John Aalberg has decades of experience building cross-country ski courses from the ground up and has been tasked with the job of converting Otway Nordic Centre to a year-round skiing facility with the addition of paved trails.
He’s overseeing a project organized by Caledonia Nordic Ski Club past-president Kevin Pettersen that will give Prince George a sports facility the likes of which exist in only two other Western Canadian cities, Whistler and Canmore.
Aalberg designed the Nordic courses for the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City (2002), Vancouver-Whistler (2010), and Beijing (2020) and was sports director/venue manager for the 2011 FIS Nordic world ski championships in Oslo, Norway.
He also oversaw development of some of the nearly 100 ski areas in Norway that have hard surfaces for summer training and has taken on the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club’s latest addition to its trail network in Prince George, working with the club and local contractor Terus Construction.
The $1.25-million paving project at Otway is being funded by a provincial Destination Development Fund ($1 million) grant and the club has also applied for federal funding ($235,000), leveraged by Pettersen.
“He’s building a world-class venue way up in northern B.C.,” said Aalberg. “There’s maybe five or six in all of Canada and this will be the newest and best, I think.”
So what is it about the Otway paved trails that will make them better than the others?
“This course has a little bit for everyone,” said Aalberg.
“You can come here as an elite athlete and find a suitable course, you can come as a (paranordic) sit-skier or come here as a recreational skier, anybody can have a good time and find courses that are right for them.”
The course that will be paved has been scraped down to a bedrock sub-surface and will be covered with two layers of packed gravel sourced from the Otway gravel pit a half-kilometre west of the Caledonia lodge. Terus used a crusher on the site to make enough gravel to cover the trails and having that gravel available nearby shaved about $200,000 off the project cost.
The 1.5-kilometre lower loop starts with a 12-metre wide area in front of the biathlon shooting range and will take roller skiers past a paved penalty loop/compound that will also be used for skills teaching. A five-metre wide trail will lead up the Night Rider hill and will follow a series of banked downhill corners that lead into a long straight stretch to connect to the stadium flats. A paved para sit-ski connector will also be built to avoid the larger hill on the 1.5 km loop.
The corners on the downhill run will be banked up to 15 degrees to keep skiers on course as they make their descents on wheeled skis without brakes.
“The banking is most important as you exit the corner, not where you start the corner,” said Aalberg.
One major adjustment was needed at the top of the Night Rider hill. Aalberg pointed out to the contractor that the right-hand corner that leads into the first downhill stretch was too narrow and will have to be doubled in width to be able to handle the speed of an accomplished ski racer.
The asphalt pavement will be mixed with a polymer that makes it more resistant to cracking, which increases the cost slightly but also adds to its lifespan.
Aalberg lives on Vancouver Island in Sooke and was in Prince George on Monday, Aug. 19 to meet with Pettersen and Terus superintendent Dwayne Wheeler.
The 64-year-old was born and raised in Norway and moved to Utah in 1992 to study computer science. He competed for the United States in cross-country skiing in two Olympics (1992 and 1994) and was president of the local Nordic club when he was hired in 1995 to organize the Olympic events at Soldier Hollow, setting the stage for his career as a course consultant.
Once complete, Otway will be able to host national and provincial summer biathlon and cross-country races and that could also lead to hosting international events and national team training camps.
“When I was chatting with Robin McKeever (head coach of Canada’s paranordic ski team) about the roller ski thing, he was saying they can’t have their camps in Canmore anymore because it’s too expensive,” said Pettersen. “It’s ironic that you have a national training centre there and you can’t afford to bring your athletes there.
“When we had the Biathlon BC camp here this summer in July all the kids stayed up at the university at the residences and had them fed at the cafeteria.”
In May, the Caledonia club poured a solid concrete shooting wall to replace the concrete block wall. The new structure won’t shift with frost heaves, giving skiers a precise and predictable surface for skiers while they’re taking aim at their targets.
Combined with a refurbished shooting range built for the 2015 Canada Winter Games, Aalberg says the paved Otway facility will be perfect for developing young biathletes.
“This is so important for Biathlon BC, they’re going to love it,” predicts Aalberg. “The sport is going to grow. By having that here you’re going to inspire so many kids in Prince George to stay with the sport.”
While cross-country skiers will also improve abilities practicing their technique, biathletes stand to benefit the most from having paved trails because they can simulate exactly what they have to do to get ready for their next shooting bout, even when there's no snow.
”Cross-country, you can roller ski on the roads but biathlon you need to shoot, that’s how you become better,” said Aalberg. “What happens on the shooting range is a key thing and you can train in the process 12 months of the year. You will see significant improvement in the quality of whoever comes to train and live here."
Pettersen is of Norwegian descent and was inspired as a young boy when he visited the Holmenkollen Ski Area in Oslo, widely considered one of the meccas of nordic skiing. During his time as Caledonia Nordic club president, Otway built its shooting range, race buildings and homologated trail network for the 2015 Canada Winter Games and has added lit tracks, dog trails and snowmaking capabilities.
Ground work is underway for the upper 1.5-kilometre loop that utilizes the Cranbrook Climb trail to the Chutes-Northern Lights intersection, then follows an existing access road that connects to the Canada Cup trail leading to the lower loop. That upper section won’t be paved until next year when federal funding has been secured.
The paved trails are purpose-built for roller skiing and initially the club doesn’t plan to allow other users such as cyclists, in-line skaters and speed skaters to use them recreationally.
“The grant was written to attract competition,” said Pettersen. “It’s easier to say it’s not a multi-use trail, that it’s funded and its purpose is to attract competitions and training.”
Paving of the lower loop is expected to start in September after Labour Day.
Some of the single-track trails at Otway have been closed during the construction phase and will be reopened with slight alterations to avoid crossing the roller ski paths.
