February 15, 2008 (Lachute, QC) – This past weekend saw the 42nd annual Canadian Ski Marathon (CSM) with a surprise announcement being made at the Sunday evening awards ceremony. The 160km CSM began Saturday (Feb. 9) morning in Buckingham (Gatineau) with an overnight stop in Montebello and continued to finish in Lachute on Sunday. But former Olympian, Pierre Harvey and three friends unofficially started the event Saturday evening in Buckingham and skied with headlamps all night to catch up with the event Sunday morning and then continued to the finish in Lachute. These four men thus skied 160km in about 22 hours, including breaks.

“You guys don’t look in bad shape,” joked journalist Guy Thibaudeau to the four men during the post event banquet and awards ceremony. Thibaudeau, who acted as the master of ceremonies, called Harvey, Michel Leblanc, François Guy Thivierge and Daniel Banville, all of Quebec City, to the stage and excitedly talked of their exploit. The four did not seem to be seeking publicity however and were visibly tired. All have previously earned their gold bars (skiing 160km with a backpack and camping overnight) at former editions of the CSM.

SkiTrax spoke to Leblanc at the awards ceremony and he mentioned out that Thivierge is going on an expedition to Mount Everest in five weeks, indicating the level of training required for such an exploit. The four skiers were all planning to show up for work as usual on Monday morning.

“Harvey’s exploits were not part of the official program,” explained CSM president, Greg Koegl. “What they did was creative and inventive, but their actions were not authorized.”

Harvey and his friends apparently were all registered for their gold bars, but then deviated from the CSM program. Koegl mentioned Harvey is a top level skier and apparently independently assured his own security, but others imitating Harvey’s actions could get into serious trouble.

About 2,000 skiers participated at the 2008 CSM, including a record 240 skiers who carried backpacks of at least 5kg and camped out on Saturday night to earn their gold bar. Among those completing their gold bar was Jessie Krejcik, a 13-year-old Montreal girl who skied the event for charity and established a new record as the youngest girl to earn gold. Vie Jessie’s blog here.

Meanwhile, Jamie Law Smith, 15, of Montreal West, earned his fourth gold bar. Law Smith, like many other campers, told SkiTrax he was unaware that Harvey and his three friends joined the Gold Camp crowd early Sunday and completed the CSM with them. Former Olympian Chris Blanchard also went for his gold bar, but was not the first to arrive at Gold Camp on Saturday.

Weather conditions were fairly mild during the CSM but there was about 5cm of fresh snow that came down between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, making for difficult waxing. The snow also made things more difficult for the campers. “Snow was blowing underneath my tarp and landing on my face. And that kept waking me up,” explained Arne Moore of Entrelacs, QC. And Harvey’s group had trouble finding the trail at night in the fresh snow according to Leblanc.

Most participants stayed in local hotels or at a high school converted into a temporary dormitory, rather than camping out. Some even stayed at the five-star Fairmont Le Château Montebello.

The oldest skiers to complete the 160km event were Rolf Christiansen of Montreal and Bill Pollock of Sainte Agathe, both 73. Christiansen joked that he was trying to create a new category by skiing two sections with only one pole.

Commentaries were mainly favourable from skiers interviewed by SkiTrax. Jenny Davis of Toronto first skied the CSM in 2007 and encouraged seven friends to join the event this year. “I was inspired by it,” she said and spoke highly of the charter bus ride up from Toronto. “The organizers did an incredible job here,” exclaimed Barb Otuska of Middlebury, Vermont. In 2008, Otuska achieved her personal best distance ever of 53 miles skied over two days. Like many CSM participants, Otuska is a “regular” having skied in the event 16 years. “There’s no other event quite like this,” she added. “And it’s such a kick to be rejoicing with 2,000 like-minded people!”

Jessie’s father, Tom Krejcik of Montreal, said that while he appreciated the work that went into the trail, the skiing would have been much easier if the trail had been track-set. At a few points, skiers had to share the trail with snowmobilers and SkiTrax heard some negative comments about that. Registration numbers were down between five and 10 percent over 2007, something CSM Event Manager Jordan Bridal attributed to last year’s poor snow conditions.

Because the CSM is a non-competitive event, no “winners” are announced or even determined by CSM organizers according to Koegl. Despite this, he was able to give unofficial results that among gold bar skiers, Georgina Wigley crossed the finish line about 1:15 pm on Sunday, completing 80km in about seven hours and fifteen minutes. She was followed by Michel Millier and Claude Béland-Dalcourt. When asked about the prospect that a woman had “won” the CSM in the gold bar category, Koegl mentioned that, “it used to be all men in Gold Camp. But I’ve never seen so many women there as this year.” Apart from presiding over the event, Koegl participated as a gold bar skier.

The CSM is now operating without a title sponsor after previously being supported by Hoescht Celanese and by Pfizer. The CSM, together with the Gatineau Loppet (formerly the Keskinada Loppet) and Edmonton’s Canadian Birkebeiner are considered the three most popular cross-country ski events in Canada. Wisconsin’s American Birkebeiner, with about 7,000 skiers, is the most popular x-c event in North America.