Nordic Challenge skiers reach ‘destination’

The Nordic Destination Ski Challenge recently wrapped up, with thousands of kilometres skied and three teams surpassing the goal of the competition.

The challenge, run by the Sun Peaks Nordic Club, was intended to get community members excited about cross country skiing by competing to ski the farthest. Participants attempted to ski a certain distance over 10 weeks that would be equivalent to reaching a destination.

Skiers could sign up as a team of five or as an individual. The teams’ destination was the American Birkebeiner Race in Wisconsin, 2,655 kilometres from Sun Peaks. For solo participants, the goal was 830 kilometres to reach the Canadian Birkebeiner Race in Edmonton.

Each week, participants would tally up how many kilometres they skied and send their results to the organizers. There were also weekly challenges for bonus kilometres, including skiing their age, skiing up Holy Cow or skiing every Nordic trail.

On March 26, the Nordic Club held an event to give out prizes to those who participated and announced the winners of the challenge.

The Lipstix team took home the win, having skied the distance to Wisconsin by week five — only halfway through the challenge. The Jack Rabbits: Catch Us if You Can and the Skinny Ski Squad also skied the distance before the end of the competition.

Here are the final team results:

The Lipstix: 4,768.6 km
The Jack Rabbits: Catch Us if You Can: 3,661.2 km
Skinny Ski Squad: 2,939.6 km
Team Funshine: 2,364.9 km
Positive Altitude: 1,710.7 km
The Corduroy Yetis: 1,063 km

No individual participants officially skied the distance to Edmonton. Here are the solo results:

Frits Nijolt: 766.5 km
Chris Roylance: 372.4 km
Lee Anne Bachand: 344.9 km
Neil Findlay: 208.2 km
Peter Stefanuto: 158.3 km
James Gordon: 108 km

Wallace Huston skied 1,192 kilometres but removed himself from the official competition because he is a Nordic employee and was counting kilometres during work hours.