Two more IRL (In Real Life) events in Jasper are going virtual. 

For 25 years, every December, the Chaba Theatre would be packed for a night of mountain movies when the world-famous Best of the Banff Mountain Film Festival would roll into town. 

On the night of the show, a rainbow of puffy jacket-wearing locals would line up down the block in order to be part of the festival action. Chaba Theatre owner Dwain Wacko looked forward to hosting the amped-up crowd. In a calendar year filled with Hollywood blockbusters, the Best of the Banff was an outlier that gave Jasper’s mountain culture a chance to shine, he said.

“The town really supports it,” Wacko said. “It always sold out.”

This year, thanks to the COVID pandemic, theatre attendance is in the dumps. The Chaba is only doing 10 per cent of its normal ticket sales, Wacko said. 

“It’s challenging, it’s discouraging. We’re trying to weather through it all.”

To help improve The Chaba’s chance of survival, Wacko has had to be creative. Along with booking out the theatre for private showings, the Chaba is once again signed up as a BBMFF host. However, rather than welcoming folks into the theatre, the Chaba is facilitating the watching of films at home. 

The Banff Mountain Film Festival has three programs viewers can choose from, purchasable through the Chaba’s website (www.chabatheatre.ca). 

For $15 or $28, adventure film lovers can purchase a package to view on-demand. Part of the proceeds will trickle back to the Chaba.

“It’s still a great program, we’re just delivering it a little differently this year,” Wacko said.

The same goes for Jasper Physiotherapy and Health Centre’s 2020 racing circuit.

Sean Fitzgerald, owner and lead physiotherapist of the Connaught Drive business, is organizing five different races on local trails this year. The COVID catch? Participants will be racing alone, tracking their times with their smartphone.

“People’s motivation is down right now, we need to social distance, we thought ‘let’s create something that encourages people to get out on the trails.’”

From December 15 to April 15, participants will have the chance to enter a friendly race with fellow athletes. Using their smartphone’s Strava app, a virtual racing platform which tracks users’ progress along designated routes with GPS data, racers will record their times on a variety of trails, using a variety of mediums. Fitzgerald is gearing the races to snowshoers, cross country skiers, runners and cyclists.

“There’s no set race day,” he said. “You do it when you can, in whatever conditions present themselves on that day.”

A four-month window to complete the challenges means that trail conditions—and participants’ fitness—will vary greatly as the winter progresses. Knowing that, racers shouldn’t be too concerned with getting the best time, Fitzgerald said. Instead, they should be satisfied they’re staying fit while helping out a community need. Proceeds of the race will go to the Jasper Healthcare Foundation.

“This is about filling in the gaps where Alberta Health Services can’t,” Fitzgerald said.

And the virtual races are about filling gaps where following COVID guidelines has made it difficult to come together as local athletes normally would. 

To register with Jasper Physio’s virtual racing series, visit www.jaspervirtualracing.ca