HAPPY NEW YEAR CMBC
AGM Update & Membership
During one of the first snowstorms the winter, a small but mighty group of CMBC members met at Winterlong for our Annual General Meeting. We heard the President’s report from Jesse Weyman and financial report from the CMBC Treasurer Carolyn Blasetti, voted in a new board of directors, and announced our award winners.
The Volunteer of the Year Award, which honours an outstanding Volunteer for Dedication to Club Activities and Community Support, went to Mariah Witham – Dirt Girls organizer
The Chris McNeil Trail Steward Award, which recognizing a volunteer’s exceptional contribution to trail building and maintenance, went to 3 individuals for their efforts on completing Rock Lobster: Simon Connell, Jonah McConnell, and Micah McConnell.
Thank you to all of our volunteers – they are the backbone of CMBC.
We also voted to increase membership fees to $40, which is more in line with other mountain bike clubs across Canada. Membership renews on January 1st, and the registration for 2026 is now open.
SNOW GIRLS – LET THE SEASON BEGIN!
Huge thank you to everyone who participated and volunteered for Dirt Girls this season, we are now ready to transition to Snow Girls!
Rides will start this Sunday, January 4, the full schedule and details of how Snow Girls works can be found on the CMBC website, along with some handy gear tips! You can also find the schedule on the Snow Girls Facebook page. Thank you to Medicine Chest, our Dirt Girls and Snow Girls sponsors!
Snow Girls Highlights:
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All riders are required to have a 2026 CMBC membership so make sure you purchase one beforehand. You’ll need your CMBC membership number to participate.
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Rides will be led by our trusty cohort of volunteer leaders and depending on numbers and capacity, we’ll break up into skill levels. All our rides are no drop and the goal is to have a fun and safe ride!
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Snow Girls rides are specifically for fat biking, approximate tire width 3.8″.
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Snow Girls welcomes everyone who identifies as women, trans or non-binary. We do not police gender here and want to promote inclusion in mountain biking. If a female empowered space feels meaningful to you, you are welcome here.
NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS
At the AGM, we voted in our Board of Directors – we are happy to have many returning directors this year and a couple of new faces as well. We thank Sasha Sywulsky and Martin Wellman for their service and welcome Julia Heiroth and Andrew Maher as new board members.
FAT BIKE CLINIS SERIES (FREE!)
CMBC is proud to offer our third Icycle Sports Fat Bike Clinic series. These free fat bike-specific skills clinics will be roughly two hours in length. We will work on fat bike specific climbing, body position and braking. These clinics will be a great way to get your tires under you as a new fat biker, and even expert fat bikers may learn something. The clinics will be coached by former CMBC President and current Head Coach of Cycling Association of Yukon, Hudson Lucier.
Icycle Sports has been very generous to sponsor this series and will be providing free fat bike rentals to anyone who signed up for the clinics and wants to try out an Icycle fat bike.
So, a FREE two-hour Clinic and a FREE Icycle fat bike rental – all you need is a 2026 CMBC membership! To sign up all you need to do is email [email protected] with the receipt for your purchased CMBC membership and let him know which day you want to attend. Also, let him know if you will need a rental. The clinics will be limited to 10 people each – first come first serve!
Dates and times for the clinics:
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January 10th, 2026 starting at noon
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January 24th, 2026 starting at noon
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January 31th, 2026 starting at noon
For rider safety and enjoyment, the clinic will be rescheduled to the next day or next weekend if temperatures are below -20ºC.
This is a great way to get out on the trails and get your skills dialed!
GROOMING UPDATE
It’s been a challenging start to the grooming season due to the the combination of extreme cold and record setting snowfall. Grooming in cold weather is high risk, so we avoid grooming below about -25 for personal safety.
The good news is the old Snowdog is back together and running better than ever, and a first pass of the Magnussons and YBR happened on December 28, but this took several hours. We have purchased a second snow dog which is the process of being broken in, and board members are busy fabricating modified parts to make it a more capable grooming machine. Until those modifications are completed, we will rely on the elan at Mount MacIntrye. Watch our social media pages and trail forks for updates.
KEEN TO GET RIDING? DUST OFF YOUR SNOWSHOES!
Groomers are not well-suited to deep fresh snow or steep terrain. Technical single track trails need snowshoes and ski tracks before the snowdog or Elan can safely navigate these. So, grab a friend and help us break some trail!
Keep in mind that the snowdogs need a little extra width to make safe passes, so aim for 3 snowshoe widths or ~ 24”-wide trails to help us create a solid base for the winter. A little help will go a long way to getting our trails in shape for the winter season!
EVERY TRAIL TELLS A STORY – A FIRESIDE CHAT
On a recently recorded podcast, Anthony Bier and Colin McCann discussed CMBC and the current state of trail building in Whitehorse. It’s definitely worth a listen!
