General

Last weekend was a busy one for Telemark! We held our annual work party… and… we hosted our annual ski swap. By all accounts both were successful.

More than 50  volunteers were at Telemark for the work party on Saturday to help us get ready for the coming winter.  Lots of great projects got done… from firewood splitting to painting from ski rack building to trail work and more.

The annual Telemark ski swap on Sunday just about sold out of equipment and was successful in raising over $2000 for our Team Telemark racing program. The Kelowna Cycle  parking lot was a great venue especially with perfect weather.

A huge THANK YOU to all the Club volunteers  who made these events successful.

 

Do you need some ski equipment or are you looking to sell off some of your old equipment?   Word on the street is that ski equipment will be hard to come by this year so the Telemark ski swap will be great place to buy and sell equipment.  This year we are holding our own XC specific swap. Members and non-members welcome.

DATE: Nov 1, 2020
LOCATION: Kelowna Cycle 2949 Pandosy St
MAIN CONSIGNMENT DROP OFF: Saturday Oct 31 –  5pm to 8pm
EARLY BIRD CONSIGNMENT: Friday Oct 30th 11am to 6pm & Saturday Oct 31 10am to 5pm
CONSIGNMENT FEE: $2 per item
ONE DAY SALE: Sunday Nov 1, 2020  11am to 4pm
PAYOUT & EQUIPMENT PICK UP: 6pm to 8pm Sunday Nov 1st
COVID: The Swap will take place with physical distancing measures in place. Please wear a mask

This is a fundraiser for the Telemark Nordic Club Race Team with 20% of the sales going towards the  team.

Come join the fun on Saturday, Oct 31st and help us get ready for winter.  We are hosting a work party from 9:00 AM until noon to…split firewood, paint, do trail maintenance  and accomplish a few other odd jobs before the season starts.

We will break at noon for lunch.  The Club will provide drinks and snacks.  Due to COVID restrictions we will not be offering our normal BBQ so please BYOL (Bring Your Own Lunch).  The lodge will be open but numbers of people allowed inside will be limited so please be prepared to remain outside as much as possible.

The Telemark Annual General Meeting will take place right after lunch at 1pm.  The AGM is a great opportunity to meet our new and old board of directors and find out what is going on in the Club. Social distancing measures will be in place and numbers of people at the AGM will be limited.  The AGM will also be available as a Zoom meeting.  If you want to join by Zoom please get the link from us – phone 250-707-5925 or email mike.edwards@telemarknordic.com

We hope to see you there.

Are you willing to serve your club by volunteering for a one year term on the Board of Directors? The commitment required for a rewarding and enjoyable experience is to attend a 2-hour board meeting once per month where you will participate in discussions about everything skiing and snow.  Most board members will also take on an additional project to help develop and enhance our club. Detailed job description here

In accordance with the club bylaws all board positions are open for nominations and election each year.  This year we will have three vacancies due to retiring board members or board members who are giving up key board positions: Secretary, Vice President, Director – Grooming

Nominations for all positions are welcome:
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Director – Past President
Director – Snowshoeing
Director -Youth & Masters Programs
Director – XC Junior Racing
Director – Biathlon
Director – Special Olympics
Director  – Grooming
Director  – At large
Director – At large

Please submit nominations by email to nominations@telemarknordic.com.  Nominations close on Sunday Oct 11th, 2020 at midnight. Nominations will not be accepted from the floor during the AGM.

The AGM will take place at The Telemark Nordic Centre chalet in person and by Zoom conference on Saturday October 31, 2020. If  you would like to join the AGM by Zoom please email gm@telemarknordic.com for the AGM link.

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.

Kal Tire is once again stepping up to sponsor cross-country skiing youth programs here in BC.  In the past two years, Kal Tire has generously supported our sport by funding ski playgrounds, adventure trails, roller skis, coaching development, program equipment, video contests, and more. Last year Telemark received $2800 towards our new Terrain Park.

As a part of  their support for XC skiing Kal Tire is offering and exclusive coupon for a $100 discount on a set of new winter tires or all-weather tires.  The coupon is valid until September 30th.  Don’t wait until the last minute!

In this warm summer weather, skiing and snowshoeing may be the last things on your mind but they are always on our minds.  We know that winter is just around the corner and we are looking forward to another great season.

Telemark will be operating this winter with a few changes due to COVID-19.  We expect to be very busy this winter. After-all, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are naturally “physically distancing”.  We will be limiting the number of people in the lodge however, so we are encouraging everybody to purchase a season pass to help reduce touchpoints.

We decided to open up our Season Pass/Membership sales a few weeks early this year to enable people to sign up early for programs and to get a head start on Early Bird pricing. Many of our competitive programs start in September and our Youth Programs (Bunnyrabbits and Jackrabbits) fill up quickly so it is a good idea to register early. All programs will be running this year under CCBC Return to Sport Plan  and Biathlon BC Return to Sport Plan .  Look for information updates in September.

Click here to register now on our registration page.  (You will be transferred to our online registration portal hosted on zone4.ca.)

As an extra incentive, register by Sept 15th to be entered into a draw for one of two $150 gift certificates at Fresh Air  Experience and a  Free (adult) Telemark Season pass.

The snow is long gone now and the weather has finally gotten warm and sunny as we wait for another winter season.  Telemark is a wonderful place to visit in the summer/fall.  People often come up to Telemark for hikes, dog walks, mountain biking, horse back riding and even birding (Telemark is a noted birding hotspot on ‘ebird’).  It’s a little cooler up here and a great place to get away from the summer heat of the valley.  To top it off it is not too crowded so it is naturally social distancing.

Most people stick to the ski trails but it is also possible to hike/bike on the some of the snowshoe trails. The snowshoe trails are not maintained for hiking or biking and have several rough/wet areas. In the fall our youth programs kids do several trail running sessions at Telemark. Motorized vehicles are not allowed on most trails although you may see trail crew volunteers doing some summer trail maintenance in a vehicle.

Telemark and surrounding area is designated rangeland for cattle and there are about 120 head (cows & calves) that you may see on the trails.  They start out on the lower trails in June but make their way up to the top of Crystal Rim trail and beyond over the summer.

There is no fee for enjoying Telemark in the summer.

If you come to Telemark in the summer/fall please be prepared.

• The daylodge is not open, the trails are not patrolled and there are not as many people around. So please make sure someone knows where you are and you know where you are going and what you are doing.
•  There can be wildlife.  There is a  large black bear living near Telemark right now so please make sure to travel in groups (keeping Physical Distancing in mind) and bring bear spray just in case.
• There are mosquitos…especially in June and July.  They generally peter out by late summer. In the spring and early summer come prepared with proper clothing and bug spray.
• The weather is changeable so take extra clothing and rain gear if the weather is unsettled.

We hope to see you up at Telemark before the snow flies. Season passes will be going on sale in August.  Get your season pass early.