We have started a fundraiser to purchase a (second) new snowmobile. For donors that require a tax receipt, here is the link to the Nordiq Canada website https://nordiqcanada.ca/donate/
The total cost for a new ski-doo is $18,400. A generous private donor has committed $10,000. We have applied for a grant from the Nelson Credit Union as well.
Why do we need a (second) new snowmobile at this time? Last year we logged a total of about 4,000 km on all snowmobiles combined. This is about twice the amount we logged a few years ago. Over the last three years we have added regular grooming on a number of single track trails: the Reservoir trail, Tall Timbers and the Adventure Trail. We also started grooming Aqueduct earlier (enabled by Howard’s improvement). In addition we did a lot of ginzu grooming on the main trails because of the warm early winter and the extended season in May (to provide xc skiing during the pandemic). The club is working on developing additional single track trails in the future so we anticipate that 4000 km will become more typical. The useful life of a ski doo (pulling a ginzu) is about 16,000 km so we need to buy a new machine every four year from now on. (In comparison: Castlegar Nordic purchases a new machine every two years).
As you know most ginzu grooming is done by volunteers. Grooming with a snowmobile is a serious commitment: it takes now about 4 hours to cover all single track after a significant snowfall. Since the acquisition of a new ski-doo last season, the volunteers have come to appreciate its advantages: reliability, comfort (better suspension), no odour, better traction (less chance to get stuck) etc … The old “Biathlon” ski-doo is at the end of its useful life and should be replaced soon.
So we make an appeal to members that can help out and donate money towards this project.