Yesterday, I blogged about mornings in the winter.  This morning as I walked to the barn to get a can of sunflower seeds for the bird feeder, I was reminded of another winter morning event, as pick-up, after pick-up, roared by our house pulling their trailers of snowmobiles.  Local businesses and motel have signs in the windows saying, “SNOWMOBILERS WELCOME”.  I have no such sign.

    It was probably back in the mid-1980’s while working for forestry, that I heard a helicopter pilot say about the Renshaw Valley, “You could lose a thousand snowmobiles up here”.  At the time, there were no snowmobilers up there trashing around in the alpine.  Winter was a quiet time.  In down town McBride, not many travelers were coming down Hwy. 16 to fill up the mostly empty motels, and the only people out in the mountains were the cross country skiers.

    Now, snowmobilers, most of which are from Alberta,  are all over the alpine.  Fueled by big engines and alcohol they play a game called “High Marking”, where they drive straight up slide (avalanche) chutes to see who can make their machines go the highest.  Occasionally, the avalanche comes down on them.  Sometimes, they drive their snowmobiles out to the edge of the cliffs to look over the edge, not realizing they are no longer on the mountain, but on a cornice of snow.  Snowmobilers die in the mountains every year.  It is indeed a wonder that more aren’t killed considering the reckless behavior.

    The economic benefits for business owners in McBride are tempered with the trashing of motel rooms, and thefts of snowmobiles, trailers, and trucks.  In their fun, they leave beer cans, and trash all over the once pristine alpine, which shows itself in the summer when the snow melts.  A friend of mine, who was hiking up in the alpine during the summer, actually found a new snow mobile up there.  After reporting it to the police the whole story came out.

    The snowmobile, had engine trouble and quit running.  The owner was able to ride out with someone else.  The next day, they went back to get it and couldn’t find it, so they reported it stolen and got the insurance money.

    The biggest concern I have with all these snowmobilers is the potential for destruction of the alpine during the summer.  In the winter, the alpine is protected by a thick blanket of snow meters thick.  Some wildlife is harassed and they leave a lot of trash, but not much is actually damaged.  But I know these drunken motorheads are thinking, “Wow, we ought to come back here in the summer and tear around on our ATV’s.”

    The plants that struggle to grow in the extreme conditions of the alpine, are easily killed and not easily replaced.  The BC government is too addicted to the Alberta money to put in restrictions to ATV’s in the alpine.

    Its not hard to long for the good old days.  Fortunately, we usually can’t hear the whine of snowmobiles at our house, as they carve up the alpine, but in other parts of the valley, it is part of winter.