On April 12, the Smithers Ski and Snowboard Club hosted the North Zone finals for Giant Slalom ski racing.
The race was attended by clubs from Whitehorse, Prince George, Smithers and Quesnel.
The Lightning Creek Ski Club sent 5 athletes: Emma Klapatiuk (U12), Grace Klapatiuk (U14), Alefa Sakakibara (U14), Hannah Doucette (U14) and Hailey Doucette (U16).
In the first race, on scarily icy conditions Alefa Sakakibara took third place in the U14 category.
In the second race, Emma Klapatiuk took third place in the U12 category.
In the world of alpine skiing, nationally carded athletes start out with 999 points.
Every race that they attend points are shed, which can then be charted against every athlete in the country.
Hailey Doucette took home a beautiful trophy for Most Improved in the women’s
division, which means that she saw a huge drop across all her points races.
Across the entire North Zone, Hailey took second place, Emma took third place and her sister Grace also took third place for the season.
On April 13, RAYZ Boardshop in Smithers co-hosted a Ski and Snowboard-X race, which saw 130 participants from the age of 5 to adult.
The same five athletes participated in the race, along with Noah Woolends (U10), Owen Larsen (U10) and Lauren Larsen (U8).
It was a very exciting race, featuring four racers going head-to-head down a tight ski cross course.
Grace and Noah both received third place medals in their respective age categories.
The Lightning Creek Ski Club has had an amazing season.
The club currently has nine volunteer coaches instructing more than 60 kids in alpine racing, most of them through the Nancy Greene Ski Program.
We attended races in Sun Peaks, Purden and Tabor and had at least one child on the podium at every event.
Thanks to grants from Quesnel Community Foundation, Rotary and a legacy fund, we will be constructing an equipment shed at Troll Resort this summer and have plans to keep investing in our little club.
The support at Troll has been outstanding and we are constantly reminded of our good fortune to have Hildur and Len as owners, particularly when we travel to other ski resorts.
We are now looking forward to a summer of dryland training in preparation for the 2014/15 season!
If you are interested in having your child join a fun and competitive team, please contact Lightning Creek Ski Club at lcsctroll@gmail.com.
– Contributed by Sarah Shipley