It was -25 C and by 10 a.m. there were eight cases of frostbite among the 37 Howe Sound Secondary school students.
And were they ever happy.
The HSSS snowboarding and skiing team was in Whistler Jan. 14 to train for the snowboarding and skiing North Shore Championships on Feb. 18.
"The day we went up it was absolutely freezing," said David Gregr, the team's teacher sponsor.
But despite the conditions, the students were "super stoked," which may have been in part due to the fact one of the instructors that day was Darren Chalmers, who has twice won the World Cup for giant slalom and is a World Cup boarder cross winner. Chalmers has been to the Olympics twice, and has had 50 top-15 World Cup finishes in his career.
"He knew exactly how to correct us on what we were doing wrong," said Raelene Antonios, a Grade 12 student who is in her seventh snowboarding season.
"He has experience in racing so he gave us good advice," added Lorna Avis, also a Grade 12 snowboarder.
The snowboard/ski team has one more training session before it hits the slopes for the North Shore Championships in late February. Last year, only the senior girls' snowboard team made the provincials. Antonios finished third in the senior girls experienced slalom category, while Avis finished seventh. Julia Baumann, another team member, placed first in the event.
"It was our first race ever," Avis said. "All three of us had never raced before."
It was enough to qualify the team for the provincials, but the girls didn't end up attending because of time constraints.
"I definitely want to go this year," Antonios said.
"It's our last chance," Avis said. "It's the easiest way to compete. It's hard to get into competitions without being affiliated with a school."
The senior girls snowboarding team has a good chance of making it back to the provincials, says Gregr, thanks in large part to Spencer O'Brien.
"She's sponsored by Burton and stuff," Gregr said. "She's going to be racing for us."
The provincials are Feb. 28 to March 2 on Red Mountain in Rossland. But the Howe Sound students have to make it through the North Shore qualifiers first.
Skier Ryan Pedersen is also looking forward for a chance to do better at the North Shore Champion-ships. Last year he needed to complete two races, but only ended up skiing one run.
"I'm hoping to do pretty well because I have an idea of what the course is like and where the competition level will be," he said.
Grade 12 skier Kyle Stainton also wants to top last year's performance on the slopes.
"I had an unfortunate mishap on the course," said Stainton, whose skis popped off during the race last year. "I expect to do a lot better. I know the course and know what mistakes I did last year."
