John Kucera (Calgary, AB) made history today in Lake Louise, becoming the first Canadian male to be on the podium more than once at a FIS Alpine World Cup race on home soil.

Kucera finished second in today’s Bombardier Lake Louise Winterstart Super G, sending the large crowd in attendance at the Lake Louise Ski Area into frenzy after crossing the finish line in a time of one minute 30.43 seconds.

“To come back home and get back on the podium again, it’s a really good feeling,” said Kucera, the 2006 Bombardier Lake Louise Super G champion.

“I really had to charge it. Today I felt good.  I wasn’t sure when I crossed the line what my time was going to be but felt really good when I saw the board,” Kucera added.

This is the first World Cup podium of the season for the Canadian team following last season’s 10 podium performance. Kucera said team success was very important to each of them.

“It’s always a great feeling to make it on the podium, whoever it is. We train as a group and we are all very competitive as a group. So when you see one of your teammates on the podium, you know that anyone could be up there on any given day, so it just keeps us hanging in there. We know we had good and solid preparation,” said Kucera, now with three career podiums on the World Cup.

It was also a great day for Erik Guay (Mont-Tremblant, QC) who finished seventh in a time of 1:30.83.

“I am satisfied, I took a step in the right direction today.  There are still sections where I’m slow and I don’t quite know why yet,” Guay said.

“I’m happy for John. He’s a teammate and when it goes good for him, it goes good for the team and it’s good for everybody,” he said. “It’s a great day for the team. We ended up 2nd, 7th, 19th so that’s a pretty good result.”

Austrian legend Hermann Maier won today’s race in dominant fashion, finishing in 1:29.84 for his first World Cup win since 2006. It’s the third victory of his career in the super G at Lake Louise and his first since 2003.

«For sure this is a special victory. My last victory here was in 2003 and it’s five years later so it’s unbelievable to win once again.  It’s great, especially in the super G, which is maybe my favourite discipline,” said Maier.

Switzerland’s Didier Cuche was third in 1:30.52.

As for the other Canadian results today, Manuel Osborne-Paradis (Vancouver, BC) was 27th, Stefan Guay (Mont-Tremblant, QC) grabbed 41st, Jeffrey Frisch - Mont-Tremblant, QC was 52nd and Louis-Pierre Hélie (Berthierville, QC) placed 56th.

There were two Canadians before Kucera to win multiple World Cup podiums while racing in Canada. Laurie Graham had four podiums in Canada from 1983 to 1987 and Karen Percy(-Lowe) finished third in World Cup downhill races in Canada in 1986 and 1989.

“Anytime you have a podium, it’s great,” said Alpine Canada Alpin Chief Athletics Officer Max Gartner. “We’ve been fortunate enough to be on the podium every year now for three years.”

The Canadian Men’s team headed directly for Beaver Creek, USA, the next World Cup stop. There is a full slate of super combined, downhill, super G and giant slalom races beginning Thursday.

On the Canadian team’s performance:
“Super G seems to be our best event in the team. We’re missing Frank and we’re missing Jan but we are very strong.  It’s probably our best event overall.  And those guys are still gaining experience.”

ABOUT ALPINE CANADA ALPIN
Alpine Canada Alpin (ACA) is the governing body for alpine ski racing in Canada with more than 50,000 athletes, coaches, officials and volunteer members and over 200,000 supporting members. ACA manages the high performance programs for the athletes of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team and the Canadian Para-Alpine Ski Team who represent Canada throughout the world. For more information on Alpine Canada Alpin, visit www.canski.org.

Mega and mellow. That neatly defines Whistler and Revelstoke. Over the coming winter season, goings-on at these two British Columbia snow sport hotspots will spark a flurry of chatter on chairlifts. The economic downturn might mean fewer skiers will visit B.C.’s slopes — but those who do come have many treats in store.

In Nelson, all goggles are squarely focused on how new ownership at Whitewater Ski Resort will improve access to the town’s limitless stash of hero powder. A short schuss south through the Monashees leads to Rossland, the original home of skiing in western Canada. An innovative plan to nurture mountain culture there at Red Mountain Resort offers definitive proof that the Kootenay Rockies region is on fire. And not just the flash-in-the-pan, Johnny Handwarmer variety either. Changes are afoot, driven by the arrival of a new crew of mountain professionals and their families who are there to stay. Must be the epic snow. Guaranteed. Got any doubts? Read on.

