Yorkton Cross Country Ski Club AGM

The Yorkton Cross Country Ski Club held its 2013-14 Annual General Meeting on Oct. 1st. The meeting was well attended with over 20 members attending.

The meeting was highlighted by the election of the new executive and directors who will lead the continued growth and success of the club.

The following people were elected to represent the members for this season

President - Barry Rogers
Vice-President - Anne Stupak
Secretary/Treasurer - Donna Rogers
Directors:
Susan Hurst (Events)
Ken Gedak (Grooming)
Wendy Zaporosky
Brenda Haacke
Roy Lanaway

The following volunteers have also stepped up to commit to leading a project or event this season

Technical Clinician - Wax and Ski Clinics - Warren Popick
Event Lead (one event - To be determined) - Nadine Frisk
Grooming - Brian Kruger and Bob Purton

The club members supported a number of tremendous initiatives the will enable the club to continue to grow this season. There are several which will kick-off even before the snow falls!

The following events will help us to kick off the ski season - final planning and dates to be determined for some fall events;

-Ski Wax Clinic - a must for all skiers to understand how be prepare their skis for all conditions. Date and time for this event will be posted very soon.

-Sports Day in Canada - Nov 30th - Kick off to the ski season

-Ski equipment donation project - Community wide event to see if the club can get donations from members or anyone in the community who has old ski equipment sitting in their basement. The club will make use of this equipment at our "learn to ski" and "try skiing for a day" projects later this season.

More information on the ski club events to follow once the new executive have had an opportunity to review the calendar of events and form committees of volunteers to run these events.

If anyone can volunteer their expertise to the club please do not hesitate to send us a note to the club email. The more helpers the better to run events efficiently and ensure that everyone has an opportunity to participate.

Please email the club email address if you have an interest in assisting at any event and we will forward your contact information along to the event chairperson. Thanks for helping the club!

Lots more information to follow.
YCCSC Executive

Yorkton Cross Country Ski Club AGM - Tuesday Oct 1st

Yorkton Cross Country Ski Club Annual General Meeting
Tuesday October 1st, 2013
Deer Park Golf Course Club House

In addition to the exciting plans that the ski club has for the upcoming ski season we are inviting all members and friends to attend a Wine and Cheese Social

The AGM agenda will be posted one week prior to the meeting for everyone to review and if you have any additions to the agenda please reply to the club email address with your suggestions.

Please plan on attending the AGM and Wine and Cheese Social. We promise to keep the business part of the evening to a minimum so that we can enjoy a social get together and exchange ideas about the upcoming ski season.

YCCSC Executive

YCCSC hosts great windup potluck supper

The Clubhouse was an exciting place to be on Sunday evening (as the snow continues to fall and blow around!)

In attendance at the event were about 20 members of the ski club who got together to share their favorite recipes and lots of laughs with the rest of the gang!

We had a very successful season with over 1150 skiers registering in the book since it was put out in December. Many schools brought out their students to the trails and hopefully we can transition a few of them into full fledged ski junkies like some of us.

The new snow grooming equipment will enable us to expand our trails next season and we also have the ability to groom for skate skiing as well as classic track setting.

We have lots of plans in the works for 2013/14 season so keep tuned into the web blog for updates. The Annual General Meeting will be held in the spring to give the club time to plan for the next season events. Please consider putting your name forward to helping out with our club business and event hosting. Many hands and all that!

Thanks to Susan for all her great work organizing the special events this year and also to Ken for all of his hours out on the snowmobile grooming the trails. Much thanks from all of us for your many hours volunteering!

Triple "S" Potluck Supper

What does Triple "S" mean - well in ski club language that means - Ski, Supper and Socialize. What could be better than to finish off the ski season in style!

Event open to all club members and significant others and guests who may be interested in finding out what all the excitement is about.

On Sunday April 7th the Yorkton Cross County Ski Club will be hosting a Triple "S" Potluck supper wind-up to celebrate the great ski season we have all enjoyed.

We have had some tremendous growth in the past couple of years growing our membership from low 30's to almost 80!

And we may have had some record snowfalls this year which has enabled us to have some great skiing conditions. The newly acquired snow grooming equipment has also just recently arrived and been put to use and we now have some perfectly groomed trails this past week.

If you have not had a chance to get out there yet please do so as the classic track is awesome. We also groomed a short 0.5km loop for skate skiing and there are a number of club members who are giving that skiing technique a try!

So now with all these great things to celebrate, Susan and her team of volunteers are organizing a great wind-up celebration. We hope that all club members and their families can join us for this party!

