Rock and Ice Ultra Race - Canada

Photos & Video - Day 1

2009-03-27T16:01:00.000-07:00

Pre race briefing

Final preparations in the tent

Heading to the start line

Video - 5 miles to go

to be added..

Video - End of day 1 arriving at the camp

Race complete!!

2009-03-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

Job done!

Superb day today and hardest day of the race for me. We all slept in a 'work in progress' lodge at Trout Rock which was great and certainly better than a tent on the ice (don't get me wrong, the tents were amazing as you'll see in the photos to follow). Breakfast was in the main lodge and was plentiful, lots of toast, jam, cheese, coffee and porridge.

Start as always at 9am with just myself and Andy in the foot race wearing snow shoes. Bright clear day, -20C at the start with a 20mph wind. Made a good start chasing the leading girls and overtaking for a while as I had better traction with the snow shoes. Jen and Denice soon overtook me. My knees began to complain 10k in to this 39km (24mile) final leg. From this point in I slowed but was still able to run.

The final 10km involved crossing a couple of smaller lakes then crossing a hilly few km before the final 4km back on the Great Slave Lake up to Matrix Village. (the lake is the worlds 9th largest).

The final stretch on the lake was tough going as the knee became worse but helped by a tail wind and knowing that the end was in sight. As loose snow blew in small drifts across the lake it felt like a moonscape. The only person I saw on this stretch was Josh Capple who blasted in on a snowmobile to take some pictures then quickly disappeared.

Amazing feeling crossing the line to applause from a small group of well wishes, a handful of photographers and a representative from BHP Billington, the main sponsor. Scott and his team were on hand as always and presented me with the finishers crystal.

I finished in 6hr17min, after 38hr18min of racing I'm really pleased to finish in 3rd place.

A superb and unique race with support and guidance from the organising and safety teams which is second to none. Real contrasting trails and terrain from still and serene portages and trails through the snow clad trees to windswept desert like open lakes with hard packed snow underfoot. The feel of the 6 day race changes each day from the first where there are three races going on at the same time through to day 4 onwards where only the six day racers remain.

A fantastic experience and an amazing adventure. More to follow with photos over the coming days.

Huge thanks to Scott and the team.

Day 5 complete

2009-03-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

Wed 25Mar 16:22

All racers are now in Trout Rock Lodge in the warmth enjoying some Caribou Stew and a beer. A great sunny day today but with a cold start and a cruel wind, -26 at the start line at 9am and take a few off that with the wind chill. Shortest day today at 24km (16mile).

The trail was hard underfoot and quite fast, I stayed with Jen and Denise for an hour or so who are fighting it out for the 1st place (and the Diamond) in the ladies foot race. Greg was off to a usual fast start with Andy chasing, both Canadian and in 1st and second position in the mens foot race.

I past the ladies at the half way point but got caught by Denice close to the finish as I took off my snow shoes.

A great day and real luxury to be staying under a roof tonight and having food cooked for us!

Final day tomorrow is about 24 miles back to Matrix Villiage and the finish line. I'll add detailed reports for the previous days and photos soon.

Wow what a race!

Over half way through!

2009-03-23T20:45:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update here as I'm about to head to bed.

Great 3 days, its an amazing place. Day 1 was really tough with high winds and snow, almost had all my kit on between check points 2 and 3. Sled held up well and great heated tents for the night.

Day 2 started slowly, my pole came clean away from my pulk at the start line, took 25 mins to fix then back on track. A fantastic day with no wind and clear skys.

Day 3. Had a great race today, upped the pace and enjoyed it. Will write loads more and load up pics and video after the race.

See the link for more and some great photos: http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/racereport.php?race_id=7276

1 day to go

2009-03-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

Friday 20th March 11:30am

Coldest morning so far at -29C with clear skies and bright sunshine. Kit check at 08:30 and registration at 10am. The camp is now filling up as most of the racers have arrived.

Pete has now moved down from the Hotel into camp and there is much sorting of kit as everyone makes their final preparation. Some racers have very small sleds mounted on skis, I’m thinking that I have packed too much kit but can’t find anything to leave out.

