An abundance of snow in the mountains has made for great early season conditions up high, but high freezing levels have made it a challenge for the Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club.
With a paucity of snow in town and the Mt. Macpherson trails only opening for good this past weekend (it did open the weekend of Nov 13-15, but closed after due to rain), the club’s Track Attack race team has found it difficult to get ready for the first BC Cup race of the season at the Sovereign Lakes Nordic Centre near Vernon this weekend.
They have been forced to travel to Sovereign Lakes for on-snow training and have been roller skiing around town as much as they can to get ready. Para-Nordic skier Emily Suchy has been using a newly-constructed sit-roller-ski to train on.
“We’ve been dropping everything to get an opportunity to get on snow,” said new head coach Matter Smider.
Smider replaces Andrei Pascu, who had to return to his native Romania for personal reasons. Smider was a volunteer coach with the club last year and has experience coaching youth of all ages, including Jackrabbit groups, Track Attack, Junior Race teams and para-nordic skiers.
“There’s a lot of excitement and and a lot of skiers have been training hard all season with their past coach Andrei and over the last month with myself,” said Smider.
Sisters Brittany and Megan Evans will both be racing with the BC Ski Team this year, with Brittany training at the Alberta World Cup Academy in Canmore, Alta., one of four national development centres run by Cross Country Canada. Their brother Rhys is on the BC Development squad, along with Bronte Viznaugh and Hanna Thomson.
At the Mt. Macpherson trails, several volunteer work parties went out to brush some of the trails. Two bridges were replaced too – one on Creek Crawl, near the Ole Sandberg Hut and the other on the BCIT trail. Sally Thomson said it helped make it possible for the club to open the Mickey Olson Loop and Main Loop last weekend.
The big news for the club this year is that it will be hosting the BC Midget Championships on March 2 and 3. This is the first major race to be held by the club and is made possible by the new Nordic Lodge, recent trail development and new race timing equipment. 225 children with birth years from 2000 to 2003, and 75 parents and coaches are expected to attend the race. The races will include a classic, free technique springs and four-person relay races.
For more information on the Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club, visit www.revelstokenordic.org.