The Vernon Ski Club proudly hosted the U16 Western Championships presented by Sporting Life, March 24-28, 2025 at SilverStar Mountain Resort.
“This was one of those events where nothing went as planned! Despite months of meticulous work, Mother Nature dealt the mountain a challenging blow and the ROC (Race Organizing Committee) was left scrambling to adapt each race event for the 237 athletes from across Western Canada,” said Brooke McLardy, alpine director of the Vernon Ski Club.
With the solid determination of race enthusiasts, a committed and experienced ROC, an army of volunteers, and incredible on-hill support from BC Alpine, Alpine Canada and SilverStar Resort staff, the event was a great success.
The original plan had slalom, GS and super-G races as well as a skills combined, but the conditions forced some events to be cancelled and the scheduled to be adjusted multiple times. By the end of the event, two slalom races for both men and women, as well as a “skiing skills combine” as well as a team dual event were successfully run, all on Vernon Ski Club‘s Cloud 9 Race Centre. Despite the challenging conditions, the competition was fierce the athletes showed up ready to race. All are commended for their perseverance and commitment to the series.
Festival Atmosphere
A highlight of the week was the impressive array of off-snow activities hosted by the resort and club. Monday night featured a parade through the SilverStar village and a welcome by the resort’s General Manager Herwig Demschar, who shared his personal ski racing history and commitment to alpine sports. Cam Alexander from the Canadian men’s alpine team joined by Zoom to speak to the assembled athletes about perseverance and a growth mindset.
On Wednesday night athletes enjoyed a party at Tube Town with a bonfire and s’mores. Thursday there was a BBQ lunch and the athlete banquet, coach and volunteer appreciation, a village carnival and awards where podium athletes were treated to bottles of bubbly to spray at the crowd, in World Cup style.
There are many great results to celebrate from the series, however it was the Skiing Skills Combine that saw a BC sweep for women’s and men’s podiums. The 2025 women’s U16 podium saw Maggie Cormack of Whistler Mountain Ski Club in 1st place, followed by Elena Deda of Windermere Valley Ski Club in 2nd and Valerie Chan of Grouse Mountain Tyee Ski Club in 3rd. The 2025 men’s U16 Podium saw 1st place go to Quin Clark of Red Mountain Racers, 2nd place to Declan Kirker of Whistler Mountain Ski Club and 3rd place to Eric Krastev of Grouse Mountain Tyee Ski Club.
The 2025 U16 podium for women’s overall went to Elena Deda from Windermere Valley Ski Club and the men’s overall was a tie between Andrew Cross from Calgary Alpine Race Club and Eric Berthiaum from Banff Alpine Racers.
Huge Pat on Back for the Volunteers
While the athletes were enjoying all SSMR had to offer, the ROC, coaches and volunteers were working steadily in the background to make and keep the race centre a viable venue, adjust volunteer rosters, reschedule events and programs, and much, much more. It is truly the efforts of this group that made Western Championships the success that it was. And incredibly, everyone showed up each day with a huge smile, words of encouragement for each other and a drive to put on a great event for these U16s.
Thank you to everyone who put in long hours, stayed nimble and kept smiling. Thanks to the athletes and vollies who tore down the two original venues, including 300 B-Net on the backside of the mountain. Thank you to Sporting Life, BC Alpine, Alpine Canada, local sponsors, SilverStar Mountain Resort and each and every person who pitched in to make this an incredible U16 Western Championships.
A whopping 570 young skiers arrived in Sun Peaks last weekend to challenge themselves, ski a lot and have a tremendous amount of fun.
The Hub International Nancy Greene Festival at Sun Peaks Resort showcased all that is great about the sport of skiing and ski racing. The young skiers took to the mountain with determination and enthusiasm, tackling moguls, kombi, obstacle, downhill speed trap, jump, and the dual glalom venues, spread around the vast Sun Peaks terrain.
“From first-time competitors to future champions, every child gave it their all, showing incredible skill, courage, and sportsmanship,” said Jeff Robinson, Chief of Race. “It was a thrilling couple days filled with big smiles, fast runs, and unforgettable memories!”
Nancy Greene Raine was her usual present and engaging self, cheering on the young skiers and handing out awards at the end of the weekend, alongside Jan Hudec, former Canadian World Cup star and Olympic medallist.
Congratulations to the Sun Peaks Alpine Club for another terrific festival. And a big thank you to all the visiting clubs, parents, coaches and volunteers who participated and supported the event. And thank you to lead volunteers for their dedication and hard work: Race Organizers: Jeff Robinson: Chief of Race; Dave Fox: Chief of Events; Scott Karpiak: Chief of Course; Gabrielle Fox: Chief of Volunteers; Sara Thomson: Race Admin; Gavin Friskie: Chief of Timing.
For three days, a total of 186 skiers aged 13 and 14-years from across the province were treated to Northern hospitality and a spectacular event at the Teck U14 Provincial Championships, at Hudson Bay Mountain, in Smithers, hosted by the Smithers Ski & Snowboard Club.
