This series can only be offered if the participants follow the rules set by the Provincial Health Organization, ViaSport, CCBC, BC Parks, and the club.

Our club skews older, with a very large number of members in the 60+ age group, and we need to keep our members, staff, and guests safe.

These rules include:

• Travel is only allowed to your ‘home’ ski area. To comply with both this and Canadian privacy laws, we are restricting entry to SLNC members only. (Not from this club? Find out how to host your own series here.)
• Groups can be no larger than four (4) skiers and all skiers must maintain 3m physical distancing unless every member of the group is from the same household. The maximum group size has changed twice during the planning process and may change again before the series is over.
• These are NOT races and the courses are NOT closed. Participants have no special rights to the trails and may be banned if they ski dangerously or rudely amongst the general public.
• ‘Fast’ courses are only open on weekdays when the club is open. Bring a headlamp if you come during night skiing as the courses are mostly away from the lights. This is a major inconvenience to club members who work regular hours, but it is what we can do safely.
• ‘Curious’ courses are open from Tuesday to Sunday.
• Registration is required. Participants must provide their RFID code (the group of letters and digits on your season pass) and agree to follow the rules.
• All skiers must check in every day they ski, including the days they are completing these courses.
• Masks must be worn in any building.

FAST COURSE ROUTES

January 18 to 22

10km test. Choose between Skate, Classic, and Double Pole. Inspired by our very own Hannah Mehain who will race this distance at Under 23 World Championships next month. The course is very similar to the start of the loppet course.

You can download the gpx file for the course from TrailForks or Strava.

January 25 to 29

Climb On. A hillier loop slightly under 20km long. We planned a climbing loop, but with cold weather predicted, the Organizing Committee voted to take out the long, long descent. Instead, we have Zoom the Zumas, a more technical course with lots of short snappy climbs.

You can download the gpx file for the course from TrailForks or Strava.

TrailForks has an interactive version of this digital map:

February 8 to 12 15 to 19

Skiathlon. Weather delay! Ski one loop of classic and another loop of skate, scored by the combined time. You can ski the two loops continuously, or on separate days, or find a partner to share the load. Or just ski one of the two loops. Or skate both.

February 22 to 26

Team Sprint. Except distanced. Ski a 700m loop three times fast with an imaginary partner. Check your email for the slightly complicated details.

March 8 to 12

Loppetish. Ski the 30km loppet, or the 15km half loppet, but without the crowded start. Or maybe we will use the older loppet loop from 2010 and earlier. We did a poll of registered skiers, and the overwhelming favourite was ‘surprise me’.  Hmmm.

March 29 to April 2

Epic. After building fitness all season, here is the ultimate challenge. Ski 50km in a single session. Or ski the 25km loop twice on different days. Or ski the 25km loop once. It doesn’t really matter which as your odds to win a draw prize don’t change.

Times will be recorded using Strava. You can sign up for a free membership and upload your GPS track recorded on your phone, your sports watch, your Fitbit, and many exercise tracking websites. The Strava activity must be made public to allow us to see your result. Results will be posted to the Virtually Sovereign: Fast ‘club’ in Strava, look for your invitation after you register.

Note that Strava allows the organizing committee to detect oversized groups starting together, finishing together, or just skiing together mid loop. Skiing in too large a group will get you disqualified from the course, the entires series, or possibly lose your skiing privileges depending on serious the violation is.

While the purpose of this series is to test yourself by skiing ‘fast’, remember that the trails are open to the public. There are no special rights or privileges for participants. Rude behavior or endangering other trail users will have consequences as above.

Course details will be shared as printable maps as well as .gpx files you can upload to your watch or phone. Courses will be posted shortly before the first day they are open.

CURIOUS COURSE ROUTES

Ski some of the Trails, Ski All of the Trails, Ski Fast, Ski Far, Ski For Prizes, Ski for Kudos, Ski for Joy.
This is about having fun exploring our trail system.

Each week, participants will fill in a form on zone4 to show when they started that week’s course. There is no place to enter a finish time or an elapsed time. If you want to compare your speed to others, check out the ‘Fast’ series.

There will be draw prizes for completing each course, best photo, and anything fun that the organizers think of. There will also be some larger prizes for attendance.

Course details will be shared as printable maps as well as .gpx files you can upload to your watch or phone. Each week, a new course will be sent out to registered participants.

Registration is open and free.

January 19th to 24th

10km Inspired by our very own Hannah Mehain who will race this distance at Under 23 World Championships next month. Our course is gently rolling.. You can download the gpx file for the course from TrailForks or Strava, or print this map.

January 26th to 31st

9km with a little more climbing and descending. A nice progression from the first course and some new trails to explore. You can view an interactive map here and download the gpx file for the route, or you can print the map below.

February 9th to 21st

Another 9km with a few longer gentle climbs. More new trails to explore. You can view an interactive map on TrailsForks here and download the gpx file for the route, or you can print the map below.

February 23rd to March 7th

9km again, it seems like a pattern. The course looks like it was taken from the Fast series, and the name on TrailForks is ‘Fast 2’. What actually happened is that the Fast series ‘borrowed’ this course after Gerry B and Mike designed it for Curious. Either way, it is a fun loop to ski. Find the interactive, zoomable map on TrailForks here.