He spent this season building up his legs to handle the regulation 185 centimetre GS skis, and 165 cm slalom skis on which he’s required to ski, as per FIS rules.

“The kid’s 100 pounds and five foot,” explains Jim Knowles, Thapa’s coach. “To try to get a stiff, men’s 185 to work, to bend that ski, you need muscle, you need weight. So what we’re working on now is building up his legs so he can handle these skis. He does fairly well on them, he’s come a long way this year, I’m really happy with where he is.”

Presently, Thapa is dry land training twice per week, and looking forward to spending more time on his bike.

“He’ll be doing the Gran Fondo Highwood Pass in Alberta in the beginning of July, which is 157 kilometre, 7,000 foot climb,” says Knowles. “This year we’re taking a Sun Peaks team—Alain Cordonier, Blair Jones wheelchair athlete, and Promo. Our training rides consist of Kamloops to Logan Lake and back.”

The Gran Fondo Highwood Pass race takes place on Canada’s highest paved road, between Longview and Morley, Alberta, on July 7.

Ryan Oevermann’s a second degree black belt in the martial art, and an instructor with the Northern Taekwon-do Academy, the body under which 23 Sun Peaks youth are learning South Korea’s national sport.

“This was something that was on the back burner of my brain, and it worked out timing-wise,” explains Oevermann. “The Delta Hotel was accommodating in making sure we had a place for training, so everything fell into place. The kids tried it and were enthusiastic; the parents are very excited about it.”

Each Tuesday and Thursday, for one hour sessions, Oevermann and 23 kids gather to work on the art and sport of taekwondo. On top of learning the skill, and the discipline, Discovery Centre students enrolled in Oevermann’s class receive credit toward their physical education curriculum. The distributed learning model that governs their schooling allows students to apply extracurricular classes such as music or sports to their school reporting, explains Jillian Schmalz, teacher at the centre.

Dan Yano’s son Kiyomi takes the classes, and despite only being in kindergarten, he enjoys the activity, while his father appreciates the etiquette it brings.

“He loves it for sure. Five is quite young, but he really digs it,” says Dan. “He calls Ryan sir; it’s discipline.”

The group warms up, practices the set of movements, or patterns, that are specific to each level, they spar, and they work on self defence techniques, all while maintaining the discipline inherent to the art.

When the class deals with self defence, Oevermann frames scenarios in every-day applicable situations such as encountering a bully, or being approached by a stranger.

“The parents get a peace of mind that their kids are learning basic techniques about how to say, ‘Hey this is a stranger . . . or this person is trying to take me somewhere and he’s not my dad.’ These are really important things you have to think about,” explains Oevermann. “I might even say that there are more life skills involved than exercise (in taekwondo) but exercise is a key foundation that goes all the way through it.”

This session of instruction will wind down in June, to be resumed in the fall. Oevermann is eager to see the returning students, as well as some new faces, in September.

“There’s the potential for an adult’s class in September so we’ll be looking at that and keeping track of people who want to try that out,” says Oevermann. “I recommend (people) come out and try a couple classes and make sure it’s something they enjoy before they register.”

Dan, for one, is keen to give taekwondo a go.

“(I’d do it) to do something that (my son) does. It’s more or less if he does it, it’s something he and I can work on together,” says Dan. “There’s been lots of people asking if they can do it too, as adults.”

For more on Taekwondo at Sun Peaks, call Ryan 250-371-0733.

Warm temperatures and sunny skies hastened spring conditions to the Monashees by Easter Monday giving good opportunities for sledding and ski traverses in the high alpine and glaciated terrain.

With an often predictable spring pattern of freezing at night and melting during the day avalanche hazard can be managed and anticipated with good planning. Utilizing firm frozen snow in the morning can provide great travelling on skis or snowmobiles. Keep in mind that sun affect will rapidly change the snowpack stability—be alert to avoid cornices and slopes overhead. The heat of the day will often trigger deep instabilities, such as the March 27 suncrust layer, and produce large natural avalanches to valley bottom. Consider the affect of daytime warming when planning your route home in the afternoon, or consider staying put if you’re committed to a ski traverse through large terrain.

Be extra cautious when there’s no overnight freeze—this often initiates widespread natural avalanches capable of running full path and creating new paths. Spring also brings more snowfall in the mountains, often creating storm slabs over new suncrusts.

The Canadian Avalanche Centre provides some great info on trip planning and managing avalanche hazard.

