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Challenging the Frostbite 45
Five Fort Simpson residents complete ski and snowshoe trek

Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, March 29, 2012

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Five people with a Fort Simpson connection challenged an arduous winter race and successfully crossed the finish line.

NNSL photo/graphic

Scott Whitmore, right, of Fort Simpson completed the Yellowknife Multisport Club's Frostbite 45 on skis on March 17. He finished seventh in the men's solo ski event with a time of six hours and one minute. - photo courtesy of Alex Campbell

Scott Whitmore, Jackie Zinger, Aaron Donohue and Alex Campbell of Fort Simpson and Tim Harden, who recently moved from the village, competed in the Yellowknife Multisport Club's Frostbite 45 on March 17.

The event, which is in its second year, drew 96 racers who followed a 45-km un-groomed trail from the Yellowknife Ski Club across a number of lakes, including Walsh and Prosperous, before looping back to the club.

Participants had the option of completing the race solo or in teams and with either cross-country skis or snowshoes.

Campbell and Harden snowshoed the race as a team under the name Frosty Gents.

"It's probably the hardest thing I've physically done before," said Campbell.

"It was very tough."

Campbell said the race was challenging both physically and psychologically. Campbell said sweat was a major issue because when he did the moisture quickly froze.

"My toque was like a helmet," he said.

Campbell ran the first two legs of the race, approximately 22.5 km, before Harden completed the second leg.

Campbell went through three toques as well as a few pairs of gloves and jackets he had stored in his backpack, along with the required safety supplies.

Campbell said keeping his head in the race was difficult because he'd never run that far continuously before.

The conditions didn't help. Temperatures dipped as a low as -23 C and wind gusts reached 30 km an hour.

"Every time you hit a lake it was very windy and unpleasant," he said.

Campbell and Harden finished the race in seven hours and 41 minutes – second out of the six snowshoe teams.

Coming in second was a big accomplishment for the team, said Zinger.

"Snowshoeing is definitely way harder than the skiing in my mind," she said.

Zinger and her partner Donohue respectively competed in the women and men's 45-km solo ski event. Zinger finished 10th out of 22 women with a time of seven hours and 23 minutes while Donohue with the same time finished 11th out of 16 men. Scott Whitmore also completed in the men's solo ski category. He finished seventh with a time of six hours and one minute.

"It was awesome," said Zinger.

Zinger said she approached Frostbite 45 as less of a race and more of just a neat event to do. It was an excellent course and you could get good glide with skis, she said.

Zinger and the other Fort Simpson participants have all committed to participating in the event again next year. Campbell said he will definitely take his training more seriously or do more of it before the next competition.

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