Canadian Ski Marathon

This morning I took my ski boots out of my bag... and remembered that I'd broken one of the eyelets on the Ski with the Cree trip. Considering I've rented skis and poles for this marathon would it have been so hard to rent a pair of boots as well? No. So why did my memory not inform me of my slightly damaged boots while I was in the gear shop? Reminds me of last summer when I put my yeti gaiters onto my boots while my dad was driving me to the airport, just as I was putting them on I remembered that the zip was completely knackered. Still, the gaiters lasted the summer... and today my boots carried me through 52km of ski marathon. The Canadian Ski Marathon is cunningly designed so that one can do as much or as little as one desires. Today there were 5 sections. The ladies I was with decided to miss out the first section and planned to do the middle three. So we were conveyed to our starting checkpoint by one of those quintessentially North American yellow school buses. The scenery was some of the prettiest I've seen thus far in Canada. We weaved through trees, leafless, rimed in frost, some with shrivelled leaves from last autumn still clinging to their boughs. Maybe I preferred it because finally Canada showed me some topology. We skied in valleys through rounded hills, past lakes, through undulating farmland. One section found us in single file through a tunnel of conifers, their dark branches laden with snow. "Isn't this amazing! Straight out of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!" cried a loud voice from behind me. The checkpoints were a hive of activity. I heard, rather than saw, the first one. "God only knows... God only knows how you feel about me" blaring through the trees alerted me to the prospect of food and drink. Bits of flapjack, cookies, banana, chocolate covered peanuts... honey water (which I wasn't very keen on) and a luminous liquid known as Gatorade... pass me the plain hot water please! The third section was long. By this time I had pretty much figured out how to cross country ski properly... but was getting to the point of being too tired to try! I was slightly irritated to find that I reached the checkpoint 20 minutes too late to carry on to the fourth and final section. If only I hadn't dillied and dallied at previous checkpoints! If only I'd pushed myself that little bit harder. As I disconsolately stood in the food queue and munched my peanuts I noticed that the volunteer behind the table was getting overwhelmed by the number of incoming hands snatching every morsel... almost before she had them on the table. "Can I help?" Moments later I was on the other side, breaking up flapjack, snapping cookies and chatting away happily to the lovely lady volunteer who, it turned out, had been on Baffin Island quite recently. She'd had an opportunity to go up there to do a survey of people's health in that region. Not great apparently... as I know from my own experience. So we had quite a good time, until the torrent of people ebbed into a trickle, at which point I went off to get another school bus back to Le Chateau. I have to confess, I really am staying in the lap of luxury here. I'm told it's the largest log constructed chalet in the world... and I can well believe it! Tomorrow... more skiing!


The second day of the ski marathon involved rather more uphill! The trail twisted and turned its way through some lovely countryside and by this time I had finally figured out how to ski. Although I ended up skiing alone most of the time I did have quite a fun race down to one of the checkpoints following another guy who seemed to be going at a similar pace to myself. Without speaking we somehow reached a tacit agreement to up the speed and gradually went faster and faster, passing other skiers and swooped down the final hill to the checkpoint with a flourish! The last section also involved quite a lot of downhill with plenty of opportunity for calamity. Fortunately luck was on my side and I made it to the finish on my feet!