The trails are groomed and the start/finish area is ready for photo finishes and fun starts for the Flin Flon Ski Club’s major annual event.
This year’s edition of the Val and Ivor Hedman Centaloppet is nearing and organizers are hoping for an increase in attendance.
The event - not a race or a competition, something Flin Flon Ski Club vice-president Dave Price is adamant about pointing out - takes place at the ski club March 1, with a start at 2 p.m. sharp. Skiers will make their way around the club’s trails, mostly based on the existing Valley Loop. In total, the event stretches for about 3.4 kilometres through the woods near the club’s chalet. Admission to the event is free.
Honours are given out to winners in several categories - to both the youngest and oldest skier, to the biggest smile, to the most tearful finish or the best dressed participant, one of the stiffer categories to win in recent years. The main honour of the lot is the Centaloppet Cup. Unlike a typical ski race, the winner of the cup is not just the first person across the line. The cup is awarded to the highest finisher according to a complicated points system that takes into account each skiers’ age, gender, overall time and other factors. Last year’s cup winner, Evelyn Mitchell, was six years old.
“It’s sort of a curve that accounts for that. The winner of the Centaloppet Cup, if you look all the little plaques on it, you’ll see people of all ages, both males and females,” Price said.
“It’s very scientific,” he said with a chuckle.
Organizers including Price hope to have more than a hundred skiers on the trails for the Centaloppet, which he said was the approximate total of participants at the event’s peak. Last year, only 43 skiers went around the circuit, but Price is hopeful that goal can be met.
“That's been our goal for many years because back in the early years, when it first started in late ‘70s and through the ‘80s, we would get a hundred or more skiers in there. Of course, the population was much bigger back then than it is now,” Price said.
“We've got a good membership this year. When the weather's been mild, we've had a lot of skiers out there and I know a number of families who are all gung-ho for being in the Centaloppet again this year.”
This year’s Centaloppet, the 45th edition of the event, will serve for some organizers and volunteers as a tune-up to a Saskatchewan Cup race the club will host in March. While the Centaloppet does require volunteer labour to run, Price said the number of people needed is low.
“I want to see lots of people actually skiing and we’ve got our small group of officials already lined up. [Getting volunteers] is not a big problem,” he said.
