Canadian Ski Marathon 2012

Well another ski marathon weekend has come and gone. Despite the weatherman’s best efforts to scare us – with calls for a flash freeze Friday night, and bitter cold winds all weekend – it turned out to be a fabulous winter weekend. Just the kind of weather you might like to go skiing in! Last post I joked “how did I manage to get signed up again?”… but of course most know full well it’s not a difficult “sale” to convince me to sign up - always a fun event. This year Pete wanted to get out and experience the event first hand and see what it was all about. He hadn’t classic skied since high school(been a while...) and didn’t really work out what he would be skiing on till a week or two before the event – but he was game to try! I convinced him to go for the “Tourer” option which would let us ski as many sections as we wanted (could?) without feeling obliged to try and ski it all. He could use this year as a learning experience and then build on it for future attempts – tuning up his training, or equipment, perhaps his game day feeding strategy – whatever. We’d still get a good ski in on a unique set of trails.
Winding through the hills
So Saturday dawned a little frosty but overall not too bad. I got up early and headed out to take a few shots of the Coureur des Bois near the start. Always a neat sight to see as they head off into the woods (predawn) with the long line of headlamps twinkling through the woods marking the trail. After chasing them around a bit it was time to race to the parking lot to meet up with Pete and climb on our bus. A little confusion meant we missed our first bus but it didn’t amount to much as the second one arrived pretty much spot on the section “open” time so we got off the warm bus and started skiing almost immediately - perfect timing!
The Coureur des Bois head out before dawn
"Snaking" their way down to a little roadway underpass
The tracks were really nice this year – perfectly set from the packed snow I showed in my last post. We did get a dusting of new snow overnight but not enough to slow the glide down too badly. The snow was – as I predicted – quite abrasive but my wax combo (loosely based on the wax guru’s advice) of a green klister covered by carrot hard wax and a thin layer of fluoro blue(nice bonus tip there kept the debris out of my wax!) worked great all day. I did a little touch up at the checkpoints only because I was carrying wax and not so much because I needed to. Shortly after we started, the sun came out and it turned into a brilliantly sunny day. Only a few short stretches where we turned our noses into the cold wind so overall very comfortable skiing. There were a few stretches in the second section we skied that were a little ugly. A gritty section along the highway and a few steep chutes with just enough snow to cover the frozen mud come to mind… but that’s par for the course for the CSM trail. The tough bits add to the challenge and make the perfect tracks across field and dale all the sweeter.
Perfect tracks along the lakeside
Somewhere through the long 20k section the proverbial “wheels” fell off for Pete and he decided he’d had enough fun for the day. I think we skied more this weekend then he skied all season so no surprise perhaps. So while he climbed onto the bus back to the cars, I opted to ski on one more section as I was still feeling good… and I was keen to get a close up look at the construction work for the new highway which will hopefully open next year. The last section included a couple of long slow climbs to the highway before we launched down through the Montebello golf links to the finish of day one at the Chateau Montebello. Good fun and all in all I felt good after 50k of skiing.
The last slow climb of day 1 - up to and then under the new highway
Day two we both woke a little stiff and sore (not a surprise) so we opted for the easier last two sections of the course that took us from Lac Carling down to the finish line in Lachute. The trail wound its way through the Canadian shield past cottage communities all locked up for the winter and across a couple of frozen lakes to the first checkpoint. Starting early on these sections meant we got (almost) first tracks on the fresh tracksetting. It made for easy skiing on another beautiful day. The last couple of descents came relatively quickly and before we knew it we were in Lachute being cheered home by… well, there were one or two people around. They told us we were “too fast” and not expected for another ½ hour… a comment that I think Pete will carry to his grave ;) Collecting my “Bronze Tourer” pin, for completing 5 sections, the “pin distribution lady” – reading from her “Rules sheet” - asked to confirm that I was indeed over 17 (and perhaps not some young kid scamming the wrong prize!)… a comment I may take to my grave!
Past the cottage and onto the lake...
“But Kenmore… what about this "Equine pacer" I heard rumors about”.

Indeed, I’ve saved that for last. The CSM trail winds through forest and farmers fields, sugarbushes and small country villages. A few kilometers after the start of our first section we came upon a small farm yard. I’ve seen this a few times before - the arrival of the skiers gets the farm animals excited. The horses in particular like to run up and down the paddock to check out these strange new creatures that have arrived in their quiet little farms. So it was no surprise that we saw the 10 or so horses(and a few cows) running around as the skiers slid by. I stopped and took a picture and then raced on to catch up to Pete, thinking nothing more of it. As we started to leave the farm behind and settle in to a bit of a climb, I heard a loud metallic twang from behind me. Looking around I discovered one of the horses – overwrought with excitement - had leapt (perhaps broken?) the fence and was now happily tearing up the trail behind me!
TRACK!!!
A few thoughts ran through my head (foremost of which was some Pamplona scenario) but it quickly became clear that she meant no harm. This parade was too good for her to miss and she wanted to join in! As she caught up to us she slowed down beside each skier, checked them out... and then powered on to catch the next person in line. After passing me, she roared up the rather steep hill ahead and left me for dust. I’ve often heard that the “golds” are the draught horses of the event but this was ridiculous. Sadly she did do a little damage to the trail, post holing as she went along, but the poor thing hadn’t time to strap on her skis much less get them waxed so I suppose all is forgiven. A few km ahead was an army water stop and I’m sure they got quite a shock when – expecting a horde of skiers to hand water to they got a large horse trotting down the trail at them. But they took it in stride and got her off the track – “No number, no bandit participants ma’am ” and she was directed to the side. Hopefully she got home after her busy and exciting day in the woods. Hate for the farmer to be put off from the event and deny permission to the organizers to cross his farm. Clearly not something one could have anticipated.
Time for a break
So as always the CSM provided a great weekend of skiing and excitement for more than just the participants. My full set of pictures can be found HERE. Will I be “conned” into signing up next year… Always a chance... ;)