If not for the pandemic, Jennifer Bania and her husband Tom would likely be relaxing on a white sand beach in Costa Rica or Mexico.
But with borders closed, quarantines in place and international travel a bit of a risky venture, the Prince George couple are sticking close to home where they get to enjoy an alternate type of whiteout, making tracks with their cross-country skis on the dog trails at Otway Nordic Centre.
They picked up their granddog Frankie Sunday morning and gave the two-year-old French bulldog his first-ever chance to accompany them while they got their exercise skiing.
“For me it’s a health thing, you enjoy it but it sure keeps your blood pressure down,” said Tom Bania, 69, who skis with his 69-year-old wife four or five times a week when they’re not away on their two-month vacations. “This is our first time out this year. We’ve been hiking the trails and now that there’s snow we can ski.”
Franklin was getting lots of treats and he wasn’t alone. He was among a pack of dogs out with their owners taking advantage of their surroundings on the designated dog trails. New overnight snow, combined with a 10-centimetre dump earlier in the weekend made for ideal early-season trail conditions and it certainly wasn’t cold, with the temperature hovering near the freezing mark.
The Caledonia Nordic Ski Club which maintains Otway has had a surge of new members this year and has already passed the 2,000 mark, an all-time high with than 200 more season passes sold than all of the 2019-20 season. Skiers found last March and April when the COVID outbreak first hit that skiing was one of the few sports that could be done safely, with a low risk of becoming infected by the virus. Club officials say that’s had a carry-over effect which has swelled membership.
Jon Smith moved to Prince George in late-May from the San Francisco Bay area and the 42-year-old mechanical engineer plans to become a frequent user of the ski trails, having grown up in New Brunswick racing on skis and mountain bikes. Smith’s brother Mike works at UHNBC as an emergency doctor and for several years Jon has been coming north to join him on trips to do backcountry skiing. Jon bought a pair skis when he was in California but the closest ski area was Lake Tahoe, about a five-hour drive away, on a good day without traffic. For most Prince George people, Otway is 20 minutes away.
“I’m slowly getting used to the winter here, this is my first real winter in about 16 years,” said Smith. “It’s good to be here, especially with all the chaotic stuff going on down in the States. We were right in the middle of lockdown when I left, it was pretty crazy.
“The snow here is beautiful, awesome glide, great conditions, well-packed. It’s not groomed for classic yet. I hate waxing for classic, I’m a skater.”
Barb Kane prefers the classic technique and she had her dog out for some exercise on what was a tough slog on the wet sticky snow.
“I don’t have the right wax on,” said Kane. “So it was a combination of cross-country skiing and hiking. They haven’t groomed it, they just rolled it.”
Sunday was Kane’s third trip to trails in the past week.
“It’s amazing for this time of year, I know some other people skied in October,” said Kane. “It’s definitely worth getting out here now.”
