Sled Invasion by Gord Avann

The Town of Whitecourt would likely be best known for its large lumber industry. For snowmobilers this area is the snowmobile capital of Alberta. The Whitecourt snowmobile community is very established with a groomed trail system of over 350km’s with most of the trails located throughout the thousands of kilometers of Crown land and rolling long sections of Pipeline trails. The Whitecourt Trailblazers http://www.whitecourttrailblazers.ca were selected to host the Alberta Snowmobile Associations annual Winter Jamboree in February of 09. This particular weekend saw the Jamboree take place on Valentines weekend, so this made for an opportunity to gather up the spouse and kids for a weekend getaway and have some good family fun. The three-day event took place at two venues in and just outside of Whitecourt.

The Friday night consisted of registration for the two Snowmobile Poker rally rides on their trail system. The Trailblazers have a very dedicated volunteer base and some of the nicest clubhouses I have seen. These new clubhouses were recently constructed and were very busy dealing out poker cards and serving up refreshments and hot dogs while hundred’s lined the trails talking about the ride. At one of the checkpoints Whitecourt Yamaha had a demo ride and display of new ‘09 products. There was much to see and participate in along this long ride.

After our ride and a quick change to some warm clothes, we headed out for some dinner and then headed over to the Whitecourt Fairgrounds for some Freestyle entertainment from Octane Addiction http://www.octaneaddictions.com/ The very well lit up fairgrounds featured some of the best freestyle jumpers in the sport, including Dane Ferguson, Jimy Blaze, and Sam Roberts. The high flying riders played to the large crowd of 7000 spectators over the two days. Of special note was Sam Roberts Record distance Back Flip of 117ft.

Also Whitecourt Trailblazers had a large charity auction with hundreds of Blair Morgan apparel, one of his sleds and a Motocross bike, with all proceeds going to Blair Morgan’s recovery. Also at the Fairgrounds was Canadian Recording artist Derick Ruttan playing his country music hits to the appreciating crowd. Sundays Band, Rule of Nines played to the younger crowd on Sunday evening.

This Event went on without a hitch and the Trailblazers set the bar for all other Jamborees in the future.