The Williams Lake Cross Country Ski Club has just received recent government funding through the Targeted Regional Tourism Initiative to support the growth of recreation and outdoor tourism opportunities in the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast region. We are grateful that the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association and the Ministry of Tourism Arts, Culture and Sport have awarded the Williams Lake Cross Country Ski Club with a generous $430,000 to construct a timber frame visitor lodge and ski rental facility at Bull Mountain Ski trails just north of Williams Lake. An energy efficient build with focus on improved accessibility for users will be a great improvement over our current warming hut.
It has long been a dream of our non-for-profit club to build a lodge and the club is excited by this opportunity after almost 40 years of operation to finally see a modern lodge as part of the WLCCSC experience. The club continues to depend on volunteers who organize maintenance, grooming, ski programs, provide coaching and development of the ski area. The current warming hut is an older Atco trailer and lacks amenities and visual appeal that the new lodge will bring to the ski experience in Williams Lake.
“This building will be a great addition to our ski area and create a better visitor experience”, said board member and coach, Beverly Rooke. “We will now have a larger and newer building to support local and regional skiers and programs such as Jack rabbits, Ski School and adult ski lessons as well as welcome visitors from around the province and afar. The past season saw a great increase in people getting outdoors to enjoy the Nordic ski trails at Bull Mountain and this funding will help provide a lodge with more modern amenities and showcase our local timber frame talent.”
With over 28 km of groomed ski trails and snowshoe trails, Bull Mountain offers outdoor enthusiasts a great place to get out to enjoy nature and get some exercise. The Williams Lake ski area at Bull Mountain is well situated halfway between Quesnel (Hallis Lake) and 100 Mile House (99 Mile) Nordic centres along highway 97. With the addition of a lodge at Bull Mountain, the Cariboo has the potential to become an iconic BC Nordic ski destination and increase regional tourism in the winter. In addition, this new infrastructure has the potential to used for corporate, and provincial events during all four seasons in the future. (Rick we can add onto this if you want)
Work on the new building is expected to start later this year and completion of the project is slated for end of 2022 and opening of the warming hut for the 2022/23 ski season. We are hoping to expand the project further and we are currently looking for sponsors, in kind donations and additional grant funding. If you are interested in learning more about the project or donating in any way possible, please contact Rick Nelson at [email protected]
The Targeted Regional Tourism Initiative is one of three infrastructure investment programs for tourism as part of StrongerBC, including the Community Economic Recovery Infrastructure program, Destination Development and the Tourism Dependent Communities Initiative. The approved projects must be completed by March 2023. Learn more here: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2021TACS003
[The above is an excerpt from the WLCCSC’s recent press release.]
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