Barry

Former Paralympic and World medalist to lead race team program

The Telemark Nordic Ski Club is pleased to announce the appointment of Emily Young as Head Coach for the Telemark Nordic Competitive Program beginning August 1st.

During an extensive North American search, the club was thrilled to find the talent it needed in its own backyard; Emily is based in Kelowna. Besides an obvious enthusiasm for the sport, Emily brings to the role natural abilities in  communication,  collaboration, organization and the energy, skills and experience needed to develop and inspire the athletes. Her values align well with the Telemark values of Community, Inclusive, and Sport (for life).

“Telemark Nordic has long played an important role in my life as I skied and trained there during my competitive career. I can’t wait to get started and to join the incredible community of athletes and their families and to build on the highly successful program already in place. It might still be summer, but the most important training for our older athletes is happening now, and the snow is always just around the corner!” said Emily Young. 

Before embarking on her coaching career, Emily was a highly accomplished member of the Para Nordic/Biathlon Senior National Ski Team, competing and achieving podium finishes at 2 Paralympic Games, 4 World Championships, and on the World Cup circuit over 9 years. Her experience as a competitive skier and biathlete will be an asset to the club’s integrated ski and biathlon program.

Prior to Nordic skiing, Emily competed internationally in wrestling until she sustained a career-changing nerve injury to her right arm. Emily has also competed in several Ironman distance triathlons (able body).

Since retiring from the Para Nordic National Team, Emily has followed a pathway to a career in coaching. She enrolled in the National Coaching Certification Program levels and has gained valuable experience working alongside National Team coaches at Nordiq Canada’s Western Canada Next Gen dryland camp in Revelstoke and Canada Development Team camp at Silver Star. Emily was also invited to be the U20 Team Leader at the 2023 World Junior Championships in Whistler, and she supported the National Para Nordic Team at the World Para Nordic Championships at Soldier Hollow, as support coach staff responsible for coordinating logistics, ski testing and racecourse duties.

Come experience springtime skiing / snowshoeing at its best on Saturday, March 20 by skiing and/or snowshoeing the entire Telemark Nordic Centre trail footprint.  Sunshine, great snow conditions.  Experience two of the best views in the Okanagan at the summits of our Panorama and Crystal Rim trails.

For the Skiers:

• 15 km “south perimeter” (Rabbit + Telemark + Panorama + Memory Lane trails), or
• 35 km “full perimeter” (all the “south” trails + Fern + Easy Street + Connector + Carol + Crystal Rim trails)

For the Snowshoers:

• 5 km “half-course” (Panorama trail to the first shortcut), or
• 8 km “full-course” (Complete Panorama trail)

For the Nordic Nuts:

• “Total Nordic Experience”  — 5 km “half course” snowshoe plus 35 km “full perimeter” ski.  Our Club President Brent Hobbs has put down the challenge to see how many other Nuts like him we have in our Telemark community.

The Details

• Click here to register.  $10, proceeds going to our Junior Racing team.
• ½ price day pass and ½ price rentals for registered participants – purchase at the lodge when you arrive.
• It is an experience, not a race.  Go at your own pace.
• The course will be well marked.
• Ski classic or skate, or switch it up at the half way point.
• Start whenever you wish after 8:00 AM.  The lodge closes at 6:00 PM and sunset is just after 7 PM.  Give yourself about 5 hours for the 35 km ski, 2.5 hours for the 8 km snowshoe.  If you start late, pick up a complimentary headlamp loaner at the lodge.
• We will time your ski for you with Chip timing.
• Ski with your friends or family as long as they are in your COVID bubble.
• Bring a camera!  Email us your best photos so we can post.
• If you don’t feel well, don’t come.  If you are worried you might have been exposed to COVID, don’t come.  We will refund 100% of your payments, no questions asked!

In January we informed you that we had installed an RFID tracking system to record season pass visit statistics.  Click here for the background.  Now, the promised results!

Getting right to the reason we did the project — to understand how much and when people use their season pass: by far the most season pass traffic came from the roughly 10% of people who skied weekly.  4% of the people skied 3x or more weekly.  The overall average use was almost 14 visits per season pass holder.

We installed the RFID system on December 29, so our statistics span January to April.  Historically, Christmas Eve through New Years Day are our busiest time, but we don’t have those statistics.  Note also that we only registered a “visit” when a season pass went through the 4 antennas by the lodge.  We know that the visits we recorded are lower than actual visits simply because season pass holders were not always carrying their pass.

