There was lots of excitement at the Kimberley Nordic Club trails on Sat. Feb. 12th and Sun. Feb. 13th as the club hosted a weekend of Kootenay Cup races, starting with the discovery of two vehicles on the course early Saturday morning when the groomer was putting the finishing touches to the race trails.

Apparently, two drivers mistook the main trail for a road, despite the abundance of snow, and attempted to drive along the trail until they got stuck on the first uphill. But quick work by members of the club executive and the groomer got the vehicles off the trails prior to the start of the races.

Seventy-seven people participated in the inter-club competition on Saturday and Sunday, with racers from Invermere, Calgary, Cranbrook, Kimberley (27 competitors), Nelson (25 ), Rossland (14) and Montana, Idaho and Washington states. The Saturday free technique (skating) race started at 1:00 PM with racers from age 4 to age 60. Highlights included the finish in the peewee boys category, with Quinn Barron (Nelson) finishing 1 sec. ahead of Matt Swallow (Invermere) in turn 1 sec. ahead of Jack McKimm (Nelson). Some of the fastest junior skiers in Canada competed in the junior boy and junior girl categories, with Julian Locke (Blackjack/Rossland) winning the 10 km. junior boys category (31 min. 19 sec.) over his brother Peter and Colin Ferrie and Stefan Sander-Green of Kimberley. Susanne Fraser (Blackjack) won the 5 km. junior girls event (18 min. 7 sec.) over team member Jill Reynolds and Nicole Perrin from Kimberley

Kimberley's Joe Buchar dominated the 15 km. event (52 min. 34 sec.), almost a minute ahead of Fred Bushell of Blackjack.

Sunday saw a new event for the Kootenay Cup series - the two person team sprint for the youth categories, in which each team members skis 3 laps of a sprint course. Perhaps the greatest excitement was in the Peewee girls category with a photo finish between Kimberley's team of Mackenzie Maclean and Molly Miller and the Nelson team of Michaela Maclean and Sophie Edney. The junior boys and girls again provided excitement over a technically-challenging 800 m. course, with the teams of Stefan Sander-Green and Peter Locke (Kimberley and Blackjack) and Susanne Fraser and Jasmine Maclean (Blackjack and Kimberley) winning the boys and girls categories respectively.

On Sunday, most adults chose to compete in the 20 km. classic distance race. Joe Buchar increased his domination over the men's field, finishing in a time of 1 hr. 16 min. 30 sec., 5 minutes faster than his closest competitor. Doris Hausleitner (Nelson) won the 20 km. women's overall event in a time of 1 hr. 24 min. 44 sec.

Overall, Kimberley Nordic Club members scored a total of 131 aggregate points towards the coveted 'Kootenay Cup' with Blackjack in second (94 points) and Nelson 3rd (83 points.) The final and deciding Kootenay Cup event is being held Feb. 26th - 27th at the Blackjack club in Rossland.