Now that there is a dusting of snow on the ground, it feels like the right time to send out a note about the things that kept us busy this past fall.

At the beginning of September, we volunteered to help out with the Mount Robson Marathon. This was the tenth time the marathon had taken place, and included a 50km “Ultra Marathon” (with 825m of elevation gain, with 500m of that happening over a 5km section), a 21km Half Marathon (with 180m elevation gain), a 12km, a 5km and a kid’s fun run. We got there for 6am to help set things up before the Ultra Marathoners headed out at 8:00am. The start line, and finish line, was next to the Visitor’s Information Centre at Mount Robson Provincial Park. The Ultra Marathoners, went from there, out the Berg Lake Trail to the British Columbia/Alberta border, where they turned around and re-traced their steps back.

We ended up having the best job of all, as we handed out the finishers medals to every finisher as they crossed the finish line. There were tears, there was joy, there was cheering children running up to parents as they crossed the finish line, it was all pretty amazing.

Above is a photo of the beautiful hand-made clay medal that we were handing out. They were created by a local potter (who is also a nurse that works at the Valemount Health Centre). Luckily, there were some extras, so at the Volunteer Dinner that happened a few weeks later we were able to take one of them as a souvenir.

Not long after that, in the middle of September, was the Valemount Fall Bike Fest. Hundreds of people came to enjoy the trails.

Adam is now a member of the Bike Committee so he spent the day loading hundreds of bikes onto the back of the shuttles.I decided to avoid the busy bike trails for the day, and instead enjoyed a quiet walk doing the 8.5km Swift Creek Loop.

I missed a turn and ended up at the staging area where Adam was covered in dirt from head to toe from loading bikes onto the trailers. It was fun to see the diversity in age of people who were riding the trails during the festival.

Valemount has an amazing bike park with a variety of trails.

The shuttles take people up to the top on the right side of the map. When we bike. we typically park in the middle area of the map and go up and left or right from there.

Now, when most people think of mountain biking, they imagine people flying down hills somewhat like this:

Just to be clear, when I go mountain biking I spend 80% of my time going painfully slowly up the hill, and 20% of the time I am going slightly faster down the hill. Here is an example of how slowly I typically go up a hill.

In this video, Adam managed to capture the first time I was able to make it up this particular hill. It’s ~20% grade including 2 particularly rocky bits had always defeated me, until this time.

We are already looking forward to volunteering for events next year, including The Alpenglow 100. This past summer was the first time this ultramarathon happened in Valemount. The distances were 38km, 65km, 100km, and it was a huge success. The 100km runners started in the evening, and ran overnight. To see some photos you can look here. The scenery was so beautiful for the runners, as the 100km participants had to ascend 3 peaks.

The participants spoke highly about the event, the trails, and all the support from the volunteers. When they opened the registration for 2026, the 38k was full within 5 minutes and the whole event was full within 5 hours. We are looking forward to being part of the event next year!