Event Notice - 2016 Alberta Youth Cross Country Ski Championships - Bragg Creek, AB

2016 Alberta Youth Cross Country Ski Championships

Bragg Creek, AB

Date of event:  March 4-6, 2016

Host Club:  XC Bragg Creek

Co-Event Chiefs:  Roy Strum and Erik Anderson, XCBC

Assistant Chief:  Ann Sullivan, XCBC

Trails:  West Bragg Creek Ski Trails, Kananaskis Country

Background

Alberta Youth Championships (AYC) is a provincial-level event aimed at a four-year age grouping referred to in Alberta as Mini-midgets and Midgets (2002-2005 birth years).  This event is the club championship event for this age group in Alberta.  The 2016 AYC will incorporate several features:

-          Accommodation and food services included in registration cost

-          Three events (individual freestyle; wave start classic; team relays; single-year age categories; coach relays)

-          Awards to 10^th place in each competition category

Event structure

This comprehensive event proposal includes race events, awards, accommodations, waxing facilities, special events, and food services. 

Events

Friday, March 4, 2016

·         6:30 pm –  move in to Kamp Kiwanis, Bragg Creek, AB

·         8:30 pm – Team welcomes and introductions, snack and athlete social

·         8:30 pm – Team Captains/Coaches meeting; race bibs, start lists, course maps

Saturday, March 5, 2016

·         7:30 am – breakfast at Kamp Kiwanis

·         8:15am - first departure of 2 buses for West Bragg Creek Ski Trails; buses return to Kamp Kiwanis for second load of athletes and coaches

·    9:15am - second (and final) departure of 2 buses for West Bragg Creek Ski Trails

·         8:45-9:00 am – arrival at West Bragg Creek Ski Trails

·         10:00 am – Individual start skate race, AYC categories

·         1:30 pm - relays

·         2:45 pm – end of competition, return to Kamp Kiwanis, 4 buses pick up at 2:45

– coaches meeting 4:30pm

·      5:45pm – AYC banquet at Kamp Kiwanis; meal, awards

·         8:00 pm – athlete dance and coaches social

·         9:00pm – end of program

Sunday, March 6, 2016

·         7:30 am – breakfast at Kamp Kiwanis

·         8:00 am – move out of Kamp Kiwanis

·         8:30 am – departure for West Bragg Creek Ski Trails (no bus service on Sunday)

·         8:45-9:00 am – arrival at West Bragg Creek Ski Trails

·         9:30 am – seeded wave classic (groups of 6 athletes; 30-second intervals – based on Saturday’s results)

·         12:00 pm – lunch on-site at West Bragg Creek; individual and team aggregate awards

·         1:00 pm departure from West Bragg Creek for home

Event details

Event Categories – Alberta Youth Championships

Date	Competition Category	Year of Birth	Distance	Technique
Sat., March 5, 2016 – 10:00 am	Midget	2002-2003	3km	skate - interval
Sat., March 5, 2016	Mini-midget	2004-2005	2km	skate - interval
Sat., March 5, 2016 – 1:30 pm	4 x 1 km relay – official teams	at least two boys and two girls; at least two mini-midgets	1km	leg 1 and 2 - classic leg 3 and 4 - skate
Sat., March 5, 2016	4 x 1 km relay – unofficial teams	Any combination	1km	leg 1 and 2 classic leg 3 and 4 skate
Sat., March 5, 2016	Coach club relay - 3 coaches/chaperones	Club coaches and parents	1	leg 1 classic leg 2 and 3 skate
Sun., March 6, 2016– 930am	Midget	2002-2003	5km	Classic wave start
Sun., March 6, 2016– 1110am	Mini-midgets	2004-2005	2.5km	Classic wave start

Awards

Medals to 10^th place in each competition category

Club aggregate banner – awarded to the team with the most points based on the following table.  Points will be calculated only for individual and official relay events.  Only the top 10 skiers from each club will accrue points toward the aggregate banner.

-          Awarded according to the following criteria

Finish position	Points	Finish position	Points	Finish position	Points	Finish position	Points
1st	100	2nd	80	3rd	70	4th	60
5th	50	6th	40	7th	30	8th	25
9th	20	10th	15	11th	14	12th	13
13th	12	14th	11	15th	10	16th	9
17th	8	18th	7	19th	6	20th	5
21st and greater	1

Trail grooming – by Kananaskis Country and Greater Bragg Creek Trails Association

Event site details – West Bragg Creek Ski Trails are located entirely within Kananaskis Country, 8 km west of the Hamlet of Bragg Creek, AB.  Base elevation of trails is 1450m; high point on Stairway to Heaven race course is 1480 m.  Average snowfall – 50-100 cm.  Average ski season – beginning December to mid-March.  The trails are the closest Kananaskis Country trails to Calgary and are heavily used by locals and recreational skiers from the greater Calgary area.  It is the only greater Calgary area ski area that permits dogs on the ski trails.  The trails were designed in the early 1980s by Don Gardner primarily as race trails and are the same vintage as Peter Lougheed and Ribbon Creek trail systems.  Course maps will be posted on www.xcbraggcreek.ca

