There is much work to be done at the Williams Lake Cross-Country Ski Club after the summer’s wildfires ripped through sections of the trail system at Bull Mountain Ski Area.
Fires tore through the back near Gunanoot trail, meaning B.C. Wildfire Service staff had their work cut out for them with identifying and falling danger trees last week.
According to club executive Sean Seabourne though, one of the biggest impacts on the ski area has been the fire guard built along some of the trails.
Seabourne, who is in charge of trails and facilities for the ski club, said work would start Wednesday on levelling the fire guards, “so we can actually open the trails this year.”
“The problem is, they’re not level right now, they’re uneven and that’s a probelm for skier safety and also being able to physically groom the trails.”
Seabourne noted that some of the corners on the trails were cut at different angles to facilitate the fire guards and now the club needs to make sure they can get their grooming equipment around them.
The levelling is also a key effort for safety reasons. “You don’t want a guy skiing down a hill and then hit a couple big bumps,” said Seabourne.
The club hopes to have the trails all levelled out in about five days of work but as Seabourn notes, that is very dependent on the weather. If an area is too wet, work can’t begin on that section of trail.
Seabourne estimates that 25 per cent of the Bull Mountain trail system was affected by the wildfires. That includes actual fire damage, fire guards being built up, and an increase in road access and motorized traffic in the area.
This is another issue the club is facing post-wildfire.
“There’s signs up at all the access points currently to say ‘non-motorized trail system’ but you know, there’s pickups coming through and quads,” added Seabourne.
Despite signage discouraging people from taking their vehicles into the trail system there has been an increase in traffic.
The cross-country ski club plans on blocking access to these new roads by pulling trees across and hopes this helps people get the message.
Along with all the fire-related work that needs to be completed to get the ski area up and running for this winter season is the regular brushing and trail clearing that happens every year.
A dedicated group of 15 volunteers was on hand Oct. 22 for a work bee and “focused on the trails that obviously weren’t affected by the wildfires so we did some trail clearing and some widening and brushing and throwing sticks off the trails,” Seabourne said.
With work moving along to get the 28 kms of trails at Bull Mountain ready to go for the winter season, the club hopes to be able to open as soon as they have about a foot of snow on the ground.
“We’ve been working quite hard with Recreation Site and Trails B.C. and B.C. Wildfire to try and get things going up there so hopefully the season turns out and all the trails are open.”
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