WHISTLER BLACKCOMB With skiers and boarders anticipating an epic season on the slopes, many have their sights firmly set on Whistler Blackcomb. And why not? The resort has staked out a place in the record books with their highly anticipated PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola lift — the longest unsupported span for a lift of this kind on the planet. Set to debut on December 12, the $52 million PEAK 2 PEAK multi-national project has been two years in the making.

Thanks to a specially-dedicated web cam (ww1.whistlerblackcomb.com/ p2pg/webcam/), the saga of how 400 tonnes of steel cable were spun in Switzerland, transported through the Panama Canal and spliced together between Whistler and Blackcomb has slowly played out over the summer for all the world to see. When the 28 gondola cabins — two with see-through floors — begin to glide 4.4 kilometres between the two Coast Mountains peaks, Whistler’s skyline will never be the same again.

The big PEAK 2 PEAK winners will be visitors who want to explore both mountains over the course of a short stay. Above all else, the PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola should help settle the debate as to which of the two companion peaks — Whistler or Blackcomb — skiers and snowboarders prefer most. Local wisdom has long held that when you’re in heaven, it hardly matters which side of the street you stroll down. Truer words were never spoken.

1-800-766-0449; whistlerblackcomb.com
REVELSTOKE MOUNTAIN RESORT British Columbia’s hottest new ski town — Revelstoke — is set to trump last year’s gala debut by doubling in size to 1,227 hectares this winter. Here’s the added whammy: with 1,713 metres of vertical, Revelstoke Mountain Resort now offers the longest lift-serviced terrain in North America. To put it mildly, the once-sleepy railway town has awakened to find that almost overnight its image has evolved from that of a duckling into a swan of the white realm.

To accomplish this feat, over the past summer Revelstoke Mountain Resort mounted a high-speed quad chairlift in the newly-opened North Bowl and expanded the Revelation Gondola to connect with the new village base surrounding the Nelsen Lodge. Along with cafés and shops catering to skiing and snowboarding’s three Rs — retail, rental, and repair — the Revelstoke Guides Bureau anchors the lodge and serves as a reality checkpoint for those headed into the Columbia Mountains backcountry. Those in search of an insider’s perspective on the dozens of surrounding peaks would do well to seek out local guru (and legend) Karl Klassen, the new Operations Manager for the Guides Bureau and former President and Executive Director of the ACMG (Association of Canadian Mountain Guides).

Powder hounds take note: Revelstoke is the only resort in the world to offer lift, cat, heli and backcountry ski options from the village base. Decisions, decisions.

1-866-373-4754; revelstokemountainresort.com

RED MOUNTAIN RESORT Red Mountain dominates the skyline high above Rossland. In winter, the mountain’s white dome wields its magic on local freeriders, both in the heart of the steep-sloped village and on the streets in the nearby Kootenay mining town of Trail. Mining and skiing have always gone hand-in-hand here in the Monashee Mountains’ landscape, where forested peaks roll south into nearby Washington State.

Decades before the CPR railway lured skiers to Revelstoke in the ’20s, Rossland had already established itself as the cradle of western Canadian ski culture in the 1890s.

With an ambitious expansion plan currently underway, resort developers are keen to gather as many players as possible in the same tent, or in this case, a new chalet at the operations base. Artists and athletes, backcountry guides and trail designers, pass holders and guests are being drawn into a dialogue on how best to take the resort to higher ground without sacrificing its enduring — and endearing — funkiness.

To that end, The Mountain Project, or TMP, is the cornerstone in a larger initiative undertaken as Red Mountain seeks to partner with like-minded boutique resorts here in Canada as well as Europe and Australasia. The first step has been in signing a co-marketing agreement with Le Massif east of Quebec City where season passholders at Red are able to ski at Le Massif for free, and vice versa.

As the home town of Olympic gold medal ski racers Nancy Greene Raine and Kerrin Lee Gartner, Rossland’s Red Mountain — as well as its companion peaks, Granite and Mt. Roberts — has long been the domain of gung-ho freeskiers who know all the ins-and-outs of a host of routes that spin off in a 360-degree radius from the mountains’ summits.

