Message from the President
The 2012-2013 ski season is upon us!
At Viking, the ski season doesn’t wait for snow. It starts in September with trail maintenance activities. Before we can ski on our trails, we need to clear them: trim saplings, cut branches, remove tree trunks blocking the paths, and generally clear away any obstacles that will get in the way of the skiers. Starting September 22, it’s a date every Saturday, barring rain.
Trail clearing is by far the most popular volunteer activity, and it’s no surprise. Strolling along paths in the wood, trimming a branch here or there – it’s more like play than work. Trail clearing also provides the opportunity to meet old and new members, to reminisce about last season’s skiing adventures and to dream of the season ahead…
It’s also an excellent way to get to know the Viking trails, to gain your bearings and mentally prepare for future ski outings. Fall, with all its bright colours, offers magnificent days to explore the club’s trails as you contribute to their maintenance.
So please feel free to bring along friends who are interested in getting involved in our great fall clean-up!
Happy trails!
Richard L’Heureux
At Viking, the ski season doesn’t wait for snow. It starts in September with trail maintenance activities. Before we can ski on our trails, we need to clear them: trim saplings, cut branches, remove tree trunks blocking the paths, and generally clear away any obstacles that will get in the way of the skiers. Starting September 22, it’s a date every Saturday, barring rain.
Trail clearing is by far the most popular volunteer activity, and it’s no surprise. Strolling along paths in the wood, trimming a branch here or there – it’s more like play than work. Trail clearing also provides the opportunity to meet old and new members, to reminisce about last season’s skiing adventures and to dream of the season ahead…
It’s also an excellent way to get to know the Viking trails, to gain your bearings and mentally prepare for future ski outings. Fall, with all its bright colours, offers magnificent days to explore the club’s trails as you contribute to their maintenance.
So please feel free to bring along friends who are interested in getting involved in our great fall clean-up!
Happy trails!
Richard L’Heureux
Viking clubhouse hosting
The Viking Ski Club depends on its members to organize and run all of its programs and facilities. One of the most important volunteer jobs is hosting at the clubhouse on winter weekends. More and more visitors come to the club for the first time, such as Carte Réseau holders, as well as others who may just want to look around or to ski for the day. These people get their first impressions of the club through meeting a host and are potential much-needed club members. Hosting is also a fun way to get to know your fellow Vikings and assure that the clubhouse is well-maintained.
If you choose to fulfill your volunteer duties as host at the clubhouse this year, you can get your choice of hosting days by contacting me early in December. A complete list of hosting duties will be sent to you before your chosen day, but please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Audrey Speck
Hosting Coordinator [email protected] ou 514-487-0432
If you choose to fulfill your volunteer duties as host at the clubhouse this year, you can get your choice of hosting days by contacting me early in December. A complete list of hosting duties will be sent to you before your chosen day, but please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Audrey Speck
Hosting Coordinator [email protected] ou 514-487-0432
Viking Challenge Run, Sunday, November 4, 2012
2011 marked the first year of what will become a regular Viking event. Last years’ event had a total of 48 participants running on the two courses, 5km and 7.5 km . Oddly enough it was an even split between the two courses, 24 in each!
Fortunately for us, all found their way to the Clubhouse, where a meal and refreshments were waiting.
This year is Edition 2 , It will be held on Sunday November 4,2012. Elisa Rietzschel has been working hard creating a longer course. She has promised that the runners will remember this race, by extending the 7.5KM to 10KM.
The goal of this race is to raise funds to offset the purchase of equipment for our Biathlon program. Last year’s event helped the club buy 9 targets. We are naturally ‘targeting’ to better this. Since this event is the only fund raiser for the Biathlon program, we will give it our best ‘shot’. As you are all aware, by putting on these events, we help keep the registration fees for the program at a reasonable level. Therefore, the more runners participate, the better we’re off.
This year we have secured some generous sponsors to help us put a memorable event on! Most of our sponsors from last year have risen to our call and will support us again.
We will most likely have electronic timing, along with the online registration.
We will have a warm-up session with a sports specialist prior to the races.
I call on my fellow Vikings to rise up to the Challenge this year, as last year only 4 hearty Vikings participated, Kyle, Quentin, Peter Stoyel and Derek Wills. We hope to see this number grow!
We need volunteers to help out prior to and on race day, All the positions for volunteers are posted on the website, now’s your chance to fill your volunteers days, and help lighten the organizer’s load who are volunteers’ themselves.
See you on November 4th.
Fortunately for us, all found their way to the Clubhouse, where a meal and refreshments were waiting.
This year is Edition 2 , It will be held on Sunday November 4,2012. Elisa Rietzschel has been working hard creating a longer course. She has promised that the runners will remember this race, by extending the 7.5KM to 10KM.
