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.
“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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