We’re offering a two-day classroom and on-snow workshop for volunteers wishing to coach our programs Nov. 17/18. The course runs Saturday from 9 to 4:30 and Sunday from 9 – 3:30 with Karen Johnson instructing.

Our annual Wax and Wine event takes place Thursday, Nov. 15 at the chalet from 7 to 10 pm. 

This members-only event combines complimentary wine and snacks with the opportunity to have your skis waxed ($25 a pair or $20 for multiples) by the High Performance Ski Team. It’s always a nice gathering with fellow skiers!

Note: While babes-in-arms are welcome, this is an adults-only event. 

Thanks to all who turned out on Saturday Nov. 3 for our annual Snow Show. We had great snow, great turnout and great fundraising. 

Thanks are due to all the volunteers who came out to cook and serve chilli, contribute to the bake sale, help to size and sell used ski equipment, help people register for membership and programs and who generally made this a fun event. Thanks also to the City of Yellowknife for clearing the snow out of the parking lot after that huge snowfall (the city regularly clears snow from our road and parking lot, but was kindly able to do so early Saturday morning ahead of this big event). 

Our High Performance Ski Team and the ski club were able to raise over $8,000 through the silent auction, ski waxing and the 50/50 draw. A giant thanks is due to all who donated items items to the auction. 

• Ahmic Air
• Aurora Ford
• Autotec
• Jamie & Brenda Bastedo
• Blachford Lake Lodge
• The Book Cellar
• The Brick
• CBC North
• Corother’s Home Hardware
• Robbie Craig
• Crowe Mackay
• Days Inn & Suites
• Lana deBastiani
• Linda Dunbar
• Eecol Electric
• EMCO
• Ethanda Organic Day Spa
• For Men Only
• For Women Only
• Frostbite 50 – YKMC
• Gallery of the Midnight Sun
• Gourmet Cup
• Happy Pooch
• Metro Huculak, YK1
• Karen Johnson
• Margie Johnson
• Kerry’s Firewood & Salvaging
• Konge Construction
• Merle Norman
• Northern Images
• Overlander Sports
• Quality Furniture
• Greg Robertson,
• Bluefish Services
• Roy’s Audio Video
• Shopper’s Drug Mart
• Signed
• Simplistic Hair Studio
• John Stephenson
• Thanh Dat Clothing & Gift
• True Value Hardware
• Visual Effects
• Vixen Hair Den
• Weaver & Devore Trading
• Kathy Woodward
• Yellowknife Golf Club
• Yellowknife Motors

Hooray for the chalet!

After its wonderful makeover, our chalet got a lot of use this summer, with bountiful praise for the renovations, new paint and excellent kitchen. 

The chalet hosted the NWT Film Gala, the Indigenous Language Teachers’ Conference, FOXY/SMASH, Northern Youth Leadership, the Stanton Foundation Mud Run, Bush Kids, YK2 Community Foundation, Yk Circus Group and several Multisport events, weddings and other celebrations. 

Bookings for this extremely versatile site are made through the city facilities clerk at 669-3457. (Thanks to the City of Yellowknife for managing our bookings at a nominal fee.)

 Registration for the 2018/2019 ski season is now open on Zone4.ca. 

As usual, our early bird membership fees are in effect until midnight the day of the Snow Show (Nov. 3). For the first time since 2013 our fees have gone up slightly:

• Family $320 (early bird special is $300)
• Individual $140 ($120, not $100 as per last week’s typo)
• Youth $60 (no early bird rate)
• Child $20 (no early bird rate)

Please note: KidSport grants are available to parents to cover the cost of skiing.

KidSport provides $300 per calendar year to pay for fees or equipment. Anyone wanting to access this program can sign up as usual on Zone4 and let us know through that form that they’ll be applying to KidSport. KidSport then pays the club directly so no money is needed up front.

Find more details on how to apply here. And please help us spread the word!

Registration for the 2018/2019 ski season is coming soon. The link to Zone4.ca, which we use to manage registration for memberships, programs and events will be posted here as soon as it’s available. While our Track Attack and High Performance skiers have already started dryland training, most of our programs begin in December once the trails are in. 

Our Snow Show will take place on Saturday, Nov. 3 at the ski chalet. This is a fun event where everyone is welcome to come learn about our club, browse the gear swap, enjoy the bake sale, sign up for programs, visit the Overlander ski booth and take part in our silent auction fundraiser. 

As usual, our early bird membership fees are in effect until midnight the day of the Snow Show. For the first time since 2013 our fees have gone up slightly:

• Family $320 (early bird special is $300)
• Individual $140 ($120)
• Youth $60 (no early bird rate)
• Child $20 (no early bird rate)

Stay tuned for more!

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!