Officiating Opportunities open up for GNSC members

Hello everyone, this is a note to all who have helped out or might be interested in working with the Golden Nordic Club in an Officiating role. If you know anyone who did not make it to this list please send this email forward.

The Golden Nordic Ski Club Society (GNSCS) is entering into a new 3 year phased plan to create and implement a new series of race hosting and infrastructure development upgrades. These upgrades include the construction of a daylodge, a maintenance building for our snow cat, a timing shelter for event hosting and the construction of an additional 6-8 km of trails above the existing Beaver loop. We are currently designing and laying out a new 3.3, 3.75 and 5km race course which will be, once completed, fully FIS sanctioned trails capable of hosting Provincial, National and International events.

This season we have three events planned, up from two last year and will need to continue strengthening our volunteer officials program. I have to say, that I was so excited to see so many new faces come out of the woodwork to assist with the Dawn Mountain Challenge last year and also our great crew of officials who have stood with the Huckleberry Loppet year after year. As many of you may know, Maxine Lockeridge is stepping down as the Huckleberry Race Coordinator this year after many great seasons of assembling this event. Thank you so much Maxine for all that you have created in our truly wonderful community driven event.

The Dawn Mountain Challenge is running again this season and has actually bumped out a NorAm weekend to take over this early season spot. We will, again this year, be the FIRST winter race in North America!!!! So, we expect our numbers to go up from this past winter from just under 100 up to likely about 150. The event will again take place (snow permitting) at KHMR and Dawn Mountain and will host a night sprint and a individual time trial as last year. For this season though we intend to utilize the new race trails.
This will take place on November 28-29th. Anyone who was there last year will know that this a great chance to see our National Team out in full force, providing an exciting spectator friendly venue at KHMR. Everyone who was here last year loved it and look forward to another great race weekend.

The Huckleberry loppet is I believe entering its 15th season and we hope to get many of the great group of volunteers and participants as last year. For this season we have moved the loppet forward to Jan 31st. We hope to build a small amount on this already great event by hitting up the Alberta clubs with incentives to come out (no idea what yet-If you have any ideas let me know). Again the event will take place on our beautiful system of lower trails and will be lengthening courses from 11 and 22km to 16 and 32km to bring us more in line with other loppet events. It is a great course!!!

For the big finale the club was nominated to host the Western Canadian Masters Championships this coming season. The event will take place on March 11-13th and will host athletes over the age of 30 for a three day race event which includes a day of racing up in Field on the Tally-Ho trail. Jeff is the Mastermind behind this plan. After having a representative ski our loppet last winter they immediately offered the event to our club. The courses are all quite easy, multiple loops of the Beaver and Chickadee and will provide our club the opportunity to showcase our great community spirit. We can expect upwards of 200 people for that event.

These events and others over the next few years will allow our club to develop as a racing venue which will bring in more revenue for club projects, contribute money back to the community and create a sustainable club into the future. The Alberta World Cup Society and Cross Country Canada have both stated that we would make the perfect venue to host an International event in the future. This is one of our intended goals as the community benefit would be huge. 40 million television viewers in Europe alone and 1500 people staying in the area as result!!!!

So, as you can see there are many great plans and opportunities to wet your feet with officiating, or continue your support of our events. The GNSCS will be hosting an Officials Level 1 course in October and would recommend all who wish to continue to help out at events or take on a committee role to take it. It is a fantastic course which takes place over one day and and evening (scheduled for Oct 16-17th). The cost is very low and the club may be able to subsidize part of it as the time draws nearer.

With these three events this season, and chances of hosting other events in the future we will be creating a Racing Committee which will oversee our events and construct a plan for future hosting, culminating with the eventual hosting in a World Cup and the legacy which it would leave behind. The Alberta World Cup Society sees great potential in our club and has offered 5 Officiating positions at their upcoming World Cup in Feb. 2010 to develop our racing committee. This event is the precursor to the Olympics the following weekend and will provide you the opportunity to see first hand how events of this magnitude are run. If you are interested please respond to me in the next few days as we are creating an officiating team by mid next week. It would be great to have you along. If you would like to get involved in event hosting within the club please respond to me as soon as you can.

Have a great spring everyone!
If you are interested in taking on a role please contact me at:

250.344.7489
goldenights@uniserve.com


Troy Hudson
GNSCS