August 29, 2018

Chad Colbourne – Welcome Aboard.

Chad – Western Brook Gorge (Western Newfoundland)

The passion of sledding has been instilled in me since day one. Some of my earliest memories are surrounded by sledding. Spending my earlier years in Northern Ontario easily fed this passion as snow wasn’t hard to come across. I remember my uncle riding his skidoo into our town from about an hour away. It was easier to travel this way sometimes. At least you were guaranteed to make it home even in a storm. It’s a very different type of riding there. Wide, well groomed trails were easily found. Whereas, technical backcountry riding was like speaking a foreign language.

My early days in Ontario were filled pow hunting on a Kitty Kat. With a move from Ontario to Nova Scotia, I graduated to a more powerful machine and things started looking up. A few sleds later and I’m still on a search for the untouched pow.

Chad enjoying a nice side hill

My first real snowmobile trip to Newfoundland was in 2006. This became a yearly trip with family and friends from Nova Scotia. That week would be the highlight of the winter. Finally, I came to my senses and moved to Newfoundland in 2011. The scenery and backcountry experiences that Newfoundland has to offer is unique to anything else.

With snowmobiling there are so many different aspects to riding. From riding a beautifully groomed trail in Central to testing my skills and guts on the West coast hills. I realize my fortune in that I can take in all that I can; from frequent trips to the West coast in search of early season snow to a afternoon trail ride with my wife and two year old.

To reflect on my early sledding days ,I have to say that my goals have certainly changed with age. My early goals were to tackle the biggest hills I could find or tear up the freshest powder. My new goals are to raise the most hardcore sledder in pink, the kind of girl that makes the guys only wish they could pull off a climb like that.