2024 Spring Newsletter
Arrowhead Nordic Ski Club Spring 2024 Newsletter
Season Wrap Up
The 2024 ski season was unusual and challenging and we were not alone. I would like to start out this newsletter by thanking the countless volunteers and the Arrowhead Provincial Park staff for all their efforts to run events, maintain trails and welcome visitors from across the province and beyond who came to enjoy our conditions, limited as they were.
Despite the challenges, we were able to run our programs and host several events this year. Our total club participation was consistent with previous years. With our events and programs, we reached almost 1,500 people this season! Please enjoy the season summaries that our coaches and coordinators have created for this newsletter to let you know about our 2024 programs and events.
At the beginning of the season, our fall newsletter detailed some initiatives that we were planning to undertake over the 2024 seasons. Two important ones were the adoption of Nordiq Canada Safe Sport policies and the creation of the Trail Ambassador Program.
The Nordiq Canada policies are a comprehensive system of safeguards to ensure we are providing a safe environment for everyone associated with the club. We have made good progress and have now established stronger protocols to deal with concussions, safety concerns and screening of coaches and volunteers. To learn more about our new policies, you can find them on the club website policy page.
Our Trail Ambassador program kicked off in February with over 20 people attending the required training and there were red vests at the park on the Family Day weekend. This program will be fully operational for the 2025 season. Thanks to everyone that volunteered to be part of it!
We will be hosting our Annual General Meeting on Sunday, April 21st and I encourage anyone wishing to learn more or become involved to come out and participate. We have lots of opportunities, large and small, for willing volunteers.
I am honoured to have served as Club President for the 2024 season alongside the following board members that do so much for the club. Thank-you to them and also to the countless other that help make our programs and events possible:’
Andrew Fyfe
Denise Jordan
Craig Nakamoto
Terry Graham
Cathie Raynor
Sue Sedgqick
Steve Jones
Catherine Smith
Jody White
Ken Parsons – Arrowhead Nordic Ski Club Presidentour
Jack Rabbit 2024 Season a Wrap!
By: Ally Myers - Co-Coordinator
The 2024 Jack Rabbit season was a success, we continue to grow our program numbers with lots of interest in our community. We managed to fit in 8 weeks despite the odd weather this year and ran our first session as dryland with games and activities to get to know groups. We had adequate snow throughout the season with generally moderate temperatures and, although the snowpack was low, made it through to the last session.
We ran our usual events including a great ski Cross to challenge skiers, the Becky Scott ski races, a campfire event, a Cookie challenge and a FUN Valentines Bingo event!
The JR program continues to be staffed by an amazing crew of wonderful teenagers with an Instructor team of 22 and a Leaders in Training (LIT’s) team of 15. This amazing group of teenagers provided a fun and supportive learning environment for youth in our community and did a wonderful job of getting kids excited about Nordic Skiing. If you have a Grade 7 & 8 aged skier that wants to join the LIT team for the 2025 season reach out to Ally Myers (allison.myers@tldsb.on.ca) to express interest. Involvement in the leadership of the Jack Rabbit program is rewarding and a really positive group to be involved in.
We had a new program coordinator join our team this year on Sunday, Drew Fenwick. Drew was an awesome addition to the Coordinator team and he and his family are enthusiastic Nordic skiers. We are excited to share that Ally Myers, Cheryl Leavens & Drew Fenwick will be back organizing the program next year with Ally Myers as a Back-up Coordinator and helping with some behind the scenes program organization. With close to 170 skiers and a staff team of 35, this program has many moving parts and lots to organize. The 2025 Coordinator team is excited about the upcoming 2025 season and are committed to supporting this important community program. If you want to get involved in the leadership of this program, reach out to Ally Myers as we are looking for a succession plan for the 2026 season.
Track Attack
By: Anne Lindsay – Track Attack Coordinator
The Track Attack and Lynx program welcomed 29 Track Attack skiers and 17 Lynx skiers to Arrowhead Park this season. A fun, multi-leveled program was offered to five different groups of skiers. We are particularly proud to have introduced our Lynx skiers, skiers ages 9-13 who have not previously received instruction, to nordic skiing. This fall, we decided to create a full-day dryland program at Arrowhead. Our team-building day involved a group “Muskoka” relay, as well as a series of stations that worked on everything from balance to strength to ski striding with poles. Our on-snow camp on December 16th allowed the skiers to try out both their classic and skate ski equipment ahead of lessons and once again, involved some fun team-building activities. Despite a delay to the start of instruction due to the lack of snow, we were able to offer seven weeks of on-snow instruction. The eighth week featured the annual Arrowhead’s Amazing Race challenge, where kids participated in fun and wacky activities around the park. Other special events/activities during the lesson period included a waxing session with Terry Graham and a ski cross course. 19 Track Attack and Lynx skiers participated in the classic Muskoka Loppet, while 10 skiers participated in skate, classic (or both!) races at the Sounder Loppet in Parry Sound, where they had the opportunity to race against Track Attack skiers from other clubs. Skiers participating in the Sounder Loppet had an extra after-school practice, where Yeti sightings were reported!!
