Cross Country Skiing in Spectacular Fernie
The latest messages about events and activities
Several groups and families enjoyed a peaceful evening ski at the Elk Valley Nordic Centre on Friday evening. The full moon appeared from behind the clouds for a perfect outing for about twenty-five or so skiers.
The warming hut was open and the area around the hut were lit for this occasion.
The next full moon will happen during the February 4-5 weekend. We’ll see you then!
The Fernie Nordic Racers will be waxing XC skis to raise money to attend the Kootenay Cups, BC Cups, and BC championships this upcoming season.
Get your skis cleaned and hot waxed by our Cross Country BC certified wax technicians and help our athletes compete with the best in the province.
Note: Waxless skis and skin skis still need to be glide waxed!!
Drop off at the warming hut of the Nordic Centre:
Payment via cash or card
*** Skis should be clearly marked with name and phone # ***
*** If using ski sleeves, these should be labelled. ***
FNS ski sleeves, buffs and toques will also be available for purchase!
Membership renewal stickers will be available throughout the weekend during both pick-up and drop off times
Thank you for supporting our local youth nordic ski team! We look forward to seeing you soon!
The Fernie Nordic Racers participated in the Teck Regional Fall Dryland Camp in Kimberley from Friday September 30th to Sunday October 2nd. We had some beautiful weather all weekend and we all had lots of fun.
The camp started at 9 am on Friday morning. The older athletes started with some team bonding activities while the younger ones were doing a core workout and then they switched. Later the older athletes did some ski striding up to the top of the ski hill by the cat track and came down by the ski runs. It was fun. During this time, the younger athletes conquered Mountain Hill Climb. Then everyone had lunch and some rest time.
After lunch, the older athletes did classic roller skiing in little groups to work on their technique and skills, while the younger group had an introduction to skate roller skiing and played some fun games. Later in the afternoon, the older and younger athletes played Ultimate Frisbee in separate groups. Then there was a dinner at the Nordic Center for everyone.
On Saturday morning, the older athletes met up at the start of the Rails-to-Trails in Kimberley and did a 30 minutes warm up before heading to the start line of their time trial. They did a 3.8 km uphill skate time trial starting in town and going all the way up to the Nordic Center. Everyone did very well. After the time trial, the older athletes did an obstacle course on roller skis. The younger athletes split in two groups, one group did some team building activities while the other group did balance drills on roller skis and games, then all switched. After that, everyone had a well-deserved lunch and rest.
In the afternoon, the older athletes did a challenging workout with Shenoa Runge while the younger ones did an orienteering activity. Then the groups switched. The older group had a different orienteering course, and the younger athletes did their workout. All this took place at the Kimberley Nordic Center. The orienteering was organised by the Kootenay Orienteering Club. Later all athletes had dinner at Kimberley Nordic Center.
On Sunday, the older athletes met at the Rails-to-Trails at 9 am to go for a long roller ski. The Fernie athletes skied about 40 km in 3 hours. The younger athletes had a choice between a trail run at the Nordic Center or a bike ride. After the morning activities the camp was over, and it was time to go back to Fernie.
In conclusion, we thank all the volunteers, coaches, and parents for all their help and for making this event possible. It was a great opportunity for the athletes to improve and get stronger. Everyone had a lot of fun and is excited for next year!
Article by Louison Dubief and Aurélie Smithson
I was born in Hull (now called Gatineau), Québec. Once married, I moved around quite a bit: Québec to Ontario and then west to Edmonton in 1970 with four daughters under 6 years old. I added a 5th daughter in 1986 and my first grandson was born in 1989. In 1998, we moved to Halifax and six years later we headed to the Middle East. In the meantime, seven more grandchildren came along, with our latest granddaughter born this in July.
After more than six years in Qatar it was time for us to retire. Our daughter Annie and her family were living in Fernie. Since all the children and grandchildren where mostly out West, we thought Fernie would be a nice place to live and visit all the family members. We also liked the ability to join the FNS family and help any way we could.
I did some cross-country skiing in Jasper, Banff and Kananaskis while living in Edmonton. When we moved to Fernie in 2011, Annie’s family was very involved in the Fernie Nordic Society. Our three grandchildren participated in the Skill Development Program, and later on were on the Race Team. Once we moved to Fernie, I took the beginner coaching courses (on-snow and the dry land) and did assist/sub for some ski lessons. We also participated in the Teck ski races throughout the Kootenays to help the Race Team and to earn points for the Kootenay Cup, which we won 4 times!
I love the idea that cross-country skiing is the best exercise to keep you in shape. I love the peacefulness that comes with that and love that this is a family sport. This is something both my husband and I love to do together!
I do enjoy both styles of skiing and I’m very grateful that we have the choice of a more demanding terrain as well as a flatter course. The golf course offers that last option for all of us older people who are trying to improve our skate ski skills. But don’t get me wrong, I love the challenge of the hills at the Elk Valley Nordic Centre. That’s where I practice my classic ski techniques or just go for a leisure ski.
Up until now I have been an avid gardener (both vegetable and flower). However, now I want to be on the road with our new RV named “La Belle Carmen”! It allows me to wallow in my other passion: knitting! My husband enjoys driving “La Carmen” while I knit to my heart’s content! The RV gives us the freedom to visit our families down east and all the way to Vancouver Island. I also enjoy reading fiction, biographies, anything knitting and listening to knitting podcasts.
