The Frisby Ridge riding area in Revelstoke, with altitudes of 4,500 to 6,500 feet, is definitely one of a kind. It features 60 kilometres of groomed trails and 114 square kilometres of alpine riding. Frisby Ridge is incredibly scenic, with meadows, bowls, hillclimbs and a sensational five-kilometre ridge ride. Now snowmobilers have even more to look forward to: the day-use cabin at Frisby Ridge has just undergone an $80,000 renovation.
Herb Shaede, director of the Revelstoke Snowmobile Club and senior safety officer for the B.C. Snowmobile Federation, said about 5,000 people use the cabin every year, and it was time for it to get a facelift.
"The cabin was built roughly 20 years ago and it became very small and started to deteriorate," said Shaede. "The club built a brand new cabin over on Boulder about two years ago and had some money left over."
Making it happen
The club found the necessary funding through its membership as well as from grant money provided by the Revelstoke Accommodation Association and the local regional district.
"We hired a contractor and on August 3, the work started," said Shaede. "We did a 16-foot extension, a covered deck, re-roofed the cabin, added a basement wood area (and) a lock-up room for safety gear, installed solar lighting with generator backup and built a brand new elevated washroom."
Shaede said this impressive cabin involved the contractor working from dawn until dusk and it was completed by mid-September. He said it also involved a lot of volunteers to haul materials and do cleanup and other tasks.
For playtime as well as emergencies
The Frisby Ridge cabin is not only for snowmobilers needing a break, it also serves as an emergency shelter and a staging area for Search and Rescue.
"If people ever get into trouble, at least they know they have somewhere warm they can go and make arrangements from there," said Shaede. "It is a great place to initiate a search if someone does get stuck out there—with warmth, light, first aid and search equipment."
The cabin is intended to be family friendly, and Shaede said they would like everyone who uses it to look after it and treat it with respect, since it is maintained by volunteers. He said any efforts put into it are certainly appreciated.
Near by is the Boulder Mountain cabin, which was built about two years ago. This cabin is an impressive 1,500-square-foot cedar building that has a vaulted ceiling, benches, a large covered deck, lighting and drying racks. And three days a week during the sledding season, a caretaker provides a hot food service.
Certainly, snowmobilers riding the pow around Revelstoke will not be disappointed when they decide to stop for a break this winter.
