The season is ramping up for the Sun Peaks Alpine Club (SPAC) as athletes celebrate their wins and look forward to future festivals and competitions.
On March 11, three SPAC athletes competed in the U14 provincials for giant slalom at Grouse Mountain in Vancouver. Morgan Ring landed gold in the female division. Meanwhile, with over 100 racers in the men’s division, Bodie Ottem and Trayle Porter placed 25th and 39th, respectively.
Also exciting for the club, skiers Cameron Currie and Jameson Jensen qualified for the U16 nationals at Mont-Tremblant, and will be travelling to Quebec for the event taking place March 28 to April 3. Duncan Currie, SPAC president, said there were only 14 boys from across B.C. who qualified for this competition.
The Sun Peaks Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS) team, made up of higher level skiers over 16 years old, also travelled for a competition earlier this week. They competed at Mission Ridge in Washington in the Western Regional Junior Championships, where they had several athletes place within the top 10.
“We’re one of the few clubs in B.C. that actually have a [FIS] team. Generally what happens is the kids would have to go and travel, and then they would ski as part of a regional team,” Currie said. “We retained six athletes that continued to ski in the club who otherwise probably would have stopped ski racing because of the commitment required to travel.”
Keeping it closer to home, the whole alpine club is off to Big White this weekend for the skier cross. Currie said SPAC is also looking forward to hosting the Hub International Nancy Greene Festival in Sun Peaks from March 25 to 26.
The event is the largest Nancy Greene Ski League festival in Canada and gathers over 600 kids from around the province. The festival features a dual ‘glalom’ race (a cross between slalom and giant slalom), a speed event, moguls, kombi and a jump contest.
“The festival’s a big win. It’s very good news for the resort,” Currie said. “It’s definitely our younger age athletes that make the program, so that’s why the festival’s probably the biggest thing in our calendar here and it’s a pretty big event for any club to run.”
Over all, Currie said the club has done well this year and expanded their membership to over 200 kids. To keep up with SPAC, follow them on Facebook or Instagram.
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