New Grooming Equipment in preparation for the MNC

New groomer coming... expect great tracks for the Masters!
Arriving for our club this week is a new 4 stroke Yamaha sled which we will use with the YTS for grooming to fill out our grooming needs with the BR400 snowcat.This addition gives us a nice comfort level that backs up our existing grooming equipment. Remember, we have 4 separate courses for the week, so lots of variety.

Rotary Pasta dinner price lowered! And bands too!
Our Rotary Pasta Dinner will be $15 per person instead of $20 on the race notice. Entrants that paid extra on Zone4 will get a rebate! We have four bands for the pasta dinner playing Rockabilly, folk music, Celtic and old time Jazz. It will be a great time to loosen up between races. For the Banquet we have a rock and roll dance band from Calgary booked.

The snow keeps coming.

Chief of Competition Troy Hudson out for a training session on Tuesday

Snow continues to fall in Golden with albeit rather cold temps (-26 today). The humidity level remains strangely high as well (70-80%) producing between 5-10cm of snow per day. Keep it coming!

Volunteers Wanted: Apply Within

The Canadian Masters Championships is a major affair and provides the perfect opportunity to show off our community spirit to athletes from across North America. The Competition Committee and Event Committee are seeking enthusiastic, motivated and passionate community members to come and be a part of this week long festival. Whether you can help out out for one day or for the whole week, assisting with awards or evening festivities, course marshaling or timing, we need all the volunteers we can muster. With over 200 participants daily with four days of racing we will need LOTS of people power in the back end to create a positive experience for our guests to Golden.  We will need roughly 60 volunteers each day for many different tasks so please contact our Volunteer Coordinator for more information. If you have a specific area of interest to assist in let us know.

Check out the Race Notice for a link to the event calendar. The organizing Committee would like to thank you ahead of time for your interest in getting involved. There are training days for all volunteers working the event so no prior event experience is necessary to become a volunteer. 

Early Morning Frost (Jan 5th, 2012)

Overnight clear skies with mild and high humidity air from the night before created this great frost layer which freshened up the tracks and made for a magical start to the day. 

OC Update January 6, 2012

2012 MNC Organizing Committee Update

Happy New Year Skiers!
The past two months have kept us Goldenites on our toes, getting most of the details in place for what will be a fine week of racing and socializing. We have been blessed with good conditions with over 30cm packed base on all our trails since mid December!

Our organizing committee has concentrated on a number of important goals, most of which have been accomplished or will get done by the end of January. These include setting up a variety of courses for our races.   Here is what we have:

Ø      The 10k free course will be a long, spread out course using lots of our easy terrain. Beaver, Hawk Owl, Caribou, Moose and Cougar. It will finish with a long uphill to the stadium. A  true 10k course.

Ø     The 5k free will start out with a nice Leaping Lynx technical section, with short hills, followed by a flowing cruise over our most popular trails (Beaver and Chickadee) and back up to the stadium. 5.6k

Ø      The 5k classic course is unique in that it starts easy, has a short technical twisty section near the beginning followed by a climb, then gets easy for most of the rest of the 4.7k course. This race will be the only Individual Start course and is the perfect design for such an event. Fast and flowy.

Ø      The  15k loppet course is our signature classic course. Beginning with an easy first 4k, it drops to an aid station after 6 k and follows the famous Raven trail over many short climbs. A 40m climb back  up to the Caribou trail, passes the same aid station, just before the long climb up Cougar to Chickadee. Easier terrain takes you back to the stadium for either your finish, or second lap. Yep, it’s 15k.

      The courses are a challenging 10k, two easy 5k ‘s and a harder 15k. Designed to all be manageable shoudl you wish to compete in all events.

Our events will include a lunch for competitors and volunteers each day.

We also have a number of cool organized social events including:

Ø      a short talk with David Thompson of the NWC and HBC (he lives in the Blaeberry Valley just downstream from Howse Pass)

Ø      a trading post selling local crafts. Hand made medallions for the podium winners

Ø      a live talent event and pasta dinner

Ø      A chance to ski the Emerald Lake Trails in Yoho National Park,

Ø      And a fabulous banquet dinner and dance with lots of donated prizes !

Get your entries in via zone4 and book your accommodation soon! We will have a top limit of 400 entries.

Course Maps are Now Available for Download!!

20/10km FREE MNC Course

All of the course maps are now available both here and on the Golden Nordic website. The 20/10 Free technique course is the first event of the week offering a long straight start out of the stadium. Utilizing much of the lower trail system we were able to create a smooth yet exciting race course. One key feature to the course is a 1.3 km long downhill at the north end (down HawkOwl) which allows for a good recovery section. Caribou, perhaps one of the most spectacular trails at Dawn Mountain is being used which favors 1-Skate specialists as the terrain is rolling and relatively flat. Cougar offers the largest climb on the course so save some energy for this climb at the end. Two laps of this course provide the 20km distance. Click on the images to provide a close-up of the map. You can easily save and print the maps from here. Go to the homepage to view all maps.

10/5 km FREE MNC Course

This is the Chief of Competitions favorite course and athletes are sure to love the unique course design offering numerous rests with a couple short steep climbs and plenty of mixed terrain thrown in to keep the course fast. The course favors 1-Skate athletes as there is so much rolling terrain. The first person into the first corner 400m up from the start will have a distinct tactical advantage leading up through "Leaping Lynx".  With the addition of Chickadee there is a generous dose of rolling downhill terrain to build up speed and cruise into the stadium for your second lap. Numerous passing opportunities will present themselves so there is always the opportunity to make a break for the podium. 

10/5km Classic MNC Course

Our 10/5km Classic Course provides a 400m straight away off the start prior the first corner, providing lots of chance for sprinting to the first corner. The course loops up through "Leaping Lynx" within our sprint trail network and follows a series of  friendly twists and turns before the long gentle downhill to the north end of the course (great for double poling specialists!). Wrapping around the wetlands, you climb very gently back up and into the stadium for your second lap. The 10km Classic is the only Individual Start event of the Championships. This is the perfect course to hold a time trial due to its long straight-away's and wide trails, providing many opportunities to pull in the athlete ahead of you. 

30/15km Classic MNC/Loppet Course

The 30/15km Classic Course is our longest course and also happens to take place on the last day of competition. For those of you that have had the great pleasure of skiing this course it offers stunning views, great varied terrain and perfect "Golden" design. The Huckleberry Loppet is in it's 15th year and will be taking place on the same day as the long distance classic event. Expect up to 100 locals of all ages out cheering you on as well as standing beside you at the start line. You're in for a treat!

Excellent Ski Conditions over holidays and into the New Year

Golden has been blessed with a continuous supply of snow over the last three weeks ensuring that our base is solid and our day skiers are happy. While in town temps have been above freezing on average for the past couple weeks, the 400m elevation difference between the town site and the xc trails has ensured that snow continues to fall. Ski conditions are above average with more snow expected in the coming days. We have over 30km of classic and skate terrain groomed and open daily. Come ski Golden this weekend, you won't forget it.