The
season really got under way over the festive period with good snowfalls
before & after Christmas. Unfortunately there just
wasn’t any or enough snow on the right days for ski
orienteering, Clash Time trials or the Gordonstoun Pursuit races. This
all changed for the Gordonstoun Marathon & at long last Chris
Barton had snow for one of his events (see
below). Once again I have news on the wind farm & Ski
Centre developments, I hope it isn’t too boring, but it is
important that the Club is actively involved in these things. It is
important that anytime we write or speak about contentious issues we
use choose our words carefully, remember when the dust settles we will
probably have to carry on working with the same people. One thing I
have learnt in my dealings with officialdom is that shouting the
loudest is not always the most productive route, persistence in more
important.
Away
from all this; there is a bit of controversy over who was first in the
annual Clash Challenge of skiing the Haute Route. Sandy &
myself thought we were the first on 20th Dec in
fading light & wild conditions. However a counter claim has
been put forward by Lester Standen who in October, along with several
others, skied part of the Haute Route, there was not enough snow for a
complete loop. So there you have it. Was it Lester & a partial
loop in October or Sandy & Pete & a complete loop in
December?
Have
any of you tried Ebay for ski equipment? Well Alan Telford has been
kitting him self out with a good pair of track boots for less than
£10 & a brand new pair of telemark skis with bindings
for £100, the skis alone are worth over £200. I bought some waxes very
cheaply. Worth a look.
Lottery Success.
The
Club has successfully obtained an Awards for All Lottery Grant to the
value £2980. This money will be used to buy race bibs,
printout stopwatch, two-way radios & various race marking
equipment including, especially for Roy,
a megaphone. We will also be getting two pairs of Trailskates (rough
terrain roller skis/skates) for trials in our local forests when there
is no snow. This is the second grant we have received & we
should start thinking now about what we can apply for in our next grant.
Ski Centre Developments.
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You will all have probably seen that work is well under way with the Ski Centre developments. Why start the work in the driest summer we’ve had for years when you can dig muddy holes in the winter? Progress is being made but obviously there will be delays because of the weather. The new generation artificial track is scheduled to be laid during February. The tarmac will have to wait for a spell of warmer weather – in February?! But progress is being made & once finished we will have a great facility & it will look better once the grass has re-grown & the new trees are planted. Andy Miller claimed the honour of the first person to ski the roller ski track (on snow) over the festive period. Recently the Centre took delivery of its tubing rings for the new downhill slope but with all the snow they had to be tested. They were a hit with everyone & it was very difficult to get Roy away from his so other people could have a go, Eileen had to speak in very strong terms to him. |
Clashindarroch.
The
latest on the wind farm is that the Marr Area Committee voted against
the wind farm (at a public meeting Sandy represented the Club &
made a brief, well presented statement). However the full Aberdeenshire
Council Planning Committee voted to support AMEC’s
application but with something like 30 conditions. Skiing was
recognised as something that needed protection but I am not sure how
the Council worded this. I had heard that the Planning Dept felt that
it was a difficult condition to write. Sandy managed to get articles in
the P&J, where she was a page three girl (www.thisisnorthscotland.co.uk),
and the Scotsman (http://sport.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=75502004)
In
the meantime Lester Standen has suggested that the Club support a
community buy out of part of the Clashindarroch Forest. Lester has been
in contact with various groups to see whether this is a feasible
option. The Club would not be the prime mover but only one of many
supporting bodies. Lester will investigate this option further
& report back to the membership. Should you have any questions
please contact Lester directly (tel: 01466 794560, email: rmr@elizabeth1st.freeserve.co.uk)
or if you wish to make comments send them to me.
The
Club has a diversity of views for & against wind farms in
general & the Clash in particular. The one thing that does
appear to unite us is the desire to see no negative impact to the
skiing. The Club has had no official opinion for or against the wind
farm as a whole. However this does not mean we should not investigate
Lester's idea further. Before the Club could go down this road there
would have to be serious discussion among members & we would
need to be fully aware of the financial & legal implications.
Also would the Club be able to manage the trails, for example Forest
Enterprise currently clear fallen trees & repair tracks. I now
throw this discussion open to you all & would appreciate your
comments.
Hopefully
less contentious is my recent contact with Orange. Their mobile mast
was finally commissioned in December when I ran into a group of their
vehicles on Leids Hill while pisteing the trails. I said “OI! You can’t drive over my snow”
& chased them off the land, actually I had a friendly chat with
them & found out that power to the mast is produced by a
hydrogen cell (the first of its type in the UK) with back up from an
LPG generator, now you know what all the gas cylinders & tanks
are. He reckoned they would need filling every six months &
they knew to avoid the trails when there is snow on the ground. The
upshot of this all was that an Orange publicity officer contacted me
about a press release on this new technology & how Orange
didn’t damage the skiing or environment & how it
could help us in emergencies in the forest & just how jolly
nice Orange is etc. In return Orange will donate three pay as you go
mobile phones + vouchers to the Club & may be able to help us
with setting up a web cam in the forest. They also owe me another
favour because I helped dig one of their engineers out of the snow
recently – he’ll remember a shovel next time.
