The date has been looming for weeks, and now it’s almost here we thought we’d put together a short guide to prepare for it! Tuesday, January 10th is the first of our Nordic Ski Races at Cypress Mountain, and the conditions are looking fantastic. We are hoping for our biggest season EVER and would encourage you to come out and race, and bring your friends and family too.
If you’ve never done a Nordic Tuesday Night Race before, or if this is your 100th, prep pretty much remains the same.
- Start Time and Location
Registration opens at 6pm, with the race starting at 7pm. You want to make sure that you give yourself time to register (the first race you do, everyone has to sign a waiver which tends to slow things down), and to warm up, but not to get cold before the start.
The race start is at the [yet to be completed] Hollyburn Day Lodge, so make sure you have time to get to the start and be ready to go at 7pm.
- Race Route
The route is a 4.3km loop of the floodlit trails. It encompasses uphills, downhills and bends and is NOT sign-posted for the race so best thing to do is to practice the route beforehand so you don’t get lost. To perform best, you also want to be able to ski the whole route without stopping – sounds like an easy feat but with all those ups and downs, it can feel like a marathon.
- Race Format
The first race is Guess Your Lap Time, with an individual start. Make sure that, even though you start off on your own, you don’t get caught up in the frenzy of the first kilometre. It can be a looooooooonnnnnngggggg 4.3km so make sure you pace yourself – it’s best to start easy and finish hard.
- Other skiers
As much as we’d like to close down Cypress just for our race, they don’t let us do that (haha) so please be aware that there are skiers up there who are not racing. Be courteous, and leave plenty of room between yourself and others.
- ENJOY IT!
The main motivation for our races is for people to get out on the trails and enjoy themselves. We have people taking part who have never raced before, as well as our veterans and race club members and we welcome everyone the same. Don’t take it too seriously, have fun, and come back the week after and try again.
