Arctic Circle Race -- Sisimiut, Greenland -- April 8 - 10, 2005 by Lindsay Gauld
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Arctic Circle Race -- Sisimiut, Greenland -- April 8 - 10, 2005 by Lindsay Gauld Sometimes in a long tough event, you reach a point where you feel that you just can’t go on. You can’t continue to put your body through the pain that your efforts are causing. I lost count of how many times I reached that point in the 3-day Arctic Circle cross country ski race in Sisimiut Greenland. It’s called the hardest cross country ski race in the world, and it lives up to it’s billing. In November of last year I did La Ruta de los Conquistadores in Costa Rica, which is known as the hardest mountain bike race on the planet. There’s a pattern that seems to be forming here. My wife Lynne has picked up on it, and now tells me that our yard work is the hardest on earth. I haven’t bit on that yet. However, these events are extremely challenging and at the same time very rewarding, so I keep looking for these kinds of challenges. I first heard about the 9-year-old event several years ago, and I’ve had it on my dance card since then. I had to pause and think about it since this is a classic event, and I had only done skate races for at least 10 years. As I’ve gotten older (and slower) I find that I really enjoy the multi-day events, which test your mind and will as much as your speed, and this was the appeal of the ACR. I’d originally planned on doing the Raid Ukatak adventure race this winter, but it was unexpectedly canceled. I found myself out of sorts with no goal in sight. At that time, a friend of ours from Calgary, Chris Algeo, came to stay with us and we talked about doing the ACR. My wife Lynne thought it sounded okay. As is my normal pattern, I didn’t leave time for second thoughts. I went and logged on the internet and entered the next day. Chris had gone home, so I emailed him that I had entered and maybe we could co-ordinate our travel plans. It turns out that they had a family vacation to Italy, which made this year’s race impossible for him. I contacted Steve Scoles as he had talked about going in the past, but he also was unable to go this year. I was off on a solo adventure. Now that I was committed, I had to come to grips that I hadn’t done a classic race in many years. I knew I could put in lots of time training for classic, but my plans came off the rails almost immediately when I fell walking on some ice, and badly dislocated my left shoulder. It took 8 hours at the Misericordia Urgent Care before it was popped back into place, and this caused extensive swelling and some nerve damage to the left arm. I found myself out skiing with my left arm in a sling, which didn’t make for any upper body work which is what I really needed. Each year the course for the ACR is different, but it is always about 160 km over 3 days, with 2 nights sleeping out in tents. Last year, Norwegian skiing legend Bjorn Daelie did the race and only finished 7th. Although he is past his prime, this was still an eye opener in terms of the level of competition. In looking at the times of the fastest skiers, I estimated that it would take me between 14 and 16 hours, depending on the conditions. This meant about 5 hours per day, so I’d obviously have to build up my training distances very quickly. After several weeks, my arm was slowly coming around. I could use it while skiing, but it would get tired and sore after time, and I would have to let it hang and ski with one pole. I’d do this for 10 minutes, and then use the arm again and gradually extend its use. It’s tough to find a long circuit near the city groomed for classic. I found myself doing multiple laps at Windsor Park as well as Beaudry Park. For a longer loop, I’d venture out to Birds Hill. All of these venue lack hills and I understood the course in Greenland was very hilly, so I went several times to Grand Beach and also went out to the Bittersweet trails to get in more training on hills. One of the intriguing parts of the Arctic Circle Race is the camping out at night after the first and second days. They supply the tents but you're responsible for your own sleeping gear and food, which you have to prepare yourself. I really liked this element, but it definitely meant a lot of planning would have to go into my gear. I had the necessary sleeping bags (they had to be good to –30º, and yes they checked very closely) from my Ukatak gear. They transported your bag to the camp, and it couldn’t weigh more than 15 kg (33 lbs). With food, waxing supplies, race clothing for 3 days and all types of possible conditions, it was certain that I wouldn’t have a different wardrobe for dining every evening. The web site said that there was a drying tent for your clothes, a waxing tent, as well as a cooking and eating tent. My experience at the 7-day Trans Rockies Challenge bike race led me to expect that I would need a complete set of race clothes for each day of the race. This meant more gear, but I didn’t fancy putting on damp gear to start a 5-hour ski race. On this point, I was wrong and the drying tent was very effective with plenty of heat and long rods and hangers for your clothes and boots. As for food, the web site said that they provided boiling water as well as tea and coffee. They also had pots and pans as part of our tent kit. I took food which only needed boiling water added, as I wasn’t sure whether we had cooking facilities or if I would have the energy to cook after racing 5 or 6 hours. Katrina at Wilderness Supply pointed me towards her favorite freeze-dried meals, and I also had noodle soups. For breakfast, I took instant oatmeal. I ate fine, but it turns out that I could have expanded my menu as they supplied each tent with a Trangia stove and nested pots. Some of the experienced ACR competitors ate quite lavishly, and I even saw several steaks being grilled, though that wouldn’t be my preferred race food. If (read when) I go back, I will enhance my food choices. As part of the entry, you receive a round trip flight from Copenhagen to Greenland, as Greenland is a protectorate of Denmark. First Air used to fly from Ottawa to Iqaluit and then to Kangerlussuaq in Greenland, but that is no longer an available option. The flight from Copenhagen was on April 5th, so I flew on the 3rd to Toronto, and then to London on Air Canada. I then had an 8-hour layover in London before I caught a British Air flight to Copenhagen. I was dreading that part, but it turned out to be a blessing. My flight into Toronto had been delayed which made for a tight connection for the flight to London. When I arrived, I was dismayed to find that I had no luggage. Fortunately, the long layover allowed it to catch up to me before my flight to Denmark. I arrived in Copenhagen after 20 hours of travel, so my hotel near the airport was most welcome. I had a quick meal and then tried to sleep off my jet lag. The next morning, I took the shuttle to the airport and met my first fellow ACR competitor. Peter Bachmann is a 56-year-old (same as me) Swiss skier who had done the race 2 years ago. When I meet Europeans I often feel inadequate, as most of them speak passable English while I’m decidedly unilingual. Peter could make himself understood in English, and we swapped war stories and quickly became friends. We flew on a large Airbus, and I found myself trying to pick out the skiers among the passengers. All international flights to Greenland fly into Kangerlussuaq, which is a former US air base from WW II. From there it is necessary to switch to smaller Dash 7 planes to land at numerous other communities. There is virtually no highway system in Greenland. Since virtually all of the settlements are on the coast, people travel either by plane to some of the larger centers, or by boats which travel along the coast. Sisimiut is the 2nd largest community in Greenland at about 5300 people. It is located 70 kms north of the Arctic Circle (hence the race name), and is the most northerly port in Greenland to remain open throughout the winter due to the influence of the Gulfstream. The primary industry is fishing, and there is a large fish processing plant, which is apparently one of the most modern in the world. Upon arriving at the Sisimiut airport it turned out that there were about 35 ACR competitors on the flight. I heard some North American English being spoken, and met 3 guys from Boulder Colorado as well as 3 skiers from Whitehorse in the Yukon.