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travel / adventure zone
| The Adventure Zone |
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The Gatineau Loppet
Canada’s biggest cross-country-skiing event has everybody on the trail!
By Tracy C. Read
A spectacular forested nature reserve marked by meadows, valleys, rivers,
lakes and close to 200 kilometres of groomed trails, Gatineau Park is a
cross-country skier’s paradise. A quick drive from downtown Ottawa,
the Quebec park is also the idyllic setting for the annual Gatineau Loppet.
On Friday, February 13, to celebrate the 31st edition of Canada’s
biggest cross-country skiing event, some 3,000 racers will arrive from
countries all over the world to take part in this renowned international
competition,.
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| Photo: Valerie Ouellet |
Cross-country skiing is one of the oldest of winter sports, probably
first developed some 4,000 years by the nomadic Sámi to achieve
greater mobility on the vast snowfields of present-day northern Scandinavia.
While competitive cross-country skiing itself has been around for a few
hundred years, postmodern innovations in equipment and technique have
made the sport hugely popular for recreational skiers and athletic competitors
alike. That enthusiasm fuels the Worldloppet Ski Federation, which has
enthusiastically promoted cross-country skiing since its founding in Uppsala,
Sweden, in 1978. The Gatineau Loppet (formerly known as the Keskinada
Loppet) is a member organization of the federation, which now includes
15 winter-sport-loving nations, Russia, Norway, Estonia, Switzerland,
Italy, Poland, Japan and China among them.
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| Photo courtesy Gatineau Loppet |
The Gatineau event eases into the weekend with a Friday evening get-together at the
on-site Ski Show in the Mont-Blue High School gymnasium. It’s a chance to register
for the races, catch up with old friends, grab a bite to eat and sneak a peek at the
latest ski equipment for 2009. Bright and early Saturday morning, skiers burst out
of the gates in five separate waves as the classic 29-kilometre and 53-kilometre races
get underway. Shorter courses are scheduled for midday starts. Also on Saturday: the
Giant Ski Competition, in which two teams of eight each don a single pair of oversized
skis for an outsized race. Tapping their most coordinated and cooperative athletes
for this year’s faceoff are Norway and Gatineau.
Sunday is freestyle day, when hundreds of skiers start the longer races with 100
metres of no-step double poling before switching to freestyle skating. Shorter courses
follow, including the 2-kilometre Mini Gazifère, designed as an untimed event
that celebrates the joy of outdoor activity and is open to children and their parents.
Also up for 2009 is the Gatineau Loppet Junior, developed to attract high school students
to the sport.
Come to the Gatineau Loppet to enjoy a winter weekend in one of Canada’s
most beautiful public spaces, rub shoulders with an elite group of athletes
and get a bird’s eye view of this most elegant and challenging of
outdoor winter sports.
For more information, visit www.keskinada.com
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