Thank you to our dedicated group of five coaches and our super supportive families. We’ll see you on (hopefully more!) snow next season!
Arrowhead Racing Crew (ARC)
By: Holly Strickland – ARC Coach
Success comes in many forms. The ultimate goal we strive for is seeing an athletes' love for skiing and competition grow and their understanding of training, nutrition and technique develop in a fun atmosphere. This season, fourteen athletes trained together 2-4 times per week starting in mid-September, some of them having been with the team for more that four years. Dryland training happened outdoors at a variety of locations. Training highlights included the running of the second annual Halloween Heist, an orienteering event where athletes "ran away" from the checkpoints with candy loot and a two day fall training camp. Some participated in SOD super camps and Play to Lead initiatives. Many developed friendships with members of other clubs and were invited to events outside of the regular season. Many athletes are starting to see the value in year-round training and are looking to continue some form of training through the off season.
The competitive season started off well with Ontario Cup #1 at Nakkertok in December. Unfortunately, the snow stalled out and the first few Southern Ontario District (SOD) Paraffin Series races were postponed or canceled. Despite a fickle snow season, the team attended races every weekend from mid-January until mid-March including three, one-day SOD Paraffin Series races: Mono, Midland and the Sounder and four O-cup events: Nakkertok, Sudbury, Sherbrooke and Lakefield, all multi-day, multi-race events. In addition, portions of the team attended the Ontario Winter Games in Thunder Bay, the Eastern Canadian Championships in Sherbrooke, the Ontario Youth Championships in Sault Ste Marie and for the first time in years, three ARC athletes attended Nationals.
Many ARC athletes will make the SOD team this season, a few have the opportunity to apply for the Team Ontario Development Program (TOD-P) and we await to hear if any have made the Ontario Junior Ski Team. As coaches, we continue to learn and develop our skills. We pride ourselves on collaboration and best practice. This season we supported athletes from other clubs as well as Para-Ontario and took on additional leadership roles within SOD and XCSO. We look forward to the 2024-25 season, to working with new and returning athletes and to the opportunities and the memories. The enthusiasm, dedication, camaraderie and sportsmanship of the crew and their families, continues to define ARC as a solid race team that enjoys promoting the sport, supporting all athletes and relishing success in competition.
ARC in numbers:
14 athletes
2 coaches
59 practices
7 multi-day events
610 hours of coaching (not including drive time or administrative communication)
Love of skiing: Priceless
2024 Muskoka Loppet
The weather cooperated for a few days to allow us to host the 2024 Muskoka Loppet with great conditions. In addition to the normal event, we also hosted the Ontario Master’s Championship at the same time. This required extra volunteer resources but learned how to streamline the course set-up and teardown over the 2 days. Overall, we had 225 participants. For many, it was their first time on snow this year!
Women of Winter (WOW)
By Sue Sedgwick, WOW Coordinator
Another successful Women of Winter fundraiser for the club was held on January 30. Over 75 women of all ages and abilities enjoyed a morning ski lesson, catered lunch, guest speaker and a variety of afternoon activities. Two new activities were enjoyed this year. Hok skiing uses normal winter boots, a short, wide ski with skins, allowing you to get up and down more backcountry, ungroomed slopes. Biathlon Canada brought a team of instructors and equipment including laser guns and introduced biathlon which was a big hit. Participants asked if we can have this activity next year. We look forward to WOW 2025.
Dryland 4 All (Formerly Masters Dryland)
By Steve Jones and Sierra Johnson, D4A Coordinators
As the snowflakes have surrendered to the warming embrace of spring, the curtains fall on another ski season where the master skiers made the most out of every skiable opportunity.
