Rock and Ice Ultra; In the News and on the Road

Rob Howard / 16.11.2007

Race organiser of the Rock and Ice Ultra, Scott Smith is preparing to take news of his event on a short ‘international’ tour, after recently being feted for his work developing the race in Canada’s North West Territories.

Smith combines his work as a mining prospector with building on last years highly successful launch of ‘Rock & Ice Ultra’ and his company Northern Canadian Adventure Racing Inc.was nominated some months ago for the Business Development Bank of Canada\'s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award – and they won!

“Kudos to the crews, to our sponsors BHP Billiton and Canadian North and to our hosts; the Yellowknive\'s Dene First Nation,” said Smith, when he heard the news.

”I am personally very honoured that I have been able to combine my passion for mineral prospecting and my passion for endurance athletics and actually create a respectable business. There is not much better than doing what you love and making a living at the same time.”

The second race is due to take place from March 22-27th and is once again sponsored by BHP Billiton, who operate the huge Ekati diamond mine north of Yellowknife and support the race with glittering prizes of real diamonds!

To further help promote the race Smith has organised a seminar in the UK on Nov. 22nd in central London. This is being run Luke Cunliffe, one of the UK’s most experienced ultra endurance racers, having completed over 50 marathons, ultra-distance marathons and extreme races in some of the most exciting environments in the world. He raced the inaugural ‘Rock and Ice’ this year and like most of the competitors found it a steep learning curve, though he did successfully finish. (66% of competitors dropped out.) All the details are on Luke’s website and there is an offer of 25% off race registration for those attending the seminar!