The blizzards of the previous week filled the trails & at long last Gordonstoun had snow for a race. Course preparation was good & the start/finish area looked up to FIS standards, well maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration but it looked pretty good to me. When first held in 1987 the race was 50km but this time round it was only 17.2km with shorter distances of 8.6, 4.8 & 2.5km. One to 2 cm of overnight snow had fallen & this coupled with temperatures creeping above 0°C made waxing tricky as Simon Beeson found to his cost. Several of our older junior skiers did not make the start line as they were competing in the British & Army Championships in Austria, those of us still here took advantage of this missing talent.
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Waiting for starters orders |
All 37 racers started at the same time following the usual fast charge from the Biathlon Hut down to the tough climb up Range Way. It was here I first got entangled with Andrew Young & realised that he meant business today; he was out to beat me round the first lap. I was equally determined to keep the young gun in his place. But this wasn’t going to be easy & I had to work very hard to just stay with Andrew over the first couple of kilometres. This was quite a sobering experience considering he is only 11. We tangled for the second time coming down Telemark Twist when I stepped out of the tracks into the middle only to slow suddenly on the new snow, Andrew shouted he was coming through & we both stepped back into the tracks at the same time. Another shout but I couldn’t get out of the way quick enough & was sent flying as Andrew skied over the back my skis. “Sorry Pete” came the shout as he disappeared off ahead. The chase was on & I gradually overhauled Andrew making the most of brute strength double poling. I knew that I would have to open up a bit of a gap to give me a safety margin should I fall coming down Leids Leap. In the end I didn’t fall & managed to keep enough of a gap from Andrew who followed close behind to take first place in the 8.6km. |
We
finished off with some hotly contested skier-skate-cross races, which
culminated in a dramatic final. Hot favourite Andrew Young was so
concerned with not letting me get past that in the inevitable pile up
he didn’t notice Ruaridh Newman get to his feet first.
Ruaridh grabbed this opportunity &, with PJ Barron &
Andrew in hot pursuit, managed to keep in front to take a well deserved
first place. In future Andrew, forget about hanging on to my legs
& worry more about the skiing!
Fiona
Cox presented the prizes but there seemed a marked reluctance by the
boys to accept a congratulatory kiss; these young lads might know how
to ski but they have yet to learn you never turn down the opportunity
to kiss an attractive blond – well at least at my age you
don’t. Thanks to Chris Barton, Andy Cox & the pupils
from Gordonstoun for the warm Ribena & organising such a great
day.
PT
Army &
British Champs, Rupholding.
Andrew & Posy Musgrave,
Emily Skitmore, Alex Standen, Olwen Thorn & Sarah Young joined
two other members of the GB Junior Squad to take part in the British
& Army Championships in Rupholding, Austria at the end of
January. Bob Lacy, along with Angharad Evans led the team & had
high hopes that their squad would impress at the championships. Most of
the competitors were military personnel who were not only mostly a lot
older but also many had a lot more on snow time than the Huntly
contingent.
The
full results from these championships can be found at www.awsa.co.uk/pages/nordic.htm
but highlights included Posy’s second place in the 4km Double
Pursuit (4km classic, 4km skate) with the rest of the girls coming in
the top third. The boys were too young to enter the mens’
15km so were entered in the ladies’ 10km classic where Andrew
came 2nd behind his team mate Rhodri Buffett,
Alex was not that far behind in 6th. Olwen was
the best of the girls in 12th (8th
lady). The girls’ team really shone in the 4x5km ladies relay
where they came 2nd but were denied a silver
medal as this race was a specific Army Championship race. It sounded
like there was quite a story behind this race with Olwen taking a big
fall & losing a ski, Sarah having to battle back after a mix up
which meant time was lost at the change over from Olwen’s
leg. Emily fought back to regain 2nd place on
her skate leg & Posy despite illness held on to this position.
| After
these champs the squad headed to the Koenig Ludwig Lauf loppet races in
Bavaria. Andrew, Alex & Sarah entered the 5km Mini Kini where
Andrew came 3rd in the J13 age group only 13
seconds behind the winner. The
rest of the girls entered the 23km skate race (Olwen 27th
lady (1st J 19), Posy 29th
(3rd J 17) & Emily 32nd
(4th J17) these were very good results as they
did not get good start positions & had to battle their way
through several hundred competitors costing them 10 minutes or more
(results www.koenig-ludwig-lauf.com/index.htm). |
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Mundane Bureaucracy.
The latest Aberdeenshire Sports
Council newsletter (Jan 2004) contains information on their Child
Protection policy. The main points that arise are that they recommend
that all clubs with junior members should have a policy on working with
young people & vulnerable adults & should get police
checks done on the volunteers who work with these people. This is not
compulsory but may become an issue to us because Aberdeenshire Council
will probably require such checks to be done for groups using council
facilities such as the Ski Centre. It would seem that we could get
checks done at a cost of £5 for volunteers. At the moment I
do not propose to do anything & I don’t know who will
be required to submit to these checks. If anyone has an interest I
would be quite happy to let them look after this little item.
Hello
to Colin Miller a keen skier & champion of the Clash
“snow field”.
Bruce,
Fiona & Paul Taylor are welcome newcomers to cross country
skiing.
The
Thomson family of Ken,
Carole, Peter, Mairi & James are regulars of the Junior
Development Squad. Ken used his mapping skills at Forest Enterprise to
produce the splendid new maps that adorn the trails.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Correspondence to: Peter Thorn,
West Craigton Cottage
Huntly Tel:
01464 831429
