newsletter - BV Nordic Centre

NEWSLETTER
www.bvnordic.ca
Upcoming Events
February 24
Intro to Biathlon
Nordic Centre @11am
March 1st
Jackrabbits Fun Day
Nordic Centre @ 1pm
It’s a beach party theme,
so rabbits get out your
beach gear for this end-ofseason fun day.
March 5
Masters Wrap Up
Nordic Centre @7pm
Final lesson & end-ofseason social
March 8
Bulkley Valley
Marathon
Nordic Centre
Everyone welcome!
April 22
Annual General
Meeting
Join the Board
The Club is seeking
nominations for the
Board of Directors. If
you are interested in
volunteering for one of
these positions you can
contact Steve Howard,
chair for the
nominating committee
(846-5930). Elections
for next year’s Board
will be held on April
nd
22 , at the Annual
General Meeting.
February 2008
From The Chair…
Many of you may remember and be nostalgic
for the good old days when the club was run
from the ‘kitchen table’. All though the vast
majority of us are still volunteers and club
work is still done from our basement offices;
sports organizations like ours now have a
much greater responsibility towards their
participants and members. Additionally our
club now has a history, and with history
comes expectations from its members. This
means managing financial resources including
club assets and facilities, sound governance
practices and keeping participants from
physical harm. One tool the club uses to help
achieve these objectives and meet its
responsibilities is through establishing clear
policies.
Policies serve a number of functions in
organizations like ours; 1) they manage risk
from physical harm such as with the ‘roller ski
policy’, which ensures that safe practices are
put into play; 2) they establish expectations
between parties such as the ‘Parent – Athlete
Agreement’; and, 3) they help foster
consistent and sound decision making such as
a financial or athlete funding policy. In some
case the club is compelled by law to put a
policy in place such as the club’s ‘Privacy
Policy’, which addresses how we manage
information that we collect from members
when we register them.
Cross Country BC, the provincial sport
organization for cross-country skiing, advises
that clubs like ours must adopt our own
policies because the policies of Provincial and
National Sports Organizations do not
necessarily apply. This is a path we have
embarked on over the past year. Another
aspect of risk management and sound club
governance is to make our policies and
information about club decisions readily
available. You will find this information on
our web site under “Our Club”. There is still
work to be done, and always improvements
can be made. If you have any questions,
please contact any of the Board members.
Child Sports Tax Credit Receipts:
If you have a child 16 years age or younger
who is registered in biathlon, jackrabbits, or
the racing program you are eligible for federal
tax credits starting this year. We are pleased
to announce that the receipts are available for
pick up at McBike.
Happy Trails – Geoff
Jackrabbits Season End
Just when the weather is getting nice our sessions are coming to an end on account of spring
break! Our last session will be March 1st. Please, please, come out for the Bulkley Valley
Marathon the following Saturday, March 8th. Distances start at 0.5km. It is a great family
event. The skiing will be excellent over spring break as well, so come on out!
We are seriously looking for some fresh parents to help organize Rabbits next year.
Sandra and Irene will help with the transition. You don't have to be a Rabbit Leader to organize-in fact we really need someone who can be available as families arrive at the lodge. If you are
interested please call Sandra 847-0022 or Irene 847-1994.
Biathlon
Biathlon will be busy during the month
of February. We have BC Cup February
5 & 6, the BC championships in
Vanderhoof on the weekend of the 16th
and the BC winter games the following
week. These will be the first
competitions for some of the young
athletes so we hope they have fun.!
Dave Wilford has started up the Biathlon
Bears program and the kids have been
receiving badges for skiing and shooting
skills. Biathlon Bears offers a good set of
skill development for the young biathlete.
We will be offering an Introduction to
Biathlon for Masters. There will be a
drop in fee of $5 for insurance with BC
Biathlon. It will start on Sunday Feb
24th at 11am. This will continue once a
week for the month of March and finish
with a fun race on March 30th. If you
are interested please confirm before the
first practice by contacting Jill O’Neil at
[email protected] or 847 5781.
Athlete development
How quickly a month goes by when
you’re skiing as fast as you can. Last
newsletter we (BV Nordics Athlete
Development Team) were just heading
off to BC Cup#2 in the Callaghan Valley
near Whistler. I have to admit that even
I thought going to this race was a bit
nutty given all the travel and hassle… but
WOW was it worth it! The trails at
Callaghan are as spectacular as the
setting, with banked high-speed corners
and routes that are open enough that
even if you did hit the
rhubarb… well it
would be OK. If you
get the chance, make
sure you make the
effort to ski at the site
of the 2010 Olympic
Nordic events. You
won’t regret it. That
whole extended
weekend at Callaghan
was such a positive
experience for the
entire team. Coaches
from other teams
shared waxing info and
even pre-dawn rides up
to the site from where
we stayed in Squamish (thanks Chris
Paulson); the juveniles and juniors passed
on racing tips to some of the youngest
members of the team; everyone cheered
on each other in their respective races
and lots of other clubs were clearly
envious of our flashy new team jackets!
Red)…
But what it’s all about is the memories,
right? And we have some great
memories from this past weekend’s
adventures. On top of all of that, our
club placed second overall out of all the
ski clubs in the province based on our
race results from the two days of skiing.
We are darn
proud of that - we
have a really good
thing going with
this team!
