Welcome to the Registration for the

2025 Sovereign Invitational

(a Tier 3 event)

Nov 27 to 30, 2025

Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre

SLNC Event Page

Race Announcement - Update Nov 24 at 2:48pm PST

Good News!

Just on a side note, we will start referring to this event as the Sovereign Invitationa l, rather than as a Continental Cup. This will happen after this communication.

Eric de Nys will be arranging a shoveling and clipping party for Wednesday afternoon, wait to hear more information from him, and please come and help out! Hopefully it will turn into a meet and greet because we received buckets of snow.

We received about 6-7cm of snow overnight and the forecast is cooling off, with some potential snow as well anywhere from Tuesday night to Thursday. So, we are planning to proceed with 3 race days (subject to something crazy). In what we hope the worst case scenario would be, we would cancel the Saturday events, and collapse into Saturday/Sunday (we don’t want to have to do that). That decision would be made on Wednesday.

Below is where we are on current thoughts, but more detailed information will be provided by end of day Wednesday.

• Thursday – Training
• If snow allows we will be allowing people to train on the course from 10am to noon. If the sprint is in the stadium, we likely won’t be allowing training on that course. However, the training will be WAY better on the SilverStar trails, so continue to take advantage of them.
• Friday – Interval Start Skate
• On the upper trails
• U16 – 2.5km
• U18 – 5.0km
• U20/Senior – 7.5km
• Saturday – Skate Sprint
• We are still not sure what we will run for the sprints. This will be very much dependent on snow that happens this week.
• Low Snow – run on upper trails.
• U16/U18 - ~1.0km
• U20/Senior - ~1.2km
• Heats and Finals – If we can hold H&Fs it will likely be a reduced group making it to them. In the absolute worst case it would be qualifiers only (we really don’t want that)
• More Snow (preferred option) – run out of the stadium
• U16/U18 – 0.6km to 1.0km
• U20/Senior - ~1.2km
• Heats and Finals – we are planning the full 30 configuration for the H&Fs
• Sunday – Interval Start – Currently planning Skate, but if conditions allow then Classic
• On the upper trails
• U16/U18 – 5.0km
• U20/Senior – 10.0km

Once again, thank you for your patience and keep those snow dances going!

Remember, registration closes at midnight tonight. Event Registration . There are even a couple of waxing spaces that have freed up that you might be able to grab.

If you have not joined up to the WhatsApp channel you can do it by this link: Event WhatsApp

If you would be willing to volunteer, that would be super fantastic! Sovereign Volunteers

Race Update as of Nov 20 at 8:35pm PST

Hello Everyone:

Sorry for the magical roller coaster that we’re on. I know this is frustrating for everyone, so the purpose of this is to provide you some more information about what we are currently thinking and the options that we are considering. Please note that these are a very small subset of all the options that we’ve looked at.

Please continue to not ski on the race trails, we are trying to minimize skiers on those trails to maintain as much snow as possible for the race.

IMPORTANT DATES (all times are Pacific)

• Monday, 24 ^th at 3pm – We will send out a communication that will give the best possible direction of where we are heading.  We will provide as much information of what we are doing during that communication.  The options will be:
• We are 100% go (subject to final craziness)
• We are cancelled
• We are likely a go, but an absolute final call will be made on Wednesday
• Mon 24 ^th at midnight – We are changing registration so that it will close at midnight, rather than 6pm
• Wed 26 ^th at 6pm – final go/no go, hopefully including courses and distances planned
• Thurs 25 ^th at 6pm – final call on what courses we plan to be using.  We still plan to have a TCM at 6pm.
• Thursday 25 ^th at 1pm to 3pm – training day – we may not have a training day where skiers are allowed onto the course.  This, again, will be very dependent on snow levels.  If it goes ahead, this will be moved to an earlier time in the day.

POSSIBLE FORMATS

The following is based on various snow levels. Snow Level 1 means the lowest amount of snow.

