The Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club recently set a membership record for the second straight year.

This season's membership has reached 1,320 – the highest the club has ever seen – after last year's record-setting tally of just under 1,300.

Claude Chabot, executive director for the club, said the club has been steadily growing for the past decade.

"It shows that we're on the right track, we've got a huge, diverse membership that's continually growing,” he said.

"First of all, the city is growing, so that's part of it.

But I think that people recognize that we got a phenomenal resource here; we got a great system that's five minutes from downtown, and there's not a lot of places in the country, if any, that can really boast that sort of thing.

Plus, it helps having a six-month winter,” he laughed, "no matter how cold it is.”

Club president Tom Ullyett agreed.

The first time Ullyett was president in 1998-2000 he remembers the club celebrated the then record 600th membership.

"We're almost unique in the country in having a superb trail system only minutes from downtown,” Ullyett said.

"We're seeing membership increases in all categories. Anyone who has been around the club on the weekend will have noticed that we're busy, but with over 70 kilometres of trails you never have to fight crowds when you're out for a ski.”

Chabot said skiers might also notice the dedicated group working on the trails daily – even in minus 30 temperatures.

That sort of dedication, as well as the continually increasing membership, may warrant future expansion.

"At some point, we will probably need to expand our wax room,” Chabot said.

"We haven't quite figured out what that trigger point is yet. Some days it gets pretty crowded in there. Personally, I like it when it's crowded, it's fun, it's a great atmosphere. But at some point we will reach that point when we'll need to start expanding the wax room, and we're starting to build some funds towards that and tinker around with designs and so on. We're not there yet, I'm not sure when we will be, but certainly in the next five to 10 years we'll have to do something major.”

While the club's storied racers get the most ink, the average member is a casual, recreational skier who just likes to get out on the groomed trails and in a social atmosphere, Chabot said.

Having top-level skiers help promote the sport doesn't hurt.

"Nationally, people look at the Yukon as this tiny little population, and we consistently produce good racers,” Chabot said. "The skiing is consistent, it's been that way for generations, long before I was here, and I think it builds on itself over the years.

"The racers get all the publicity, but the club feeds off that and the club supports that. I guess it's a ski culture, maybe is the simplest way of putting it, that produces both high-end racers and lots of just plain old recreational skiers.

"It helps inspire the younger skiers; the younger skiers bring along their parents, the parents look at these programs and say, ‘It really is possible to succeed from a little jurisdiction like the Yukon.'”