The Yukon Ski Team recently attended the B.C. Alpine North Zone Championships, held over Easter weekend in Smithers, where they put the finishing touches on the club's most successful season to date.

The Yukoners picked up four medals at the championships, including gold in both the women and men's K2 categories.

'I think we did quite well there,' said head coach Dick Eastmure in an interview Thursday. 'We had the top male, top female and the fastest run.'

Yukon Ski Team member Allison Furniss had the fastest overall women's time in the two run slalom while Sammy Kent had the fastest overall men's time. They were joined on the podium by Anya Zimmerman, who won bronze in the women's K2 category, and Patrick Bell, who grabbed bronze in the men's K2 division.

Kent's gold medal victory earned him the trophy for the overall leader of the K2 men's category for the B.C. North zone. The results are based on the skier's top six results in North zone races this past season.

Eastmure was pleased with the the rest of the ski team as well. Raissa Anderson placed seventh while Alex Peepre was eighth, Quinn Dennehy ninth, Derick Wilson 11th and Erica Trimble 18th.

The team didn't fair quite as well in the Giant Slalom on Saturday, as a few took a spill.

Finishing fifth in their age categories were Anya Zimmerman and Allison Furniss. Sarah Hamilton, in her first year of racing, finished 12th.

In the K2 boys division, Quinn Dennehy, Alex Peepre, Patrick Bell and Sammy Kent finished seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th respectfully.

Derick Wilson and Erica Trimble finished 19th and 20th in a very large and competitive E2 field while Raissa Anderson finished sixth in the K1 category.

According to Eastmure, the results are the best ever for the Yukon team at the B.C. championships, which cap off a very successful skiing season.

'It would be our best since we've formed the club,' he stated. 'We've just steadily improved over the years and that continued this year.'

Eastmure said Arctic Winter Games were certainly a highlight for his club, as both Zimmerman and Kent won triple gold in their categories. The Yukon ski team was also fairly dominant in all of the North zone races this season, events which are part of the national points series. And for the first time, Yukon sent two skiers to the national juvenile championships Kent and Zimmerman.

'Our best finish I think, was when Sammy was 32nd in the Super G against something like 80 kids, the best in Canada,' he said. 'In the two technical events, he didn't complete the course.

'Potentially, he could have been in the top 15 there, if he was standing up. I certainly wasn't disappointed with that though, because I know his abilities.'

In fact, Kent will be moving up to the FIS level of alpine skiing next season. Yukon doesn't have a FIS program to date, but Eastmure said that's something the club is working toward.

'We're looking at a couple of options for Sammy,' said Eastmure, when asked whether Kent may have to move Outside. 'He certainly needs to start skiing with more high calibre skiers. We're doing dry land training with him this summer, and we'll see after that.

'There is the possibility he might have to go live Outside. He is still fairly young. You've got to be careful with sending kids away before they're really ready to do that. Sometimes it burns them out and they're done.

'He has extremely good talent and we want to make sure he continues in the right direction, on the right path. He's going to go a long way.'

Kent will be hitting the gym this summer to begin strength training. Eastmure said he's at the right age where he can start weightlifting. The rest of the Yukon Ski Team will also be doing dry land training. They enter a biking team in the Chilkat relay every year and a lot of the younger skiers play outdoor soccer.

Some of the kids will attend on-snow camps down south and the club is looking at a couple of spring camps next month, perhaps in Smithers or Sunshine in Banff. Preseason skiing won't start until mid-November.

'If Mount Sima has snow by then, we're there,' said Eastmure. 'If not, it costs us a lot of money to go elsewhere. We're really hoping for Mount Sima and snowmaking.

'Last year, they opened December 18 and that's too late for us.'

Eastmure ended up taking a couple of the skiers to Banff for preseason training last year, while the rest of the team waited for Sima to open something Eastmure doesn't want to repeat this year.

But regardless of where the training takes place, the coach is confident his team can only improve on this past season's success.

'All the skiers are steadily improving,'' he said. 'We've got some kids coming up and I think we're on a real improvement curve.'