Kit as follows:
Wear on start line:
- Trail shoes with sewn on pertex gaiter + Dion racing snowshoes
- 2 pairs of wool socks
- Heavyweight thermal leggings and merino wool top
- Lightweight pertex leggings and jacket
- Fleece hat and neoprene face-mask
- Neck buff
- Sun glasses
- Thin thermal gloves + fleece lined pertex mitts
- Maybe MP3 player

Packed in sled:
- Racing sled with single pole towing system and climbing harness
- Food for first 3 days (dehydrated meals + a variety of energy foods and a balance of fats, protein and salt including peparami, cheese, chocolate, nuts…)
- Sleeping bag (rated -40C) + Gortex Bivi bag
- Expedition featherlite inflatable mattress + vapour barrier plastic sheeting
- Stove, fuel bottle, pan, cup, spoon, matches, lighter
- Passport, credit card and cash (that I wont need)
- Camp / emergency clothes: set of thermals, fleece jacket and trousers, socks, down booties, arctic grade gloves
- Toiletries
- Thermos
- Shoe spikes
- Map, compass, pens, whistle, notepad
- GPS and head-torch with spare batteries
- Medical kit + sled repair kit
- Spare hats, balaclava, fleece neck cover and goggles
- Camera + spare batteries and SD cards

Weighing in at an estimated 16 to 19kg!

There are 3 races all starting at 9am tomorrow:

Single day race and relay
3 day race – kit transported to the camps
6 day race – all kit required to be pulled on the pulk, re-stock fuel and food on night 3 back at MATRIX village. Mileage each day is: 29, 27, 26, 19, 15, 24.

See updates and photos of the Race from Josh’e blog at: http://www.joshcaple.com/blog/

Also official coverage of the race on-line at: www.sleepmonsters.com

I hope to provide another update later today but if not wish me luck and I’ll blog again at the end of day 3, Monday 23rd (we are 6 hours ahead of GMT).

PM today:
Surviving the rock and Ice (Arctic Response rescue team): 13:00-16:00
Race Briefing and Pasta Party: 17:00

If you can spare a couple of pounds in sponshorship please visit: www.justgiving.com/chrishughes1

Thursday 19th March

Had a good 10 hours kip on the ice, Antonio and Sergio from Spain joined me in the tent last night. Again headed up to the town centre to get some new shades (the ones I had steamed up) and final food shopping.

I had fitted the Teflon skids to the sled the previous night and tested the sled with Pete for an hour on the ice.

Back to the Black Night pub for the Media Dinner and back for an early night.

Jessy from Korea and 2 ladies from Japan have now joined us in our fine heated tent.

Acclimatisation.. update loaded via wireless internet on the ice!

2009-03-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 18th March

Back to the outdoor shop to collect some Teflon skids to add to the sled then to the hardware store to get the bolts and drill bits to assemble them to the sled.

Got a taxi the mile down to the ‘race village’ and ‘checked in’. The heated tents are great with a wooden floor and camp beds. Pete joined me for a run out on the ice during the afternoon. We headed out for pizza and an early night.

Tuesday 17th March

Woke to machines outside clearing snow off the roads and the ‘side walk’ after a great nights sleep. Following a visit to ‘Overland’ to buy liquid fuel for the stove I got geared up and dragged a fully laden sled out through reception and down to the ‘under construction’ race village on the lake.

I took some advice from one of the volunteers building the tents and set off for a training run. The scenery was amazing. The temperature was around -20C with a light cold wind. I headed North and followed the trail that we would use at the start of day one of the race.

The kit held up well after some minor adjustments. I needed to use the snow shoes after a mile as the going became softer under foot, the snow shoes are designed for running and I was able to maintain a comfortable running pace. The route took me off the lake and through a series of ‘portages’ which are connecting tracks between the series of lakes.

I turned back after about 6 miles and headed home, the MP3 providing a helping hand.

A really good day out, the weather was great and I was able test the clothes layering system. At -16C (ish) in a fair breeze I was OK in only merino wool thermals and a set of windbreakers (pertex top and leggings, similar to very thin nylon), I did need 2 sets of gloves, lightweight hat, face-mask and glasses / goggles. Overcome some fears regarding the cold, can now focus on understanding the minimum of kit I should take.

Met up with Pete and Josh from down under, Pete is also doing the 6 day’er and Josh is his photographer! We headed out to the ‘Black Night’ pub for Paddys day for a food and a few beers. Scott (race organiser) and a few of the locals came out too and a good night was had.

Monday 16th March

Met at Yellowknife airport at 10pm by the race organiser Scott Smith who kindly gave me a lift to the Chateau Nova hotel where I’ll be spending the first two nights of my stay before moving to the Race Village on the Ice.

On my way..

2009-03-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

Good final days training on the beach at Lytham, few funny looks but that was expected.

Beach training..

Now in Edmonton airport awaiting the final leg of the journey to Yellowknife, looks like my transport might have modified engines to cope with the extreme low temperatures:

Tomorrow is the first test for me and the sled in race temperatures and I'm looking forward to it!

