| I first became
aware of the ‘CSM’ when old friends reported on it last year.
Their team of 4 completed 20 sections (out of a maximum of 40) and beat
some class acts. My interest was stimulated and without realising, I had
soon been entered in the 2004 event by virtue of Helen's finely honed forgery
skills. |
| The CSM follows
well-groomed cross-country ski trails for 156km close to the Ottawa River,
in Quebec. It comprises 10 sections completed over two days by more than
2000 participants. The expert "Coureurs des Bois" start early
and complete the whole course, in three classes depending on whether they
carry at least 5kg, sleep outside, or both. Luckily, I am entered as a "Tourer"
which means that I have only to complete at least one section each day.
Sections vary in length from 10 to 25km. and also from easy to difficult.
As the furthest I have ever skied in a day is 21km, it will be a considerable
challenge to meet my target of 5 sections (around 80km) over the two days.
|
| The first adrenaline
moment is 3 weeks before the event when a small package with a Canadian
postmark plops through the letterbox. The contents are a bilingual booklet
explaining all the arrangements, a fabric bib - I am number 2534 -, a badge
and a 1:200000 map vaguely detailing the route. I maintain a state of heightened
excitement until the start of the adventure a week later, when I gladly
escape from the dark, damp, relatively warm Manchester climate to the sharp
shock of Ottawa - where temperatures hold steady at around minus 25C…………. |
| After a visit to
the ski shop and a couple of weeks’ practice on the gentle slopes
of Gatineau Park…….. |
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Slogging
up the hill past
Shilly Shally cabin |
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At
the Champlain lookout on the first run out for my new skis |
| In temperatures
of around -20C the value of the warm cabins with their wood burning stoves
is immeasurable. But remember always to butter the bread on the outside
of the butty before toasting it in foil on the hot iron surface. (Cheese
and ham is best!) |
Outside Huron Cabin
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My hosts, Ken and Helen
McNair, outside one of their favourite places, Lusk Cabin |
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 |
This
cabin, Herridge, is an excellent place, frequented also by Bob,
the maintenance man, and his snowmobile |
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| I’m
relaxing with Tim and Sophie, surrounded by beers, waiting in suspense
and with growing concern at the Banquet at Lachute, at the end of the
CSM route. We are all were pleased with our day's performance, Tim having
completed just the 18km difficult third section together with Sophie,
who has also done the next 12km section.
Michael has returned home nursing his painful back strain after completing
the first two sections ahead of me. |
|
I have treated the day’s
first two long, scenic 38km sections like the training runs in nearby
Gatineau Park...only more so - today there were no serious crashes, and
the wipeouts encountered were of other skiers attempting the steep slopes
I was judiciously strolling down. And I had the thrill of passing the
100km sign. |
A major landmark
|
It had been a cold clear day with the brilliant sunshine taking a little
of the edge off the biting cold of a Canadian winter's morning. Ken, Michael
and I had found it hard to keep warm in the minus 20C conditions before
the 8.00 am starter's hooter went off, but I let the others race ahead,
and started 10 minutes after the main melee. My sedate progress was marred
only by the usual 'half an hour to get fingers warm in cold weather' problem,
my painful shoulder from the previous day (it eased after a couple of hours),
and a brief nosebleed coming into the first checkpoint after 16km. "Frozen
snot is one thing, but this is ridiculous", I was heard to mutter.
Meanwhile Ken had raced on to cover the first two sections an hour faster,
and he had last been seen forging ahead of Michael.
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Setting off from
Montebello
at minus 20C |
But what had become of Captain
Ken, our flying leader?