The club will be providing some liquid refreshments at a very low cost recovery price but you also get to help out by bring your favorite potluck dish to the party. Water, pop, juice, coffee and tea will also be available free of charge.

This will truly be a great chance to show off your cooking skills to all of your ski buddies!

The party will get started with the clubhouse opening at 4:00pm for those who may be interested in skiing a couple of loops before supper.

Supper will be served at 6:00pm and we will wrap up sometime later that evening when we have told all of our favorite stories to all your new friends.

Details you need to remember to put in your calendar 

Yorkton Cross Country Ski Club Triple "S" Potluck Supper

Deer Park GC clubhouse

6:00pm Potluck Supper
Please bring along your favorite snack, appetizer, supper or dessert item to share with all your friends!

Rsvp to club email by Thursday April 4th to ensure we have enough refreshment for everyone!

The old Grooming equipment put to rest - that old bedframe has seen a lot of action!

.5km Skate ski loop side by side with our existing trails - can't wait for some trail expansion next season - Well maybe I can wait for some green grass to grow before we start skiing again next December!

First training run today for Ken on the new groomer

Pics of the new Tidd Tech Snow grooming equipment being transported to Deer Park and now in action for the first time today!

NEW GROOMING EQUIPMENT FINALLY ARRIVED

Hey Club! Big news!

The new TiddTech snow grooming equipment has finally arrived in Yorkton. One of the goals of the club is to have world class trail grooming equipment available to us. This equipment will enable us to expand our trails from existing 6 kms to almost 10 kms with lots of options for beginners to more technical loops.

We will also be able to groom for skate skiing which will enable us to attract more skiers to the club. Skate skiing will also enable us to attract a younger demographics to the sport. This will especially be highlighted next year when the Olympics are being held and the sport has a higher profile than usual!

So we have met many of our goals over the past couple of seasons. We purchased a new Yamaha Snowmobile at a cost of around $11,000.00 and paid it off within one year.

We have now received our new Tidd Tech Snow grooming equipment at a cost of $6000.00 and we now need to finish off the fundraising required to pay off this equipment.

The club now has the equipment required to have world class trail grooming. We also have a great facility at Deer Park where we can expand our trail network and fully utilize the terrain and also the clubhouse.

Here are some pictures of the club volunteers who worked hard to put the pieces all together.

Ken getting started - some assembly required! Yikes there are lots of parts.

 Ken pondering the unit all laid out on the floor!

 We brought in some high priced help from Good Spirit Ski Club - Darryl Stevenson who is their cheif grooming expert and has used the Tidd Tech extensively. Glad he came to help us out.

Barry, Darryl, Bob and Ken hard at work putting all the parts together under the watchful eye and direction of Anne Stupak. She had the directions and actually made us follow orders!

Now you can see that Barry has his hands in his pockets while the rest of the team is working hard!  Doing what he does best??

Finished product! Next step - get it out to Deer Park and start to play with trail setting! Ken, our grooming expert will be very happy to put the old bedframe to rest!

Stock picture off the Tidd Tech website!

Track setter at work - can't wait to ski those new tracks

Tidd Tech picture of grooming for both skate and classic skiing. 



Many thanks to all the club members who helped out with the Tidd Tech setup - Barry, Ken, Bob and Anne.

Also big thanks to Darryl Stevenson from Good Spirit who came out to help us with set-up. The club at  Good Spirit has a couple of great grooming volunteers - Darryl and Derek and if you ever see them give 'em a big thank you as they keep the trails out there very well groomed.

Also a big thanks to the folks at the City of Yorkton who let us use their facility at the Gallagher Center to receive the equipment and who have supported our growth and expanded use of the Deer Park facility.

We also have to thank all of the sponsors who contributed to the new equipment including;

Saskatchewan Lotteries and Cross Country Saskatchewan

http://crosscountrysask.ca/

Night Ski on Tuesday!

Here are a couple of pictures of club members out for a great night ski this Tuesday evening! A beautiful night with great trails at Deer Park GC

What could be better?

2013 Ski Safari

The 2013 Yorkton Cross Country Ski Club hosted another great fun family event this past Sunday at Deer Park trails.

We had a swarm of Safari Hunters on Sunday, March 3rd, searching for 21 stuffed critters.  The weather was beautiful and the trails were perfect (thanks Ken). 

 

 In the end, 3 Kings were crowned, 2 Queens and 2 princesses.  One Mom said she couldn't have picked a better activity for her children.  Hugh Strendin announced that the Safari was his favourite event, since it kept his head up and looking around, rather than at the tip of his skis.  A good change.