I was involved with the membership, one way or another, since our move to Fernie. I helped Annie laminating the cards along with the distribution. When the club moved to plastic cards, I also helped to print them. Once Annie moved away, Sam Sedlowsky took over this responsibility, but I continued helping until Sam stepped down in 2019. At that time, I officially became a member of the board as I took on the director hat.
Now, I’m grateful for Laurie who came out and volunteered to take on this position.
Every member of the board is a special, hard-working person! Of course, I do have a penchant for our Treasurer/webmaster/helper wherever he is needed … who happens to be my dear husband.
I will miss being on the board. I loved sharing all my ideas, meeting and greeting our members by their name. I also loved chatting with those who need help entering information in Zone4, especially when I recognized I could speak French with them! A definite bonus!
Even though I’m stepping away from my role of Director of Membership, I’m still involved with the newsletter. I do enjoy sharing my ideas with our newsletter volunteers and with the help of my subcommittee we are always on the lookout for new sponsors.
Although I started the 50+ Mellow Mountain Rangers group aimed at motivating our ageing population to stay active, I wouldn’t mind passing the baton to someone with ideas and energy to spare!
Interview by Alisha Rella
Edited by Susan Partridge
During Spring Break, Wes Robinson-Shaw attended the National Cross-Country Ski Championships in Whistler BC. This event was from March 20th to 27th, 2022. Wes is one of the Fernie Nordic Racers team and he participated in five races and had three training days. Some of the best athletes in North America were there. The Canadian Olympic team was there, as well as a bunch of the American Olympic team. John Shaw said: ‘’Super high caliber racing on some pretty amazing trails.’’ These trails were designed for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Most of the races were on these trails.
On Sunday March 20th, Wes had a 10 km interval start skate race. He is only 16 years old and usually in the U18 category. The U18s the U20s raced together so there were probably about 320 people on the course, and he had to do two laps of a 5 km course, “It was very crowded, there was lots of passing and the conditions were pretty good.” said John Shaw.
On Monday March 21st, he had a 10 km interval start classic race on the same course, with the U20s and it was very crowded as well. The first 8.5 km went well, but the course was very slushy with very difficult skiing conditions. On the last 1.5 km, someone stepped on his pole, and Wes crashed and broke his pole. He still finished well.
Tuesday March 22nd and Wednesday March 23rd were training days, Wes trained easily for his sprint race the next day.
On Thursday March 24th, it was a classic sprint of 1 km, it was a big climb and a big descent, it was a sunny day therefore the conditions were firm and fast. Wes also had team skate sprints on Thursday. He was the only athlete from Fernie so he couldn’t do the sprints, but he was allowed to participate in the qualifier and get CPL (Canada Points List) points. He came about middle of the pack for his age group. After that Wes and John watched the elite men and women do the sprint race, which was super fun to watch, said John Shaw.
On Saturday March 26th, it was another training day.
On the last day, Sunday March 27th, Wes had a 15km mass start skate race. John Shaw said: ‘’It was the hardest conditions I have seen for racing; it was pouring rain and the slush was boot deep.’’ Wes raced in the afternoon, the course had been skied hundreds and hundreds of times as the other categories had to do four laps of the course, therefore the course was destroyed, which made this race very challenging. Wes said that it was the hardest ski race he’s ever done.
In conclusion, Wes and coach John lived an amazing experience. They said that they learned tons from the event, for waxing and for racing experience. Coach John said that he was excited for the next National Championships in BC, where he can bring more older athletes from the team. It was a great learning experience and Wes did great at all his races.
Article by Louison Dubief and Aurélie Smithson
The Fernie Nordic Racers recently participated in a training camp coached by Graham Maclean and the Fernie Nordic Racers coaches. Graham Maclean is a professional national coach and technical waxing consultant from Golden. He came to Fernie to help us improve our skills.
On Friday January 29th, we worked on our classic technique for 1 hour and a half. Graham taught us some drills we can use to improve our double poling and diagonal stride technique. We practiced changing from different gears and going up and down a flat hill. We also had fun playing Dodgeball at the end of practice!
On Saturday morning, we separated into groups by level, the first group went with Graham, Helen, and Rob to do some time trials around the 1.2 km Cedar Loop. Graham filmed our classic technique to give us some feedback after the time trial. Coach Johnny took the second group to ski and do some drills to improve their classic technique. The third group went with Megan Lohmann to practice downhill skills. Then we switched, so everyone could do all the activities. The time trial was adapted depending on skill levels.
After the morning session, we went home to rest, eat, and hydrate. During the afternoon, we went to the cross-country ski trails at Fernie Alpine Resort, and we separated into two groups. The younger athletes went with coach Johnny to work on their one skate on a flat section while the older athletes worked on their offset with Graham. After an hour we switched to practice all the techniques. When we went down, we did a human slalom and went down a big hill which was super fun. Then we went home to rest for Sunday’s big day.
On Sunday morning, we went for a long easy ski and we stopped to do some sprints on the way. They were around 10 seconds sprints with 2,3 or more people. Then we skied up to Boomerang chair and went back to the hut to eat some good soup, chili and bread. We watched our videos from Saturday’s time trial with Graham. He gave us some advice and tips on our techniques and then we played a big game of manhunter during the afternoon.
In conclusion, we thank Graham for all the coaching he did, the tips and advice he gave us and mostly all the fun we had! We are very grateful for this experience, and we hope to get more opportunities like this one.
article by Aurélie Smithson and Louison Dubief