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| Meanwhile Linda
and Helen, having today chosen just to ski the day’s 22km second section
- a fairly uneventful experience except for Linda's unfortunate acquisition
of a large piece of snot (“not mine” she insists) that attached
itself to a ski (thankfully she was ahead of my nosebleed!), her inadvertent
running over of her own hand (some sort of crazy form of self-flagellation
or what?!), and of course her propensity for getting cold - were luxuriating
as (not entirely welcome) guests of Le Lycee sur la Riviere Auberge back
at Montebello, the group's HQ for the weekend. Having negotiated an extended
room occupation to 4.00 pm, Ken had still not turned up by 5.30. Where was
he? |
|
| Linda
and Helen on the piste |
| The 3.45 pm bus
from checkpoint 3 collected skiers wishing to return to Montebello. A number
of them were still traumatised following the mystery bum baring woman incident
("I just stopped for a pee, didn't realise you were there!")...was
she that buxom lady with the red face and the dark glasses at the back of
the bus? They relaxed whilst it trundled its way back to the day's starting
point, happy in the knowledge that they would soon be returned to their
loved ones for the hour's drive to the sumptuous Banquet awaiting them at
Lachute. And so they arrived at checkpoint 4, waited, more skiers embarked,
and so to checkpoint 5 – same drill. The full bus could now complete
its journey, but given the convoluted route and the frequent stops it had
taken a full 2 hours to undertake the relatively short journey. |
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|
5.45, and at last - Ken steps
from the bus into the arms of his loved one. "YEEESSS - done it - got
the gold medal!!!" - it had all been worth it, he had completed the
difficult third section today, without incident, taking his total tally
for the weekend to 7 sections, as a result of which he will be awarded a
'single tourer's' gold medal for his efforts. This was his target, having
achieved a silver medal for 6 sections completed last year, on his first
attempt at the event. He has covered 113km of the 156km route, and is feeling
a bit stiff from all that time on the bus, but the trio are soon on the
road to join us at the Banquet. |
| Various presentations
are made to a plethora of luminaries of the cross-country skiing world.
These include a multiple world Nordic ski champion, a man who has skied
the whole route with a pack and slept out overnight over 20 times, an 11
year old boy who completed all 10 sections, a 13 year old girl who has for
the first time joined the 'hard men and women' who carry packs and sleep
in the open (and it was cold last night), a paraplegic man who skied a section
in an adapted wheelchair!, and a man from London who heads a team of veteran
tourers (including Swiss and Polish 'ringers') who have mostly skied all
10 sections. Meanwhile the survivors of our seven strong group tuck in to
the side of beef and its accompaniments and reflect on our performances
for the weekend. |
Ken has led from
the front and achieved his target of 7 sections, followed by Michael on
Sunday and by me on Saturday. Neither of us could match his pace over the
course of the event. Will he enter as a 'Coureur des Bois' next year, starting
at 6.00 am instead of 8.00 am with the aim of doing all 10 sections?
The others all have their stories to tell, having skied between 3 and 5
sections over the two days, but here is the story of my exploits. |
| I completed 2 sections
on Sunday in leisurely fashion as described above. Saturday was altogether
more frenetic. The day was warmer, with snow flurries, so lighter clothing
was used. Most of our group had found itself on a later bus than expected
and arrived at the official start soon after the 8.00 am start time. Realising
that it would take some time to get to the second checkpoint of the day,
our planned starting point, Ken took a quick decision and left the bus.
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| I followed, but the others
stuck with the original plan. Ken and I were 10 minutes behind the main
group, and Ken soon found that his wax needed changing. So I forged ahead,
skiing much faster than ever before due to a physiological phenomenon which
automatically infuses my system with adrenaline at the start of such events.
Also, I was getting wonderful 'glide'. Lots of slower skiers were encountered
and long delays would have arisen without the use of a somewhat 'gung-ho'
technique. Or, more accurately, lack of technique. Skiers scattered as I
wiped out on virtually every downhill stretch. Despite this I managed somehow
to maintain a commendable speed – about 8kph compared with an expected
6kph. And how much faster without the wipeouts? It went something like this:
overtake 20 people, wipe out, 10 people re-pass, overtake 20 people, wipe
out, 10 people re-pass....and so on. Any vague amount of skill acquired
in training had completely deserted me, but some strength had obviously
been gained. |
Ski waxing
- an occasional distraction |
I was joined by
Ken at the first checkpoint, where a routine was established:
take off skis, retrieve mug from bum bag, collect warm honey water and handful
of broken choc chip cookies, eat and drink said items whilst locating and
queuing for portaloo (gobbling permitted for hygienic reasons), relocate
skis and proceed. The aim is to restrict such stops to 5 minutes, but it
was taking nearer 10. |
| Nevertheless, lots
more people were overtaken. The first stage was a short 11km, and I again
set off ahead of Ken and his continuing waxing problems on the longer 17km
second section. This is where all the others in our group had started their
day. For me this section went much as the earlier one. On one particularly
steep and narrow hill I resorted to taking my skis off after wiping out
twice. After strolling (well, plunging through the deep snow next to the
'piste') to the bottom I was replacing my skis when Ken flew past, having
skilfully dodged a variety of wiped out skiers on his way down the hill.
