As the snow continues to fall and the trails are starting to
get groomed, we are gearing up for another winter at Black Jack Ski Club. There are a few important things to keep
handy so you can get current information about Black Jack. The first is our website: www.skiblackjack.ca Refer to this website for up to date snow
conditions, grooming, events and programs.
Our snow phone number is 364-5445.
New this year, we also have an electronic newsletter which will arrive
in your email account every month. If
you have anything you want to add email Susan at svanasselt@telus.net
President’s Message:
The early snow has overtaken our annual mail out but
confirms the Executive's feeling that this will be a long, exiting ski season.
For a second year (at least) change is the constant. The City's logging
for the reservoir between the trailhead and Barry's field has drastically
changed the appearance of that part of Gibbards. It’s not yet clear when,
or if, we will have the use of Gibbards this year, since, as long as logging is
proceeding, this area will be off limits. While we have done some trail
clearing, the vast majority of the logging you will see adjacent to our trails
has been done by the City to eradicate pine beetle kill or to clear the
reservoir.
In anticipation of losing this section of Gibbards, new
trails have been built. There is now a connector, Tim’s Trail, between
the Fisher Loop and lower Aquaduct so that we
can ski out Jeldness and return on Tim's Trail. We can still continue on
Jeldness out to Barry's field or on to Torresans.
The outer loop of The Fisher Trail is now complete, and most
excitingly, is now entirely lit, giving us about 1.3km of lit
trails. Many thanks to Al Fisher and his dedicated team
for completing this project. The
lighted loops are being taken advantage of by both the Jr. Racers and the Jack
Rabbits who will now have a Tuesday session at 5pm. This will be an
opportunity for parents to drop the kids off, go for a ski and will
alleviate some of the inconvenience of getting the racers to the tracks earlier
in the afternoon.
Speaking of the Jr. Racers and Jack Rabbits, it looks like
both programs will be building on last year’s successes. Fifteen or so
Racers are already hard at their training with their enthusiastic volunteer
coaches and we have a healthy sign up for Rabbits which
suggests the organizers’ hope to double last year's numbers may well be
realistic. To keep the fun quotient high, an
adventure trail and terrain park are being constructed for the Rabbits.
The biathlon range and trail out at Neptune Creek are
virtually complete and the depth of snow up there confirms the Executive's
hope that this area will add weeks to the ski season in the coming years as
well as providing one of the few excellent biathlon ranges in the province.
You will notice that a fair bit of work has been done on
existing trails to facilitate grooming.
This year, if needed, we hope to have almost daily grooming on the
main trails, so that virtually every day will be a good skiing day. We are just
completing the last of the scheduled preventative maintenance on the groomers,
ensuring a season with minimal breakdowns.
We have already had a substantial membership registration at
the Ski Swap and the excitement at the Miner's Hall, given the fresh snow and
sunshine, was palpable. We will need a lot of that enthusiasm to carry
off our part of the BC Winter Games so please go to the Games website and sign
up as a volunteer.
www.trailgames2006.com
I want to the thank the Executive for the tremendous efforts
they are making on our behalf to bring us excellent x-country skiing, while
keeping in mind that one of the great attractions of x-country skiing is that
it is affordable. While for the first
time in several years we have adjusted season pass rates, you will see what you
are paying for in new trails, new signage, even better grooming and the
realization of night skiing (2-3 more km to come if Al has his way) when only 2
years ago trail lighting still seemed an impossible dream.
Sign up for the early bird rate and the Exec and I look
forward to seeing you on the trails. As always if you have comments or
concerns give myself or any Executive member a call.
Leigh Harrison
Grooming Report - Tom Gomez,
Head of Grooming:
Scheduled Daily Grooming
This year we will again be
providing grooming before opening, but now on a DAILY basis. Morning grooming is important for a number of
reasons:
1) In
our temperate climate, 4:00 am normally provides the best (lowest) temperature
for packing snow without clumping.
2) It
allows us to deal with safety concerns of having machines on the trails during
operating hours.
3) Season
pass prices are subsidized significantly by day ticket sales. These skiers traditionally show up in the
morning and may not come back if no grooming has been performed.
4) It
takes about 20 min for the snow to set after tilling - grooming in low traffic
times allows the tracks to set, undisturbed.
5) Most
skiers have lives that require skiing to be planned in advance. We want to make your skiing experience as
predictable as possible.
Depending on snow
conditions, not all trails may be groomed each day and a system of alternating
"upper" and "lower" trails will be used.
Trail preparation
Last year, we spent several days blading and track packing the trails before
grooming. This preparation provides a
flat even base to groom upon and proved to be our saving grace during the snow
drought. It also significantly improved
the ski-ability of the trails from the first day. This season, expect up to five days for this
process to be complete, however during this time we will try to provide some
groomed and track set loops. Your
patience during this set up period will be rewarded!
Gibbards / Ophir
There have been a
lot of rumours about why some of these trails may not be groomed this
season. Construction of the new Ophir
Reservoir necessitates the area be logged first, and this process is
ongoing. The logger has agreed to work
on the area adjacent to Jeldness first and he has just finished this, smoothing
the trail behind him. Work will now
continue adjacent to the first section of Gibbards well into the winter, which
will necessitate plowing the trail down to a dirt road. If, once logging is complete, the "all
clear" is given from the city and a sufficient base of snow builds on the
road, Gibbards will be re-opened. Plans
are in place to integrate Ophir trail into the reservoir and dam, once it is
complete. Gibbards will be open as usual
from Barry's Field onward.
