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.