 

Thanks to SaskTel and SecurTek for the Door Prizes.  Also, thanks to Bob Purton and Anne Stupak for hiding the critters (very skillfully done).  Wendy Zaporosky looked after the clubhouse and equipped the Safari Hunters with their maps and quarry lists.  Elsie Elsasser helped clean and pack things up and a group of 4;  Heather, Mike, Bret and Wendy rounded up the animals and put them in their cages till next year.  Deer Park is safe once again!

 

 

 If you see this guy (KEN) out on the trails then give him a big hug and a thank you for all the time he volunteers to groom our ski trails! He is the best!

 

One of the animals gets a little love after being found safe and sound in the snowy ski Safari!

 

 

Thanks very much to everyone who participated and volunteered!

Anne and Bob's Birkie Ski Adventure

http://www.canadianbirkie.com/

We have had lots of club members hitting the road and then eventually the ski trails all across Western Canada! This is the first of a couple stories about our club members adventures. There are lots of great annual events that ski clubs around the country and province host! It is our goal to continue to grow the Yorkton Cross Country Ski Club to enable us to host an event  that attracts skiers from all across Saskatchewan and western side of Manitoba to our great facilities in Yorkton Deer Park.

Please visit the Canadian Birkie site link above to get a sense of how much fun hosting a large event would be!!!! We will never be as big as the Canadian Birkie but we do have the facility to host a great ski day in Yorkton - starting in 2014??

Back to our story of Anne and Bob's great adventure in Alberta. Over 1700 skiers laced up their boots and waxed their skis to ski distances from 13KM all the way up to 55KM (with a heavy pack)!

Anne completed the 55KM (with pack) distance in 6:49:55 and finished the ski 5th in her age group! yay great work Anne. This time was slightly slower than her best Birkie finish but with the heavy and difficult waxing conditions this was a great result.

Bob skied the 31KM distance in a time of 3:35:52 and was 34th in his age group! Another great result for a YCCSC member!

Bob stepping up to the starting line in the mass start with over 1700 skiing friends!

Anne ready to take off at the start of a 55KM ski with loaded up pack!

The very confusing wax chart at the start of the race! The conditions were very challenging and skiers tried everything to keep their skis moving from no wax, to waxless skis to and every colour of the rainbow attempted in the kick wax zone! Sound like a lot of fun!



Wouldn't it be great to see a long line like this at our event in the future!

This is the first in a series of stories about ski club members and their travels to exotic ski locations like Good Spirit Lake and Duck Mountain! Keep coming back the the site for regular updates and stories! And if you have pictures of your own adventures or ski tours or just good winter scenes then please email them to the club and we can get them posted for all to enjoy! Help us keep the site fresh and interesting.

The Yorkton Cross Country Ski Club is proud to present another great event on Sunday March 3rd!

The Ski Safari!

This is a great family event so please bring everyone along.

Susan, our great event planner, has sent the event details to the local media outlets to promote the event but we would also like everyones help promote the event to all your friends! This is a fun-filled event with lots of great prizes, a chance to ski on some wonderful groomed trails and the excitment of the hunt to spot creatures along the way!

Susan is looking for a couple of volunteers to help with the event - We need help getting all the animals places along the trail in "secret" hidden spots. If you can help out for a couple hours prior to the event getting started that would be great. Just email Susan at hurst@sasktel.net and she can give you the details.

Ski Safari at Deer Park Golf Course on Sunday, March 3rd

 The event starts at 2:00pm and should everyone should be back in the clubhouse for prizes and giveaways by 3:30. 

This event is FREE of charge

 

Participants will ski along our beautifully groomed trails, equipped with a safari map, hunting for stuffed giraffes, elephants, tigers, crocodiles etc.  When you spot an animal, mark it's location on the Safari Map. When you get back to our warm clubhouse, hand in your map and the person or persons that have spotted the most will be crowned Safari King or Safari Queen. 

 

Everyone welcome!  FREE refreshments.  Washroom available.

You never know what you will see along the trails at Deer Park!

 

The Yorkton Cross Country Ski Club highly recommends the  Duck Mountain Loppet being held this weekend!

This is one of the best events hosted in Saskatchewan every winter. For those who have never been to a Loppet this is not a "ski race but an organized "ski event" for everyone who loves to ski and socialize.

Here are some of the reasons why you should go!

-Lots of great ski trails with varied terrain for skiers of all levels

-Lots of nice people to chat with along the way

-There are 4 warmup shelters all stocked with snacks and warm drinks to enjoy (so you do not have to carry too much food and drink along with you)

-And a wonderful steak supper to finish off the day!

Attached are some of the details but also go to the links to see the Kamsack Ski Club website or the pdf copy of the registration form for more information. This is a well organized event and the trails at Duck Mountain are great!