One recent addition to Red’s roster is Erik Kalacis. Together with filmmaker Greg Stump, Kalacis co-created the sport of boardercross at Blackcomb Mountain in 1991.

Not surprisingly, since he moved his young family east from Vancouver in 2007, Red Mountain has quickly become a training hub for what is now officially called snowboard cross, a four-person downhill dash which made its worldwide splash at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympic Games. As of this season, you can add boardercross to Rossland’s impressive snow sport quiver.

redresort.com

WHITEWATER SKI RESORT Nothing shakes up a long-established mountain community like new ownership. Nelson is no exception. Backcountry-oriented with just two-chairlifts, Whitewater Ski Resort may seem pokey to outsiders. As the trio of partners in Knee Deep Development Corporation appreciates, this 1,295-hectare hideaway is a shrine for local rank-and-file skiers and snowboarders, the polar opposite of almost all other B.C. snow sport destinations.

Fact: only Whitewater sells more seasons passes than day tickets. In order to retain that level of loyalty, Knee Deep knows it must tread carefully in the tracks laid down by the previous owners, Mike and Shelley Adams. After 23 years at Whitewater, the couple left big boots for the new owners to fill. To that end, Knee Deep isn’t about to tamper with Shelley’s imprint, most noticeably in the Fresh Tracks kitchen, judged to serve the best, most affordable mountain food in Canada. So popular have her recipes been that last season Adams released Whitewater Cooks, which includes the secret formula for the cafés legendary burger sauce.

Just in case you’ve concluded that folks come to Whitewater only to eat and party, here are some undisputable facts. Those rustic twin-seater lifts may be slow but they offer access not just to 445-hectares within the resort’s boundaries but also to five adjoining valleys each of which offer a 720-metre foot vertical drop.

Although you’ll find more skiers and snowboarders sporting locally made gear than Bogner jackets, that’s part of Whitewater’s charm and mystique. And that’s just the way Knee Deep plans to keep things as they roll out a 20-year master development agreement designed specifically to protect the “resort’s” backcountry culture.

skiwhitewater.com

GETTING THERE
No matter where you travel in B.C.’s wintry heartland these days, mountain culture is a word you’ll hear a lot. And with good reason. When it comes to mellowing out in the white world, mellow is as mellow does, and evermore shall be so.

Of course, smooth transportation is key to reaching British Columbia’s winter resorts. Before skiers and snowboarders set foot or other parts of their anatomies on chairlifts or gondolas, particularly at mellow mountain destinations tucked away beyond major transportation hubs, they must first reach a gateway.

Amid a world of airline cutbacks, British Columbia stands out from the crowd. One highly anticipated move, slated for mid-December, will see the newly-expanded Canadian Rockies International Airport in Cranbrook host Delta Air Lines’ first direct flight to the Kootenay Rockies from its Salt Lake City hub, with easy connections from other major destinations throughout the U.S. Get ready to head out on the Powder Highway for the winter safari of your dreams. Here you’ll find deep snow, funky towns and some of the most down-home, stash-laden, adventure-packed ski resorts on the continent. Whether you’ve got lift access, cat- or heli-skiing in mind, more than 50 choices are showcased in the Kootenay Rockies, with Fernie Alpine Resort (skifernie.com), Kimberley Alpine Resort (skikimberley.com), Panorama Mountain Village (panorama-resort.com), Red Mountain Resort (redresort.com), Whitewater Ski Resort (skiwhitewater.com) and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort (kickinghorse-resort.com) as just a few of the possibilities. Recently, airlines such as Westjet have added routes to smaller centres such as Comox Valley Airport, home to Mount Washington Alpine Resort (mountwashington.ca) on central Vancouver Island, and expanded their schedules at Kelowna International Airport on the doorsteps of Silver Star Mountain Resort (skisilverstar.com), Big White Ski Resort (bigwhite.com) and Apex Mountain Resort (apexresort.com) in the Okanagan Valley.

The big news this year for Sun Peaks Resort (sunpeaksresort.com) farther north in the Thompson Okanagan region, is that as of mid-December, Westjet will begin scheduled daily service into Kamloops from Calgary. This is a dream come true, not just for the resort’s owners but also for Sun Peaks’ legion of loyal fans.

