First Tracks
Sasquatch on the Loose at Omineca Ski Trails
event. The concept – to ski as far as you could, wherever you were - was definitely accepted.
This past winter the Omineca Ski Club (Burns Lake) came up with a great idea for encouraging physically distant fun on the trails in order to get members out for a ski.
The result was 445 skiers, aged 5 to 75, who participated in 5, 15, 25, 30, and 50 km distances! From Whistler to Mt. Washington, Vernon, Ottawa and Quebec, the total distance skied was 12,120 km! That took participants 1,035 hours of skiing, or 43 days and 3 hours!
It started with the club announcing their newest sociallydistanced outdoor event through this posting about a Sasquatch sighting - “Unfortunately, a Sasquatch sighting has happened just as we opened the Omineca Outsider Open Happy Faces Races (OOOHFR), a challenge series which uses 1.8 km, 5 km and 10 km loops.” The OOOHFR was a self-timed series that challenged skiers to improve their skiing ability over the winter. Prizes were awarded at the end of the season based on timed percent improvement over the season.
The winners of the distance challenge were Lyndsay Sayers (415 km / top women) and Hector Aragon (100 km / top man). Honorable mention went to Karen Nakagawa (355 km) and Tobi Henderson (325 km). All three women were over 200 km ahead of the closest man, Hector Aragon. Winners had to upload a .gpx file to confirm they had skied the full distance.
The club then posted a photo of what appeared to be a Sasquatch and issued a fun “warning” for members to keep their eyes peeled and take photos of the illusive creature when out and about on the trails.
Organizers asked people to share their story and/or photos about the virtual P’ayak and what it meant to them. The following inspirational submission was from participant TJ McKay.
Skiers were encouraged to report Sasquatch sightings, a move that generated a lot of interest both within the ski club membership and in the broader community. As one member wrote “…what a superb event 'Sasquatch Day' turned out to be. It was great to see all the little guys out there. We were asked more than once ‘have you seen the Sasquatch?’ in such earnest little voices it was hard not to smile!”
TJ is 38 years-old who started cross country skiing this season. What makes his story special is that in May 2019 he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, the same bone cancer the legendary Terry Fox had. Luckily TJ (who is now considered cancer free), did not lose his leg, but the surgery left him with some permanent impairment in his knee. Cross country skiing helped TJ gain so much strength mentally and physically that he decided to do the P’ayak 25 km to challenge himself. Prior to that his longest ski was 22 km of skiing on the (green) Neverland trail. He finished in a time of 2.5 hours while tackling the 25 km loop up Norwegian Woods that makes the traditional 50 km course! He found skiing the 25 km course so incredible, rewarding
Adapted from article in Burns Lake District News
A Virtual Payak Organizers of the Coast Outdoors Virtual Payak Challenge were amazed at the turnout for this first attempt at a virtual
5