Starting with GS on Thursday on an ideal pitch, the girls tackled a couple of nice sets on the Cinderella run, while the boys squared off on a slalom race on Turkey Shoot. They swapped disciplines the next day as the club impressively ran the event with a double organizing committee.
On Friday evening, the Smithers club hosted an athlete and coach banquet where teams of 10 for the double elimination dual on Saturday were announced. The next morning a 20-team elimination dual head-to-head race was a smashing success, with winning teams all receiving placards … and bragging rights. See the complete results below.
Each athlete attending provincials received their own U14 provincial champs toque, which was well received by athletes.
The mighty Smithers Ski Club received praise by coaches, volunteers and athletes for how smooth the events ran and how excited they were to be in beautiful Smithers.
BC Alpine congratulates and thanks the Smithers Ski & Snowboard Club for hosting an outstanding provincial championship event!
BCST racer Dylan Stevens and coach Eric Schwenck are in Tarvisio, Italy, gaining experience and taking on the world’s best ski racers under 21 years of age. Eric sent in this report on Friday:
“After a successful DH training run on Tuesday, where Dylan had his first look and his first time skiing down the track Wednesday was cancelled because of heavy rain. Due to the heavy rain and snowfall overnight the start for Thursdays DH race was lowered to the SG start and the teams all inspected. After an hour delay the race organizers decided to further lower the start and change the DH to a 2 run sprint DH race. All the teams did a quick re-inspection of the course and the women kicked out of the gate at 11am with the men immediately following.
Dylan, starting with bib 43, punched his way into 24th in a 3-way tie with a German and Hungarian athlete, with a time of 51.16, 1.49 back from the Swiss leader. Dylan kicked out of the gate 7th in the second run. He made a small mistake in the large triple gate at the top of the course which lost speed for the middle flats.
With a strong final section of the shortened course Dylan finished with a final time of 1:42.45, 2.34 back from the German winner in 27th place.”
To view Dylan Stevens’ first run in Thursday’s downhill race click the button below (scrub to 40.19, Bib #43)
With a World Cup position on the line for next season, some of the best speed racers in North American converged in the East Kootenays at the Kimberley Alpine Resort for the Nor-Am Speed Series, under bluebird and cold condition.
Over 120 racers battled it out during two days of two-run sprint downhill races – a rare race format for this elite level of competition – followed by two super-G races featuring some World Cup level ski racers.
Kyle Alexander, a World Cup racer originally from the Whistler Mountain Ski Club, was the winner of the first two-run men’s downhill, ahead of fellow Canadian Raphael Lessard and American Mattias Wilson. The following day had a podium repeat, with Alexander taking the top spot on the box over Lessard and Wilson.
On the men’s super-G race days, Lessard moved up on the podium, putting down a blisteringly-fast time of 1:18.17, over a second ahead of Alexander and third place finisher Kyle Blandford for the Canadian podium sweep. Lessard and Alexander finished again 1-2 respectively on the final super-G race, this time within a razor-thin margin of 0.13 seconds, with Tanner Perkins of the U.S. finishing third.
On the women’s side, Haley Cutler of the U.S., was the clear winner of the first women’s one-run downhill, 1.69 seconds ahead of Annika Hunt, also from the states, followed by Shae Obrien, the fastest Canadian on the day. Cutler continued her dominance on day two, finishing over three seconds ahead of Canadian Zoe Gray and U.S. racer Viktoria Zaytseva, who finished second and third respectively.
The Dreadnaught track at Kimberley saw several weeks of speed racing action with speed camps and several downhill and super-G races. A total of over 2,000 runs were accomplished on the track, prepared but the Dreadnaught Race Crew and BC Alpine staff. (report continues below the photo gallery)
Photos by Rick Jensen
“Proper speed progression plays a crucial role in developing better technical athletes,” said Johnny Crichton, BC Alpine’s VP. “Kimberley provides an incredible environment where athletes can safely and confidently build their speed skills while learning how to stand on their skis effectively. Speed training camps and downhill training runs are vital in helping athletes gain the confidence they need, which ultimately translates into both improved performance and enhanced safety.”
Over 30 centimetres of snowfall before the event, challenged the crew but by race days the track was in impeccable race shape, icy and hard. The safe but challenging race track at Kimberley allows skiers to progress with tactics, technique and “speed confidence”.
“This track has helped develop some of the best ski racers in Canada, even in the world,” said Crichton, referring to Kitzbuhel champion Jack Crawford and World Cup winner Cameron Alexander, who both got their start into speed racing on this race track.
IIt is a ski race that will go down as one of the greatest in Canadian ski racing history. Jack Crawford and Cameron Alexander, both Whistler Mountain Ski Clubalum, delivered a performance for the ages in Kitzbuhel last week. The reactions around the world, in traditional media, social media and water cooler chatter the world over, it is a moment worth reliving. Over and over.
