Several important volunteers were recognized at our June 13 bbq for their contribution to our club.

The Wooden Ski Award for long service went, unusually, to two people: Julie Ward, for her long service as a coach with Track Attack and even longer service as manager of the Banting Lake tent (along with Doug Townson); and Mike Argue for his dedication (and incredible speed) as lead coach with the high performance team.

Both Mike and Julie, the board felt, have played a huge role in making our club what it is, even if a lot of their work happens behind the scenes. For example, we learned last night that even when HP skiers have a race that Mike can’t be at, he’s checking the results online and texting the kids right afterwards, and generally playing an outsize role in their lives, both on the trails and off.

The Double Poler Award (for outstanding service in the past year) went to Alex Lothian for his vision and accomplishment in creating the Canada 150 Teaching Hill, also known as “Alex’s Hill.” And also, it must be said, known as the hill on which Alex put out his knee shortly after the photo shoot to celebrate its existence, thus knocking him off the roster as a Jackrabbit coach for the remainder of the season (though he continued to help coordinate Jackrabbits). He’s now mostly OK.

The Stellar Snowflake Award for outstanding youth volunteer went, for the second year in a row, to Ella Kokelj, for her coaching in Jackrabbits. Ella served as the lead coach with her group this year, which meant she took the lead on planning lessons as well as getting out on the trails with kids each week. Ella also shared her own ski experience with the kids so that they could get an idea of what they themselves might be able to accomplish down the road. Thanks Ella!

This year’s Herringbone Award for outstanding company went to Overlander Sports. This year, Overlander donated a brand new chip timing system which has greatly simplified the race timing process and taken the burden off some of our volunteers (Overlander had, we learned, also donated the last timing system that is now rather outdated.) Overlander was also appreciated for letting us use ALL their rental skis on World Snow Day so that we could give visitors to our club the full experience this year.

Two board members were recognized informally for their outstanding contribution. Board members as a rule are not eligible for any of our titled awards, but these could not go unmentioned.

First, Tania Hercun, who led the chalet renovation project. If you haven’t seen it yet, go now and take a look. This is a legacy project that has already had a HUGE impact on our club and that simply would not have happened if Tania had not taken the lead and worked out all the details from flooring to blinds to acoustic panels to the wood pellet boiler. (There were several huge rounds of applause for all of this.)

And second, Kerry Wheler, our events director who made the past ski season really extraordinary with her dedication to community and to really making everyone welcome at our club. Her energy and enthusiasm go far above and beyond and this really showed in all the excellent events the club hosted this year, as well as some new ones, such as the Sunday lunches she initiated. It’s really hard to say enough about this. Thanks to Brett, Toryn and Emma for letting us all benefit from Kerry!

And finally, a Lifetime Membership was awarded to Kevin Hodgins for his many, many years of service to club as a board member and more. Kevin joins a very short list of people who are members for life of the club so that his contribution won’t be forgotten.

(Sorry that was so long, but with 50 years of a purely volunteer-run club, you kind of have to do this to make sure it keeps going! And all of these people have set a very high bar so it’s important we learn from them.)

Thanks to all of our members who nominated volunteers for these awards and for coming out to the bbq to celebrate their contribution. 

Our AGM concluded June 13 with the election of a 10-person strong board that will lead the ski club into the 2018-2019 ski season.

• President: vacant
• VP – Toby Kruger
• Treasurer – Tania Hercun
• Secretary – Chris Rose
• Events – Kerry Wheler
• Facilities – vacant
• Registrar – Mark Cliffe-Phillips
• Programs – Steve Reitsma
• Trails – Chris Hotson
• Volunteers – Alyssa Titus
• Grants and fundraising – Diep Duong
• Communications – Sara Minogue

There are two important vacancies here. If you or someone you know is interested in taking on either, please let us know. Board members can be appointed throughout the year and new volunteers are always welcome.

Facilities, in particular, is a key role that could also be handled by a team. If you have an interest in helping keep our chalet in tip-top shape this year and ready for use by many parties, please reach out to anyone on the board or send a note to: info@skiyellowknife.com.

And thanks to Chris Joseph, Greg Littlefair and John Stephenson, our three outgoing board members, for their long service to our club!