Some of the team made their way to the
Kitimat Valley
for the Snow
Valley Open the
weekend after
Callaghan. That
was a great local
race by all accounts
(you can’t miss
February 15, the
when the trip
Juvenile and
includes a stop
Juniors
at the hothosted a Dessert
springs apresNight Fundraiser
Kate Woods at BC Championships
ski). The following
for going to the
weekend the BV Nordics race committee
Nationals in March. The Nationals are
hosted a pair of well organized races Feb
also in Callaghan Valley (hard to
2, 3, with Classic Technique sprints on
complain about having to go to such a
spectacular setting again!) and we are
Saturday followed by the BV Open skate
pumped about it. Rumor has it that the
race on Sunday.
National Team will be racing as well as a
(You see I told you we race pretty much
number of skiers from the States and
every weekend…, did I mention how
Europe--quite exciting and inspirational
much I have been getting done around
for our team...almost as exciting as the
the house this winter?)
desserts that were homemade and
donated to the team to raise money for
Just this past weekend (Feb 9-10) the
the trip. BIG THANK YOU to Loretta
team headed to 100-Mile House for the
Malkow, Teresa White, Jill Krause, Karen
BC Club Championships, the final BC
McKeown and Tinka VonKeyserlingk
Cup race of this season. I think the team
for the AMAZING desserts. Truly
set a new standard for vehicle issues en
delicious! Their treats raised nearly $700
route (blown oil pump “O”ring, empty
for the team going to Nationals. Thank
gas tank (but great story of New York
you so much ladies!!!
musician moving to rural BC for love, a
story that wouldn’t have been told had it
The season is not over yet though. In
not been for the lack of gas), flooded Big
the next few weeks we
have athletes going to
the Burns Lake Open
(this weekend), then the
Westerns, and Winter
Games, followed by 2
weekends off, except
for marathon goers,
then off to the
Nationals. Keep your
fingers crossed and
thank you all for all
your support!
-- Alex Woods and Lisa Perry
Photos: Kaileen McCulloch
and Larry McCulloch
The Team
Olympic Race Officials
events as they unfold over the next
two years.
What were you doing on February
16th? While most of us were napping
on the couch or putting in a
modest 5 km or so on our
local trails, BV Nordic's
crazy skiing lady, Teresa
White, was in Quebec
competing in
the Gatineau Loppet
(Keskinada). This year was
Teresa's third time
competing in the Loppet.
We here in the Bulkley Valley all
know what a great ski club we have.
Now the expertise of our
club members will be
recognized around the
world! Several members of
our club have been selected
to train as race officials for
the Nordic events for the
Vancouver 2010 Winter
Olympics.
In January of this year,
Darlene Doogan-Smith,
Donna Jones, Larry
Cosman, Mary Jean
Cosman, Kathy Spiro, Mark
Blayney and Dave Pellow traveled to
Callaghan Valley in the Whistler
Olympic Park to work at the BC Cup
#2 Race, the first of several training
races leading up to the Olympics. In
March, the same crew with the
addition of Kirsteen Laing will return
to help put on the Canadian National
Championships.
All of these people have honed their
skills over many years of putting on
races here in Smithers and by taking
courses to become certified race
officials. All this hard work is really
paying off now by being offered this
once in a lifetime opportunity.
Everything at the Callaghan facility is
new. The Olympic, Paralympic,
Biathlon and recreational trails, the
ski jumps (we’re all hoping to see
those in action!), the 30 biathlon
targets and the newly paved road into
the venue. There is a lot of
excitement and enthusiasm in the
whole sea to sky corridor including in
the newly formed Squamish Nordics
Rabbit program. It’s very exciting to
be working with Caloc, the local
organizing committee, as well as a
great team of volunteers from across
BC and Canada as they begin to gear
up for the Olympics. We will
continue to keep you updated on
Gatineau Loppet
Trails at Callaghan
Once again, Teresa proved
her intense training for the
past several months has
paid off, completing the
53km Classic course in a time of
3:36:49.
This placed Teresa 2nd in her age
category of 19 women, 3rd overall of
78 women, and 50th of 358
competitors!
Congratulations on a job well done!
Backcountry Cabins:
Harold Price & Starr
Creek
Have you ever opened the main
door at the Buchfink Lodge,
maybe on a Saturday afternoon,
and felt like you were entering a
busy beehive, the staircase
containing more traffic than
Main Street Smithers the week
before Christmas? As you finally
manage to reach the top of the
stairs, it seems as boisterous as an
Irish pub (without beer). You
can’t deny that the place is truly
alive, almost overwhelming,
perhaps not the peaceful day in
the outdoors that you had
expected.
Starr Creek Cabin is in an even more
remote location, southwest of
Smithers. The alpine terrain is not
appropriate for cross-country skiing,
however it is a small jewel for
backcountry skiers equipped with
alpine touring or telemark gear. If you
are willing to break a few trails, you
can reach ridges and surrounding
summits and then descend, carving
turns in fresh virgin snow. During
winter and spring, this cabin is usually
accessed by helicopter, as skiing in
would take more than a day. This
cabin can also be approached by
snowmobile, however it requires
traveling through a voluntarily
restricted area designed to protect a
herd of endangered caribou.
Snowmobile use should be limited to
the absolute minimum.
Each cabin can accommodate 8 people
and both cabins feature woodstoves
and firewood supplies, propane
Starr Creek Cabin
Don’t get scared away, take a
deep breath…our club may have
something else for you! For
many years, members of the club
have been involved in the
construction and maintenance of
two smaller sized cabins in
remote locations. Harold Price
Cabin is located northeast of
Smithers. It can be accessed on
skis or snowshoes and you can
reach this comfy nest with only a
few hours of breaking trail.
Harold Price Cabin
stoves and foam mattresses.
You only need to bring a good sense
of humor to make your sojourn to an
unforgettable experience.
For more information and details on
booking you can also check our
webpage:
http://www.bvnordic.ca/programs/ba
ckcountry-huts