Year 1995
At the end of 1994, I found a strong group of skiers from Melbourne Nordic, who intended to ski 2 Worldloppet races in North America - Canadian Gatineau near Ottawa and American Birkebeiner in state Wisconsin in USA. They did not need repeat this twice. Mid February I arrived in Ottawa late at night and was met in the airport by a friend of my friend. I stayed in their home a couple of nights. Next day I woke to a sunny weather and very strong frost - something close to -18C. My newly met friends asked: if you came here for ski races, then what about some ice skating for a warmup?
Half an hour later they dropped me in some snow covered park and showed a frozen lake in the distance. Here you are, we will come to pick you up from this place in 3 hours time. I walked through the deep snow and felt frozen throughout before I reached the lake. Then I tried to put on the skate shoes.
They were so stiff and cold, that I barely managed to put them on my feet, but I could not pull shoelaces tightly. I was getting nervous, few minutes more of these futile efforts and I will be frozen stiff and unable to move. I noticed in the distance some hut on the ice and decided, that it is my only hope. I stumbled in not properly tied shoes and eventually I was safe. It was a little cafeteria. I drank two cups of tea, ate a Beaver Tail , warmed up my hands, fixed my shoes and tried skating.
After few minutes I was able to appreciate in what a splendid place I was. The lake was connected to the Rideau Canal Skateway - the biggest skate rink in the world. Soon I joined the stream of skaters. Around me was a city build on ice. Shops, restaurants, podiums for music bands. And people around me! Some serious, bend in half, speeding on long racing skates, and next to them, mums pushing babies in prams or sledges. I visited this place twice more, at different times. At 5 pm there was a crowd of business like people in formal dresses and with briefcases and also ladies in long furs.
Couple days later, my Australian friends arrived: John and Kay Hunt, Zoran and Sue Lazarevic. We moved to a hotel in Hull, just across the river, closer to the ski fields.
It was a bit of a shock to discover, that we were in different country. It was of course still Canada, but we were in the state of Quebec - French speaking country. Language was not a problem, our version of English was acceptable, but there were surprises of different kind.
E.g. what would you make from a familiar sign on which letter KFC have been replaced with PFK? Poulet Frit Kentucky - of course. And confusion when some of us ordered caffe latte. What is it? Well, strong coffee with milk. Aha, coffee with milk, you mean cafe au lait? Coffee with milk - we agreed. Instead of a little glass of strong coffee, we received bowls of milk with some coffee flavour.
But the main thing was skiing. We visited everyday The Gatineau Park, the venue of the race. The park was excellent but the race course not so much. It was a very long climb on the wide road followed by a quite tricky skiing in narrow and curvy tracks, and finally very long down ride on the road. At the beginning, weather was very cold, it warmed up every day and on the race day was on the plus side of the thermometer. We left our skis for waxing in a ski shop and technician there asked us how to wax for such warm weather. Probably we could have done it better than him. The race was boring and tiresome but we finished in good style.
Next day - flight to Minneapolis, hiring a car and drive to Hayward, Wisconsin. Together with Zoran and Sue, we shared a cabin somewhere in the woods. Everyday we drove to ski trails and visited also start area in Cable.
We were very warmly welcomed in the race office. Organisers were planning the opening ceremony which was to be similar to this during Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer. And they needed as many as possible nations for the parade. So they were very happy to see Australians. But you? - they pointed at me - you do not sound like an Australian!
Because I am of Polish origin.
Excellent! One more country for the parade!
On Thursday, two days before the race, there was a night race on the golf course in Hayward. It was quite exciting. The course marked with torches in the snow. When I looked ahead, there were hundreds of blinking lights. I had to concentrate to stick to the proper course. Of course my sunglasses were of no use in darkness. At night, I was waken up by strong pain in my eyes. I suppose they were slightly frozen because of long exposure to cold and wind.
Saturday. The main race. It had a wave start. Every 5 minutes 500 skiers were send forward. The weather was misty with some light snow. The course was tough, up and down all the time. And lots of skiers around me all the time. Last two kilometres in the open area with strong wind and dark clouds gathering above. And finally finish in the main street in Hayward. Half of Worldloppet Master project completed.
Few months later, Australian ski season started. At Melbourne Nordic meeting, Rob Hill showed us his Worldloppet gold medal and shared with us experiences of skiing in many European countries. I decided to follow his course next year. In the meantime there was excellent skiing in Australia. Again races in Lake Mountain, Mt Stirling, Rocky Valley Rush .. and finally Hoppet. Melbourne Nordic organised its own race in Lake Mountain and helped with Australian Open Championships. Few overseas skiers participated in 30 km race. It was won by Finn - Jukka Hartonen followed by Andre Jungen from Switzerland. 2 weeks later, in Kangaroo Hoppet, they finished in reverse order.
There was lots of snow in Falls Creek but 2 days before the race, rains came and broke the snow. Many parts of Hoppet course became inaccessible. Organizers changed the route few times. Night before the race, it was declared as 2 loops along the Heathy Spur but watch for updates on the race day.
The race day was sunny, windy, and with updates. Start area was moved to the other side of the dam, course loop shortened to 15 km, and we had to ski it 3 times. Snow was deep and soft, deeper and softer with each loop. It was the slowest Hoppet in the history, took me over 5 hours. And very, very tiresome. Michael broke his hand, week earlier and could not start. Ania skied Birkebeiner course in great style.
After the race, I met few Norwegian skiers. There was a full bus load of them. They were not updated by their leader about the latest course change and finished the race after two loops wondering that it was so short. They were all clasified as DNF (did not finish). What a shame! I wonder how it could have happened, as the news was conveyed personally to each racer during collection of ankle bands and broadcast over and over by loudspeakers.