Live race updates

2009-03-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

Race updates each day will be provided by: http://www.sleepmonsters.com/index.php
More details to follow

Penultimate Training Weekend

2009-03-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

Saturday 7th - Spent 5 hours towing the sled alongside the River Ribble. Took the car as close as I could then followed the 'Ribble Way' West then South for 9 miles then turned back. Hard going and awkward lifting the sled and bag over gates and styles but fortunately only passed half a dozen people all day so only received a limited number of strange looks. The original plan was to head to St Annes and head up the beach to Blackpool...

Sunday 8th - Ran 21 miles on a favourite route from Anglesark near Chorley. It is a great hilly route over to Darwen tower then up to Great hill then back. No sled today. Weather varied between still and sunny to gale force and snow, good outing.

Now on youtube courtesy of IES Film Productions

2009-03-06T10:45:00.000-08:00

My mate Iain, who supported me during the recent training weekend to the Cairngorms (and surely now has a bright future doing 'voice over' work), has released the editors cut of his latest work - 'Chris Hughes and the Highlander'. The premier of this short comedy clip of the weekends exploits is available now at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgPA0h1ReAI

Training during the past 2 weeks has been good. Spending most weekdays working in Bristol at present but still able to run mornings and evenings. Keeping the postman busy delivering the final essentials on the kit list. Planning two days of sled pulling this last of 2 weekends before heading to the race on Monday 16th March. I'm sure to get some strange looks as I pull the sled along the local beach...

2009-02-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

Sunday 15th Feb 09 - Had a good training week although travel with work did ristrict some of my plans. Did an off road 20 miler on Saturday morning which went well. My wife Lucy did her first 5km race in Preston on the Sunday in a great time - well done! More kit purchases this week, I'm going to keep the Arctic grade gloves from ebay even if they do look a little large..(as modelled by my eldest!)

2009-02-10T14:39:00.000-08:00

Wed 4th Feb - Myself and Iain drive to Aviemore in the highlands to camp in a layby towards the ski area that we have used in the past. When we arrived at 2am the road out of Aviemore was covered in 6" of snow so we had no choice to sleep in the car in Aviemore!

Thursday 5th Feb - Snow ploughs had part cleared the road to the ski area but the gate was closed half way up. We parked up and set off up the road with sleds in tow 4 miles from our intended start point.

We had kit packed for 2 days in the hills in bad weather but it soon became evident that there was no point in leaving the snow covered road. Good training was had up to the the ski car park but off the tarmac 2 feet (!) of powder snow made progress close to impossible. A return to the car completed our 4 hr training outing, the sledges being destroyed on the return journey as the ploughs had all but cleared the road.

Many lessons learnt. The 2 sleds that we had purposely designed and built the attachment and towing system differently to check their performance had both worked very well.

2 large coffees later we checked in to a hotel and headed out for food and a few beers.

Friday 6th Feb - Following a quick visit to a remote graveyard in the Rothymurcus estate on route to our start point to visit the grave of the first Shaw (Ians great, great... grandfather from the 1200's). We parked up at the North end of a long low lying valley in the hope that the snow would be less deep, it had snowed another 5" overnight in what is the most snow fallen in many years. I parked the car on the edge of the road to give us the best chance of getting back to Aviemore if the snow continued to fall, we hoped the ploughs would keep the road open.

Conditions were superb and the going good. The route followed a river and meandered South in to the Western Cairngorms. Iain left his sled behind and I towed our kit and food. All kit performed well and I was able to cover several miles in both the micro spick's on the frozen road section and then the racing snow-shoes as we climbed further in to the hills.

We hoped to visit a local Bothy or stone shelter for lunch but a snow covered part collapsed bridge prevented that. A very good day out, 16 miles in 6 hours.

The weekend continued well with 2 days with my brothers in Edinburgh to watch the 6 Nations international Rugby in Edinburgh.

2009-01-31T19:20:00.000-08:00

Preparation so far. I've been busy trying to understand all the kit I need for the race, I have bought some key items over the last 3 weeks: sleeping bag from ebay rated to -40C, racing snowshoes from Canada, childrens sledge that I have added a towing system to and tested in the N Wales hills last weekend. The list goes on..

Training is going well with runs back and forth to work and towing my sledge alongside the river Ribble when I get the chance.

I have been in contact with several racers who have completed the race in the past or have entered this year. 2 years ago 66% of entrants dropped out as it was particularly cold, this may in large part have been down to selection of the wrong kit, I am focusing on getting the right kit and swapping ideas with other racers.

Today I did a 7+ hour training run in the lake district which included testing of my new 'micro-spikes' which are a type of light weight crampon (or spikes for the feet) as there was plenty of snow and in the main it was frozen hard. The spikes performed really well.

I'm heading to the Scottish Cairngorm mountains on Thursday for 2 days of training and kit/sled testing before heading to Edinburgh to watch the International rugby with my brothers.....