The Teck Kootenay Cup was held at the Kimberley Nordic Club on February 3 and 4, the biggest event of the club’s season with over 250 registrants ranging from three years old to over 70.
The El Niño winter made for some interesting conditions, particularly on the first day of the event.
“Yesterday was challenging conditions,” said KNC general manager Daniel Childress. “We had a lot of rain, but the skiers braved through it and did a great job and it was a lot of fun. Today we’re getting a lot better snow conditions out here, we’re getting some fresh snow.”
This year the KNC set a record for the number of kids they had participating from their club, with 104 racers from the KNC’s Kids’ Program signed up for the event.
The first day consisted of classic skiing and saw around 150 racers in the ring. Saturday featured skate skiing and had around 230 racers.
“We’ve got mass start skate so everyone’s leaving at the same time, first over the finish line wins,” Childress explained. “It’s really condensed this year. In previous years we had more time in between each heat, this year we’re just going bang, bang, bang — two and a half hours in and out and we’re done.”
Despite a condensed Saturday schedule, everything ran smoothly thanks to a huge host of volunteers, including local author and adventurer Bruce Kirkby as the announcer.
“I want to thank the volunteers again for their amazing contributions,” Childress said. “We have such a good base of volunteers here in Kimberley and it couldn’t happen without them.”
To see the full results from the weekend’s races, visit zone4.ca
The club’s next big event is Nordic Fest on March 10.
“It should be a really good community event,” Childress said. “We’ll have some races going on, a Loppet, some wax clinics, we’re doing a collaboration with the ski orienteering club. It should be a lot of fun.”
READ MORE: Nordic Fest at the Kimberley Nordic Club
