Teck BC Cup #1 at Larch Hills — Larch Hills Ski Team

The Larch Hills Junior Race team, along with many members of the Larch Hills Nordic Society, hosted the first in the Teck BC Cup series for the 2016/2017 race season. Open to all ages, skiers ranged from as young as 3 to master competitors in their 60’s. Participants appreciated the perfect weather, near perfect wax conditions, great event organization and the spectacular Larch Hills scenery.

Sunny skies and cool temperatures made for great skiing conditions at Larch Hills

Saturday’s sprint races took place on new trails that have been developed to challenge the skiers and make the stadium more spectator friendly. Trails themselves ranged from 100m for the younger skiers to a grueling 1 km sprint course for the masters. The Atom to Midget categories did a sprint format called Kings Court in which racers complete an individual qualifier and, based on their times, are grouped into heats so that the skiers become more evenly matched and their races increasingly exciting. Awesome skiing, photo finishes and crashes made for a memorable morning.

The race format in the afternoon for the Juvenile category and up was an elimination sprint format which also resulted in many exciting head to head finishes.

Sunday were the interval start classic races over distances ranging from 1 km for the younger racers to 11 km for the master skiers. The skiers were able to put their best classic technique to the test over the terrain at Larch Hills and competing against the best skiers in the province. Skiers traveled from as far away as Vancouver Island and Smithers to compete in the first of the BC Cup Series, which is the series that is used to accumulate points for the annual aggregate awards for individual skiers and the clubs. The next Teck BC Cup race will be held in Prince George on February 4th and 5th.

Larch Hills skiers did very well and topped the podium in many of the categories. In several of the younger divisions it was a Larch Hills sweep of the podium, including a Midget Girls 1 (born 2004) sweep on Sunday’s classic race. For a complete listing of results please go to www.zone4.ca. It was an all-round great weekend of Nordic racing, and a great showcasing of the natural beauty of the Larch Hills ski area. Congratulations to all the volunteers who worked so hard to put together a great event.