CROSS-COUNTRY SKI TRAINING GROUP
Join this program,
modeled after marathon training groups, and ski your way into great fitness,
improve your technique and skate through the Black Jack Loppet on Feb. 4th,
2006. Meet every Saturday starting on
Oct. 29th and/or every Tuesday evening at 7:00 starting Dec. 13th. Each workout will be graduated to accommodate
all levels of physical and technical abilities.
Sessions will be full of technical and practical tips, motivation and
FUN. Cost to join is $175 for Black Jack
Ski Club members, $78 for Tuesdays only.
Included in this package are:
pre-season sport specific hill bounding and pole striding, training
schedule in between sessions, deep-water training for poor weather days, discounted
childcare available in the warming hut, rental equipment available at a special
price, free wax clinic and 10% off wax and accessories at Gerick’s. Free information session on fueling for sport
and discounted nutritional supplements.
For information and to join, call Lesley Beatson at 362-5220.
JACK RABBITS
This year, Nellie
Fisher is heading the Rabbits program.
Passed unanimously, we have decided to lower the cost of joining Rabbits
to only $25 per skier. This cost will
cover the CCBC fee we have to pay ($8.00) as well as insurance ($10.54) and
grooming costs for each skier. The Club barely breaks even with this program
but supports the development of our youngest members.
JUNIOR RACERS
Junior Racers are
having a great season this year and if you haven’t joined yet but would like
to, please phone Fred at 362-7134. The
group meets Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays each week. Register for Junior Racers or Rabbits on the
Club membership form when you sign up for your season pass.
BIATHLON
UPDATE
The earth moving
and trail cutting at the biathlon site is complete. Once again, thanks to the
major players in this huge endeavor.
(George Apel, Rick Ewings, Gord Gibson, Tim Peacock, Al Fisher and many
others) The biathlon site was visited by BC Winter Games officials and they
were duly impressed with the site. The
new biathlon cabin has been installed at the Neptune Creek site. If you want to explore the new trails and you
want to park on Neptune road, be sure to park
on the stop sign side of the road to stay out of the way of the logging trucks.
Hopefully soon the biathlon parking lot will be plowed by EMCON.
BC WINTER GAMES
We are still
looking for volunteers for the BC Winter Games for both the cross country and
biathlon events. Please make sure you
register at www.trailgames2006.com.
This exciting event will take place Feb 23, 24, and 25. For more information contact Kathy Moore at km@2cats.net .
We are in need of more volunteers to help with timing, course
marshalling, setting up the course, the stadium, the tents and other facilities
required to host this event. We are
looking for volunteers to assist the athletes, especially the disabled
athletes. Come join the fun.
CHILDREN’S SKI TOURNAMENT
Black Jack wants
to sponsor a Children’s Ski Tournament this year. We are looking for anyone interested in
helping with this event. You may
remember the one that was held two years ago.
It had a large turnout and the kids really enjoyed it. There’s lots of prior experience you can tap
into as well as support from CCBC. If
you’re interested, you can contact Fred Bushell at 362-7134 or kootenayfred@hotmail.com.
FEES
Once again, we
have included in this newsletter, the new fee structure for Black Jack. You can
register using the form attached to this newsletter or online by going to our
website and printing out the registration form.
Completed registration forms and payment can be mailed to Box 1754 Rossland
V0G 1Y0. After careful examination of the costs that
are incurred by Black Jack, we have determined a “per person, per year” cost to ski at
Black Jack by dividing our total costs by our total membership. This cost is $104 per member per year. Items that are included: grooming ($10.96 per
member), equipment maintenance ($24.31 per member), kiosk operation ($12.14 per
member), fuel ($11.80 per member), CCBC fees ($5.00 per member), insurance
($10.54 per member) and many other items.
This amount does not include any capital costs. It is for this reason we have decided to
raise the fees a small amount for this year.
This raise reflects the fact that we have been charging less than what
it costs per skier at Black Jack. The
new fee schedule is on the attached membership form. As you can see, what you will be paying this
year is still less than what it costs for each member to be skiing at Black
Jack for the year. Tell all of your
friends about the great deal for cross country skiing! As we increase our membership, our per person costs will decrease. Sign up a new member
today!
Don’t forget our
lifetime memberships as well. Join Black
Jack for life-this is just $5,000 for a family or $2,500 for an
individual. We also offer the
opportunity to donate money to our building and trail improvement
programs. Donors will be commemorated on
a plaque in the cabin:
Gold level support:
$500
Silver level support:
$250
Bronze level support:
$100
Day pass rates have stayed
the same this year. It still costs $9.00
for a single, $20.00 for the family, $5.00 for a junior Golden Age (over 75)
and children under 6 are free.
BLACK JACK UNIFORMS
Have you seen the Black Jack
uniforms that are floating around on the ski trails? Monica Markvardsen has agreed to coordinate
another order of this stylish club-wear.
She is sending the order in soon, so if you are interested, phone her asap to order your 2 piece race suit ($145), warm up jacket
($120), or warm up pants ($90). She can
be reached at 362-7779. Thanks, Monica
for organizing this!
RECRUITMENT FOR BLACK
JACK EXECUTIVE
Currently, the position on
the Black Jack Executive of Head of Buildings is vacant. The Executive is looking for someone to step
forward and fill this very important position on the Board. If you want more information about this
position or want to volunteer, please email Leigh Harrison at lharrison@telus.net
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Black Jack would like to
acknowledge all of our volunteers.
Without all of you, the Club would not run as smoothly and efficiently
as it does, nor would we have so many great programs or such wonderful trails
to ski on. You are the best! Happy
trails!