Phew! So little time, so much snow, and so many more ways to carve fresh tracks in a hurry this year.

Jack Christie, Special to The Sun

Columbia Sportswear and the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association announced today a six-year agreement under which Columbia will become the official outfitter of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Team. As part of the agreement, Columbia will provide training and competition outerwear to the team through the 2013/2014 ski season.

“We are excited to be able to confirm a great partner like Columbia for the next six years and to be able to associate our sport with such a strong and successful skiwear brand,” said Freestyler Peter Judge.

“The Canadian team, and freestyle skiing in general, represents many of the key attributes that make the Columbia brand a leading choice in innovative, active, authentic, outdoor products,” said Jeff Timmins, Marketing Manager, Columbia Sportswear Canada. “This is the type of marketing and product partner our company and retailers can really leverage; and the athletes on the Canadian team have always been great representatives for their sponsors.”

The Men’s Canadian Alpine Ski Team will have nine skiers participating in the Bombardier Lake Louise Winterstart training runs, Alpine Canada Alpin announced today.

Training runs begin on Wednesday prior to Saturday’s Bombardier Winterstart downhill and Sunday’s Bombardier Winterstart super G races.

Erik Guay (Mont-Tremblant, QC), a FIS Alpine World Cup downhill winner in 2007 with nine career World Cup podiums, is joined by Manuel Osborne-Paradis (Vancouver, BC), who finished the Winterstart downhill in second place in 2006 and Jeffrey Frisch (Mont-Tremblant, QC), the 2006 Pontiac GMC Canadian downhill champion.

John Kucera (Calgary, AB), the Bombardier Lake Louise Winterstart SG winner in 2006, is also racing along with François Bourque (New Richmond, QC), who has been on a World Cup podium four times, and Robbie Dixon (Whistler, BC), who finished fourth in a SG last season in Kvitfjell, NOR.

Men’s Team head coach Paul Kristofic said six Canadians will race in Saturday’s downhill while there will be seven Canadians in the SG on Sunday.

“Training has been really good. Everybody’s healthy and has been working really hard. We have had a long training period here in Canada, mostly at Nakiska, and everybody’s definitely ready to get things going,” said Kristofic.

Alpine Canada Alpin will announce details of the ladies team early next week.

Organizers of the ‘Bombardier presents Lake Louise Winterstart World Cup’ received approval last Wednesday from the International Ski Federation (FIS) to proceed with final preparations for the opening speed events of the 2008/2009 Men’s FIS Alpine World Cup season.
The weekend’s races are televised in Canada by CBC and are expected to reach an audience of more than 140 million viewers worldwide.

Lake Louise first hosted a World Cup race in 1980 and has seen five Canadians reach the podium in the last two seasons, including victories by Kucera and Jan Hudec (Calgary, AB).

BOMBARDIER LAKE LOUISE WINTERSTART
Men’s Canadian Alpine Ski Team – Scheduled to participate in downhill training (Six to compete in the downhill race)
François Bourque - New Richmond, QC (Pin Rouge)
Robbie Dixon - Whistler, BC (Whistler Mountain Ski Club)
Jeffrey Frisch - Mont-Tremblant, QC (Mont Tremblant)
Erik Guay - Mont-Tremblant, QC (Mont-Tremblant)
Louis-Pierre Hélie – Berthierville, QC (Mont-Ste-Anne)
John Kucera - Calgary, AB (Calgary Alpine Racing Club)
Manuel Osborne-Paradis - Vancouver, BC (Whistler Mountain Ski Club)
Paul Stutz - Banff, AB (Banff Alpine Racers)
* Stefan Guay - Mont-Tremblant, QC (Mont-Tremblant)

Men’s Canadian Alpine Ski Team – Scheduled to participate in Super G
François Bourque - New Richmond, QC (Pin Rouge)
Erik Guay - Mont-Tremblant, QC (Mont-Tremblant)
John Kucera - Calgary, AB (Calgary Alpine Racing Club)
Robbie Dixon - Whistler, BC (Whistler Mountain Ski Club)
Jeffrey Frisch - Mont-Tremblant, QC (Mont Tremblant)
Manuel Osborne-Paradis - Vancouver, BC (Whistler Mountain Ski Club)
Stefan Guay - Mont-Tremblant, QC (Mont-Tremblant)

* competing in super G only

Seven out of ten Kootenay residents want to protect the Flathead River Valley as a national park, according to new polling results released today by Wildsight and Sierra Club BC. The poll, conducted by McAllister Opinion Research, found that 73 per cent of residents in East Kootenay, Nelson-Creston and Columbia River-Revelstoke favour protecting the Flathead River Valley in southeastern B.C.

