WATCH ABOVE: Forget about parking your car, one Edmonton LRT station now has a place to park your skis.
EDMONTON — In a city such as Edmonton, where residents see snow for a large part of the year, people are always trying to come up with new, inventive ways to embrace the winter season.
The latest initiative? Strapping on a pair of cross-country skis and skiing to the Century Park LRT station. A lockable cross-country ski rack has been installed at the south Edmonton station. It was unveiled Saturday morning to a group of winter enthusiasts.
“We’ve got white belts that stretch all the way to the River Valley and all along 111 Street, down 34 Avenue, up into Bearspaw. We’ve got well over 20 kilometres of trails that our volunteers have tracked out since we started this project this winter,” said Shauna Rae, co-founder of the Ski2LRT movement.
The Ski2LRT initiative gives people the opportunity to get active, while enjoying all the of the great things winter in Edmonton has to offer.
“We want to give people other options so that they can also embrace a sustainable method of transportation and get some exercise in the morning and on the way home from work.”
READ MORE: Grassroots movement urges Edmontonians to ditch cars and ski to LRT
The rack was funded with support from the Southwest Area Council. Ward 10 city councillor Michael Walters believes the rack fits in well with Edmonton’s WinterCity Strategy.
“This is really cool grassroots stuff that’s really exciting,” said Walters. “Great cities are built on great ideas hatched by great people, and this is an example of one of those great things that is going to make Edmonton a great city.”
“It also makes us fall in love with winter, which is one of the goals of this great city.”
The rack is equipped with 10 spaces for skis and poles, all you need is a padlock. This weekend’s unveiling coincides with Edmonton’s Winter Cities Shake-Up conference, which aims to change the attitudes of people used to avoiding winter.
WATCH: Michel Boyer finds out what the city learned from Winter Cities Shake-Up
On Saturday, a number of international delegates from the conference were taken on a ride on the LRT to Century Park to get a first-hand look at the ski rack.
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