Hay River Ski Club Skier Joins NWT Skiers for Outstanding Rocky Mountain Camp

In December I had the opportunity to join the Yellowknife Ski Club in Canmore for a cross - country ski training camp from December 16th-21st. Originally, it was intended to be a part of the Alberta Cup 1&2 races but the races were cancelled due to cold weather. The week we were in Canmore the temperatures were always colder than   -20ºC, which is the cutoff for holding races. I was looking forward to mild temperatures because I thought that Canmore normally had relatively pleasant climate, but I ended up coming home with frostbite instead.

On December 17th we headed out to the Canmore Nordic Center for our first ski session. On arrival at the Center we were able to get a wax room for the week, and sort out our gear. Since the biathlon trails were just groomed, we used their trails for a warm up, followed by an interval session. This was my first time skiing on artificial snow and there were over 100 artificial snow machines all over the mountain obscuring the beautiful mountains with their haze of white fog. The slight altitude difference and the fact that there were hardly any flats made the intervals all the more challenging. After a hot lunch we headed back out to the Center and hit the Banff Trail for an hour of skiing. We all seemed tired afterwards, but what great skiing (the underpasses were fast with great turns at the bottom!).

The next morning we drove out to beautiful Kananaskis and skied from the Poccatera hut for two hours. We were surrounded by mountains, and would once in a while ski over over little wooden bridges across frozen creeks. It was very quiet with just the trees and the sound of the skies making noise. We took a wrong turn and ended up at a hut that didn’t look like the Poccatera hut, and a parking lot that did not have our vans! (At that point we were situated four kilometers from the Poccatera hut…so much for looking forward to the lunches we had packed.) The wind had picked up so skiing down an open electrical line valley to the right hut was not pleasant, but well worth the experience.

Later in the afternoon, after a nice warm car ride back to Canmore, followed by a lunch and a rest (well deserved), we went to the Bill Warren Center and did a core strength workout led by Sarah Daitch and Mike Argue. They then joined us for a spaghetti supper at our lodge.

Friday was a semi- rest day with a ski session in the morning following the Bow Valley Trail (another great trail but easier heading out than returning due to the gradual incline) at the Nordic Center. In the afternoon we enjoyed exploring main-street Canmore and that evening we went to Linda and Blair Dunbar’s house for supper.

Saturday was cold (-37ºC) so we did a shorter ski session and then went back to our lodge and did some core strength in our two living rooms! Shortly after, Chandra Crawford, the Olympic gold medalist for cross country skiing for the sprint event in Torrino, came over and spent a good part of the afternoon talking enthusiastically to us about her experiences. She also gave us a blow-by-blow retelling (also a reenactment) of her Olympic gold medal race along with other stories and encouragement (not to mention autographs and picture shoots with her and her Olympic medal).

That afternoon we had planned to go to Banff and bathe in the hot springs but as the afternoon was fading away we opted to go out for supper in Canmore instead. We also learnt that there was an unofficial time trial, hosted by the Foothill Nordic Club because of the cancelled races, the next day, at the Canadian Olympic Park.

As skiers I found that we were a bit out of place at the Canadian Olympic Park with the hoards of snowboarders and the huge snowboarding facilities. The temperature was cold and windy so the semi warmed ski shack was appreciated. The time trials were very challenging due to the cold temperatures.

            The week was fantastic and it was great to ski in such a beautiful setting with such a great group of people. The experience of skiing with other skiers my age was new for me and I enjoyed it very much and I learned a lot from it.