Accommodation

Registration in the AYC includes accommodation at Kamp Kiwanis, located in the greater Bragg Creek area.  The event committee is aiming to create a social experience in addition to a ski experience.  We would like all athletes regardless of their place of residence to stay at the camp. The facility includes bunk beds in dorm rooms. Everyone staying at Kamp Kiwanis will need to bring their own sleeping bag, pillow, towel and toiletries. Building on the successful model from Alberta Winter Games, chaperones, athletes and coaches will all be accommodated at Kamp Kiwanis.  The camp has mroe than 250 beds on site and has been reserved for AYC for March 4-6, 2016.  www.kampkiwanis.ca

Parents and younger or older siblings will be required to find their own accommodation. (Cochrane is located 20 km north of Kamp Kiwanis.) http://www.super8.com/Super8/control/Booking/property_info?propertyId=12839&cid=IP_PPC_GGL_TM

Waxing space

The hobby hut at Kamp Kiwanis will be available as an indoor waxing room.  The space is heated.  Electricity is available. No electricity or waxing building is available at West Bragg Creek Ski Trails.  Clubs are encouraged to bring their own tent or shelter if desired to use at West Bragg Creek Ski Trails.

Food Services

Food services will be included in the AYC registration cost. Food services are being provided by Kamp Kiwanis. The following meals will be included in the event registration:

A snack of fruit will be provided on Friday evening.

Breakfast – Saturday on-site at Kamp Kiwanis

Lunch – Saturday -- bag lunch

Supper – Saturday at Kamp Kiwanis

Breakfast – Sunday on-site at Kamp Kiwanis

Lunch – Sunday – bag lunch

Any other food (trail snacks, Gatorade, etc.) required by teams will need to be supplied by individual teams.

Average early March air temperature in Bragg Creek – average daytime high of +2; average overnight low of -8.

Registration and Event Fees

Registration – www.zone4.ca

-          $140 – all categories if registered by Jan. 15, 2016

-          $190 – all categories if registered by Feb. 29, 2016,  8pm

AYC - $95 – coaches, parents, chaperones – registration closing date of Feb. 29, 2016, 8pm

Contact Information:

Roy Strum, Co Chief of Event, 403-862-1042, roystrum@gmail.com

 Erik Anderson, Co Chief of Event, 403-830-4835, erik.anderson@safari.ca

online registration link

https://zone4.ca/reg.asp?id=10809&lan=1&cartlevel=1

2016 Alberta Youth Cross Country Ski Championships - initial information

Greetings folks,

We are pleased to announce that XC Bragg Creek Ski Club will once again be hosting the Alberta Youth Cross Country Ski Championships.  This year's youth champs will take place the weekend of March 4-6, 2016 on the recently improved ski trails at West Bragg Creek in Kananaskis Country.

Registration will be live on zone4.ca by Wed Dec 23, 2015.  As in previous years, an early registration fee is in effect to encourage people to register early so that we can confirm the number of camp buildings we need at Kamp Kiwanis.  This year's early registration fee is $140 and includes accommodation and five meals and event and trail fees.  The early registration is in effect until Jan 15, 2016, afterwhich the registration rises to $190.  Please register early, as Camp Kiwanis would like us to be able to tell them with some degree of certainty how many buildings we need for our event.

Since 2012,  the AYC has grown into the largest children's provincial level event for cross country skiing in Alberta.  We regularly have had over 150 children in the four year age group of minimidget and midget participating (compared to about 80 athletes in this age group at Alberta Winter Games).  AYC has become an important event for our club in Bragg Creek to host and we are pleased to be able to pull this event together.

race notice and event updates will be posted on our event blog http://albertayouthchamps.blogspot.ca/   You can also follow updates on our club twitter feed @xcbraggcreek and also on our website - xcbraggcreek.ca

This year the event chiefs will be Roy Strum and Erik Anderson.  Roy has been the chief of event at many of the AYC since 2009.  Erik was the chief of course the last couple of years at AYC and will be sharing the chief duties with Roy this year.

AYC 2016 will be the fifth edition of the event in Bragg Creekand is for children born in the calendar years 2002-2005.  Our trails are 1400m above sea level, the same elevation as the Canmore Nordic Centre.  The local trails association and Kananaskis Country do an excellent job of grooming.  You may recall last year, when there was no snow anywhere in southern Alberta we were able to successfully host the AYC at West Bragg.  

XC Bragg Creek is a small town ski club serving the communities of Bragg Creek, Redwood Meadows, Cochrane, and Priddis.  We are a growing club led by our head coach, CCA Coach of the Year 2014, Flora Giesbrecht.

Please share this information with anyone and everyone who you think might be interested in reading it.

thanks

Roy Strum 

CoChief, AYC 2016

Bragg Creek

a last update - 2015 Alberta Youth Cross Country Ski Championships

Hi folks

 

 

condtions are great in bragg creek - two days out from the event and we have lots of fresh snow and -10 in bragg creek today.