• Snow level "1" – Two days of racing.  Interval start skate, for both days.  Saturday – short distance, Sunday – mid distance.  Using a 2.5km trail on upper Passmore and World Cup trails for all events.
• Snow level "2"– Three days of racing.  Interval start skate Friday and Sunday.  Friday – short distance, Sunday – mid distance.  Sprint (skate) course on upper trails on Saturday.  Friday – short distance, Saturday – Sprint, Sunday – mid distance.  Limited Heats and Finals for the sprints.  Using a 2.5km trail on upper Passmore and World Cup trails for Fri and Sun.  And a shortened course for the Sprint on Saturday.
• Snow level "3" – Three days of racing.  Same as Snow Level 2 for Friday and Saturday.  Sprint will move to a 2 loop course in the Stadium, and will be full heats and finals.
• And if we get more snow than absolutely expected we could revert back to the full 2.5 and 5.0km courses currently in the race notice.  We will not be reverting back to the original sprint course in any circumstance.
• Technique – all days are currently planned to be skate.  However, if we get enough snow to provide tracks, Sunday’s race may be changed to classic.  The reason for Sunday rather than Friday (as in the race notice), is it has the best possible chance to have enough snow for it.

Watch for updates from Sovereign and SilverStar with respect to potential opportunities to be on snow between now and then. As noted previously SilverStar is in the process of trying to open trails for athlete training by Monday.

Race Update - Tue Nov 18 at 3:06 PST

Thank you for your patience, I’m sure that we’re all wishing that we had more snow. We have received a lot of feedback in terms of what we should do, and most of it was very helpful. We have tried to take this feedback into account with our decision.

So… We do not have enough snow to fully commit that we will be able to host the events.  However, the weather forecasts (and some runestones) indicate that there is a good chance for snow fall this weekend.  As a result we are planning on moving forward under the assumption that we will be able to hold races next weekend, but also knowing they may have to be cancelled at the last moment. More details include:

• We will be removing FIS/NC sanctioning so no points will be awarded for the event.
• This will be a Tier 3 event, rather than Tier 1.
• The course(s) will likely be significantly different than what is currently planned, and will likely run on trails on the upper part of Passmore and World Cup. More information will follow before the event, once we have reached a decision.
• Most likely all days will be skate and individual start. If we get enough snow we will try and implement a classic event. We are still discussing what might happen with the sprint day.
• There will be no prize money for the events. There will be no change to awards.
• We will provide refunds to those that are deciding that they do not want to compete, and would like to cancel. The level of refunds will be determined after we have completed the event. We will try and ensure that they are significant refunds. If you would like a refund please communicate with our race secretary (DJ) at race@sovereignlake.com prior to the end of day Sunday, November 23rd.
• The race trails will not be optimum, and certainly not to the standards that we normally hold ourselves to. There will not be access to the ski trails for training unless we have enough snow for Operations to give us the go ahead. It is important to reserve what snow we have for the races, so we ask that you please respect these closures.

We are very sorry that we don’t have better news, but we’ve been trying to find a balance for those that want to go ahead no matter what, with those that don’t want to take the chance. Before making this decision, we did consider many other options, including other locations in the region, local area and on the mountain.

If you have any questions not related specifically to race registration feel free to reach out to Marcus @ competitions@sovereignlake.com .

Athlete lunches will be available for $10 each day if pre-ordered. Please go to the event page on the Sovereign Lake Nordic website for the Zone 4 lunch order link https://www.sovereignlake.com/continental-cup-2025

15% off Mountain Accommodations

Book your accommodation through our accommodation sponsor Vance Creek and receive a 15% accommodation discount . The discount is valid from Nov 22 ^nd to Dec 7 ^th , so come and enjoy the snow for longer! Call 250 549 5191 or email info@vancecreekhotel.com to get the discount. The Vance Creek has many different styles of accommodation available, from hotels to homes. See their website for more information.

REFUND POLICY

In the event of event cancellation (Other than due to "day of" weather), a refund of registration fees less administration and event expenses already incurred will be provided. There will be no refunds for cancellation due to "day of" weather.

A refund of individual registration fees will only be provided for medical reasons and if the Competition Secretary receives notification WITH medical documentation prior to the registration deadline. After the registration deadline no refunds will be provided.