ACHO DENE KOE/FORT LIARD - When Robert Firth and Roslyn Gardner Firth moved to Fort Liard in 2008 few youths in the community had any cross-country skiing experience to their name.

Three ski seasons later the hamlet boasts more than 25 young skiers thanks to a cross-country skiing and snowshoeing club called Tracks and Trails. The idea for the club started when the couple saw a documentary on a skiing program in Old Crow, Yukon.

Inez Fantasque, left, and Dylan Steeves rest on their poles for a moment during a cross-country skiing session organized by Tracks and Trails in Fort Liard. - photo courtesy of Roslyn Gardner Firth

"We were very inspired by that," Gardner Firth said.

Although they were living in Victoria, B.C., at the time the couple knew Fort Liard, the community they were moving to, was an ideal place for cross-country skiing and that the sport is great for youth. Tracks and Trails was created from those influences.

During its first winter the club attracted approximately 20 participants. Its popularity has slowly grown from there, Gardner Firth said.

This year the club has enough skiers to form a beginner and an experienced group. During practices, which take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school and sometimes on the weekends if the weather is favourable, youths start by warming up on the tracks around the perimeter of the schoolyard.

The skiers then head out onto the local trails that Const. Andrew Boyde has been setting with a snowmobile the Fort Liard RCMP detachment loaned for the purpose. Beginning skiers stay close to the community, said Gardner Firth. Those new to the sport don't use ski poles.

"It promotes better balance," she said.

The more experienced skiers travel across the Petitot River and up a trail to a small shelter, approximately 3.5 kilometres away where they warm up around a wood stove before heading back.

"They're amazing," Gardner Firth said about the club's members.

"They learn very quickly. They're very hardy when the weather's cold."

Meghan Yeo, 8, is one of the club's veterans. Yeo has been skiing since Tracks and Trails began.

"I just wanted to try it because of the Olympics and it looked pretty cool," she said.

Yeo is very enthusiastic about the sport.

"I like that I get a lot of exercise and it's fun to go down hills," she said.

Dylan Steeves is another dedicated club member. Steeves tries to attend every practice.

"I just thought it would be fun and it would be a healthy activity for people to try," he said.

Steeves' favourite part of skiing is also going quickly down steep hills.

To build on the club's success the coaches, who also include Collin Woehl, Jonathan Yeo, and Catherine Walls, hope to take the skiers to trails in neighbouring communities this year. The club has also been expanded to include snowshoe biathlon. Blair Kotchea, who completed in the Arctic Winter Games last year in snowshoe biathlon, got her start skiing with the club.

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