03/16/2025
So after a long exhausting snowmobile season, with three days of driving to get home, I had a lot of windshield time to think about what I do as a snowmobile guide. The first day of our last saddle bag trip, one of the guys said to me, "this must be your dream job!"
by the end of the week with the numerous challenges we faced he said he now understood why I didn't say yes to his question! The document below is what I composed to give people insight on being a snowmobile guide! I hope you enjoy!
This must be your dream job?
What its like to be a certified snowmobile guide (ORV- Off Road Vehicle guide) in Quebec.
By Bruce Cody
When I meet people and tell them that I have a business guiding snowmobile tours, their response is generally “this must be your dream job!” My response is always the same, “when you take something that you love, like snowmobiling and turn it into a business, 50% of that love it gone.” The snowmobile is just the vehicle I use to do my job. The job is about making schedules, decisions, and dealing with people.
So, what is a certified ORV guide?
After a tragic accident in 2020, when 5 tourists and a guide lost their lives after falling through the ice on Lac Saint Jean, the Quebec government decided to make it a law that anyone who accepts payment for guiding people, must be certified. The training is provided in two parts: Off Road Vehicle guide training and Wilderness First Aid training. Adventure Ecotourism Quebec provides the ORV guide training. A minimum of 20 hours of wilderness first aid training can be obtained through the Canadian Red Cross or SiriusMEDX. You can also double the first aid training to 40 hours which I elected to do.
The guide training does not teach you about riding snowmobiles, understanding the trails or how to plan trips. It prepares you for making the necessary decisions and dealing with people who may not understand or agree with your decisions. It also prepares you on how to deal with an accident should one occur. The medical portion is the necessary emergency first aid and possible transport of an injured person should an accident occur. You are repeatedly told throughout the course that you as a guide are responsible for making the proper decisions. You may be held legally responsible for them. The Canadian government does however have the Good Samaritan act which protects you in your efforts to provide life saving emergency care. So being a certified guide is not like riding with your buddies. You have to assess trails, conditions, and your group of people and make critical decisions for the group’s safety.
There are three basic types of guided trips. There are the home based rides where you may ride 50-75 miles from your home base to another location for lunch and ride back. These are very popular for tourists coming to Quebec. There are companies and lodges that provide this service. Many of these tourists have never been on or even seen a snowmobile before. Accidents are common with these groups. They are generally riding at a low speed with a guide in front of the group, but they still tend to do things like hit the machine in front of them, go off of the trail, or even roll a machine over when they panic and hit the throttle instead of the brake. In my own business, I never take people who have limited or no experience. Our home based trips are great for couples and for people who may not want to ride every day. We always have ladies day on Wednesday and provide a massage for the ladies.
The second type of trip is the saddle bag trip. These are multiple day trips, riding a loop starting in one location and returning to that location after several days of riding to other lodges. The trick with saddle bag trips is learning what to pack for a week-long excursion, and how to pack it. You have limited space on a snowmobile so you need to use it wisely. I tell people not to pack bulky clothes like jeans and sweatshirts or bulky shoes. Cotton clothing is a no-no in what we do. You want to pack thin nylon/polyester running pants and tops. They pack very tightly. For shoes I recommend something like water shoes that compress tightly or slippers. You will only wear those shoes in the evening to dinner. Most lodges have dining rooms you can walk inside to from your room. If we have to go to an external restaurant, you can wear your snowmobile boots. You will have your dinner outfit on for about 2 hours each night. You don’t need a change for every day. Just don’t drip mustard on your shirt on day one! You ride all day, get to the new lodge, get a shower and change. Then eat and go to bed. Our saddle bag trips are all 7 night and 6 ½ days of riding so space is reserved for clean underwear, socks and toiletries and not multiple dinner outfits.
Lets talk about the challenges in the saddle bag trips. You have the weather, the trail conditions, equipment failures and just overall fatigue towards the end of a week. Handling these circumstances is where the experienced guide comes in.
