Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019
All trails have been closed because of rain and soft conditions. Trail use and grooming in these conditions causes damage that is difficult to repair when temperatures drop. Please respect the closure.
Closure will likely last over Sunday. Please consult grooming report for updates.
Kiosk will be closed on Saturday & Sunday as well.
Happy Winter Solstice. Think snow!
April 25th
6 pm - potluck - bring your favourite dish to share
7 pm - meeting
There will be election of board members at the meeting. Most are returning but anyone can run for any position despite that.
We do not have anyone for the following positions:
Director of the Skier Development program
Director of fundraising
Treasurer
Please consider coming forward.
Check out this video of some of the action: https://youtu.be/QXhsic962N0
Thank you to all the participants and all the volunteers who came out today to ski and be a part of the 2019 Black Jack Loppet. A note about the results, we have 2 different files for participants depending when you registered. All those who pre-registered when you bought your BJ membership last fall will be in one file, and all those that signed up in the last month or so, will be in another. If you can’t find your name, check the other file!
A few notes:
The distances may not be accurate as typed since some people chose to do a different distance than what they registered for.
For all those who did a 1km, 3km or 6km distance, remember that your start time was delayed by 2 minutes so subtract 2:00 from the posted time.
If your finish time was less than 23 minutes and 59 seconds, the computer treated this as an hour of the day so you see minutes and seconds for your finish time
If your finish time was between 23 minutes: 59 seconds and 59 minutes:59 seconds, the computer added a space for one hundredths of a second, we were not that accurate!! That is why your time will have a :00 at the end of it, ignore this part.
If your finish time was greater than 60 minutes, your time will be shown as hours: minutes: seconds
Again, thanks for coming out and we hope to see you again next year!
We are excited to host you at our Nelson Kootenay cup this weekend. You are invited to our Nelson Nordic Burger and Beverage fundraiser with your kids on Saturday Feb 23rd from 6-8pm. We have arranged to have the Sprints and Skiathlon World championship races on the big screen during that time to watch world class athletes cross country ski race.
The event is at Finley’s Bar and Grill – 705 Vernon St.
Tickets are only $15 and our club receives half the proceeds. We’ll do a 50/50 draw too.
We hope you will come and support our club. Tickets are available at our Apex kiosk during race day or at the door.
Thanks,
Louise Poole
President
Consider attending Midwinter Music, an upcoming fundraiser in support of Black Jack's senior racer, Julien Locke, skiing at the national level. Entry is by donation. Come enjoy an evening of wine and appy's at this piano concert by Carolyn Cameron at the home of Kathy Moore and Dave Cornelius. See the details in the poster here. Feel free to let others know about this event! Attendance is limited to 40 .
Black Jack's junior and senior racers will host the popular Tour de Soup day at the trails this coming Saturday, Feb 2nd. Soup will be available at all three cabins from noon to 2 pm. Trail passes are free, but we ask that you sign a waiver and consider a donation to the racers at the trailhead or one of the cabins. There will be bake tables at the cabins if you want a little something else.
Thanks to Fuel, Idgie's, the Steam Shovel, Alpine Grind, Ronnie's Chinese restaurant and Mook Thai for their kind donations of soup.
In the interest of reducing waste, please bring a mug and spoon and come out and enjoy our beautiful trails and meet members of the team.
Bon appetit!
The club is holding a Ski Skills Day for adults on January 19. Three fantastic coaches: Lesley Beatson, Cheryl Ewings and Linda Allis. Food by Cahoots Kitchen. Information on pricing and registration coming soon. Limited to 20 participants.
Black Jack proudly hosts the Kootenay Cup on Saturday and Sunday, December 15th and 16th.
The event will see Jeldness, Tims Trail, Fishers and Golden Loops closed to general use from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday and 8 to 11:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Gibbards will remain open on both days for access to other trails, and as always, Biathlon with beautiful Tall Timbers is a great alternative.
From the grooming report:
Nov. 24, 2018 - Trail packing and initial early-season grooming is going on at the Biathlon venue.
WELCOME to the 2018-2019 Ski Season! The planned opening of the Kiosk is Saturday, Dec. 1st, 2018.
Hours will be 9am - 2pm.
