Snowmobiling

---

Another great team building activity this week was a Snowmobiling Wilderness Tour. There have been a couple of trips organised by my manager, and today was my turn! Myself and five colleagues got the opportunity to go on a 3pm Wilderness tour with Canadian Adevenure Tours.

We met at the booking office site in the Carlton Lodge in Whistler and filled out our damage waivers. From there it was a short walk over to the shuttle bus. The journey over to the Callaghan Valley took about 20-25 minutes. On the drive over, our guide talked to us about the tour that we would be doing. I was definitely nervous about going snowmobiling as I had heard how physically challenging it could be and I was also nervous about using machinery on snowy/icy ground. The guide was really friendly and really reassured those of us who were nervous. We arrived at the Cabin in the Callaghan Valley and we got fitted up with helmet and goggles before going outside to see the snowmobiles. Our guid went through the health and safety aspects of driving snowmobiles, all the do's and don'ts and things to keep in mind when driving around in the back country. After running through the controls, it was time to go!

We set off, one by one, following the guide along the premade path through the snow. Getting the hand of the controls was actual pretty easy - just the speed worried me! You are in total control of the speed that you travel at, but the controls are really sensitive and I just struggled to keep the speed at a constant level. We made our way up the trail, past the old gold mines and up to a frozen lake. At the edge of the lake, we were able to practice a steep decent down in to the lake. I panicked half way down, and instead of pumping the brake, I squeezed the throttle. Unsurpisingly, I scared myself but nothing bad actually happened! I went speeding down the edge of the lake and on to the frozen surface - my helmet was able to contain my very girly scream! After driving back and forth across the lake, we were all feeling much more comfortable with adjusting our speed and making both left and right hand turns. We started making our way up the mountain, staying in single file and making sure to keep the speed constant, carrying the momentum to get up some of the steeper sections. Our guide stopped every now and again to allow us to take photographs of some of the breathtaking scenery and also to point out some of the more interesting landmarks. We finally made our way to the Alpine and were able to snowmobile through just over four meters of untouched powder! Unbelievable to experience and truely mindblowing!!! As we were on the last tour of the day, we were at the Alpine in time to watch the sun go down. Beautiful photo opportunity! I really enjoyed myself on the tour up until that point, before I then realised 'what goes up, must come down'.

Some of the steeper sections on the way up, really unsettled me on the way back down. I was really concious of having to steer to the left and lean all the way over to the right to stop the snowmobile from rolling over. It really wasn't unsafe and it didn't seem to be an issue for anyone else, but I was just really nervous about coming back down the mountain on the snowmobile. The guide was really sympathetic and reassuring, and although I did travel at a granny speed, I made it down again in one peice. I found that because I was nervous, I tensed my muscles for the whole way down and when I finally got off the snowmobile, I realised how sore and tired I really was! Although my first experience was really nerve-wracking, I would definitely like to do this again! Great guide, great tour and generally a great experience!

http://www.canadiansnowmobile.com/csa/winter/wildernessrun.html is the place to go for more information

---