INUVIK - Get out some light boots, snow pants and a balaclava; we've got two months to walk from Fort Providence to Tuk.

That's what 37 teams from around the NWT said this January and one team from Inuvik is surpassing its own expectations in the Mackenzie River Nordic Walking Challenge.

The Ice Road Walkers have put close to 1,000 kilometres behind them this month as they compete in the Mackenzie River Nordic Walking Challenge, in which 37 teams from across the NWT are walking the distance from Fort Providence to Tuktoyaktuk. - photo courtesy of Alfred Moses

The team "filled up right away and started walking, almost every day to begin," said Alfred Moses, captain of the Ice Road Walkers from Inuvik.

But since walking every day didn't work with all 20 teammates' schedules, they cut it to a three-day-a-week commitment.

The challenge is to walk the distance of the Mackenzie River from Fort Providence to Tuktoyaktuk - 1,658 kilometres - in two months. Though they're not actually crossing the entire NWT in winter, the challenge is still gruelling.

Just two weeks in, the Ice Road Walkers have already covered about 1,000 kilometres, putting them somewhere around Fort Good Hope, distance-wise.

It also put them in the lead of all the other teams that submitted their hours.

Through funding, Moses, who is also the regional youth and volunteer officer for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, was able to outfit eight communities - including Inuvik - with poles, headlamps, toe picks and reflective gear.

He offers a big hats-off to the two other teams from town, the Inuvik Ski Club and ECE BeauDel. The Ski Club had not yet submitted its hours, so Moses can only size up the team and guess how far they've reached.

"Those guys are out in some crazy hours; that's all they do," Moses said, laughing. "All they do is walk and ski. Work, walk and ski."

Moses said it's all in fun and even though he's confident his team will reach Tuk well before the deadline of next month, that doesn't mean it's over.

"After our first time submissions I sent out an e-mail to the team saying: 'We'll be done in the next two weeks. The challenge goes for two months. How about we challenge ourselves to go to Tuk, and then back down to (Fort) Providence?'"

So that's what they'll do. The team wants to keep walking even after the challenge and try to get more people out and active.

Moses said he was surprised at the intensity of a workout you can get from Nordic walking. He said he was skeptical when he was sent to take his first training class as it didn't look that difficult.

"We went through it, we did the training, and it was pretty intense," Moses said. "I said 'Wow, this is a pretty good workout.'"

Moses said using the poles, though you may look funny, will burn more calories than walking without and use more muscle groups than running.

Athena Grandjambe joined the Ice Road Walkers and has picked up right behind Moses on motivating the team.

"In our first two weeks we'd already passed Norman Wells," Grandjambe said. "It's going great."

That enthusiasm is what Moses loves to see.

"She's like, 'new year, new challenge.' She's really enthused about this and she's been putting in a lot of time," he said.

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