Kiara Pighin migrated south with her family to Vernon eight years ago and now flies the colours of Telemark Nordic Ski Club in Kelowna, but she was born in Prince George and Otway Nordic Centre was where she first learned how to ski.
She remembers watching the Canada Winter Games in 2015 and being inspired by how fast the cross-country ski racers ripped up and down the trails at Otway. She had no idea back then that 10 years later she would be one of those fast skiers everybody’s trying to catch.
Despite a wind chill that made it feel like -20 C when she started her 10-kilometre Teck BC Cup women’s mass start race just after noon on Saturday, it didn’t take long for the 17-year-old Pighin to find her comfort zone.
On the first big climb out of the Otway stadium, Pighin and her BC teammate, Nadia Wallin of Williams Lake Ski Club, separated themselves from the rest of the 21-skier pack and were the jackrabbits setting a pace and they held it for the rest of the race.
In the sprint for the finish, Pighin had enough of a final push to get there first , completing the course in 32 minutes 25.9 seconds, just 1.6 seconds ahead of Wallin (32:27.5) with Fiona Woodman of Revelstoke (33:38.9) in for bronze.
“We’re always racing together and we’re good friends on the (provincial) ski team together and I feel like we really worked together this race, which is nice because once you get away from the pack you’re by yourself and it’s nice to have partner,” said Pighin. “That really helped us during our rest (when they let off the accelerator on the course). We pushed as hard as we can.”
Wallin and Pighin have had plenty of races together throughout their ski racing careers and are close in ability so that meant they could take turns drafting to reduce the wind effect that made it feel so cold Saturday. There aren’t many resting points or long downhill runs on the Otway course where skiers can catch their breath, so having a partner to take turns with as the lead skier was beneficial to both of them.
“It was fun, I liked all the ups and downs and it was definitely tricky but one of the corners I felt like I needed to slow down a bit, we were going so fast, and it gets your heart pumping for sure,” said the 16-year-old Wallin, who has family in Prince George and heard their cheers when she was on the course.
“I just love the hills, the terrain is very diverse. It’s all work but it’s really fun with some nice steep corners that test your skills. Once your moving (the cold) is pretty good but definitely the downs were pretty chilly. My legs are cold.”
Aliah Turner of the host Caledonia Nordic Ski Club was seventh in the women’s race.
In the men’s 10-km race, Tanner McConkey of Caledonia broke away from a four-skier lead pack and was doing well leading by about six seconds in the second of two laps when he took a corner a little too hot and popped out of one of his ski bindings.
The carnage continued when Andres Inkster of Hollyburn Ski Club (Vancouver), who was in second place, crashed on one of the steep sections. With the two leaders out of the picture, Gavin Chatterton of Campbell River seized his opportunity.
“I came around a corner and he was down on the ground and his pole’s broken and I come around the next corner and Tanner’s down, his ski’s off in the bushes, it was really unfortunate,” said Chatterton.
“It was on the steepest downhill with some sketchy corners on it. I’ve raced here a bunch, it’s a fun course and I do well on that sketchy downhill fast stuff so I really tried to push it at the end to catch the lead group and that worked out really well, obviously with some luck as well. It was good. My wax was amazing.”
Chatterton won a mad dash for the finish in 27:01.0, two-tenths of a second ahead of Axel Hostyn of Black Jack Ski Club (Rossland). Inkster ended up third (27:23.5).
Hostyn led for the first 1 ½ laps and McConkey and Inkster caught up to him heading into the last hilly section with Chatterton close behind.
“Andy and Tanner were having an excellent race and they had a had a bit of gap and crashed on the last downhill, so that was unfortunate for them,” said Hostyn. “They would have had me if they didn’t crash.”
Hostyn, 17, was familiar with the course, having raced at Otway in last year’s BC Cup race and the BC Cup championships in 2022.
“That was super-fun. It was very hard though, there was not much recovery,” said Hostyn. “The downhills were tricky, the uphills were long and grinding.
“The cold wasn’t too bad once you got out there skiing, except the fingers and toes, they were a little cold. I’m smoking-hot now, that was an effort.”
The 18-year-old Chatterton won both races a few weeks ago at BC Cup No. 1 in Revelstoke with Hostyn right on his heels in both races.
Chatterton races for Strathcona Nordics, based at Mount Washington, and Otway never fails to bring out the best in him.
“I love Prince George, I always say it’s my favourite course in BC,” he said. “I’m from Vancouver Island and we’ve got great skiing there too but I just love the race courses here – just the fast downhills, the swoopy corners, it gives you that roller-coaster feel and it’s a lot of fun. There’s not a lot of rest, it’s either going up or you have to really be locked in fir the downs.”
Ben Gadd of Prince George was 13th and his Caledonia Clubmate Nick Veeken was 17th in a field of 46 starters.
In the U16 five-km race, Black Jack skiers swept the podium and it was photo finish to decide Lex Hostyn (14:09.7) was slightly quicker than Luc Austin (14:09.7), with Alex Heale third (15:08.3).
In the U16 female mass start (five km), Emilie Kvick of Hollyburn won gold (16:42.2), Elia Fuller of Fernie tooks silver (16:44.8) and Amelia Moore of Strathcona won bronze (16:48.9).
In the U14 male 2.5 km race, Samuel Poulin of Revelstoke took gold (8:02.8) Jake Ulansky claimed silver (806.3) and Alexandre Comeau of Hollyburn was the bronze medalist (8:32.1).
Hometown favourite Maisie Hoehn of Caledonia posted a silver-medal finish in the U14 female 2.5 km race in 8:54.3, just four-tenths of a second off the gold-medal pace of 8:53.9 set by Zetta Vines of Hollyburn. Grace Szabadi of Telemark (Kelowna) won bronze (8:57.0).
In the U12 2.0 km race, Noah Gill of Sovereign Lake Nordic Club (Vernon) won gold (7:22.6), followed by silver medalist Liam Aaserud of Kelowna (7:24.1) and Matthis Le Bihan of Hollyburn (7:59.1)
In the U12 female 2.0 km race, Callie Washbrook won it (8:59.2) followed by silver medalist Holly Szabadi of Kelowna (9:15.1) and Norah Vines of Hollyburn (9:26.9). Annika Bell of Caledonia was fourth (9:42.6).
Complete results are posted on the Zone4.ca website.
Close to 300 ski racers are in Prince George this weekend for the final race meet before BC Cup championships in Kelowna (Feb. 28-March 2) and the Nordiq Canada national championships in Canmore, Alta. (March 17-23).
Sunday’s intervals start event starts at 9:30 a.m. at Otway.
