A snowmobiling passion has turned into a business venture for Jeff Cook and his wife, Leah MacDonald, as they took over a snowmobiling company in Kimberley, B.C.
The couple heard local rumours that the previous owners of Powder Hounds were looking to sell and approached them with an offer.
“They’d been doing it long enough and decided it was time to do something different; we were happy to pick up the reins and give it a new face and image,” Cook said.
Renamed Kimberley Snowmobile Adventures (KSA), the outfit has eight snowmobiles available for tours—all Bombardier machines—which is Cook’s preferred brand of choice.
Tours are run on a half-day, full-day and nighttime basis and they include all the necessary outdoor gear like snowsuits, boots, gloves and goggles.
KSA may be new to the tourism industry but they’ve gathered other local businesses around them like Rocky Mountain Accommodations, Alpenglow Bed and Breakfast and North Star Motel, to help market their product.
Living the dream
Cook has been snowmobiling since he was nine years old, first riding his dad’s snowmobile until he bought his own five years later.
Two years after that, when he was sixteen, he bought a more souped-up machine, forgoing the typical teenage yearning for a car or truck.
Growing up in Saskatchewan allowed for endless room to roam around on his sled and he rode anywhere he could take it—fields, ditches, even in the high school parking lot.
“He would drive his snowmobile to school,” said MacDonald.
He was drawn to the mountains in his teens as he is an avid skier and would come out on trips with MacDonald and friends from school.
He eventually got a taste of mountain riding on his sled and was subsequently hooked, moving out near Revelstoke and working with Great Canadian Snowmobile Tours and Mustang Powder, a cat-skiing operation.
In the off-season—spring, summer and fall—Cook runs his other business, Cornerstone Excavating, taking on a variety of landscaping projects in the local region.
