Penticton

Volunteers, management step in to keep key race going up to Apex Mountain during outage

Disaster averted for skiers

Casey Richardson - Jan 21, 2023 / 4:00 am | Story: 407478

Photo: Greg Jaron

Last weekend the Apex Ski Club hosted the Okanagan Zone Race and is now celebrating its six team members that have qualified for the BC Winter Games.

On Jan. 14 and 15 the Teck Okanagan Zone Race for U12-U16 had dozens of kids come out to compete, and despite significant technical and environmental factors working against the hosts, a successful race weekend was accomplished.

The race organizers had to contend with power and cellular outages, foggy conditions, and falling trees, but thankfully the Apex Mountain team and a plethora of volunteers stepped in with a solution.

"Of course, the power went out for the race and all the races' power for the timing system and all that. So we just ran generators down to the top of the course, the bottom of the course and over in the timing shed. We were able to keep that going," Apex Mountain Resort GM James Shalman said.

"Some of our lifts are electric and so we do have diesel backup. So we just had to switch over to diesel power backup for those."

Lesley Evans with the Apex Ski Club shared that the event proceeded thanks to the efforts of the many parents, volunteers, and coaches.

"Apex Ski Club would like to thank Apex Mountain Resort and the sponsors for their support, and the athletes for their patience while course workers successfully maintained a fair play event. Most importantly, the club would like to express their gratitude to the volunteers who worked tirelessly to pull off a great race weekend under the challenging circumstances."

On Saturday and Sunday, over 140 racers from Apex, Silver Star, Big White, Revelstoke, Sun Peaks and
the Yukon participated in slalom races on the Okanagan Run for their first competition of the season.

The race was a qualifier for the BC Winter Games being held in Vernon this March. The following Apex skiers qualified: