Eight local biathletes are heading off to Canmore, Alta., this weekend to compete in the North American Cup (NorAM) and Calforex Biathlon Cup, which run as concurrent competitions.

The majority of the athletes will be competing in the Calforex event, while one – Jennifer Curtis, will also be competing in the NorAM race.

Led by coach Laurie Jacobsen, the event will be the teams first outside competition of the season.

"With this junior team we started in September so we got lots of good shooting time in when the weather was nice,” Jacobsen said.

"Some of the older kids have been competing for two and three years and some of the younger kids are brand new, so this will be an extremely exciting race for them.”

One of those brand new athletes is 12 year-old Liam Adel, who will be competing in his first outside event.

"Four years ago was my first year but then I took a year off and came into a higher league,” said Adel.

"This will be my first time out of the town and I'm excited. I worked hard at it last year and fell in love with it.”

Curtis is the veteran of the group. She has been competing in the biathlon for four years and trains year-round.

"I feel like I've trained hard and I've got a good base so I'm ready to go,” said Curtis.

"I'm excited and looking forward to it.”

The biathletes will face a string of competition from across Canada and the United States.

"I'd like to shoot about 80 per cent. I think that's a reasonable goal,” said Curtis.

"I don't really have any expectations placing wise since it's the first event of the season. I just want to have good races.”

Adel echoed those sentiments as he prepares to embark on his first major outside race.

"I just want to see what it's all about and how it works,” he said. "Sure, it would be great to place well but I've seen videos of this and there's hundreds of people there and some of them, because I'm in development, could be 16 years old.

"I haven't been cross-country skiing very long but I've been working at it very hard.”

The biathletes will be taking part in two competitions, the sprint and pursuit races.

Jacobsen views this event as good preparation for the upcoming Arctic Winter Games, which will feature four races.

"We're going to be putting a team into the Games and we will be holding trails the weekend after we get back from Canmore, on Dec. 10,” she said.

"We're hoping to have a full team for that, which would be eight members.”

Biathlon Yukon has seen an increase in its membership over the past season and senior coach Judy Hartling is hoping that growth will continue as the sport gains more recognition in Canada.

"Anyone can come in and join the club,” she says. "It goes from beginners, people who haven't skated before and haven't shot before to those that own their own rifles.”

On the senior level no outside races are planned for the upcoming season but Hartling says that could change.

"We've got a smile on our face thinking that we may be able to go down south to race. We'll do some racing up here in the Yukon and maybe next year we'll fly out.”

The race, which is the first of five events that Alberta will be hosting this season, concludes on Sunday night.