It’s that time again, Winnipeggers.
The snowy weather our city is famous for has arrived. It will be cold, windy and melancholic for the next several months. Not to worry though: while school divisions on the West Coast close schools over a few centimetres of snow, ’Peggers will be bundling up their children for school in -30 C with the busses still picking them up.
Cold weather and snow aren’t events for us, just another winter day. For a lot of us, snow offers a new medium to play in. Hockey, snowballs, snowmobiling and snowboarding are popular outdoor activities — however, there are outlier sports many of you might not be familiar with. I’ve decided to bring a couple of them to the forefront. When you are bored during December break after eating all the leftovers, and a trip to the Arctic Circle sounds like the perfect winter wonderland, you could try your luck at one of these unusual winter activities.
Snowshoe Racing – This is probably the only activity on this list associated with Canada. Despite this, not many Canadians have tried snowshoeing. In case you aren’t familiar with the term, a snowshoe is designed to attach to the wearer’s boots and distribute their weight across more snow surface area, preventing the wearer from sinking through the snow. Think of a snowshoe as a pair of flip-flops that are way too big for your feet. As the name suggests, people put them on and race.
Winter Ultra Marathon – Participants race across difficult terrain through extremely cold conditions for hundreds of miles. With countless possible courses, each race is different. It’s a very dangerous endeavor, as getting lost in bad weather with poor gear is a potential death sentence. The “6633 Ultra” is a fine example of one of these crazy Arctic athletic events, so tough that only a few people have ever finished.
Reindeer Racing – It’s just like sled dog racing, except with reindeer; these animals thrive in the Arctic and people got the great idea to hitch harnesses and/or sleds to them and race. It’s bizarre, but at the end of the day, it isn’t that far from racing a horse. It looks a lot of fun, so hopefully an enterprising individual will organize a deer racing federation in Winnipeg.
Ice racing – This is just another offshoot of motor sport racing. Some smart person figured out that frozen lakes could support vehicles. Motorbikes, cars and even trucks are sent around a track created on a frozen lake. Pretty much anything with an engine can be sent around. The Winnipeg Sports Car Club actually organizes ice races in Manitoba, in case you’re interested in getting in on the fun.
Ice yachting – It is the sport of building a “boat” with runners and sails and racing it across a frozen lake. Technically it’s a boat as it is on water, but the mechanics of ice yachting are completely different from those that apply to traditional yachts. Ice yachting is closer to tobogganing. Apart from the surface, the idea is still the same. Race each other around a course.