The Flathead River Valley is compared to Africa’s Serengeti for its richness of plant species and was recently called “a nursery” for wildlife by Canadian Geographic magazine. The valley is under threat from proposals for coal strip mining, coalbed methane drilling and unbridled mineral extraction.

Only 16 percent of residents polled said they oppose a national park in the Flathead.

Sierra Club BC and Wildsight are calling for the lower one-third of the Flathead River Valley to be protected as a national park and for a Wildlife Management Area to be established in the rest of this biologically-rich valley. B.C.’s Flathead River Valley is a key area in the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative and an integral part of the “Crown of the Continent” eco-region that includes Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park in Alberta and Montana–a World Heritage Site and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

“People who live here know the Flathead River Valley deserves the same level of protection and recognition as Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park,” said Casey Brennan, Wildsight’s Southern Rockies program manager. “These polling results confirm the impression we get from talking to people around the Kootenays-that they love nature and want to make sure it’s properly protected.”

“The Flathead River is one of North America’s last wild rivers and has some of the purest water in the world,” said Sierra Club BC spokesperson Sarah Cox. “The water is used by scientists as a benchmark by which to measure water quality in rivers around the world. The Flathead is much more than just another pretty valley and it deserves permanent protection.”

Parks Canada has included the Flathead Valley in its National Parks Action Plan but needs approval from the B.C. government before proceeding.

For more information visit www.flathead.ca

1)    Development Variance Permits approved:

a)    Development Variance Permit No. 206 was approved for 400 Canyon Trail to vary the minimum side yard setback to facilitate the construction of a new single family detached home.

b)  Development Variance Permit No. 208 was approved for 892 6th Avenue (the Raging Elk Hostel Ltd.) to vary the required off-street parking from 51 parking spaces to 11 parking spaces to facilitate the opening of a 62 seat lounge in the Hostel..

2)    The East Kootenay Region of the BC Wildlife     Federation - will be holding the 2009 B.C. Wildlife     Federation Convention and Annual General Meeting from     April 22 – 25, 2009.

Council approved a grant-in-aid to the Fernie Rod and Gun     Club for one day rental at the Community Centre which     will be used as the main convention area.

3)    Sewer Treatment Plant Loan Authorization
Council approved borrowing from the Municipal Finance Authority of British Columbia of $1,300,000 as authorized by Sewer Treatment Plant Loan Authorization Bylaw No. 2072 and requested that the Regional District of East Kootenay consent to the borrowing over a period of 20 years and include the borrowing in their security issuing bylaw for the Spring 2009 MFA debt issue.

4)    UBCM Community Tourism Program Phase 2 funding application -Development and Enhancement of the Municipal Website
Council approved the November 20, 2008 Application for the UBCM Community Tourism Program Phase 2 for the Development and Enhancement of the Municipal Website.

The City is entitled to receive $26,196.42.  $5000 of the City’s allocation was dedicated to improvements of the Coal Discovery Trail. The City has $21,196.42 remaining under the Phase 2 entitlement and it is recommended that those funds be accessed for the development and enhancement of the municipal website for tourism and marketing and the promotion of Fernie. If approved, City funds will be combined with program funding to better serve the needs of residents and businesses and provide more online tools such as updated land use and development information, online forms and bill payments.

5)    Elk Valley Regional Airport Service Establishment
Bylaw No. 2104 a bylaw that would convert the Elk Valley Airport ‘function to a ‘service.’  The original bylaw contained a maximum requisition of $0.10/$1000 of taxable assessment of land and improvements.  Council voiced concern regarding this amount indicating they would support the conversion of the Elk Valley Airport function to a service but not support a requisition maximum greater than $0.04/$1000 of taxable assessment of land and improvements.  The RDEK took this into consideration and amended the tax rate to $0.04/$1000 of taxable assessed value.  Council consented on behalf of the electors of the City of Fernie to the adoption of the proposed Regional District of East Kootenay Bylaw No. 2104 as amended.
The requisition limit as contained in the amended bylaw     allows approximately $120,000 to be levied in a year     leaving room for considerable growth in funding for the
service.

