Snow conditions are excellent on the trails and in the stadium at Otway Nordic Centre. Photo 250News

Prince George, B.C. – The venue and weather conditions should be just about perfect for Sunday’s Nordic Winter Festival at the Otway Nordic Centre.

General Manager Cara Moore says the entire community is invited out for a day of fun family activities at the scenic facility.  “It’s a full day program that starts in the morning at 8:30 with a pancake breakfast, with the proceeds going to St. Vincent de Paul and the Salvation Army.”

“And then we have a really fun (cross-country) race at 9:15.   It’s a Chocolate Race, a casual fun thing for all ages.  They do a course and at the end everyone gets a chocolate bar.  It’s just for pure fun out on the snow.”

Moore says “we have a family snowshoeing program at 10:30, and then we have a couple of different sessions of Classic Ski Lessons (from 11am to 12 pm and from 1 to 2pm), waxing demonstrations here in the stadium (11:15 am to noon and 2 pm to 2:45 pm) and we’ve also got a Hot Dog Roast over at the gravel pit (11:30 am to 2 pm).  It’s by donation and the proceeds go to local charities as well.”

Some of the events are free of charge, others do have a cost attached.  Moore says “the biggest thing for the day is that all of the Day Passes are free, people can come and ski for free on Sunday.  But if people want to take part in the different sessions, some of them are free and some do have a charge.  It’s between $2 and $10 depending on what they are doing.”  And you are advised that payments are by CASH only.

“In the afternoon we have Try-out Biathlon sessions and in order to cover insurance and other costs for biathlon there is a charge for those.”  There are three try-out biathlon sessions:  1pm to 1:45pm, 1:45 to 2:30 and 2:30 to 3:15 pm.  There are also charges for a couple of the snowshoe and skiing programs. 

Everything you need to know will be located in the Rotary Nordic Lodge.  Moore says “we will have tables set up first thing in the morning and we also have posters up around the building with the schedules so that people can see what’s going on and where.”

She adds “if people want rentals it’s on a first come, first served basis, but we do have a number of rentals available for people who want to come out and ski.”

The day “is designed to get people out to Otway and having a great time out on the snow and try out some new things.  It’s just a festival atmosphere.”

There is plenty of fresh snow at Otway and the high temperature should be around minus 2 on Sunday.