown out of proportion by people on both sides that don't understand the other sport. If everyone had some respect, there would be no problems. Look at the garbage left at Quartz cabin in Golden. The majority of "sledders" are getting sick of the behavior of the minority of "sledders" that are giving all of us a bad name.

I totally agree! The majority of these back country users get along just fine (in our area anyway... i can't speak for other areas ).... it only takes a few loud ones to stir the pot. If you want the community to get behind you to build more cabins then you have to try to get along with EVERYONE.

 

[whitegold]

Silent is a bit of a safety thing there too. It would be hard to do, but getting a cabin up above the waterfall climb would be sweet. It would be great to warm up and dry out before the long haul back to the parking lot. Having a spot to hang out when it's socked in would be nice too.

We did this too.... about 12 years ago. Forestry got wind of the cabin, but it was so well hidden in the bush that they couldn't find it. They put threats in the local paper to have it burned down and who ever built it would be charged. No one said anything and eventually they gave up and let the local snowmobile club take over the maintenance of it. Keeping silent worked in this case... but it sure was tense for a while.

 

[jaredszakacs]

I agree I wanna have a sport that everyone gets a long as I snowboard and ski but we all need to get a long. I know here in cranbrook and fernie area it is an on going battle with skiiers not getting a long with the sledders and vice versa what we all need to realize is we are all out enjoying the winter festivities and as long as we all play responsibly there should be no issues. but the camera thing would be very well worth it!!!! Yeah you really got to keep them quiet I know a few spike camp cabins in fernie that havent been discovered by the wardens yet and make great warmup shelters :d. I hope we can make these big shots see that snowmobiling is not as bad as the media makes it seem. But we definately need more shared cabins out there we dont have enough places for when there actually is an emergency out in the back country

 

[jaredszakacs]

I think the ski vs sled thing is blown out of proportion by people on both sides that don't understand the other sport. If everyone had some respect, there would be no problems. Look at the garbage left at Quartz cabin in Golden. The majority of "sledders" are getting sick of the behavior of the minority of "sledders" that are giving all of us a bad name.

it is getting a bit blown out of porportion and I wish it wouldnt I do both sports but have never been so mad at a group then when we were sledding up the wildhorse here in cranbrook and had a group of skiiers come down to the bottom of the hill to lecture us on how if we see ski tracks on the slope that we should be respectful and move to a new area. need less to say the sledders won that debate as the area they were in was not designated to ski touring or anything like that it is a wide open area for EVERYONE to use not just one group. I hope the ski tour groups, heli groups, and the sledders all ban together and make winter one big enjoyable sport with FAIR treatment for everyone even if that means sledders being able to access these cabins and vice versa it just makes sense for us to all share not to fight since we are all out doing virtually the same thing. But it really comes down to people being responsible

 

[Modman]

Until people realize they are skiing in a sled area, this debate will go on. Skiers are virtually unlimited when it comes to terrain access compared to sleds, so I love this debate when it comes up. If we see someone skiing we will keep our distance as much as possible, unless they are skiing the only sleddable terrain around, then they have to learn to share.

A lot of skiers who don't want to be branded as mainstream, have expanded the traditional ski hill definition to include lots of sled accessed areas, but often they only want to ride the easy hills in the middle of the terrain, not ski the hills that sleds cannot access. A certain area near Golden is a great example of this. Many skiers/boarders will ride the ridge to the right of the cabin above the poo stain - that's cool, sleds cannot ride there and there is a ton of area here for boarders etc to enjoy.

But there's always someone who wants to ride right down the middle of the upper bowl (hero cookie or something I don't know), smack dab in the middle of prime sled terrain. Seen it where a group of sledders is parked at the bottom and obviously playing there, someone drops off the ridge on a board and heads right towards them. There is so many areas where the trees and the slope degree are just too much for sleds in most sled areas.

If you want exclusive tracks, go to an exclusive area. If you are in a sled area, any hill is fair game for both user groups.

Cabins should be shared the same however as pano-dude stated in another thread, someone always feels its their god given right to use a facility whether they have it booked/rented or not and leave it in a disgusting state for the booked users. Many people have no respect and think the world belongs to them.

It goes back to peoples attitudes. If sledders used the wood and the cabin respectfully, there probably wouldn't be an issue. Replace what you burn and don't leave a mess. But much like last year at the McBride cabin and the outhouse incident, people's attitudes need to seriously change before people will give us respect back and open the cabins once again. Chopping up the table for firewood because you are too lazy to go outside or you think you're a bad ass in front of all your drinking buddies, carving names in the walls (duh!), leaving a mess, breaking sh!t, etc.

