Sol Mountain Lodge: New alpine singletrack trails in Monashee Provincial Park

Story and Photos by Steve Shannon

Riding the trails from Sol Mountain Lodge. Photo: Steve Shannon

One hundred kilometres south of Revelstoke, B.C., tucked away in an alpine meadow in the Monashee Mountains sits one of the fastest growing alpine singletrack hotspots in North America: Sol Mountain Lodge. Primarily operating as a ski touring lodge since construction in 2005, Sol has expanded its summer offerings to include alpine singletrack mountain biking. Since 2013, owner Aaron Cooperman and his crew have built 20 kilometres of alpine singletrack mountain bike and multi-use trails. After an intensive trail building session earlier this summer, Sol Mountain Lodge is pleased to announce the opening of the Sol Lake Trail, a two-way rideable trail from the lodge up to Sol Lake.

From the lodge doorstep, the hand built singletrack trail weaves its way across the alpine meadow, gradually climbing through sub-alpine balsam fir forest and into the ‘Bunny Slope’ rock slabs. Making use of the natural rock features, the trail continues up into the alpine crossing into Monashee Provincial Park and offering stunning views of Mount Baldur, Sol Mountain, Pride Rock and Mount Fosthall, the highest peak in the area. In total the trail climbs 200 vertical metres over 3.8 kilometres from the lodge to Sol Lake.

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Building the trail has been a long, difficult process. It’s taken three years of permit applications, environmental assessments and public reviews before construction of the final section inside the park boundary started this summer. Originally the owner, Aaron Cooperman, hoped to build more trails in the park but after public review the scope was reduced to a single multi-use trail up to Sol Lake, and an extension to the west following alpine meadows to Caribou Pass at the foot of Mount Fosthall. The Caribou Pass trail is slated for opening in the summer of 2017.

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The Sol Mountain trail network is also popular with trail runners. Photo: Steve Shannon

With an emphasis on sustainability, Cooperman hired dedicated trail builders from the B.C. Interior to help build the trail network. The physical work has been very difficult, but sometimes merely laying out an appropriate route that will please mountain bikers and hikers has proven challenging. Part of the route overlaps with the trails built in 2013 and 2014, but the most difficult section inside the park boundary was just completed at the end of July 2015. For two weeks, a crew of six stacked rocks, scraped dirt and cleared vegetation to create what Cooperman describes as “featured mountain bike trails” complete with rock slabs, natural terrain features and alpine ridge riding. Though mountain biking is the fastest growing user segment, the trails are multi-use for hikers and trail runners as well.

With the Sol Lake trail now complete, the riding potential at Sol Mountain Lodge has grown to a worthy multi-day visit. Twenty kilometres of trail extend from the lodge doorstep around the alpine meadows and ridge lines. There’s easy, family friendly XC trails like Pussy Toe Loop, Dirt Farmer, East Loop and West Loop in the meadows while the more difficult Sol Lake Trail, Mission Ridge, Beacon Check and Sassy Toe will keep experienced riders entertained. From Sol Lake the trail continues an additional 1.4 kilometres up Mission Ridge where views into Monashee Provincial Park, Margie Lake and the Gold Range of the Monashees are a highlight. The descent from ridge to the lodge is a must ride — 5.2 kilometres of rock slabs, berms and bridges all make an exhilarating ride back to cold drinks on the deck. For the more adventurous a side trip on Beacon Check results in some significant air time thanks to a few jumps and when combined with the Sassy Toe trail results in over eight kilometres of descending from the ridge top.

Matt Yaki, Sahanna Browning and Aaron Cooperman
Location: Sol Mountain Lodge, B.C. Photo: Steve Shannon

While the singletrack is a worthy visit alone and day use is encouraged, Sol also offers a fully serviced lodge. Complete with flush toilets, hot showers, a sauna and commercial kitchen, Sol offers trips for every budget from fully catered lodge rentals to simple self guided, self catered accommodation. In addition Sol extends a locals volunteer labour deal where locals are welcome to come stay a night in return for four hours of trail work.

As autumn slowly approaches the riding season is far from over. Late August and September offer some of the best riding conditions at Sol with cooler temperatures, no bugs and beautiful golden alpine. For more information, visit www.solmountain.com or call 250-674-3707.