Get the info you need from the Canadian Avalanche Centre.

The Sun Peaks Alpine Club hosted some awesome events and the whole community came together nicely to showcase what a wonderful place Sun Peaks is. We have to thank Sun Peaks Resort for providing the best racing venue in B.C.

Seven of our Sun Peaks Racers just competed in the 20th annual Whistler Cup. The Whistler Cup’s an international juvenile ski competition with participation from over 20 different countries—360 of the world’s top kids under 14 years old showed up to strut their stuff in three days of competition. Claire Madill, Zanna Farrell, Kenzie Duff, Sara Kate Smith, Jackson Phillips, Evan Monroe, and Brian Buffel all represented Sun Peaks, British Columbia and Canada at this year’s event. Evan and Zanna both had top 20 results and everyone else had solid runs and a great time skiing against the best in the world in their age groups.

Sun Peaks Racer Danielle Cowburn returned to competition last week in Panorama, B.C. Dani, who was ranked second in the country in downhill, blew out her knee last March at the National Championships Downhill at Nakiska. She underwent surgery in May and has been rehabilitating ever since. We had to start slowly with her return to snow in November and gradually build up her amount of time and intensity on snow over the season.

We decided to start Dani racing again in April at the Miele Cup FIS Spring Series in the slalom. Let me tell you, standing in the start after more than a year off after a major injury, months of crutches, pain, doctors’ appointments, rehab, training, and not really knowing if you still have what it takes to race, is mind blowing. On top of that, everyone’s watching to see if you’ll perform again. That’s what Dani was facing.

Of course, Dani crashed in warm-up, slamming her shoulder. Yet, in typical Dani fashion, she shrugged it off and got down to business, handling it like a true champion.

We had a game plan to go in, race as hard as she felt comfortable doing and then push a little harder than that. It’s wasn’t about results so I told her not to even look at the timing board. She was to challenge herself and focus on the process, skiing well. I had more butterflies then she did as she came out of the start gate. She skied great and we had a very successful weekend. Now she’s off to train with the HPP (High Performance Program—B.C.’s best 16 and 17 year olds) all summer long. If you don’t know Dani yet, you soon will. She’s a great ambassador for the mountain and the sport.

The Alpine Club, doesn’t shut down for the summer, in fact we’re starting the new season right now. We’re organizing equipment, going to summer camps, fundraising and training for another great ski season. Thanks to all of you who support this great team, we really appreciate it! Ski Hard, Ski Fast.

Classes will run month by month and be instruced by Shalen Curle’s Shift Enterprises, a company that offers an array of trending dance and fitness options including Zumba, hoola hoop fitness, and Dance Dance Party Party.

All ages and skills levels are invited to try out the Sun Peaks Zumba classes; the cost is $35 per month or $11 per drop in. Cheques should be made out to Shift Enterprises.

For more info contact Shay at shalen@shiftenterprises.ca or visit www.shiftenterprises.ca

Nikula entered “The Best Skier on the Internet” contest last fall as a way to progress his freeski career. Being surrounded by film-making friends who also happened to be roommates and ski buddies certainly helped his cause.

“The Best Skier on the Internet” contest featured seven rounds of Backyard Jib Jam, Urban Rails, Park Rails, Park Jumps, Backcountry/Big Mountain, Halfpipe and Slopestyle. Skiers uploaded videos of their best skiing in each specific category, and the Newschoolers ski community voted to determine the most well-rounded skier.

To win, skiers needed to enter at least five of the seven rounds. The contest was run in the same format that the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) uses to crown their champions, where the skier’s best five results count towards the win.

Nikula, entered six of the seven rounds, and won five of them. That earned him a pre-qualified spot for both slopestyle and halfpipe at the AFP World Championships during the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival in Whistler, B.C., and gives him a full gear setup from The House, one of the contest sponsors.

“It was a ton of work,” said Nikula. “We were out filming every day we could and it burned up my winter season really quickly. All the filming and editing we did was insane and I really want to thank the crew, Caleb Weston, Andrew Paul, Cory Baker and Liam Hall for all their hard work and support.”

See Nikula’s videos at: www.newschoolers.com

“Twenty plus people attended the meeting,” explains director Phil Youwe. “Nancy and Al Raine were the first two members to sign up. (We’re) sitting in the 40 to 50 range (for members. That includes) people who’ve shown an interest and will be sending in those registration forms.”