Trail fees still apply outside of kiosk hours.
Always check the grooming report for the most accurate and latest conditions and updates!
The results of our 2nd and last Early Bird Prize Draw are below. Congrats to our winners and thank you again to our amazing sponsors that supported our first and second draw!
Black Jack 2019/20 Seasons Pass- Kathy Moore
Red Mtn Resort 3 Day Local-Only pass- Brian Whiting
Mountain Nugget Chocolate Gift Certificate- Katharine Saether Pigott
Ski Lesson by Andy Morel- Robyn Laytham
Rossland Beer Company Growler & Glass- Reegan Leyland
See you at the Ski Swap Nov 3rd!
There is a large list of tasks we are hoping to get accomplished before snow flies! After a successful Oct 14th trail day, we will be having one more on Sunday Oct 20th. Meet at the Trail Head cabin at 8:30 am for muffins and coffee and will start work at 9 am.
If anyone has access to chimney flue cleaning equipment, please let Sharman know. Additional questions can be forwarded to Sharman as well at s.naicker@hotmail.com
Welcome to Andi Fancy, the new coordinator for the Bunnies and Jack Rabbits. Originally from New Zealand, Andi has a solid background in cross country skiing and program organization. She's already hard at work getting things going for this season. You can contact her at blackjackbunnies@gmail.com.
Registration for the Bunny and Jackrabbit programs is open and the registration form can be found here.
*all lesson participants must be members of Black Jack.
Visit the Skier Development website for descriptions of the programs and more
Oct 31st is the last day for the discounted season pass rate!
If you need help with online registration (Zone 4) or to take advantage of the discounted price, please email membershipblackjack@gmail.com or phone 605-916-6261 before Oct 25th. Otherwise, click here to register and see the 2018 rates.
All registrations are online with credit card only until the kiosk opens for the ski season at which time you may pay with cheque or cash onsite.
Passes will be available for pick up at the Ski Swap on Nov 3rd. We will have a couple of computers on site to help with online registrations.
Then on Nov 1st, we will be doing our last prize draw for the early bird members. A huge thank you to our sponsors for the 2nd round of donations!
Black Jack Ski Club - 2019/20 Season Pass
Red Mountain Resort - an Adult 3-day Locals Only Card
Mountain Nugget Chocolates - $20 Gift Certificate
Andy Morel, CANSI instructor - Classic or Skate; beginner to advanced lesson
Rossland Beer Company - growler and beer glass
2018 Ski Swap
Come and support our Track Attack and Racing programs! See you at the Prestige on Saturday, November 3rd. Equipment drop-off from 8:30-10:30 and sales start at 11 a.m. There will also be ski waxing, program registration and a chance to pick up your season pass. For more information, contact Sue at 250-362-2116.
And like to check out what the other clubs are selling?? Castlegar and Nelson are also hosing their own swaps:
Nelson Nordic Cross Country- Sunday, Oct 28th
Nelson Rod & Gun Club- 801 Railway St
Gear drop off starts at 9 am, Sales start at 11 am
Castlegar Nordic Ski Club- Saturday, Nov. 17th
Castlegar & District Community Complex
Gear drop off starts at 9:00 a.m., Sales start at 10:00 am
Congratulations to the following members who won the first early bird prize draw. Second and final draw be Oct 31st… be sure to register before then to take advantage of the discounted 2018/19 pricing and get your name in the draw!
1 Day ski with Big Red Cats- Roach Family
Alpine Grind $50 Gift Certificate- Natalia Ksiazek
1 month pass to Better Life Fitness- Marie Tremblay
Stainless Steel growler from Rossland Beer Co- Heather Glenn
Ski Lesson with Lesley Beatson-Vic Buehler
My apologies to those who expected finish times but our club is trying to decrease our volunteer burn out and the board of directors felt that since this is meant to be a fun, participation event this would be an appropriate time to minimize our volunteers required.
Most of our usual team of volunteers indicated that they would like to ski in the Loppet instead of being part of the timing team so we opted to put a clock at the finish line for participants to check at the end of their race.
Thank you for coming out to support our club event and we hope to see you again in the future.
Linda Merlo, organizing committee
