District of 100 Mile House council has endorsed the request from the 100 Mile Nordic Ski Society for use of its woodlot at 99 Mile to install a skills park.
Society president MaryAnne Capnerhurst says its original request, approved in 2012, was for the opposite side of the 99 Mile Ski Trails beside the day lodge.
However, that area had been previously logged and the society found the ground is too wet and the terrain too steep to feasibly host a skills park, she explains.
“What needed to be done was going to be quite costly, as opposed to this other little area that we looked at.”
Noting the idea came from local ski coaches Barb Matfin and Colleen Ellens, Capnerhurst says the proposed park would assist youth in developing Nordic ski skills and also include a children’s play area.
“The big thing about skiing sometimes is not so much about standing around in the snow ‘yakking’ to them; it’s more so they have the obstacles and the terrain to practice on.”
However, there are still several levels of approvals to go through and grants to be secured before the skills park can become a reality, so it won’t be done in time for this winter’s ski season, she adds.
