Halifax Nordic Ski Club Newsletter
In this week's newsletter:
  • Halifax Nordic Ski Club Annual General Meetting - July 22nd
  • 2019/20 Summary
June 21, 2020
Wrap to our 2020 season.
2019/2020 Ski Season
We hope that you are well and finding time to get out and enjoy nature in Nova Scotia now that the province is reopening.

Halifax Nordic Ski Club had a longer than usual ski season this year thanks to snow making at Brunello. Our first ski of the season on Halifax Nordic trails was Graves Oakley December 19th and our l ast was March 14th, just before the provincial state of emergency was declared .
Club AGM
Halifax Nordic Ski Club AGM
Halifax Nordic will have it's Annual General Meeting Wednesday, July 22nd @ 7pm. We will announce details on location closer to the date when we know if we are able to host an in-person AGM.


Halifax Nordic is growing and relies solely on volunteers to run the club. We need more members to come out and take on roles with Halifax Nordic so that we can continue to grow and offer more cross county skiing in and around HRM. We invite you to come to the club's AGM to see what goes on behind the scenes. If you would like to find out more about volunteering and joining the board, reach out to any of our current members, or contact us via email  info@halifaxnordic.ca . We are looking for new board members to join our board for the 2020-21 season.

AGM will be Wednesday, July 22nd at 7pm- location TBD.


Club Mission: To build a Community of active Nordic Skiers in the HRM.

Board of Directors
HNSC is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors, elected at the Annual General Meeting held each year.

Current Board members are:
Lorenzo Caterini– President
Brian Norman-Vice-President
Marc Campbell –Secretary
David Keefe- Treasurer
Tom Beazley – Grooming Director
Deirdre Evans- Marketing & Communications
Dave Hubley- Programs
Douglas Theedom- Governance

Halifax Nordic Ski Club 2019/20 Summary
Equipment
Snow making and lights made for more consistent skiing this winter. This year's option of having lessons on both Saturday mornings and Monday evenings worked very well as it gave people options other than just on weekends for the lessons. The Snow Bowl, although crowded at times, certainly saved our programs as we were once again able to offer a full winter program. We also added rental skis for people who wanted to try skiing. There were lots of improvements in skiing throughout the season as everyone became more comfortable on their skis.
·          Added snow making at Brunello extended the ski season.
·          Added lights for night skiing at Brunello.
·          Added a fleet of renta l skis.
Facilities
Halifax Nordic added a new trail this year to our current mix. We added Oakfield Golf Course and this was groomed by Oakfield employees for the first time on January 21 st . This new course and the Oakfield groomers are an important addition to our 6 trail network in and around HRM.

Growing the Ski Community
The club worked with CCNS to add a fleet of rental skis to facilitate community skiing and worked to get more Haligonians out on skis. This included:
·        working with schools in HRM
·        working with ISANS
·        holding social nights where people can come out and try skiing
 
We have struggled in the past as we did not have enough equipment for those who wanted to test out the sport before buying equipment. Last year we purchased several sets of adult classic skis to go along with the skate skis at Brunello. In addition, we worked with Cross Country Nova Scotia (CCNS) and thanks to Sport Nova Scotia and a Support4Sport grant, Halifax Nordic and CCNS received a grant to purchase a fleet of 30 sets of skis for children.

·          Schools ( 6 classes )~130 students) from HRM elementary schools were out on skis this winter
·          New Canadians – Hosted a group of 60 from ISANS (New Canadians Program)
·          Rental skis (Skate and Classic) available for the Tuesday Night Social Skis

Sunday, February 23rd, Halifax Nordic hosted a group from ISANS in the Snow Bowl at Brunello. We expected 20-30 and ended up with almost 60 smiling new Canadians of all ages in the snow bowl
Class of grade 3 students at John W MacLeod.
Lessons 
We had many skiers in lessons this season with lessons on both Saturday mornings and Monday nights.
·         Added Monday lessons as well as Saturday lessons
·         Hosted a Tuesday night social ski drop in
Competing
Although it required a back-up date and last minute registration to guarantee snow, HNSC was able to host the 2020 NS XC Ski Provincials at Oakfield Golf & Country Club. The event was a huge success. Despite little snow in the HRM, our dedicated grooming team was able to create a fun 2 km lap race course that gave us options for skiers of all ages.
We had 40 racers aged 7-70 join in on the action. Skate races were held on Day 1 and Classic Races were held under spring-like conditions on Day 2. Oakfield Golf Course was a great host and the clubhouse was an excellent place to watch the action or socialize afterwards.

The Dollar Lake loppet on Feb 16 th saw 29 racers out on the trails and some put in many kilometers around the loop..  

Ski Season:
1 st Grooming: Graves Oakley was groomed for cross county skiing December 19 th
Last ski: the brave were still skiing the lower part of the Brunello snow bowl March 14 th .

Thank you to our club sponsors, we are grateful for your generous support of our club and growing the cross country ski community.