The ski club’s annual general meeting and volunteer appreciation barbecue will take place on Wednesday, June 13.

• 5-6:30 pm – Drinks and burgers on the deck
• 6:30 – Sponsor recognition and volunteer awards
• 7:30 – AGM in the chalet

This year saw the highest turnout in the history of the Yellowknife loppet, and for good reason: great weather, great tracks, great cookies and great volunteers made this an unbelievably good loppet year. 

We had 345 registered participants and a very large number of helpers who made this possible.

A few particular thank you’s:

• The Snow Farmers (Bruce Look, Rob Tumchewics, Steve Reitsma and Greg Littlefair) – for incredible tracks!
• Damian Panayi – Event Coordinator extraordinaire
• John Stephenson – Trail Grooming coordinator, parking marshal
• Niels Konge – for the use of the Pistenbulley Groomer
• Blair and Kelley Weatherby of Weatherby Trucking for once again and for many years clearing our loppet parking area at no cost
• Chris Cameron and the team from Yellowknife Amateur Radio Society for providing participant tracking and communications
• Stacey Menzies – Chalet Coordinator
• The Rotary Club for helping again with the chili lunch at the chalet
• Ashley Deavu and the students from K’alemi Dene School for preparing the chilli
• Tom Deleff – Jackson Checkpoint Manager
• Carrie Young, Marc Winkler, Joanne Stasson – Banting Lake Checkpoint
• Sarah Beattie, Elaine Anselmi, Ariel Holmwood-Bramwell, Meghan Housley, and Beth Cowan who made the Banting Lake Soup
• Chris Rose, Sam Kennedy – Vee Lake set up and sign in
• Kathi Woodward for making her usual (gasp) 100 dozen cookies!

And the many other people who contributed: Cheryl Mandeville, Shauna Morgan, Chuck Hubert, Al Sexton, Linda Whitford, Brian Latham, Blair Carter, Debbie DeLancey, Tania Hercun, Alex Lothian, Chris Joseph, Sara Minogue and Kerry Wheler.

And of course also a special thank you to TerraX Minerals, headline sponsor of the Yellowknife Gold Loppet.

And thanks to all the loppetteers who made it a great day of skiing!

Registration is now open for the spring duathlon at the ski club on Sunday, April 15, our final on-snow event of our 50th anniversary season. You can sign up here on Zone4.ca.

The duathlon will follow a “Ski-Run-Ski” format. To add to the fun, the course will also include a handful of easily negotiated obstacles. You can enter as an individual or as a team of two or three and enjoy a post-event BBQ in the sun.

Bib pick-up and sign in is from 10:00-10:30 am; start is at 11:00 am.

If entering as a team, all team members must register individually

Registration deadline is at 6 pm on Saturday April 14.

Cost: $10 for open and rec participants; free for youth and tots.

Categories & Distances:

• Tots – 100m ski, 100m run
• Youth – 500m ski, 500m run, 500m ski
• Rec – 1.5km ski, 1.5km run, 1.5km ski
• Open – 3km ski, 3km run, 3km ski

If you’d like to volunteer, contact Mike Argue at 867-444-9257 or mikeargue@hotmail.com.

Feb. 10-18, we’re offering early bird membership rates in honour of our four northern athletes competing in Pyeongchang. Save $20 on family ($280 instead of $260) and adult ($100 instead of $120) membership fees. Find the discount on Zone4.

Race weekend is Feb. 24/25, with classic races Saturday and free technique Sunday.

Everyone is welcome and registration is now open on Zone4. There will be cookie medals for all participants!

This will also be a fun event for spectators. Complimentary light refreshments and hot chocolate will be served in the chalet Saturday, as well as marshmallows for the fire. Specialty coffee will also be sold courtesy of Coffeelicious from 12:30 to 3:30. 

On Sunday, One of a Thai will serve up a Sunday lunch ($14-$16 a plate). from 11:30 to 3. Complimentary fruit, cookies and hot chocolate will also be on offer in the chalet. 

In case of cold weather cancellations (cutoff is -20 C for midget and older; -15 C for Bantam and younger), ski trails are still open and food is still on. 

Full details here: 2018 YK Ski Race Notice