The weather plays a huge factor in the saddle bag trip. You have miles to ride every day and they must be done no matter what the weather is. We recently did a trip at the Gaspesie Peninsula. They have the most volatile weather patterns in Quebec. We woke up to start our first day of our trip and it had snowed 16” overnight. I adjusted our route to stay on all the main trails and not secondary trails to cut back on the miles for the day knowing it could be a difficult one. Our second day still included some trail breaking since I decided to take a secondary trail. The forecast also changed on us showing two days of solid rain. I bought rain suits for the guys who wanted them and the ones who said no wished they had them. Goretex isn’t going to keep your seat dry on an all day rain. We had one day break in the weather and then a major blizzard hit. The blizzard closed the trails and highway for a 200 mile stretch. My decision at that point was to stay put! We had motel rooms and a restaurant. No one else could get there so we were not going to lose our rooms. Our choice was to get a truck and trailer to transport us and our sled once the highway opened or wait for the trails to get groomed and open. I contacted a towing company who agreed to transport 6 sleds and riders if needed once the highway opened. The struggle happens when members in the group want to ride the closed trails or just take the highway on snowmobiles. My decision as the guide is to stay put. I know the trails and know there will be 8-10’ snow drifts and the areas where the trail crosses the roads will have 8-10’ banks where the snow plow passes. There will also be zero visibility in the open fields. I know this from experience. Some folks think this will be fun and “let’s go for it.” It is dangerous and I know better. If something were to happen with me as the guide, I could be held responsible for allowing it. When a trail is posted as closed, it means do not ride! The highway was closed for two days and the trails for three. The day the highway was opened I had two trucks with a trailer come to take us and our snowmobiles two hours back to our trucks.
Other weather factors include extreme cold or rain. You can have -40 degrees or +40 degrees and rain. No one wants to be out in either of those so I adjust our route to get us to our next lodging as quickly as possible. Wind can also be a big factor. It can cause zero visibility and huge drifts in open fields. When that happens, I will try to adjust our route to keep us in the woods as much as possible for better visibility and limited snow drifts.
The third type of guided trip is the off trail back county trips. I do not do these types of trips. They are the most dangerous and physically demanding type. You will be digging out sleds numerous times throughout a day when going off trail. These trips are for the most experienced riders. A certified guide is only permitted to have three riders per guide on these rides.
What type the equipment a guide should carry? Let’s start out with the safety oriented equipment. I carry an extensive amount of emergency first aid equipment and supplies according to what I have learned from my training. You need to build your first aid kit not buy a do-it-all type package. I carry a satellite phone and also the latest i Phone with satellite texting capabilities. I also carry everything to build a fire to keep warm. I have waterproof matches, fire starters, a butane torch and a signal flare. I carry battery powered flashlights with spare batteries and rechargeable flashlights. An emergency warming blanket and a fire extinguisher are also packed. Lastly the emergency supplies need to be easily accessible and marked well with red crosses so they can be quickly identified. I go over the emergency equipment with each group in case something were to happen to me. I also carry an AirMed International emergency evacuation policy that will evacuate injured people from the site. One call to their emergency number is all that is necessary and they will dispatch the proper method. There are also emergency evacuation points on the trail system. These points have signs and are also shown on the Quebec Trail app so you know where you may have to take people for transport.
For emergency trail clearing situations I carry a 24” chopping ax, a folding pruning saw, a machete, and a hand pick for digging.
I also carry an extensive amount of tools for repairs. I have a complete Dewalt socket, wrench and hex set, specialty tools related to snowmobiles, metal duct tape, electrical tape, tie wire and an assortment of electrical fuses. I have a lithium starter jump pack and also jumper cables. I carry several long tow straps, a tow kit, and rope and twine. Mounted on my equipment box is a shovel and a snow bungee to assist in getting a sled unstuck. I have numerous types of bungee straps should I need to strap something on to my machine. I also carry a small rubber mallet for breaking up ice that builds up on the machines. Lastly, I carry 4 gallons of gasoline and one gallon of 2 stroke oil in case someone runs out.
So, in looking at what I carry, I have 150 lbs. just in gear without my personal item. This is a lot for a standard snowmobile, that’s why I ride a heavy duty Expedition Xtreme.
To recap, being a snowmobile guide is not only having the skills and physical ability and endurance to ride thousands of miles through all of the Winter conditions in Quebec, but also know the trails, monitor conditions and make the proper decisions for the safety of your clients. Add to that you need to possess the people skills to spend 7 days a week, 16 hours a day with people you may have just met. And no matter how much you train, prepare and plan, the number one factor that can’t be controlled is the weather. It can be -40F or +40F, rain or blizzard snow storms. While my clients may still be sleeping, I am awake looking at weather reports, trail condition reports and grooming reports.
Few people get to spend 6-8 weeks snowmobiling the fantastic trail system and seeing the amazing sites of Winter in Quebec that I do, and I appreciate that! But being a guide has a lot of responsibilities that go along with the job that most people don’t realize.
This must be your dream job right?
Well on some days it is!