The goal of this race is to raise funds to offset the purchase of equipment for our Biathlon program. Last year’s event helped the club buy 9 targets. We are naturally ‘targeting’ to better this. Since this event is the only fund raiser for the Biathlon program, we will give it our best ‘shot’. As you are all aware, by putting on these events, we help keep the registration fees for the program at a reasonable level. Therefore, the more runners participate, the better we’re off.
This year we have secured some generous sponsors to help us put a memorable event on! Most of our sponsors from last year have risen to our call and will support us again.
We will most likely have electronic timing, along with the online registration.
We will have a warm-up session with a sports specialist prior to the races.
I call on my fellow Vikings to rise up to the Challenge this year, as last year only 4 hearty Vikings participated, Kyle, Quentin, Peter Stoyel and Derek Wills. We hope to see this number grow!
We need volunteers to help out prior to and on race day, All the positions for volunteers are posted on the website, now’s your chance to fill your volunteers days, and help lighten the organizer’s load who are volunteers’ themselves.
See you on November 4th.
Vikings clash with Spartans
By: Jerry Drouin
This past summer my family, Elisa, Kaley, Danica and Wasana, took part in some interesting races called The Spartan Race Series. These races are basically what one would call, Boot Camp. For those who have seen the movie 300, well this is where it all started. The races are called, Spartan Sprint (5km), Super Spartan (12km) the Beast (25km), and lastly The Death Race (no distance only time 48+hours). These races not only involve covering the prescribed distances but also several obstacles along the way. On the typical Sprint course, one would encounter usually 20+ obstacles .Naturally, the longer the course, the more obstacles you will encounter. The obstacles vary from rope climbing to carrying sandbags to javelin throwing, but always in the end you must face the Spartan warriors who are waiting at the finish line, to finish you off!!
We took part in the Ottawa Sprint event in early June. This was a mud fest!! It had been raining for two days straight. Needless to say, that after several thousand racers, the course was rather muddy. This particular course had 22 obstacles on it. But, in the true Viking spirit, it did not deter us from conquering the course .We all finished in good time, a little dirty but happy nonetheless, as you can see from the picture.
Then it was off to Tremblant to conquer the Super Spartan. Running 12 km in the forest is tough enough, but add the 33 obstacles to this, as well as 30 degrees, it makes it rather challenging! Kaley and I ran this one together, while Elisa and Wasana teamed up. Danica ran on her own. Kyle Templeton and Jérome Daoust took off as rabbits. Ahh youth!! The barbed wire tunnel was rather long, roughly 250 meters, with roots and stones and mudd to make it all the more interesting. Then came the balance beams, floating barrels across a lake which you had to cross on the said barrels. Here’s where it gets challenging, there was the rope climb, cargo net, sandbag pull, run a few meters, javelin throw, rock climb, barbwire tunnel, covered hay tunnel, wall climb, ice tunnel crawl, wall climb again, then the 15 foot wall climb to come to the finish line to face off with two Spartan warriors. Odin would be proud of the way his Vikings crossed the finish line!
Then on the Canada day weekend, Kaley and I ran The BEAST! Indeed it was a beast needing to be tamed! This event was held at Mont Ste Marie, north of Ottawa. As usual, it was a hot and sunny day, temperatures reaching 30+ degrees Celsius in the sun. This
was the very first time the BEAST was held in Canada. Originally the course was advertised at 21 km but prior to starting the race, we were notified it would be 25+ km.! No big deal for Vikings, right? Well it was, to say the least a test of one’s mental strengths. In total there were over 900 runners starting the race. In the end only roughly 800 finished in the permitted time of 9 hours. The course had us running up the mountain three times in a row, plus conquering the obstacles along the way. After the three times up the infamous Mont Ste Marie we had a 12 km loop to run in the backwoods with more obstacles. On our fourth and final approach to beating the mountain, we had 5 obstacles to conquer. These proved to do me in just well. I had hit the infamous wall. This was the first time for me to hit such a thing.. At this point one wonders, what in the world am I doing here? I could be sitting on my patio drinking a cold beer! It took Kaley and I over one hour to cover 1.3 km climb.Once the climb was completed, mind you there were several 20 year old that we passed along the way(makes you feel good) .This is where I got my sixth or seventh wind. I’m sure Odin himself looked down on me and gave me strength to complete the course as true Viking would! We ran down that mountain like mountain goats, passed many runners, to come to the last series of obstacles. Crawling through culverts, running in ice cold streams, rowing machines, car tire obstacle, wall climbing, and finally facing some fierce Spartan warriors at the finish line.
