XC Bragg Creek Track Attack Adventure Camp January 2013

January 13, 2013

Our weekend was a huge success! All 16 children who had signed up, came for the weekend. On Saturday morning, we skied from Pocaterra Hut to the Visitor Centre with a bagged lunch, (left at 10:30am) . We ate lunch at the visitor centre, checked out the displays, then split into two groups. The children who had more energy skied back a longer way to Pocaterra Hut (approximately 8km), and the other group went back a shorter way. We were all finished skiing at 3:30pm.

We then proceeded to the Ribbon Creek hut, checked in at 4pm, and assembled a pot luck dinner. We played some team building games and had a waxing demo in which kids took part in. Sunday morning we made a large breakfast (paid for by XC Bragg Creek ski club). We cleaned up, (every child had a chore), packed up, then we assembled at 9:30am outside, beside the hut, and we did some team building games. The kids did some activities for the next hour and a half, including stories of spending the night in a Quincy~ (The children built a quincy, and took turns laying in it). We hid two avalanche transceivers and split into two groups.  While the first group learned about avalanches and avalanche rescue, the other group learned about signs to look for animal tracks and located the spoor of  4 different animals.  We then switched groups and repeated the activities with the new group. We also looked at snow under a magnifying glass, of particular interest was the hoar frost. We handed out t-shirts (which were very well received  thank you!) and the appropriate card from the Track attack booklets after these morning activities.

At approximately 11:30 we went for lunch at the Ribbon Creek picnic shelter.  Most went home at noon, but a few families stayed and went for a ski to Troll Falls.

Every child wants to do this again next year, so this was the starting point for our first annual XC Bragg Creek Christmas Adventure camp.

Flora Giesbrecht