The master's program had 26 participants & coaches for Dryland 4 All and Masters! We rebranded our Masters dryland program to Dryland 4 All and were honored to have 2 Special Olympics athletes join us. Mark and Logan represented the Ontario Special Olympics team at the Canadian Championships and were very successful – each bringing home medals in their events. Shoutout to other Masters athletes for their improvements and racing successes over the challenging season.
The group met twice a week, with each dryland and on snow season filled with teachable skills applying new classic and skate skiing techniques to push them towards long kilometer days while enjoying fun chats and cheering each other on.
Park Update
The Arrowhead Park staff deserve credit and thanks for their efforts to maintain the trails and support our club events throughout the season. As a result of years of effort to increase visitor numbers, the Park continues to see investments made to improve the experience. This year, a new Prinoth Husky groomer was purchased. This new groomer will complement the existing Pisten Bully 100, which has also been fully refurbished to ensure years of continued operation. These two machines will help the park provide reliable grooming for years to come!
Thanks to Jason Crozier (Park Superintendent) and his team for all the work they put in to improve the Park user experience!
Elementary School Races
By Cathie Raynor, ANSC Club Secretary
Despite the weather ups and downs, we managed to run a great race for our local elementary school kids. With about 460 kids registered, it was one of our largest races. Lots of smiling faces and some kids getting to try out Nordic ski racing for the first time! Thanks to park staff and all our volunteers for making it happen. Unfortunately, we had to cancel our second race due to lack of snow.
Upcoming Club Events
On Friday, April 12th at 5:00 PM, we will be hosting the 2nd annual “Fancy ANSC” Happy Hour at Canvas Brewery in Huntsville. Come out for an end of season drink and snack. The event is free but we do ask that you pre-register at https://forms.gle/X7jNYCgXqfj8BbvB6 so that we know how many people are coming.
The club Annual General Meeting is taking place on Sunday, April 21st at 2:00 at the Arrowhead Park Visitor Centre with a hike to follow. Please come out to hear more details on our programs, provide feedback on how we can improve, or find out more about how you can become involved!!
Eagle Para Program
Arrowhead hosted Canada’s first pilot project for Nordiq Canada in integrating a Para Nordic Skills Development Program called the Eagles Para Program. The motto of the International Paralympic Committee is ‘to soar higher’ and carrying on the theme of animation the Eagle was selected. Thank you to Arrowhead Jackrabbit coach Kade Vink for designing the program logo.
Last year, Canadian Tire Corporation awarded Cross Country Ski Ontario a Jumpstart grant to purchase a fleet of both dryland and on snow adaptive sports equipment. In December, Arrowhead hosted the first integrated coaching with a disability program with the Community Coach stream. Arrowhead had a 3-time Canada Winter Games para Nordic medallist Tanya Quesnel working with the para participants.
The Eagle Para program was developed to give children with disabilities (wheel chair, amputee and visual impaired) an opportunity to have a similar pathway to learn the skills to become competent and confident in skiing on trails around Arrowhead. The Eagle program had three participants who were all sit skiers. The four-week program started in December with a general information session and sizing of equipment prior to the first on snow session. The participants quickly learned basic skills to be enjoying the same activities as the Bunny Rabbit and Jack Rabbits in exploring the trails and terrain of Arrowhead.
Arrowhead Provincial Park is the inaugural park to have identified Para Nordic ski trails both on the official trail map with an adaptive sports equipment sit skier logo on the Rowe trail and you will notice the placement of the trail signs are at a lower height for sit skiers to be follow. As a result of hosting the Eagle Para program, Ontario Parks has purchased the same sit ski brand and model for rent for next year.
This Eagle program could have not happened without the support of Arrowhead Nordic Ski Club, Arrowhead Provincial Park, One Kids Place and to the para Nordic participants and their parents. Thank you to Dana Murdy owner and pharmacist of Huntsville Shoppers Drug Mart for her sponsorship of the inaugural Eagle Para program.
Master’s Program Report
As the snowflakes have surrendered to the warming embrace of spring, the curtains fall on another ski season where the master skiers made the most out of every skiable opportunity.
The master's program had 26 participants & coaches for Dryland 4 All and Masters! We rebranded our Masters dryland program to Dryland 4 All and were honoured to have 2 Special Olympics athletes join us. Mark and Logan represented the Ontario Special Olympics team at the Canadian Championships and were very successful – each bringing home medals in their events. Shoutout to other Masters athletes for their improvements and racing successes over the challenging season.
The group met twice a week, with each dryland and on snow season filled with teachable skills applying new classic and skate skiing techniques to push them towards long kilometre days while enjoying fun chats and cheering each other on.
