LAC LA BICHE - What happens when ski season rolls around and there isn’t enough snow on local trails? What happens when it is two months later - and it’s still the same issue?
There’s really not much that can be done, says Lac La Biche Nordic Ski Club President Kim Winger. With no significant snow-cover, they can’t groom trails or make tracks - so the only grooves this year for the cross-county ski club are the ones in the perplexed brows of club members’ foreheads.
It’s frustrating, says Winger, explaining that more than eight weeks after the usual start to the skiing season, there is still not enough snow for cross-country ski trails at the club’s usual designated ski areas at Churchill Provincial Park, Beaver Lake Provincial Park, and the Shaw Lake Recreation Area.
“We need enough snow for our groomers to pack a good base and then set tracks,” Winger told Lakeland This Week. “With only a thin layer of snow on these trails it is not even good for breaking a trail with skis, as you can damage your skis on debris, dirt (and) sticks.”
Winger said the club has been hoping for snow since the end of November. Unfortunately, that snow hasn’t arrived in time to run many of the activities the club has planned to date.
For the time being, the club’s Monday Coffee Time Skis at Churchill have been cancelled, and a night-event at Shaw Lake may have to be re-thought if the unusual weather patterns continue.
Taking it to the lakes
“We have a Moonlight Ski planned on Feb. 24 at Shaw Lake… if the trails are still not good this will be on the lake,” she said.
Moving from trails to the frozen area lakes has been a theme over the last few weeks for ski club members needing to stretch their Nordic legs.
Despite a shortage of snow, explains Winger, members of the local ski club have still managed to get and out and enjoy their sport, including the youth Jackrabbit programs. Instead of using more than 26 kilometres of trails normally available around Shaw Lake, Winger says, coaches are combining fitness development, dry-land training, and ski lessons on the actual lake surface on Sunday afternoons.
They may not be ideal conditions, she added, but at least it still allows young skiers to continue to learn and develop their fundamental skills while Mother Nature makes up her mind.
Winger says club members are holding out hope that things will turn around in the final parts of the season.
“We are optimistic that snow conditions will improve, and that February and March will bring some more opportunities to get out skiing,” she said.