The first order of business for the fledgling club was to pass a motion to approach the municipality for funding to keep the Nordic trails open until May.

“Three members of the Nordic club made a presentation to council asking to provide funding to the corporation to help offset the tracking costs,” says Youwe. “Unfortunately, although the municipality supported the idea in principle, (it was) not wanting to set a funding precedent; they were reluctant to approve.”

However, access to the Vista, McGillivray Lake and Great Grey trails loop will remain open, and will be groomed periodically throughout April by Sun Peaks Resort’s groomers.

Access to the trails is complimentary, but Youwe cautions that the area will be unpatrolled in April, so skiers are advised to avoid skiing in the early mornings when conditions are icy, ski with a friend, and contact 911 in case of distress.

And, looking toward the future for the new Nordic club, members are anticipating a busy year of events and development.

“We’re looking forward to an exciting year next year with the number of events and programs starting and especially the number of people interested in coaching,” says Youwe. “We’ll get a coaching program going for the local rabbit program for the young children that will get started up in the fall. We’ll be coordinating some clinics up here with the Overlander Ski Club, we’ll have opportunity to be on snow in early November so we’ll have some clinics then and we’ve got a number of events happening next year too. It’ll be an exciting year for Nordic.”

For information & applications contact:  sunpeaksnordicclub@gmail.com

But before the park opens for ball season and everything else, it’s clean up time.

“Every spring, all of the teams will go down and clean up the park,” says player, Leslie Albert. “The clean up weekend’s scheduled for April 21 and 22. Earth Day’s on the Sunday (which is) good and that’s free garbage day at the dump. People are always encouraged to come to that.”

Once the park is ready to go, the slow pitch season begins on April 23, and runs until the year end tournament on July 7 and 8.

Ten teams, from Rayleigh to Sun Peaks, are in this fun league, and they play at the Dick Hart Memorial Park Monday through Friday at 6:15 p.m. The league also host tournaments throughout their season.

“We’re having a fundraising tournament on June 9,” says Crawford. “It’s not a league event, so anyone can put a team together. We do try to keep it to eight teams because there’s just the one field. All the money raised goes back into the park for upkeep.”

Players and organizers are looking forward to another fun season of slow pitch at the park, and encourage spectators to come and cheer on any of the games.

“Players really like it because, number one, it’s a really nice field, facility, and two, it’s just about fun,” says Crawford.

To register for the fundraising tournament, contact Shane at 250-578-8598. For park bookings, or to join a league team, call Teresa at 250-578-8165.

Unlike Caesar, backcountry skiers should heed the ides, since March (and spring, generally) can be a time of large avalanches, as successive storm loads build on deeply buried layers, which is the current situation. Weak layers of surface hoar and facets developed in early February are now buried one to two meters deep. Adding to the complexity of the current snowpack are layers of sun crust, also common during the warmer months of spring.

The Canadian Avalanche Centre Public Avalanche Bulletin described the current conditions well.

“Recent avalanche activity builds on what’s been a very active period of avalanche activity since the beginning of March. On (March 11) a fatal avalanche incident south of Revelstoke occurred. Other human-triggered avalanches were reported up to size two and natural avalanches were reported up to size three on a variety of aspects and elevations.”

It’s not just skiers that need to take caution; a natural avalanche recently buried two transport trucks in Rogers Pass.

With conditions as they are, due diligence and caution should be applied. A good strategy is to manage consequence rather than try to “out guess” the snowpack. Choose terrain that has little chance to do harm, such as broken steeps, avoiding large open planar slopes and terrain traps such as creek draws. And, while caution helps avoid both injuries and death, the situation isn’t critical everywhere in the Monashees. The stability varies from area to area according to weather patterns. Choose terrain wisely and take time to investigate the snowpack in the specific area you are skiing for persistent February weak layers.

View these avalanche bulletins before heading into the mountains: www.avalanche.ca, www.acmg.ca and www.powdercloud.com

Dig out the Nordic gear, then, and head to Sun Peaks’ cross country trails. The Vista, Great Grey, McGillivray Lake trails loop is accessible for cross country skiing.

The loop will be groomed occasionally until the first week of May, however the area will not be patrolled during this time, so skiers are urged to use caution, ski with a friend, and contact 911 in case of distress. Additionally, skiers are reminded that conditions are very hard in the early morning, so the best time to head out on the trails is after mid-morning when the snow has softened up.

There’s no charge for taking to the trails this month.