Weather conditions predicted for this weekend are in the -5C to -7C range so it should be almost perfect.

You can pick a distance anywhere from 5K, 10K, 15K, 20K, 30K or 45K. There is a distance for everyone to ski!

34thAnnual Duck Mountain Loppet

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Duck Mountain Provincial Park

http://www.kamsackskiclub.ca/system/attachments/21/original/Loppet%20Registration%202013.pdf?1355371167

Hosted by the Kamsack Ski Club, registration takes place at the Madge Lake Golf Course parking lot from 8:30—11:30 AM. Pre-registration is preferred, with a Monday, February 18th deadline. The 45 km route will have a cut-off time. There is no mass start or timed events. Organizers reserve the right to cancel or alter any or all of the events at any time without notice or liability and the reserve the right to keep a portion of the fees to cover costs incurred. The club may retain a $5.00 per registration cancellation or no show fee. Meals are only guaranteed for the first 225 registrants.

Link to the Ski Club site
http://www.kamsackskiclub.ca/


Link to the trail map - feel free to contact either Barry or Anne if you would like a trail recommendation!
http://www.kamsackskiclub.ca/trails

Hope to see you there representing the Yorkton Cross Country Ski Club!



YCCSC Sponsors - A big thanks to all!

Sponsors are very important to our growth!

This post is all about a big thank you to all of our great sponsors who have assisted with event sponsorship this year. Some of the donations have also been directed towards future purchase of new snow grooming equipment and general club operations.

We are very thankful to each and every local business who has commited support for the growth of the club.

This support enables us to run events free of charge or for low, low fees!

The support helps us to acquire grooming equipment needed to continue to provide a top class facility to all us! And we are continuing to look for additional support to assist us with the purchase of new grooming equipment.

If you have a chance to say a personal thanks to any of our sponsors then please do so.

Cross Country Ski Saskatchewan

Sask Lotteries



Harvest Meats

Marlin Travel

SaskTel

SecurTek Monitoring Solutions

Lucianna Litwin RMT - Massage Therapy

Yorkton Memorial Gardens

Yorkton Coop

City of Yorkton

Sunshine and Ski

Wow - Did we ever have a great turnout at the Learn to Ski event

Many thanks have to go out to all of people for helping out at the Yorkton Cross Country Ski Club event today!

The "Learn to Ski" and Snowshoe event was a great success. Likely this was due to all the hardwork done to promote the event this past week.

Roy Lanaway and Donna Rogers were front and center on CTV and on The Rock radio on Friday and we also lots of great promos on the air from GX94 and The Fox.  The local papers also have to get thanks for their promotions.

Thanks to these two media stars we had lots and lots and lots of people attend. Starting at 11:30 they were lined up outside the door to get access to Sunshine and Ski stock of free boots, skis and poles.

We always had people ready to take boots and skis off the returning skiers to head out themselves.

We had great support from Sunshine and Ski in Regina who brought out lots of skis and showshoes to enable people to try out the sport for the first time. It was a challenge to keep them coming and going but we were successful getting everyone a turn at the trails.

Again many thanks to Ken for his great grooming. He was finished grooming the trails at 10:00am and with all the snow and high winds the trails were almost invisible by noon. Yikes - we had some fun trying to learn to ski when the trails were blown almost immediately.

But that was just a minor inconvenience! We are a tough bunch and a little bit of snow and a lot of wind is not going to slow us down. Maybe the weather can slow us down but never stop us from enjoying the great facility that we have in Yorkton.

Susan did a great job again organizing the event along with lots of help from Roy who did a grand job working with our great sponsors (Sunshine and Ski) to get all the equipment for folks to use and Roy also did a great job promoting the event.

We had lots of support from club members who helped the newbies to learn to ski and also make sure that they did not get lost on the blown in trails. I bet Mike and Heather did not know that they would be Olympic calibre coaches after just joining the sport themselves several weeks ago. Also Ray did a great job getting people into and out of their bindings and likely did not even get a chance to ski himself!

Bill and Ken also made sure that people were able to get some basic instruction and most importantly - not lost!

We had lots of newcomers to both the sport and also to winter in Canada who embraced the chance to get out in cold windy Saskatchewan.

We will upload lots more pictures over the next few days so please check back to the blog often for updates and news.

The challenge of getting everyone to have access to equipment was lots of fun to manage but it was a great problem to have.

Thanks again to all those who helped out today (sorry for those who I miss because I am sure I will).

Ken, Susan, Roy, Donna, Barry, Ray, Mike, Heather, Bill, and all the club members who helped out the new skiers!

Sunshine and Ski from Regina also have to get a big thanks for lending all their gear to us for our use today!