The Pass Powderkeg Ski Hill has six new runs set to open in the upcoming season, and with them, a total of 49 new signs that will be going up.

Members of council, the Royal Canadian Legion, the Pass Powderkeg Ski Society and representatives from Western Financial and the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass came together on December 1, 2016 to inaugurate the new ski hill signs.

Brad Murray, the project manager with the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, brought the idea to open new ski runs. “I proposed the idea that we develop some new skiing terrain through a partnership with Dale Linderman, who is a local logging contractor,” writes Murray. Linderman agreed to donate approximately $30,000 of the money made from the logging extraction back to the ski hill, which was used to clean up forest debris.

A sing reading “The Vet’s Way” was chosen to represent the new signage.

“We got everybody together to get a picture of that sign with the representative from the Legion,” says Murray. “It’s an example of all the signs going up.”

A Facebook contest was held in May to choose a name for the new run and “Veteran’s Way” was the one selected by Municipality of Crowsnest Pass staff and the Board. Ironically, the name suggestion came from Chuck Gresl, a veteran residing all the way in Manitoba. “That’s the power of Facebook,” laughs Murray.

Wayne Shaw, the deputy commander for District 6 of the Royal Canadian Legion was on hand to inaugurate the new sign for Vet’s Way Run. He said that honoring the veterans in such way was “a nice gesture from the community.”

Western Financial Group in Coleman donated $5,000 to the project, which will cover costs for “49 trails signs and four big four by eight trail maps that are going up,” says Murray.

Western Financial received the funding through their The Community Infrastructure Grant program, which is a program that allows a Western Financial branch to support infrastructure projects in their community. “We worked with the municipality to get [the money] towards the ski hill signs,” explains Eleanor Bergen, Insurance Advisor at Western Financial in Coleman. This is the second such infrastructure grant that the branch has put towards the Pass community, the first being for Flumerfelt Park in 2011. Bergen adds that “our branch here in Coleman has only 4 staff members on site, so our efforts are huge.”

In addition to Western Financial Group’s donation and the money made from the logging extraction, the project received a $32,154 Community Initiatives Program Grant from Alberta Culture and Tourism. Murray adds, “With the help of volunteers, we continue to work on cleanup of six of the new runs, with the goal of having them ready for our projected opening date of December 23rd.”

According to Murray, six more ski runs are projected to open for the 2017-2018 winter season.