The Golden Kicking Horse Alpine Team hosted a race this weekend up at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort that saw more than 80 skiers compete.
The sun may not have been out, but there was 12 centimetres of fresh snow, and the temperature was hovering at a perfect -2 degrees as the skiers from Golden, Revelstoke and Kimberley took to the course on Feb. 25.
“The weather was great this year. The fresh snow makes it a little bit trickier in the race, but we managed fine, and the kids love it. They like playing in the snow and having fun,” said head coach of GKHAT Pam Tetrault.
The weather made it a bit tricky for some of the athletes who were travelling to compete as well.
“We had a few people from Revelstoke who couldn’t come because of the weather. But we still had a good turnout,” said Tetrault.
“We had probably around 80 kids, and just over half, so about 50 to 60 kids, are part of GKHAT.”
The event was split into two races, one in the morning for the E1 kids, which is ages four to eight, and one in the afternoon for the E2 kids, which is ages nine to 12.
“They did two runs through the course, and then the best time out of the two runs is taken towards the awards,” said Tetrault.
A podium was set up in front of GHKAT’s new clubhouse yurt to hand out the medals to the young athletes.
“The kids did great,” said Tetrault. “I’m very happy with how they competed. As long as they’re happy, I’m happy.”
The club has travelled to a few competitions this season already and performed quite well, but this is the first and only race of the year they got to host at home.
“It’s really nice for them to be able to compete at home. A lot of them don’t get the opportunity to travel, the costs are a little higher. So it’s nice that all the kids in the program get to compete in this race,” said Tetrault.
“We have a couple more races coming up. There’s one in Kimberley, one at Sun Peaks in Kamloops, and one more in Lake Louise as well.”
