BHP Billiton Rock and Ice Ultra

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Across Great Slave Lake

Rob Howard / 25.03.2008

It was another dazzling sunny morning as the 19 Diamond Ultra racers set off from Matrix Camp for the second time. Now the only remaining racers in the BHP Billiton Rock and Ice Ultra, they had another 3 days of racing ahead, but with shorter distances to cover than those that have tested them so far.

The racers were gathered for a prompt start (all except the British team who were still fixing up their sleds) and made final adjustments to their gear, clothing and ipods ready for the run along the shore of Great Slave Lake. Race Director Scott Smith gave a short briefing, instructing the racers to run inside the first island, though there has never been any difficulty following the orange flags marking the course.

Then the racers were away, crossing the ice road they ran down yesterday, and striking out across the crisp crust of snow topping the lake ice. This was blown into gently undulating ‘waves’, but not so it would hamper the runners or skiers greatly. It was more of a hindrance for the race staff going back and forward on skidoos and pulling heavily laden toboggans with all the kit and equipment needed for the camp at Baker Island. These included large Mountain Hardwear dome tents, stoves and fuel for the next two nights, and a whole lot more that goes into preparing a camp for the racers.

The small race staff has had very little sleep and no break in the punishing routine of skidoo relays and camp staging and breaking. Add to this the need to relay marshals round the course, and to constantly maintain and adjust the stoves (and the skidoos), and it all adds up to a Herculean effort.

Today there was also more of rush as the 29.5km distance would take the fastest racers only a few hours. The route was along the lake shore all the way, winding in and out among islands and inlets, but for those racers with the energy to look up the wide open vistas across the ice gave a fleeting impression of the scale of the lake. (In fact the race covers a tiny fraction of north-western spur of the lake, which is the 9th largest in the world ... but only the second largest in North West Territories.)See All Event Posts