Jasperites have joined together to form a brand new ski club in an effort to push for backcountry ski options on the western edge of Jasper National Park.
Ten people gathered at the Jasper Legion March 18 to form the executive of a non-profit ski club that will advocate for a backcountry ski cabin in the area of the Miette Pass.
Sean Elliott will sit as president, while Dana Ruddy will sit as vice president. Jenn Russell and Karine Pigeon will share the duties of the secretary, while Chris Garnham will be the treasurer. There is also a small board of directors.
The club was born from the brains of avid backcountry skiers Ruddy and Elliot, who last year submitted a proposal to Parks Canada to build a cabin in the Miette Pass area to make it more accessible to skiers.
The pair held a meeting Feb. 26 to gauge public interest in their idea, after Parks told them that in order to pursue it they would need to form an official organization.
At the time, caribou conservation measures had left huge swaths of the popular Maligne Valley closed for most of the winter, and more than 150 people showed up to the meeting, motivated largely by their frustration with the current suite of alpine skiing options in the park.
Now that the executive is locked in, Elliot said that the next step will be for the club to take the basic steps to form a not-for-profit society. Those include completing a Newly Updated Automated Name Search (NUANS) report to find a club name, filling out and submitting the proper applications, and writing club bylaws, among other things.
“Right now we’re just sort of working on developing bylaws and getting this official. We’re not trying to rush it too much, we want to take our time and get it right,” Elliot explained in an interview March 24.
He said that the club’s next meeting will be on April 22, when he hopes to have more details secured.
“Shortly after that April 22 meeting I think we’ll have a pretty good idea of where we’re going,” he said, adding that while the club isn’t quite ready to start accepting members yet, they plan to keep everyone in the loop as they move forward.
He said members of the club are committed to getting the project off the ground so they can begin advocating for backcountry skiing in Jasper.
“Something good is going to come out of this: we’re committed and we’re not going anywhere.”
Trevor Nichols
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