It’s an amazing feat of strength and endurance: the annual Mountain Man exercise, including about 250 Canadian Military soldiers, wove its way through the Edmonton river valley Thursday.
“They first ran a 32-kilometre route up and down the river valley with a 15-kilogram rucksack on their back, 35 pounds,” said Maj. Nathan Korpal, with the 2019 Mountain Man.
Then a portage, bringing their total weight load up to about 75 pounds.
“When you finish that 30-plus-kilometre march and you put the canoe on your back, that 40- to 50-pound canoe feels like a lot more,” said Korpal.
Two race volunteers help load the boat onto each participant’s back. For the next three-and-a-half kilometres, racers had to be extremely strategic if they need to unload.
The second place finisher says getting the canoe back on yourself is nearly impossible.
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“You can wedge the canoe into a tree, or something that you can find, so it stays up, but if you don’t do that, or if you take a break at the wrong spot… you are on your own for that,” said Lt. Malcolm Madower.
A 10.5-kilometre paddle down the North Saskatchewan River followed. Madower says, along the way, curious bystanders would show their support.
“I spoke with a few of them and they were like: ‘Hey, what are you doing?'”
After explaining it was a 50-kilometre race for the Canadian Army, “some of them were a little blown away,” Madower said.
“It’s a testament to their professionalism and their dedication to fitness,” Korpal said.
“They’ve been training three to four months — some of them have been training for a year — in order to get ready for this event and it’s really shown today,” he added.
The voluntary exercise is a true test of a soldier’s limits, and though it looked painful, some say they even had fun.
“It definitely gave them that opportunity to find the best in themselves,” Korpal said.
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