Summit opens for the season
Skiers and snowboarders rejoice as the Summit Lake Ski Hill opens for the season, marking the hill’s 55th year in operation.
Due to weather, the ski hill had a later opening than originally planned.
“We didn’t have enough snow. We packed it with the groomer several times, because if you don’t have the snow packed, it willjust fly off,” said Dan Paul, a member of the ski hill’s board of directors.
Paul said this isn’t the first time the ski hill has had issues because of snow.
“We’ve had some late openings, this is one of the later ones, and we’ve had to shut down early because of the lack of snow.”
While many came to ski, others came simply to supervise.
“My daughter Petula, and my son Moss came here because they wanted to ski and snowboard, and I get to wait at the bottomwith Sapphire,” said Julie Perry.
Perry has been skiing at Summit Lake for about 20 years. Like Bar, Perry also had a bit of a drive to get here, but it’s worth it.
“It’s nice and close, because we live in Silverton, and it’s a very friendly hill. The snow is usually pretty good, and it’s small, soI can keep track of the kids. They can ski on their own, which is nice.”
Rain, sleet, snow:
Derby prevails despite weather
The weather may have been frightful, but that didn’t stop people from coming out to take part in the annual Gord RobertsMemorial Blue Knuckle Derby.
People came from all over the Kootenays, the Okanagan, even Alberta, in order to take part in the event.
The derby was originally created by Gord Roberts and his wife Tracey, out of their store, Blue Jay Sport and Marine.
“When we had our store here in Nakusp, and you always had tourism in the summer time,” said Tracey. “Gord thought weneeded to do something in the winter, so the Blue Knuckle Derby came about.”
Gord passed away suddenly about five years ago, and Tracey was contacted to see if it was okay to bring the derby back in his memory.
This year’s first place winner was Jesse Martin, who pulled in a 15 lb. 2 oz. dolly on Saturday. Second prize went to Ben Tober,who pulled in an 11 lb. 8 oz dolly. Third place went to Brent Vickery, with an 11 lb. 4 oz. dolly.
The Roberts family is happy so many people came out to support the derby, and look forward to next year’s event.
Bomb squad arrives in Nakusp
Local RCMP evacuated two mobile homes in the Canyon Trailer Park early Monday morning after finding explosives whileexecuting a search warrant.
A Nakusp resident, Johann Blattnig, who is in his 30s, was arrested and held in custody pending a court appearanceWednesday.
The BC RCMP explosives disposal unit arrived in Nakusp Monday evening and examined the items in the home. Officersremoved the items and took them to be safely detonated.
Residents were allowed back into their homes shortly before 8 p.m.
Mayor Karen Hamling was very pleased with the local RCMP and the work they did.
“Good work on their part that they traced all that down before we had a devastating event in our community,” she said.
Blattnig has been charged with one count of possession of explosives for an unlawful purpose, and is also facing severalcharges from a separate incident, including two counts of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking,and possession of a prohibited weapon.
