TECK RACE REPORT: Lightning Creek Ski Club host the North Zone Opener | BC Alpine Ski Association

The first North Zone Teck Race of the season was hosted by the Lightning Creek Ski Club, at Troll Ski Resort on Jan. 25-26. The weather was fantastic, with big smiles and some great racing at this Teck race. Huge thanks to Troll Ski Resort for providing the flexibility and extra grooming to the venue, and to the athletes and clubs that came to race at the resort.

Falko Kadenbach, the Lightning Creek Ski Club President sent in the following informative and insightful race report.

“We were delighted to host a race after several events fell off last season. Glen Boudreau, our Chief of Course, said, “With less snow, we need to be more flexible and dynamic in our venue options when we don’t get the snow pack early.” Like many other resorts suffering from less snow accumulation and drier winters, it becomes challenging to stick to race schedules and race venue locations. (continued, below the photo gallery)

The ROC for this race comprised many new-to-role volunteers who took on the positions with professionalism and vigor to ensure that the race would happen despite facing another low snow year. A key part of running any successful club is maintaining and growing the skills and experience to run races successfully. This race was important for us to develop a new generation of volunteers. The North has fewer people, fewer athletes, and greater distances, so it is critical to work together and learn from each other to ensure mutual success and viability as alpine clubs.

In 2023, we expanded our race venue with a GS start building and fixed timing systems on one of the main runs at Troll Ski Resort, The Face. Unfortunately, we have been unable to utilize these facilities in the past few years due to low snow, forcing us to move to higher portions of the mountain where the snow pack is deeper. Sean Seabourne, our long-standing Chief of Timing, said, “The club has a development plan to expand the fixed timing systems to the top of the mountain to reduce setup time for such occasions.”

We are not alone in facing these challenges around the world. Snowmaking is becoming a vital part of many ski resorts’ ability to operate in the early and later seasons. “Troll Ski Resort is currently not able to benefit from snowmaking because BC Hydro has not extended three-phase power to or past the resort,” said Scott Zacharias, Troll Ski Resort’s General Manager. “With the increased mining developments in Wells, BC, we are hopeful to see some increased interest in expanding power to our resort to power our lifts and give us the option to add snowmaking.” Scott went on to explain how this would allow Troll to offer earlier-season skiing to the region.

The resort is also in the midst of doubling its ski terrain with a newly constructed Doppelmayr T-Bar. Jacci Leggett, our Director of Alpine, said, “We love our T-Bars.” Just like that, we are able to run a humble ski club at a ski resort with a street sign that says, “The Best Place on Earth.”

– Skiers for Life! Falko Kadenbach, President, LCSC

Race Organizing Committee

  • TD – Mark Schwenck
  • Race Chair – Jacci Leggett 
  • Chief of Race – Falko Kadenbach
  • Chief of Course – Glen Boudreau
  • Chief of Gates – Lisa Seabourne/ Julie Dinsdale
  • Chief of Timing – Sean Seabourne
  • Race Admin – Molly Swanson 
  • Chief of Volunteers: Julie Backer

Thank you to all the volunteers and organizers for another terrific event at Troll Mountain Resort!