Image Credit: Overlander Ski Club

By Victor Kaisar

Ski Trails Open

Stake Lake ski trails open for the season after Friday snowfall

Dec 15, 2024 | 10:48 AM

KAMLOOPS — Its opening day at the Stake Lake ski trails, south of Kamloops.

Overlander Ski Club General Manager Chelsea Francis says Sunday’s (Dec. 15) opening of the Nordic ski and snowshoe trails comes after a dump of snow on Friday night.

‘”We’re all very excited, everybody at the club is,” Francis told CFJC Today.

“We got a decent dump of about eight to 10 centimetres and so our grooming teams have been rolling so that we can get our entire trail networks groomed and track set.”

The Overlander Ski Club was hoping to begin operations last weekend, though it had to cancel those plans because of freezing rain. The trails were previously open for a “bonus weekend” Nov. 29 and 30 as conditions were “decent” then.

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“This would be a very typical weekend that we would open for,” Francis added.

“We were pushing to open as soon as possible. We had decent snow conditions before last weekend and then unfortunately we had a big freezing rain storm that made conditions a little less desirable so we had to wait for a little bit more snow.”

They didn’t have to wait as much as last year when the season didn’t going until early January because of a lack of snow.

“Last year was the latest opening for the Overlander Ski Club ever, which was a little bit challenging but we did learn a lot from last season,” Francis said. “We developed some new grooming tools and some new techniques.

“While it was disheartening, it wasn’t a total write off. We definitely learned a lot.”

As for the season ahead, Francis is hoping for lots of snow, saying they’ll “take every flake they can get.”

“We’re used to cyclical season patterns at Stake Lake, where a really good year is followed by a less than desirable one and this year is supposed to be really great in terms of snow,” she said.

“But if for some reason we have issues then we’ll just have to roll with it as we always do. We have learned a lot of techniques and built a resilience as a club over the last couple of year, so I feel good about it.”