Great Fall for Trail Work

No early snow may not be creating a great mood for sledding, but the good news is that the weather conditions so far this fall have been ideal for trail work and preparations. It's been relatively mild and dry, which makes it much easier to get into those hard to access places, especially with heavy equipment. That means the trails should be in excellent shape before the snow flies and clubs should not be playing catch up like they did last fall when early snow interfered with their efforts.

Good conditions this fall have also helped with progress on the $4.6 million worth of trail improvement projects, many of which will be ready for this winter.

Those mountain folks and their early snowfalls!

My niece lives in BC and works in the ski industry near Panorama. She sent a pic of the snow they had two weeks ago. She'll be out on a sled soon and promises to send me pic's......thanks....a lot...seeing as I am such a great uncle I get free accommodations right??????? Shortly after she sent this pic, she said the skiers were struggling with today's heavy snow falling on top of their 5 meter base.......thanks again......

UPDATE:...One hour after I posted this photo, I got a press release from Panorama stating that the Ski-Doo Warnert factory snow-x team was there practicing on the hill.
I live in Kitchener Ontario where it is mild and raining right now....I need a quick flight to BC!!!!

Fall Cottage LIfe Show

We took the Go Snowmobiling campaign and the Give It A try Tour to the Fall Cottage Life Show in Toronto recently. Boy, were those cottagers ever pumped about snowmobiling this winter! Many were already long time riders, but there were lots of folks who are going to start riding for the first time this winter.

Next stop for Go Snowmobiling is the Motorcycle Super Show at the Toronto International Centre, January 15 to 17. We've even got some motorcycle riders who are also avid snowmobilers to help us at the booth!

The beginning of Winter. Its Parr Auction Time!

Saturday, Nov.7th was the big sled auction north of Fergus. For me in Southern Ontario that means only 4-5 weeks till the snow is on the ground and we can go riding. There is always great deals on machine that are less than 10 years old as well as some nice vintage iron for sale. Here are some pics

Grand Lake Colorado

Here are a few shots to remind our test team how much fun it was in Grand Lake last March. Gord Avann, Phil, and the 2 Mikes had a great time in the mountains with Chris from BRP. Full stories to come!

Where we come from

Hello and welcome to my first attempt at a blog on SGC.
For those who aren't familiar, my name is Gord Avann and I have been involved in the Snowmobile Media for 23 yrs.

My path to Snowmobiling is likely no different than thousands of others, and some of the many persons that I felt very fortunate to meet in my early years.
Last season I had the opportunity to spend a few days with the Wallace family. The Wallace’s were selected as the OFSC Volunteer Family of the Year for their contribution at the Westwood Hills Snowmobile Club.

My introduction is similar in that our family started snowmobiling Christmas morning 1972. I know my family and the Wallace family's participation in snowmobiling was due to wanting to enjoy and participate in snowmobiling as a family. So it’s great to see that we have logged so many years, but what remains the same is we still enjoy this recreation as a family. Our family with 7 in total were outdoor enthusiasts and only tried snowmobiling with my parents friends. My father saw an opportunity to snowmobile as a family.
Our first snowmobile was a 1971 OMC Snow Cruiser 2011.
I just the other day asked my father why he chose that particular sled, well he said "it was a good buy" and being a boater went with the OMC name. He said he also considered the ski-doo Olympic, I think had he asked his teenage sons they probably would have gone with the ski-doo. Lucky for me my 2 older brothers got bored of the Snow Crusher after a few years and I usually had it to myself. We mostly traveled up to our current home in Keswick on Lake Simcoe from our Toronto home. Back in the 70s we had so many places and parks where these sleds were not quite regulated.
One favorite for hundreds of snowmobiles was Vivian Forest just north of Toronto where you could see all the makes and models. This was also the first year our family enjoyed our first snowmobile race, the “Mark Ten” race series came to the old Markham fair grounds at Markham Road and Hwy.7. I was disappointed that our Snow cruiser didn’t show in the Snow oval, but there were many that did.
The performance bug had bitten my older brothers and they bought there own sleds, a Yamaha 292 for Ken ( now president of the CSRA) and oldest Gary who bought a ski-doo Olympic for $700.00 new and I smiled to think that I had the Cruiser to myself.
I bent so many chrome bumpers and broke so many of those very high windshields. And I finally mastered the reverse without that wailing scream of the not quite meshed transmission.
And yes, I ordered all the I LOVE MY SNOW CRUSIER 3 D decals and stuck them on the family wagon.

We would love to hear from anyone about their own family sledding experiences.