Ask people around town what they think about the snow this past winter season and you’ll probably get a variety of responses.
Ask the Yellowknife Ski Club what they thought of the snowfall this season, though, and you will most likely get a much different — and much happier — answer.
The club has wound down its affairs for the snowy season with their last major event, the Nordic Cross. It was a fun event open to all ages and abilities and dozens of competitors tried their luck at weaving through the obstacles on the trails.
Kerry Wheler, the club’s president, said it was meant to be challenging but fun at the same time.
“It was just an incredible way to end our season,” she said. “All ages and abilities from the little ones right up to adults and that’s how all of our programs are — it’s all about participation.”
Most of the club programming is done for this season. The Jackrabbits, the youngest of the bunch, had its final session earlier in the month while the Track Attack skiers, the next age group up, are set to wrap things up tomorrow. The high-performance program is scheduled to have a fun session this evening to close things out.
“We have a lot of members and skiing is just a fun way for people to come together,” said Wheler. “We try to have an event at least once per month and our high-performance skiers got to travel to races this season. It’s been a little different over the past couple of years because of Covid-19, but our older skiers went to the Arctic Winter Games and Canada Winter Games. It made for lots of fun and a wonderful season.”
That snowfall between late October and late November gave the club quite the start for the season and allowed the groomers to begin laying tracks early on, she added.
“That gave us a great base and the groomers did a great job this season,” she said. “We’ve had to get creative in the past with little snow, but being able to ski right from the start was great. The warm temperatures also helped and we don’t usually get that in November. We had between -5 C to -10 C and it’s usually around -20 C that time of year. It was a unique month.”
Once the snow melts for good, the Yellowknife Ultimate Club will move in and set up a nine-hole disc golf course for the summer; Wheler said it will be the second year of a deal the ski club made with the ultimate club. There will also be some events organized by the Yellowknife Multisport Club at the ski club.
Until then, Wheler said people should keep on skiing.
“Go and ski if you can find snow,” she said. “Be careful with the melting snow, but the glide right now is awesome — just be careful with that.”