I agree with LID - I think things are slowly changing as more sledders are getting informed via forums like this and getting fed up with the antics of the few ruining it for the rest of us.

Sorry about the long post

 

[jaredszakacs]

dont be sorry it was a great post!! I just wish there wasnt all these areas that are "ski touring only" or "snowmobile only" It's all public land we need to share it. But you are so rite peoples attitudes need to change. I just have a major major problem with someone telling me you cant use this because it is skieer only or sledders only That line is Bull$h** I should have every rite in the world to use that area and or cabin as long as I leave it in the same or better shape as when i got there. Sorry bout my ranting but we are going through a thing in this area thanks to Mike weigel trying to shut down our prime areas behind fernie so that he can have his own private heli ski wonderland that covers the areas from fernie all the way to almost cranbrook and elkford. Thats why I'm so for everyone sharing what we have out there I wanna be able to ride the same areas as the ski tourers can. My main thing is why can i not access an area that is for "ski touring" but they can come into our sled areas and tell us to move cause they are using the area and we basiclly have to. that is my issue but thats life and life would be very easy if we all saw eye to eye but unfortunately that will never happen. all i gotta say is cleanup after yourselfs do your part to take care of these cabins and lets try to get more cabins and more areas opened back up to the "SNOWMOBILERS"

Until people realize they are skiing in a sled area, this debate will go on. Skiers are virtually unlimited when it comes to terrain access compared to sleds, so I love this debate when it comes up. If we see someone skiing we will keep our distance as much as possible, unless they are skiing the only sleddable terrain around, then they have to learn to share.

A lot of skiers who don't want to be branded as mainstream, have expanded the traditional ski hill definition to include lots of sled accessed areas, but often they only want to ride the easy hills in the middle of the terrain, not ski the hills that sleds cannot access. A certain area near Golden is a great example of this. Many skiers/boarders will ride the ridge to the right of the cabin above the poo stain - that's cool, sleds cannot ride there and there is a ton of area here for boarders etc to enjoy.

But there's always someone who wants to ride right down the middle of the upper bowl (hero cookie or something I don't know), smack dab in the middle of prime sled terrain. Seen it where a group of sledders is parked at the bottom and obviously playing there, someone drops off the ridge on a board and heads right towards them. There is so many areas where the trees and the slope degree are just too much for sleds in most sled areas.

If you want exclusive tracks, go to an exclusive area. If you are in a sled area, any hill is fair game for both user groups.

Cabins should be shared the same however as pano-dude stated in another thread, someone always feels its their god given right to use a facility whether they have it booked/rented or not and leave it in a disgusting state for the booked users. Many people have no respect and think the world belongs to them.

It goes back to peoples attitudes. If sledders used the wood and the cabin respectfully, there probably wouldn't be an issue. Replace what you burn and don't leave a mess. But much like last year at the McBride cabin and the outhouse incident, people's attitudes need to seriously change before people will give us respect back and open the cabins once again. Chopping up the table for firewood because you are too lazy to go outside or you think you're a bad ass in front of all your drinking buddies, carving names in the walls (duh!), leaving a mess, breaking sh!t, etc.

I agree with LID - I think things are slowly changing as more sledders are getting informed via forums like this and getting fed up with the antics of the few ruining it for the rest of us.

Sorry about the long post

 

[jaredszakacs]

it's not always the sledders that leave it in bad condition or dont take care of it a lot of times it is the skiiers themselves my friend brace lee from rossland is a ski only guy no sledding but he even says that it is getting bad with people not taking proper care of cabins or burning all the wood and not replacing it like he says wich skiier honestly wants to pack an axe around or spare food for others to eat that is coming from a hardcore granola who hates sledding!!!!!. people need to stop branding sledders as the cause of this cause it shows sledders arent the only perpatrators on this issue skiiers are just as messy as the sledders the only reason know one ever hears about it is because it happened at a "SKI" only cabin and they dont wanna be labeled as people who are disrespectful to the backcountry. Instead of banning different groups from different areas lets do this the real easy way and setup the game cameras around the cabin areas and truly catch the people that are wrecking these areas and cabins and quit labelling different groups for something they may not have even done!! I personnally hate being labeled for something I never did and really getting sick of this it was the sledders or it was the skiiers It was one or a few individuals who wrecked it not the entire group of people who do that sport so time for us to take action and do something to catch these guys so more things like this dont happen

Until people realize they are skiing in a sled area, this debate will go on. Skiers are virtually unlimited when it comes to terrain access compared to sleds, so I love this debate when it comes up. If we see someone skiing we will keep our distance as much as possible, unless they are skiing the only sleddable terrain around, then they have to learn to share.