We also did a deep dive on day passes using information gathered by our point of sale system.  While season pass users tend to favour Saturday and Tuesday (no doubt due to the youth programs!), the day pass users tend to favour Sunday.  And, we have a LOT of snowshoers!

Here are some of the interesting graphs.  Enjoy.

You may have noticed a silver dog-bone-shaped sticker on the back of your season pass this year.  It is an RFID tag in support of a pilot project we are running at Telemark this year.  It allows us to automatically detect when a season pass moves past the lodge, permitting us to gather anonymous visit statistics.  We don’t know specifically who the tag belongs to — we will NEVER track people at Telemark without your permission!  But we can tell when “someone” arrives and how long they stay on the property each time that “someone” visits.  From this data we can compile, for example:

• Usage by hour/day/week/month/season
• How many super-keeners come nearly every day
• How many people come at least once per week, and which days they come

This is just a pilot project, to see what we can learn that will help us manage and improve the club.  Some thoughts about how the club might benefit:

• lodge staffing
• grooming schedule
• grants and corporate sponsors, because we will have exact numbers rather than dubious generic “industry standards”
• marketing
• affiliations with other local partners such as the Westbank Chamber of Commerce

 

But we really have no idea what we might discover.  To our knowledge, this is the first time this technology has been deployed in a Nordic club in North America.  (If you know of others, please drop us a note because we would love to chat with them!)

Thanks to the 2 Engineering / Computer Science UBC recent grads who donated their time to design and write the software for this project.  The equipment was provided on loan from Canmore-based Zone 4.  The RFID expertise was provided by Dallas-based Codesource LLC.

 

Kirsten’s dog Heidi: “I love it when the pack goes skiing on the K9 trail because I get to come!  I get to cast aside my leash and explore and run hard and stick my nose way down in the deep fluffy snow beside the trail.  But today was extra special.  Today was the best day ever.  The sun was out, the wildlife was out, the snow was perfect, and the air was SOOO clean.  Can we go again tomorrow?”

The Telemark K9 trails are across the road from the main parking lot.  There is a 3.5 km classic & skate ski trail and 2 stunning 3 km snowshoe trails (turn sharp right at the trail head).  Everything on that side of the road is off-leash dog territory.  The humans require a season pass or trail day pass ($5.00 at the lodge or use the drop box at the trail head).

The trails are well marked for both clockwise and counter clockwise travel.  No need to bag your pet’s business but please flick it off the trail.

Note that you don’t need a canine companion to use these trails and they are really fantastic trails.  The snowshoe trails are amongst the best on our property.

If like me you have had enough of the deep freeze, it is not as bad as it seems.  Looks like our winter has actually only been one month?  One looooonnnnnggg month…

Today (Sunday Feb 3) midnight is the early registration deadline for our TECK Okanagan Cup race next Saturday.  This is a low-key fun race geared to young first-timers or adults who are not still trying to make the National team!  It is your last chance this year to try out racing and to pick up one of those big beautiful TECK medals to show your classmates at school.  Click here to register.  (Missed early registration?  You can still register at regular prices until noon Wednesday Feb. 6!)

This race happens Saturday afternoon after Westerns racing has wrapped up for the day.  Come up and watch some of the top Canadian cross country ski athletes compete in Westerns in the morning and then go do it yourself in the afternoon Okanagan Cup. Here is the OK Cup race schedule:

Teck Okanagan Cup

1:30 PM Atoms Boys & Girls (age 6-8) 1 km

1:45 PM Pee Wee Boys (age 9-10) 1.5 km

1:50 PM Pee Wee Girls (age 9-10) 1.5 km

2:00 PM Bantam Boys (age 11-12) 2.5 km

2:05 PM Bantam Girls (age 11-12) 2.5 km

2:15 PM Masters Men (age 20+) 15 km

2:20 PM Masters Women (age 20+) 10 km

Telemark is hosting the Western Canadian Championships race next weekend.  We anticipate welcoming over 500 of the most competitive cross-country skiers along with their coaches and support teams from across Canada and western United States.  A small race committee of club members has been working on this event for several months.  Now it is time for the big show and we need a whole lot of more people to help us make this a memorable event.  Setting up, tearing down, setting up again, stripping bibs… all sorts of fun. If you are able, please sign up for a few jobs and we will put you to work. There will be some perks! No experience necessary — we will train you!  Even if you can only offer a couple hours, it all helps.

Click here to sign up.