FREE Ski Lessons 5PM START

Part of Assiniboine Park’s We Are Winter Celebration.

Come for friendly, welcoming skiing lessons that are open to the public and free this weekend only!

Beginners very welcome. Stick around for We Are Winter – adult and family-oriented events happening all weekend including 80s night stylings and music. 

Approximate lesson length is 30-40min.
First come first serve.
Skis boots and poles provided if needed.
Bring your own if you have them.
All ages and abilities.
No special clothing required, but its best to dress in a few different layers. Skiing is warm while you move!

Plenty of other activities for the whole family to enjoy while you learn (including an (optional) 80s night of skiing and skating that night).

To join, please meet up in the duck pond shelter and visit the Zoogipon winter equipment kiosque.
RSVP  below is appreciated but not necessary

About the instructor(s):

Skiing Instructor – Anna Weier – Anna Weier loves to ski and share her passion for winter, especially with newbies of all ages and ability. Anna is a professional consultant with a long history of work supporting non-profits and cooperatives and just so happens to LOVE skiing. For many years she headed up educational programming as part of UMCycle, and loves to teach others new skills.

Skiing Instructor – Olex Korniiko – Olex Korniiko is a former multi-disciplinary high level athlete and a specialist in biathlon – the sport that combines cross country skiing with target shooting. Olex uses a sit ski to compete, and represented his country of Ukraine at Sochi during the 2014 Paralympics. Coach Olex is not just any coach – he also holds masters degrees in ergotherapy and specializes in providing psychological and physical supports for persons with disabilities too. Olex is an accomplished coach of able-bodied athletes of many disciplines – including the one time Ukrainian national champion of taekwondo.  He is currently the mobility specialist for Winnipeg Trails and develops programs for persons with various disabilities. When he’s not busy doing that, he is coaching taekwondo out of the U of M and various activities for newcomer youth in the Maples and learning to adapt to his newfound home in Canada.

Skiing/Skating Instructor (Backup) – Anders Swanson Anders is Winnipeg Trails’ Executive Director. And he loves winter. His unconventional introduction to winter activities is perhaps why he loves teaching beginners. For example, unlike most Canadian kids, he did not learn to skate on ice until he was well into adulthood, having spent most of his time as competitive soccer player for his entire childhood. He did however learn to ski in the Kananaskis area of southern Alberta at age 5 but lasted only a few lessons. Moving further east to Saskatchewan and Manitoba put a kibosh on any nascent skiing plans and he eventually learned to skate many years later in Ottawa on rollerblades in the summer. A few years later, he learned to snowboard in the deep powder high in the mountains west of Smithers, BC and is one of very few people who was paid to snowshoe all day (part of his job as a truck driving/snowmobiling forestry worker in winter). He finally played his first game of hockey in real equipment in his 30s. He now plays beer league goalie (rather poorly) and loves to ski or skate whenever he can.  For the past 4 years, Anders has been leading the implementation of Winnipeg Trails’ hugely popular mobile ski library and has (arguably) perfected the art of teaching skiing in 30 seconds or less…