January 31 update on trails

Leland groomed and tracked at Emerald yesterday–Alluvian Fan and all.. No loop on lake—it’s just too slushy—He did groom to get into and out of the trees. Also did the Connector—great time to ski it now.
Today he is gonna do Kicking Horse, Tally-Ho and Takk Falls.
Enough of the snow already.

Saturday, Jan 28th

Leland track set mid afternoon. He did the trails around Emerald–on shore, the Alluvial Fan and we saw him head out on the Connector before we left the store. Nice and mild and snowy. Watch out for slush on the ice—best to stay on shore most of the time. Cheers.

January 27th, AM

Carl groomed and track set all the shore trails around Emerald YESTERDAY but…..late afternoon high winds wiped everything out!
Parks is due to return today……..at least the wind has died down.

Survey Results for the Kicking Horse Ski Club 2011

Answered questions with YES or NO -or- expanded -or- rate 1-5
1 = excellent
2 = pretty darn good
3 = ok
4 = passable
5 = forget it

#1–Do you WANT a X-C Ski Club?
*Yes x 9
*Excellent x 1
*Pretty darn good
*Yes and I would like someone to step forward and help us run it (even take it over eventually) MT

#2–Do you like and do you use the www.khsc.ca website?
*I do, it’s GREAT !
*I keep forgetting.
*Yes x 5
*Pretty darn good.
*Love it.
*Yes—everyday—even if I do not do a post on it. (Does anyone else want to do posts on the site?) MT
*No I don’t

#3–Do you want emails about trail reports, events etc…..?
*Definitely,
*Yes x 7
*Can the website give us an automatic update, or use Face book? (and yes you can get auto updates on it)
*One can check the web site for that info
*No—not necessary

#4–Do you want the benches/picnic tables/brushes/shovels on trails?
*Not necessary.
*Yes x 6
*Yes—especially in the spring.
*The “engagement bench”—we got to keep it !!! MT
*I have not seen them????
*Yes—we aren’t getting any younger!

#5–Are annual memberships too low/high?
*NO x 2
*Probably a bit low.
*Too low.
*Just right.
*Not too high—we have to decide what to do with the $$.
*$30.00 is not much—but members that work the club should NOT pay. MT

#6–Is having a Club coach great or what?
*GREAT—Yes yes yes
*Great job Jessica !
*Absolutely.
*Excellent
*Yes x 3
*Lessons, Full moon ski.
*Not sure

#7–Members Ski outings? Full moon ski? Lessons?
*Yes x 5
*Great for those who can attend.
*ALL great.
*Great idea.
*I attended 4 cessions so far—FANTASTIC…..MT 2 more to go……Well done Jessou

#8–What do you enjoy about the annual dinners?
*THE FOOD
*The food, company, some prizes
*Socializing,
*Not having to cook x 2
*See everybody, great food
*Yes—when I remember to be there!
*The Food and Company
*Feedback like this to praise those CHEFS! My God they are good and put out. The fact that we no longer have to hound businesses for auction items. Sitting down at home after it all over! Putting out the thank you poster. MT

#9–Do you have any comments about Parks doing the track setting?
*It would be more beneficial to track set on Friday and Monday’s
*FINALLY!
*At the start, the trails were not as good as in the past years. The trails seemed to not have been packed down enough and I had great troubles poling at times. Although lately, they have improved.
*No
*I hope they are doing “as good” a job.
*OK
*Weekend track setting.
*I think they did a fantastic job this winter with the weather we had—and Boy did we have it.