Not only was I proud of my accomplishment, but I was a prouder Father completing this Beast with my daughter Kaley, crossing the finish line hand in hand. It took us 5 hours, 20 mins. to conquer this beast. Fortunately for both of us, we were able to conquer the beast because we had a technical support team along the way feeding us electrolytes, liquids, food and encouraging us. A special thank you goes out to Elisa, my daughters Danica and Wasana, Kyle and his sister Amanda. Were it not for them, even with Odin’s help, I’m not sure we could not have finished this race.
ARROOOO!
We took part in the Ottawa Sprint event in early June. This was a mud fest!! It had been raining for two days straight. Needless to say, that after several thousand racers, the course was rather muddy. This particular course had 22 obstacles on it. But, in the true Viking spirit, it did not deter us from conquering the course .We all finished in good time, a little dirty but happy nonetheless, as you can see from the picture.
Then it was off to Tremblant to conquer the Super Spartan. Running 12 km in the forest is tough enough, but add the 33 obstacles to this, as well as 30 degrees, it makes it rather challenging! Kaley and I ran this one together, while Elisa and Wasana teamed up. Danica ran on her own. Kyle Templeton and Jérome Daoust took off as rabbits. Ahh youth!! The barbed wire tunnel was rather long, roughly 250 meters, with roots and stones and mudd to make it all the more interesting. Then came the balance beams, floating barrels across a lake which you had to cross on the said barrels. Here’s where it gets challenging, there was the rope climb, cargo net, sandbag pull, run a few meters, javelin throw, rock climb, barbwire tunnel, covered hay tunnel, wall climb, ice tunnel crawl, wall climb again, then the 15 foot wall climb to come to the finish line to face off with two Spartan warriors. Odin would be proud of the way his Vikings crossed the finish line!
Then on the Canada day weekend, Kaley and I ran The BEAST! Indeed it was a beast needing to be tamed! This event was held at Mont Ste Marie, north of Ottawa. As usual, it was a hot and sunny day, temperatures reaching 30+ degrees Celsius in the sun. This
was the very first time the BEAST was held in Canada. Originally the course was advertised at 21 km but prior to starting the race, we were notified it would be 25+ km.! No big deal for Vikings, right? Well it was, to say the least a test of one’s mental strengths. In total there were over 900 runners starting the race. In the end only roughly 800 finished in the permitted time of 9 hours. The course had us running up the mountain three times in a row, plus conquering the obstacles along the way. After the three times up the infamous Mont Ste Marie we had a 12 km loop to run in the backwoods with more obstacles. On our fourth and final approach to beating the mountain, we had 5 obstacles to conquer. These proved to do me in just well. I had hit the infamous wall. This was the first time for me to hit such a thing.. At this point one wonders, what in the world am I doing here? I could be sitting on my patio drinking a cold beer! It took Kaley and I over one hour to cover 1.3 km climb.Once the climb was completed, mind you there were several 20 year old that we passed along the way(makes you feel good) .This is where I got my sixth or seventh wind. I’m sure Odin himself looked down on me and gave me strength to complete the course as true Viking would! We ran down that mountain like mountain goats, passed many runners, to come to the last series of obstacles. Crawling through culverts, running in ice cold streams, rowing machines, car tire obstacle, wall climbing, and finally facing some fierce Spartan warriors at the finish line.
Not only was I proud of my accomplishment, but I was a prouder Father completing this Beast with my daughter Kaley, crossing the finish line hand in hand. It took us 5 hours, 20 mins. to conquer this beast. Fortunately for both of us, we were able to conquer the beast because we had a technical support team along the way feeding us electrolytes, liquids, food and encouraging us. A special thank you goes out to Elisa, my daughters Danica and Wasana, Kyle and his sister Amanda. Were it not for them, even with Odin’s help, I’m not sure we could not have finished this race.
ARROOOO!
Activities planned for 2012-2013
Many Viking activities are planned for the 2012-2013 ski season. To read more about ski programs, touring with Vikings, the Biathlon program, the Loppet and much more please visit the Viking website at:
Our volunteer tech gurus regularly update the website with the latest news so please visit often and give us your feedback.
Happy skiing and see you on the Viking trails
Our volunteer tech gurus regularly update the website with the latest news so please visit often and give us your feedback.
Happy skiing and see you on the Viking trails
Help spread the word!
This year Viking Club will use its most effective marketing tool: the Word of Mouth of its members. Every member or family is being provided with a coupon which can be exchanged into a day pass by the host of the day on Saturdays or Sundays. We encourage you to pass these coupons on to anyone you feel may be interested in becoming a member.
Benita Stoyel - Vice President responsible for Marketing.
Benita Stoyel - Vice President responsible for Marketing.
We are now on Twitter!
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