A lot of skiers who don't want to be branded as mainstream, have expanded the traditional ski hill definition to include lots of sled accessed areas, but often they only want to ride the easy hills in the middle of the terrain, not ski the hills that sleds cannot access. A certain area near Golden is a great example of this. Many skiers/boarders will ride the ridge to the right of the cabin above the poo stain - that's cool, sleds cannot ride there and there is a ton of area here for boarders etc to enjoy.

But there's always someone who wants to ride right down the middle of the upper bowl (hero cookie or something I don't know), smack dab in the middle of prime sled terrain. Seen it where a group of sledders is parked at the bottom and obviously playing there, someone drops off the ridge on a board and heads right towards them. There is so many areas where the trees and the slope degree are just too much for sleds in most sled areas.

If you want exclusive tracks, go to an exclusive area. If you are in a sled area, any hill is fair game for both user groups.

Cabins should be shared the same however as pano-dude stated in another thread, someone always feels its their god given right to use a facility whether they have it booked/rented or not and leave it in a disgusting state for the booked users. Many people have no respect and think the world belongs to them.

It goes back to peoples attitudes. If sledders used the wood and the cabin respectfully, there probably wouldn't be an issue. Replace what you burn and don't leave a mess. But much like last year at the McBride cabin and the outhouse incident, people's attitudes need to seriously change before people will give us respect back and open the cabins once again. Chopping up the table for firewood because you are too lazy to go outside or you think you're a bad ass in front of all your drinking buddies, carving names in the walls (duh!), leaving a mess, breaking sh!t, etc.

I agree with LID - I think things are slowly changing as more sledders are getting informed via forums like this and getting fed up with the antics of the few ruining it for the rest of us.

Sorry about the long post

 

[Work2Ride]

Cleanup after yourselfs do your part to take care of these cabins and lets try to get more cabins and more areas opened back up to the "SNOWMOBILERS"

Yeap, if we're not moving forward, we'll be going backwards at this stage in the game.

 

[jaredszakacs]

it's so true we keep hearing more and more of areas and cabins closing well here is the perfect chance to start getting our areas back we gotta stand up for ourselves even if that means a few locals getting together in there areas to setup these camers or to try and nails these retards who keep ruining it for everyone

 

[moyiesledhead]

i'm gonna get in touch with the cranbrook club and the crowsnest club see if they would be interested in something like this cause cranbrook has one sled cabin and it is basiclly for members only it is a major safety thing for backcountry users and i think it would be in the clubs best interests to build atleats one more cabin each or even a couple other make shift cabins withjust a stove would be awesome for the backcountry

I can answer some of this for the Cranbrook club. We're not allowed under regulation to rent out our cabin. Not our choice. The reason it's locked is because people trashed it when it wasn't. We're allowed to lock it because it's on a license of occupation with the provincial government which requires us to pay an annual lease and taxes...which are getting very expensive. We agree with the safety concern and have a warming/safety hut with a woodstove and first aid supplies inside it less than 40 ft away from the cabin open to the public. It was newly rebuilt last season at considerable time and expense as a service to all sledders. It warms up way faster than the cabin does too.

Hope that helps you. Come on out to the meetings Jared. First and third Wednesday of the month at the Days Inn, 7:00pm. :d

 

[jaredszakacs]

ya i heard that it was badly vandalized a while back that really sucks when are the meetings starting I would love to come down also like I posted in another post I offer my time and my fuel card to the volunteers to help build and maintain the areas around here

I can answer some of this for the Cranbrook club. We're not allowed under regulation to rent out our cabin. Not our choice. The reason it's locked is because people trashed it when it wasn't. We're allowed to lock it because it's on a license of occupation with the provincial government which requires us to pay an annual lease and taxes...which are getting very expensive. We agree with the safety concern and have a warming/safety hut with a woodstove and first aid supplies inside it less than 40 ft away from the cabin open to the public. It was newly rebuilt last season at considerable time and expense as a service to all sledders. It warms up way faster than the cabin does too.

Hope that helps you. Come on out to the meetings Jared. First and third Wednesday of the month at the Days Inn, 7:00pm. :d

 

[bbtoys]

all of our cabins are classed as emergency shelters and are open to the public, hence a quick way around the red tape. still need permission to build any cabin on crown land, but not that hard to get.