Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Rob Howard / 11.08.2006
If you cross the ice the quickest on the ‘Diamond 300’ course, you get to win ‘the rock’.
The Diamond 300 is the longest of several races offered as part of the ‘Rock and Ice’. It’s a 6 stage foot and snowshoe race covering 300km across the northern wilderness of Canada and the route takes racers out onto Great Slave Lake, the world’s eleventh largest lake (known as the ‘other-desert’). Marked trails end after 100 miles and navigational expertise in desert type conditions will be needed to compliment exceptional athletic ability.
There is a choice of 4 courses, with the ‘300’ being the longest. (It’s already attracted the most entries and the first international entries.)
The K-Rock-160 is a 160 km/100 mile continuous foot and snowshoe race following a well marked trail over frozen lake chains connected by land portages. The name comes about as this is kimberlite country (K-Rock; the stuff diamonds are found in). There is also an 80km event which teams can take part in, or compete in relay on ski, foot or snowshoe, and a fun 5km event for all the family.
The man behind this new winter ultra is Scott Smith, and his background in mining engineering and exploration has allowed him to explore many remote corners of the world. He has completed some epic climbs and long exploratory trips, raced both the Yukon Arctic Ultra and the Canadian Death Race, and mountain biked solo across Canada and Australia.
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