Rossendale: Skiers visit town for race from across the UK

SKIERS from all over the UK came to The Hill home of Ski Rossendale for the first Club National official race series to be based there in more than 10 years.

Centre manager Dave Fuller was delighted to be able to welcome skiers from Wales, Scotland and various centres in England to Rawtenstall.

He said: “We used to hold qualifying races and in the 1980s and 90s we were a race venue, but we have not held anything like this officially for the last 10 years.

“This was a new venture, and it was a pivotal moment for us to bring national racing back to The Hill. We have put Rossendale back on the skiing map.”

Staff were on site from 7am and organisers from Snow Sport England set up the slalom course. The racing began at 10.30am with prizegiving at 3pm.

Ninety skiers took part and they competed according to gender and age group.

The Hill merged with Rossendale Leisure Trust last autumn and is now overseen by a board of directors.

Mr Fuller added: “This means we can concentrate on managing the centre and it has made a big difference and been really positive for us.

“We have gone through restructuring and have support from the board of directors, they are great people and we all want to do what is best for the slope.

“Working with Ski Rossendale Racing Club and Pendle Ski Club, in Sabden, we were able to successfully bid to hold this Club National official race, with Saturday’s racing being held in Pendle and Sundays on The Hill.”

Racers completed the course twice in the morning, then once in the afternoon and the fastest time from the morning along with the afternoon time counted towards their final score.

Mr Fuller said: “The fastest time for someone to go straight from the top to bottom on the big slope is about 12.5 to 13 seconds reaching speeds of up to 45mph.

“Although they were completing a slalom course at this event, the fastest single run was by Chris Corr, who works for Ski Rossendale but races for Pendle, who posted 13.56 seconds; he came second overall on the day.”

Rossendale Race Club members were also successful: Rebecca Hart was first in the under 18s female race; Ben Sharples was second in the U16s male race and Finley Royle was second in the under 14s male race.

The slope had to close when the pandemic struck, but as restrictions eased it was able to reopen in October and Dave said people were pleased to get back to activities and having the chance to meet people again.

He added: “This event was great for both facilities – The Hill and Pendle – and we will be working in conjunction with each other again in the near future to bring other skiing race events to the North West.”