Come January, hundreds of snowshoers will head into the wild Blue yonder.
The 6th annual Snowshoe Raid – a mix of galumphing and orienteering – is on tap for Jan. 22 in Southern Ontario’s Blue Mountains.
“I wanted to start a snowshoe event in Ontario and I am an adventure racer at heart, so I thought including navigation and team components would be fun,” said organizer Bob Miller. “There had been a long-standing series of ‘adventure runs’ (www.adventurerunning.ca) happening in Ontario, so I asked the organizers if they’d be interested in adding a winter, snowshoe, version of the race to the schedule and they were quite enthusiastic, so the Snowshoe Raid was born.”
“Last year we had over 200 participants, this year we’re anticipating 250. The event grows by approx. 50 people every year,” he added.
“This isn’t your typical snowshoe race on groomed or packed trails,” Miller continued. “Snowshoes are essentially the only way participants will be able to reach the checkpoints during the event in an efficient manner. Without them, they’d be slogging through knee, thigh, or waist-deep snow (depending on current conditions).”
Despite the sponsorship of Salomon, which unfortunately went out of the snowshoe business several years ago, the “event was not created to satisfy a sponsor’s objective, but was something we thought people would find fun in the winter,” Miller said. “With that being said, the ideal shoe for our event is a gore-tex trail runner and Salomon makes an ideal version with the XA Pro 3D Ultra 2GTX, not to mention they have very nice winter athletic apparel, again well-suited to the conditions of the event.”
The course is centred on the Blue Mountain Resorts near Collingwood, Ontario. Miller called the selection of that location a “no-brainer” for the teams which will compete in tandems.
“It’s all about the terrain,” he enthused. “There are some fantastic forested hills and valleys surrounding Blue Mountain and the resort sits on the Niagara Escarpment (a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve), which provides perfect terrain for our event.”
“A fair amount of the race takes place off-trail, in the forested hills and valleys where participants need to locate checkpoints as they make their way through the course,” Miller said.
“The biggest appeal is giving people an excuse to simply get outside and enjoy some spectacular terrain, which most wouldn’t normally get to experience. The team aspect is also unique and pairing-up adds to the fun factor. And finally, for many, they’re required to learn new navigation skills, which most adventurous, outdoors people find they quite enjoy. There’s quite a rush when traveling off-trail, down a valley, or up ridge and you spot that elusive checkpoint!”
For more information go to http://www.dontgetlost.ca.
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