The original Black Tusk Snowmobile ClubThe original Black Tusk Snowmobile Club
Feature Image: Snowmobilers take a break in front of Black Tusk. Judging by the sleds, this is probably from the early 1970s: however, unfortunately we do not have any details about this archival photograph.
This year 60 is a big number.
Whistler Mountain is celebrating its ‘diamond jubilee’.
Another sixtieth anniversary of note is the formation of the first local snowmobile club, on the opposite shores of Alta Lake.
The inaugural meet-up and race of the lower mainland-based BC Snow Vehicle Association was also held on Alta Lake, at the end of January, sixty years ago. 23 people competed in the event and the winner of the 20 gate, large machine slalom course was won by local Dick Fairhurst: completing the run in a whopping 39.9 seconds.
Dick Fairhurst was one of the ‘westside gang’ – a band of early residents – who called themselves the Black Tusk Snowmobile Club. The club (whose numbers are hard to confirm) would venture out and among the surrounding peaks, including Rainbow, Sproatt and up into the Callaghan.
Dick – a logger and trapper of Cypress Lodge fame (now the site of the Point Artist-Run-Centre) and creator of the valley’s first ski ‘tow rope’ in 1960 – was one of the three founding members of the snowmobile club, along with Don Gow and Glen Creelman. Together, the three became the area’s first distributors of Bombardier Ski-Doos.
Don Gow moved here in 1955. He stayed and was the station agent at Alta Lake for four years, up until the train’s scheduled stop (in operation since 1914) was demoted to simply a ‘flagstop’ in 1959. However, the area’s appeal and pull was strong, and Don returned to Alta Lake in 1965 (along with his wife, who became the postmaster and their two children). They lived here until 1975.
Glen Creelman was a microwave technician. In 1957, BC Telephone Co. installed a double copper line around Alta Lake. Glen was responsible for establishing an open circuit/party line – linking lodges and homes with this new thread of communication. One was able to lift the receiver of the old crank telephones and listen in on your neighbour’s conversations.
And surely, at that time, part of the talk of the town was the growing popularity and access to motorized sleds…
Bombardier pioneered the development of the snowmobile. In 1966 – the year the Black Tusk club was formed; the year Dick won the inaugural BC Snow Vehicle Association race; and the year Don, Glen and Dick began selling the machines to the Alta Lake Community – the Canadian company released a line of three machines with “new, super slick styling.” The models included the ‘New Alpine,’ the ‘Olympique’ and the ‘Super Olympique.’ The latter was what Dick won the race on. The 250 lb machine had a roller chain in oil bath drive, the patented Bombardier track and was 2.36 metres in length. It was also bright yellow.
Fairhurst Collection.
Snowmobiling – or sledding, as it is more colloquially referred – remains as popular as ever as a thrill-seeking, backcountry sport. Handling has been honed and the horsepower hiked… but the same spirit seeking freedom, fast movement and further access prevails.
Not all who sled are members of a club, but other regional groups now exist. The Powder Mountain Snowmobile Club has been operating since 1990. The Pemberton Valley Snowmobile Club was officially incorporated in 2000, but sledding stories in the area far precede that date, too.
As for the Black Tusk Snowmobile Club, it ‘still’ exists, however its base now operates out of the Brohm Ridge former ‘Rat-Pack’ chalets. This particular incarnation of the club dates their inception to 1971. Records of how the Alta Lake-based group either entirely dissolved or transitioned to the current location are perhaps best described as being frozen in two-stroke time…