If he wasn't shouting "Geronimo" that word must have been coming
from 'above'. Stopping in this way (as I did a lot the following day) is
very time consuming, but I managed to maintain momentum and rejoined Ken
at the second checkpoint at 28km distance. The third section was only 12km,
but was quite eventful for me. Ken shot off into the distance and I tried
my best to keep up. But best wasn't good enough and he drew away. Some of
my most dramatic accidents happened here. A wipe out on one long hill was
followed by a partial recovery and a further loss of control at which point
I spotted Linda and Helen proceeding slowly and safely down the hill. Thankfully
I managed to avoid them but for some reason, instead of shouting "hello"
as I flew past "heeellpp" was all I could manage! By the time
I got to the bottom I was so far ahead of them that they missed the spectacular
wipe out that had proved necessary to avoid demolishing a mid-stage refreshment
point. |
|
I was unable to snap the CSM
mid-stage refreshment point, so here's a mid-training run refreshment point! |
After dusting myself
down and saying hello to the girls, I was off again and soon caught up with
Tim and Sophie.
Sophie now witnessed my most serious incident of the day - a proper crash.
An elderly lady skied confidently down a hill in front of me; I waited until
she was well ahead before setting off. After she had unexpectedly wiped
out, the lady must have looked back and thought that I was so far behind
she could set off again - mid-piste. That was not a good move. In a flash
I’d caught up, we tangled, and the two of us shot headlong, crunching
on down the slope. Luckily Sophie and the gathering queue at the top of
the hill stayed put during the several minutes it seemed to take us to untangle
ourselves, relocate the lady's water bottle etc, and shuffle embarrassed
to the bottom of the hill. |
Whilst Sophie later reported
"I blame the lady entirely", she also reported that “Martin
looked very white and exhausted" at this point. I emerged even whiter
than before and the black leggings that were white with congealed snow from
this and other incidents were now torn as well. A bang on the head and an
extremely sore shoulder from its being used as an 'accessory ski' added
to my discomfort. However, I managed to continue the manic performance but
failed to catch Ken, who was just leaving the third checkpoint as I arrived.
|
An early shot
before I became
a blur of whiteness |
Despite my woes,
I managed a quick stop and was off on the long 18km fourth section before
Sophie, Tim, Helen and Linda could arrive to discourage me. After some initial
sharp breezes
and drifting snow, this section was to be a delight, the wonderful glide
that I had enjoyed all day had not deserted my skis, despite all their adventures
and the lack of rewaxing. There were now only a few people around, mostly
moving at the same 8kph pace, and it was fairly flat - I could cope with
these hills! There were in fact a number of lovely wide, gentle downhill
stretches in this lovely area of undulating farm tracks and woodland paths.
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This scenery in Gatineau Park
is typical of that on the CSM route |
| At 3.40pm I finally
arrived at the fourth checkpoint, only 20 minutes behind Ken, who himself
had missed the strictly timed cut off for the last section by only about
5 minutes. If only he had started on time at 8 o clock.... |
| Back at Montebello,
after hot baths and long pots of tea, the group was soon reminiscing the
day’s exploits at a local hostelry. Ken and I were both pleased with
our 58km days, but Ken would really like to have 'bagged' all 5 of today's
sections. |
| So my tally for
the two days was beyond my 5-section target and expectation, being 6 sections
and a total of over 95km, which is not much less than my total cross-country
skiing experience prior to this trip. I am delighted with my silver medal. |
| The group completed
31 sections - an average of 4.43 each – not quite up to last year's
average, but everyone enjoyed their skiing and had a great time. |
| And so ended my
first CSM. But I’ll be back next year and I would commend this mid-winter
break to anyone, especially those not averse to a little healthy exercise
or with friends in the Ottawa area. For more details, see the
CSM web site. I think next year’s event is on 12/13 February.
I suggest going a week earlier to get a bit of practice in Gatineau Park,
where there are around 200km of cross-country skiing trails, of varying
difficulty, set in pleasant undulating woodland on an escarpment high above
the Ottawa River. Flights are about £350 and information about Ottawa
is widely available on the web. And there are culinary
delights. Ski hire is easy and cheap and there are also some shortish
downhill slopes …………….if you like that sort
of thing. |
Martin Banfield
February 2004
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