Alberta Youth Cross Country Ski Championships: 2016 AYC is a Go!

2016 Alberta Youth Cross Country Ski Championships is ON!

Greetings Coaches, Parents, Athletes attending the 2016 AYC in Bragg Creek,

We are very pleased to announce that the 2016 AYC will take place at West Bragg Ski Trails from March 4-6, 2016. The organizing committee met yesterday at West Bragg Trails to make a decision about the conditions. After skiing and walking the trails, the organizing committee has decided that conditions are suitable for the event to be held at West Bragg Ski Trails. Yesterday the trails were hard packed with new snow over top and very skiable. The forecast for the week has several days of snow and cooler temperatures and with our renovator, we believe we can have very nice trails to ski on come friday. Our organizing committee will be meeting on thursday evening to make a final decision on race loops to be used for saturday's indiv skate race and relay.

Don't expect stellar corduroy conditions. Do expect skiable conditions on snow covered trails. Snow is very granular ice cystal snow mixed with fresh snow. Trails are all white - no brown, no sticks or needles - what I would describe as very skiable trails. There is considerable snow in the forest alongside the trails and so even if we get a week of +15, we have alot to work with and a series of smaller loops that we can use for the race trails if we need to. We have a shovel brigade organized for wednesday this week to shovel some snow onto key places. Our stadium area is in excellent condition. Trails are safe to ski on, but not the Canmore Nordic Centre.

West Bragg Ski Trails are at 1400m, the same elevation as the Canmore Nordic Centre. The competition trails at West Bragg are all on a north facing hillside that are protected from most of the direct winter sunlight. In addition, the Greater Bragg Creek Trails Association have purchased new equipment the last couple of years and so the trails are in great shape considering the weather all over southern Alberta. We saw this last year as well, where the trails had snow coverage, and yet there was no snow to be seen anywhere in southern Alberta.

Here are a few images from yesterday, Sunday Feb 28, 2016.