6)    Bylaws

a)  Bylaw No. 2079, cited as the Development Cost     Charge Bylaw No. 2079, 2008 received final adoption.

The new DCC Bylaw includes revised and updated capital     costs estimates for infrastructure expansion to     accommodate growth.

It is the City of Fernie’s philosophy that development should pay for any infrastructure required to facilitate growth.  The DCC objectives of the DCC Bylaw are simple and based entirely upon the premise that infrastructure costs should be paid by those who will use and benefit from the installation of such systems.  The City and its taxpayers cannot afford to subsidize development, but they do not wish to see development cease because critical infrastructure is unavailable or too costly for any one developer to construct.  Pooling the resources of all stakeholders will result in realistic charges levied to each entity thereby ensuring the construction of infrastructure required to facilitate the growth of Fernie.

b)  Bylaw No. 2087, cited as the Sewer Treatment Plant Temporary Borrowing Bylaw No. 2087, 2008 received first, second and third readings.
This bylaw authorizes the temporary borrowing of a portion of the estimated cost of constructing improvements to the Sewer Treatment Plan pending the sale of debentures.

c)  Bylaw No. 2084, cited as the Official Community Plan Bylaw No. 1923, Amendment No. 15, 2008 was read a first and second time and referred to a Public Hearing.  (Applicant: Reto Barrington, Glen Park Management, 736402 Alberta Ltd., 0743134 BC Ltd.
Council authorized staff to initiate a referral process to be undertaken to the agencies and ministries as outlined in the staff report for this bylaw.

The Official Community Plan amendment proposes major revisions to the Bylaw to facilitate the development of the Coal Creek Golf Resort.

7)    Letters of Support

a) BC Ambulance and Paramedics of British     Columbia - Council will forward a letter of support to the     BC Ambulance Service insisting that the BC Ambulance     Station # 406 in Fernie have a car and crew ready to     respond at all times.

b)  British Olympic Alpine Ski Team -
Council will forward a letter of invitation and support to     the British Olympic Alpine Ski Team to use Fernie as their     pre-2010 Olympic training area.

Mayor Macnair noted Councils achievements over the past three years and thanked the outgoing Council for their tireless efforts  over the past term to ensure that Fernie continues to be a wonderful place to live.

Members of the Fernie Ski Patrol embarked on their annual Avalanche Awareness Campaign this week, educating over 1,200 students spanning Grades 1-12 about the importance of avalanche safety in the backcountry.

The Fernie Ski Patrol delivers programs to Elk Valley students tailored to specific age groups, focusing on concepts such as avalanche hazards and how to avoid them; backcountry and snowmobiling safety; and the importance of adhering to hazards and closures when visiting ski areas. Each session was between 45 minutes to 1 hour in length, teaching messages as simple as “always ski with a buddy” to knowing what to do in case of an emergency.

Learning about Avalanche Safety is of key importance to Elk Valley youth. Says Steve Ruskay, Avalanche Program Educator and Member of the Fernie Alpine Resort Ski Patrol, “These students are lucky enough to live in an area that gets a great deal of snow every winter, and they will likely be involved in recreational and backcountry activity at some point in their lives. We feel it is important to educate kids from a young age so that we can spark an interest in safety, and they become more aware about resources available to learn more about traveling safely in the backcountry.”

Fernie Alpine Resort’s Patrol Team has been delivering this program for close to 10 years, and the resort takes an active role in safety. Last year, Fernie Alpine Resort provided a $12,000 cash donation to the Canadian Avalanche Foundation. The ski resort is also a strong participant in the annual nation-wide Avalanche Awareness Days program and is a venue for Canadian Avalanche Rescue Dog Association training. The Fernie Ski Patrol is highly trained in mountain safety and education, and make guest safety a top priority at the ski resort known for its Legendary Powder.

