Dave Rees and Jean Bristow: Canmore Masters Skiers
We spent Valentine’s Day 2012 side-by-each in our black Chevy. It was the day we set out from Canmore on a three consecutive 12 hour per day drives across this fair land of ours, en route to compete in three loppets on three consecutive Saturdays. Our plan had been hatched in the balmy days of summer 2011 and seemed like a good idea at the time but during the winter as we spent many hours on our skis at the Canmore Nordic Centre, we sometimes wondered. Even so we had to get our sometime reluctant bodies used to the idea of skiing many kilometres without a break.
The three loppets that we zeroed on were the Gatineau Loppet (51 km), the American Birkie (54 km) and the Sleeping Giant (50 km). Both of us prefer classic skiing to skating in races and loppets, and fortunately all three of these loppets can accommodate retro people like us.
The Gatineau Loppet can be brutally cold and some years the trails are extremely icy. No matter what, the trails in Gatineau Park are challenging and include a lot of climbing. Even in the later stages of the race, when the profile indicates a “free ride” down the parkways (which are closed in winter and groomed for skiing), one can be disappointed as the long, gradual down hills suddenly morph into long, gradual up hills! Much gnashing of teeth and muttered expletives can be heard at about kilometre 42, when one’s screaming legs and arms are starting to wonder just what their idiot owner is doing. However, on the weather front, 2012 was a banner year as we were blessed with starting temperatures around -5 C which warmed to about -1 C by the end of the race. Our wax worked fine – a combo of blue Rex klister as base with Guru Extreme 39 and a little Swix Universal. The Rex slowed us a little but those who tried to go the distance without the gooey stuff reported an ugly experience.
The Gatineau Loppet is well organized and at the end of the race it’s only a short walk to the school where a hot meal is served to all competitors, who can kibbitz and compare notes as they enjoy that sense of well-being that comes after a long race that has gone relatively well.
Next up was the American Birkie, which is run along a 54 km route from Cable to Hayward, WI. We jumped into the black Chevy once again and drove west through North Bay (a short stop for visiting) and then through Sault Ste Marie (stopping for lunch with a cousin) and then across northern Michigan to Wisconsin – a looooong straight road. The scenery was great but we were concerned at the mere dusting of snow in the ploughed fields as we drew close to Cable. There seemed to be a bit more snow at Hayward, but it was only when we had a chance to ski on the race trail the following day that our doubts were put to rest about the conditions. Our digs for the event were in Spooner (yep a real town) about 45 minutes south of Hayward.
We had one day to reconnoitre and found that the Birkie organizers had spared no effort to ensure that, regardless of what Mother Nature had decreed for the surrounding area, the race trail itself would have a more-than-adequate snow pack on it. Trail grooming for the race began at about 3 pm the day before, and continued far into the night to ensure that every inch of the trail was groomed and track-set to perfection.
Prior to the race we attended a couple of social events. On the Thursday, Vegard Ulvang, this year’s “star turn” at the Birkie and former Olympic medalist , gave a one hour talk with slides on his recent ski expedition to the South Pole in commemoration of the centenary of Roald Amundsen’s arrival at the Pole in January 1912. It was an excellent talk and was enhanced for us because part of our audio entertainment as we drove across the prairies had been a DVD about a 2009 international race to the South Pole. So much of what Vegard described already had a familiar ring to it.
Next morning we attended a special breakfast for Worldloppet Passport holders, (such honoured folk we are!) and by good fortune were able to sit at Vegard’s table and chat with him. Back in 1969, Dave had been coached by Vegard’s father, Arne, when he’d come to Canada for one winter to work with the national team as a replacement for another Norwegian who had gone home. Email addresses were exchanged and two “old” friends have now reconnected.
Once again the weather gods smiled on us. Race Day dawned cool and clear, making waxing reasonably straight forward – for the second week in a row, the wax meister aced the wax and both of us had rocket skis with gorilla grip! The race course was very much to our liking – rolling hills, and enough good sized ups to keep one honest, but with matching downs to allow a bit of a rest. Over 9,000 skiers took part in the race, starting in 9 waves for each technique (skating and classic). Wave one was reserved for the elite athletes, and entry into waves two to nine were determined by one’s results in previous Birkies or other similar distance races. Dave, being of “age”, was fortunate enough to be assigned to wave 3, a courtesy to all skiers over the age of 65, but Jean had to be content with wave 9, reserved for Birkie virgins with no appropriate qualifying results (Jean’s Transjurassienne result from 2009 was apparently too ancient to count).
It was an excellent event, and the race ends with a two block ski along the Main Street of Hayward, with crowds of cheering spectators lining the route and cheering one on to the finish. The finish area was a zoo – skiers, skis, clothing bags and odds and sods everywhere! Not sure if there was a change tent but out behind the mess tent in the sun was fine. Food for the hunger-stricken finishers was a small styrofoam bowl of watery soup and a bun – but the line-up for such fare seemed longer than the race course itself! So we gave up on that and later, had a cheerful meal at the Angry Minnow pub with Judy and Mike Mappin – a fitting end to a most enjoyable day.
One week later we were once again on a start line, this time in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The race takes place in Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, about one hour’s drive east of Thunder Bay, and is the banner event of the ski year in the region. The atmosphere is friendly, with racers encouraging one another along the way, and the course is a mixture of hills and flatter sections, with plenty of feeding stations and great volunteers along the route.
All the classic racers started together, 30 minutes ahead of the skaters. There were only about 70 or 80 classic skiers lined up, so a lot less jostling for position than in Cable the week before! However, this time the weather gods had become distracted, and sent cold winds, blown-in tracks (much to the chagrin of the groomer who was out all night to ensure the best) and cold temperatures. Fortunately, the race trail is almost entirely in the woods, so the wind wasn’t a factor during the race, but the thermometer, which had registered -12 C at the start, only “warmed” to -10 C by the end. We had to ski out of the tracks for the first 12km or so as no one in the lead wanted to occupy the snowed-in tracks but all was good when we came upon the cut-in for the shorter races – they had done the work that we did not want to do. Apart from the first bit of track and some relentless flat at the end, it was a good race and we both enjoyed the experience. It was a satisfying feeling to cross the finish line and know we’d achieved our goal of ” the big three in three”. After a pleasant visit and a wood-fired sauna with some Finnish friends – we retreated to the west and another two day drive to the comfort of our Canmore abode.
So that’s it – a skiing marathon (3 big ones) and a driving marathon (9,500 kms!). All in all it was a great experience and has certainly whetted our appetites for similar adventures in the future. Norbert Meier and Silvia Stettler, also of Canmore, raised the bar this year by completing the Dolomeitenlauf, the Marcialonga and the Konig Ludwig Lauf on three consecutive Saturdays in Europe and we hope to follow their tracks in 2014.