#10–Would you like to take a bigger part in the Club? How?
*Remind us when help is needed to shovel benches.
*If you need help—I’m around.
*No x 2
*Maybe help organize a ski trip other than the Field Area.
*I could help a little more.
*I would volunteer in any way
*NO–#5—I’m weaning—done my 23 years. MT

#11–Give us your comments on ANY aspect of the Club
*You’re doing a GREAT job.
*Has been run great for all these years, let’s hope it continues.
*You spoiled us with well-groomed trails; Parks needs 2 groomers, or groom on weekends.
*Yearly scholarship ($500.00) for a kid who wants to go beyond Jackrabbit—like racing.
*It’s WONDERFUL!!
*KHSC rocks. I’m very proud to be a founding member. 1988 was a GREAT YEAR.. MT

#12–What else could be done —-as a CLUB?????
*Annual Race—create an annual race with the members. Time trials, handicaps and a final race during the last weeks of the ski year. Find a nice trophy (that could be displayed at the community hall or at Emerald Sports) and really nice prizes for 1st. 2nd, 3rd. etc…) placing. Spend the summer organizing and setting up the event (place, time, course, prizes, etc….) Time Trials could be held at any time during the ski season up until the week or two before the race. Post times and member’s handicaps on-line. Make this a big event for the Community with a dinner and dance maybe?? Also have a Juniors Race as well. Come up with a catchy name for the event to increase interest in it.
*Guiding, avalanche courses..
*Maybe a ski trip as a Club (overnight) to another area
*Overnight for sure….let’s start easy to assure attendance—with the Lake Louise Hostel—midweek…next winter 2 nites!!! MT
*Outings, maybe 2 nights in a rental home in Golden—Kicking Horse Resort, skiing at Dawn Mt.

#13– Parks Canada rented our skidoo this year for 4 months to bring in $4000.00 to the Club–Any bright ideas of what to do with the $4000.00?
*Put $$$ towards a KUBOTA for the ice rink,
*Denise and I already offered Parks up to $300.00 from KHSC to help beautify the outhouses at Emerald Lake(like they did at Bow Lake). MT
*Maybe we will need future equipment?
*Subsidize overnite ski/stay in the future—with $50.00 per member?? MT
*Use for ski outing to pay for housing for 2 nights for as many skiers who want to participate mid-week,

This 2010-11 season the Club took on a different approach. We have handed over the grooming of all our X-Country trails to Parks Canada–as they have always done in all the other National Parks in the past. The Club no longer need to raise funds for the manpower and equipment to set trails. We are grateful for Parks taking over the project.

We are now still in “transition”—

We want to keep the Field Kicking Horse X-C Ski Club and focus on new projects, which will rise up in due time. We have kept up the website, provided the benches etc. along the ski trails, also collected the membership fees of $30.00 per person. To date we have 26 paid members and 5 honorary members.

Existing and future funds have been used wisely towards X-C Ski projects with kids and adults and we are looking for member’s ideas for the continuation and advancement of the Club.

The Club hired a coach—Jessica—to do free events for members. Each month—for 2 months, she put on a Full Moon Ski, 2 lessons, 2 x-c outings and one free wax job per member. She also will do a wax clinic at the Annual Dinner. We paid Jessica $1000.00 for the 2 months from the Club funds.

We also paid Chris Allen $500.00 for maintaining the WWW.KHSC.CA. This is an annual fee.

We will pay Kym Chapman and JP Galli for cooking up the feast on March 13th,2011 along with paying for all the grub. Where we had desserts donated by Panino’s (CRMR) for many years—we decided to pay for the luscious desserts this year since we are NOT fundraising. It’s time CRMR “gets” rather than always “gives” so generously.

KHSC paid for the Field kid’s rentals for Jackrabbits = $50.00 + taxes.

We “hope” this will give us some insight into how you feel about the Club for years to come.
THANK YOU FOR HELPING…. KHSC

Wed. January 25th—POWDER !!!

The Kicking Horse (I beleive—did not get a report from Andrew but saw him there)and Connector (for sure)got tracked yesterday and it started SNOWING ! Absolutely gorgeous out there…..with at least 6″ of fresh fluffy.
Skied the trail all around the lake at 3.30 pm and it was the BEST ever—in a white out!