I have attached the rooming list - you can print this off if you want and bring along your copy so you know where you and your kids are staying at camp kiwanis. I went through the confirmation list this morning and am pretty confident i didnt miss anybody. - let me know if i did.

Arrival

- please plan to arrive between 630 and 700pm - Camp Kiwanis is at the intersection of higways 8&22 north of bragg creek, west of calgary, south of cochrane.

- please plan to be all moved in and settled in time for our welcome meeting at 8pm - this will be a short 10 minute welcome followed by snack - there will be some bowls of fruit set out.

this meeting will take place in the dining hall of Kiwanis lodge (the big building).

coaches - we will have our coaches meeting directly following the welcome meeting.this meeting will take place in the upstairs multipurpose room in Kiwanis Lodge

relay teams - please register your teams for the relay before you arrive at Kiwanis on friday - https://zone4.ca/reg.asp?id=8909

official relay teams are 2 boys, 2girls, at least 2 minimidgets (born 2003, 2004) all from the same club

unofficial teams are any any combination of boys/girls/midgets/minimidgets from any combination of clubs

lots of teams have already done this - thank you very much! As you will notice when you register your teams our relay has returned to the 2012 format of two legs of classic to start followed by 2 legs of skating. The organizing committee decided this to recognize our sport has two disciplines and at a provincial championships we should have both skating and classic legs. we realize this creates some more work for coaches, but the event is about the kids, and creating opportunities for success. we think doing 2 legs classic and 2 legs skating will provide opportunities for success for some kids, plan to wear a costume!

waxing spaces - Roper is the name of the cabin that we have as an indoor waxing space at Camp Kiwanis - it is heated, with lots of plug ins - bring your own forms, etc.

waxing at west bragg - there is no electricity, water at west bragg - come prepared with a generator. also, bring lots of water.

busing information - new this year we are providing buses for transportation of kids and chaperones on saturday. we realize many of the coaches will head off earlier in their own vehicles to west bragg. there will be two bus pick ups at kiwanis

815 - intended for the midgets who start at 10am

915 - intended for the minimidgets who start at 11am

minimidgets can ride the first bus, but push comes to shove, the midgets get first priority as they start first.

it is a 20 minute bus ride from kiwanis to west bragg.

245-300pm buses will depart west bragg for camp kiwanis

430pm coaches meeting

6pm - ayc banquet - followed by program at 645 - in keeping with our tradition of having a successful athlete present at ayc each year, this year we are pleased to have Annika Hicks, former alberta ski team, cdn jr team athlete sharing her story of becoming a ski racer.

we will also present awards during our program

- medals to 10th place in each of single year, single sex categories

- medals for 1st - 3rd in official relay

- medals for 1st place in the unnoficial relay

8pm - dance for kids in venturer lodge; coaches/chaperone social in mulitpurpose room in kiwanis lodge

followed by bedtime - dance will shut down about 845-9pm

We are very pleased with the response by clubs in AB, SK, and NWT to this event. we have 145 kids registered, 15 ski clubs, including some new clubs joining this year who havent participated in teh past including Fort Smith Ski Club from NWT. Welcome! Our hope is that the event continues to grow each year and becomes the biggest, most important event on the yearly calendar for the four year age group of minimidget and midget.

We will see you soon - we are very thrilled to host the event and to have such excellent conditions with mild temperatures forecast for west bragg on the weekend!

give me a call or email if you have any other questions.

Thanks

Roy Strum

Chief of Event

2015 Alberta Youth Cross Country Ski Championships

5 days till 2015 Alberta Youth Cross Country Ski Championships

Things are looking great in Bragg Creek for this coming weekend's AYC.  While it snowed very little in Calgary and Canmore the past week, Bragg Creek has received 4 days of snow and conditions are great!  This morning, we are receiving another big dump of snow - at this point we are very confident we will be skiing at West Bragg Trails this weekend.  Here are a few images from my ski there on Sunday March 1, 2015.
S

West Bragg Meadow - this is our Stadium - start-finish area

this is West Crystal line - a new trail we will use as part of this year's AYC

our trail groomers, Carver and Jeff, on the new West Crystal Link Climb that will be part of the 3k skate course and 2.5/5k classic courses

top of stairway to heaven descent that will be used as part of 3k skate course and 2.5/5k classic races

at the bottom of the toboggan hill about 1k from the end of the skate race course

another view of West Bragg Meadow Stadium

Stadium Maps - AYC 2015. West Bragg Ski Trails

Here are the stadium maps for the 2015 Alberta Youth Cross Country Ski Championships in Bragg Creek.

Saturday March 7, 2015 - Individual Start - Skate race - Stadium map

Saturday afternoon, Mar 7, 2015 - 4x1km Relay - Stadium map

Sunday morning, March 8, 2015 - Wave start Classic race - Stadium map