Throughout the winter season, the Fernie Ski Patrol also offers a series of lectures available to student and non-student groups visiting the ski resort. Sessions are two hours long, and cover topics such as avalanche danger, weather study plots, use of avalanche rescue equipment, basic search techniques, and the CARDA rescue dog program. For more information about these programs, please contact Fernie Alpine Resort at (250) 423-4655.

Organizers of the ‘Bombardier presents Lake Louise Winterstart World Cup’ received approval Wednesday from the International Ski Federation (FIS) to proceed with final preparations for the opening speed events of the 2008/2009 Men’s FIS Alpine World Cup season starting Nov. 29.

The decision followed on-site course inspection and snow control by the FIS at the Lake Louise Ski Area. FIS officials will revisit the hill on Nov. 25 for approval of the ladies races.

“Staff and volunteers have been working hard to ensure the best possible conditions when the world’s top alpine racers come in Lake Louise to open the speed season,” said John Cassels, who for 14 years has served as chairman of the Race Organizing Committee.

“Lake Louise has a proud tradition opening the World Cup speed season and thanks to dedicated staff, great volunteers and proud sponsors, we look forward to again welcoming the world in late November.”

The Bombardier Winterstart Men’s downhill and super G races are scheduled to take place Nov. 29 and Nov. 30. The Bombardier Winterstart Ladies downhill and super G will take place the following weekend.

This year, more people then ever can watch the best athletes in the world compete as the Race Organizing Committee has added a public seating bowl surrounding the finish area.

“We want everyone to be able to come out and watch the world’s fastest men and ladies race and then take a few runs of their own at this world renowned ski area,” added Cassels.

In the Festival Area, spectators can warm up by the fire with Bombardier, enjoy some President’s Choice cider, grab a cowbell from TELUS, test drive new HD products from Panasonic, munch on some chocolate from ATCO, get their picture taken with “Happy the Husky” or collect some Canadian athlete trading cards from WestJet.

On Nov. 29, after the Canadian Pacific Awards crowning the men’s downhill champion, spectators can also enjoy The Mocking Shadows, a free public concert sponsored by Banff Lake Louise Tourism.

The opening races of the World Cup speed season are televised in Canada by CBC and are expected to reach an audience of more than 140 million viewers worldwide.

Lake Louise first hosted a World Cup race in 1980 and has seen five Canadians reach the podium in the last two seasons, including victories by Jan Hudec (Calgary, AB) and John Kucera (Calgary, AB).

Lake Louise is the first resort outside of Europe ever to be named to the prestigious Club 5, the organization that brings together the most famous and historic World Cup alpine race courses in the world.

The Lake Louise Ski Area has been open to the public for skiing since Nov. 8, one of its earliest openings in recent years.

The Associated Press is reporting that the tony Yellowstone Club, the private powder reserve of multi-millionaires such as former Vice President Dan Quayle and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, has filed for bankruptcy.

The news comes after a long summer for America’s most famous private vertical resort.  Tim and Edra Blixseth, the club’s billionaire founders, recently divorced, and reports surfaced that the club was a key chit in the resulting division of wealth. Also, in August the club settled a lawsuit brought by club member and former Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, who claimed that Tim Blixseth had tried to buy out his minority stake in the club for less than its stated value.

According to the AP, spokesman Bill Keegan said the club filed for Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court in Montana following a failure to secure new financing.

The Yellowstone Club plans to reorganize its finances and emerge from bankruptcy “as soon as possible,” according to a company statement.

The MAST program at the college of the Rockies Fernie Campus have hung up their mountaineering boots for a while and are diving into certification and academic courses until there is enough snow to start Avalanche Skills Training. This program is for the those looking for adventure–full on!

The introductory hiking trip, in early September, took the class to the Mt. Fisher/Cliff Lake area ( 1.5 hrs from Fernie).

The mountaineering course took place in Bugaboo Provincial Park (3 hrs from Fernie)which is truly a world class destination for rock climbing and mountaineering.

A rock climbing course in Stone Hill Montana (1 hour from Fernie) saw the students progress to routes they never thought possible within a five day trip.

The weather just held out for the canoeing program at Kikomum Provincial Park (20 minutes from Fernie).

For more information visit www.cotr.bc.ca/mast