Shortly before 1 o'clock, the first ever Ukatak Raid International launched from the shores of Isle-Au-Coudres in the middle of the Saint Lawrence River.
Island residents lined the dock and the shore, watching as teams of four clambered into ice canoes, stuck their feet on the ice and pushed off on a five-kilometer paddle to the mainland.
Most of the river flows freely, but close to shore the ice piles up, and steam rises where warm air hits cold water. Some teams will skirt the ice, others will plow through it, and still more will attempt to pull their boats out of the water and run across the ice where it is thick enough. Each is looking for the quickest, safest route to land. This is the one leg of the Ukatak where the teams don't have to strategize: each boat is captained by a local ice canoe expert; the competitors provide the brawn, while the captains provide the experience and the brains.
Staying dry is key for this leg of the journey. Once wet, a competitor is likely to stay wet for hours, if not for days. After the paddle, the teams face an arduous five-hour mountain bike section through packed snow, which includes a section aptly named Le Cote de la Misere. Roughly translated, that means Misery Coast. The teams will in fact have to push their bikes up this steep climb.
Then they hit the cross-country trails for a ski section that should take them well into the night. At checkpoint 5 (CP5), teams will have a mandatory four-hour break where they must pitch their tents and camp to prove their sleeping bags can handle the extreme temperatures that can hit this region of Quebec.
And that's just the first day.
– Susan McKenzie, Ukatak Raid International Correspondent
