I'm in. Doing the silver level this year. I echo the sentiment about this being harder than an IM....I did CSM bronze level last year, and IM Wisconsin.... the CSM left me more beat up afterwards. And to do the gold level...I don't know if I'm that tough. Sleeping out in -30 degrees celcius, after skiing 80 km, only to get up at 4 am from a bed of snow to do it again.... crazy.
Anyways, it's a challenging event (not a race), very low key, and a good excuse to visit the Ottawa area during Winterlude (skate on the canal, etc..)
Bryan

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Get Messy, Take Chances, Make Mistakes.

It's definitely harder than an IM. You can't actually stop for any length of time without freezing to death. That adds a small amount fear to the already huge amount of work to perform. :-)

I'm a CdB Bronze, and the year I wanted to do silver, it rained and the race was ruined. One day I'll make CdB Gold.

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AndyF
bike geek

I'll be there - doing my second attempt at CDB Gold this year. Last year I made it to Gold Camp, survived the night and skied 4 of 5 sections on day 2, but missed the final cut-off...darn! Hoping that this is my year. And CDB maple liquer is one of my favourites...kudos to you for bearing the extra weight in your pack to get it there! I'll keep an eye out for you at camp - I'm one of the small number of women doing Gold, so if you see any of us, offer up a drink for sure! :)

And I agree with those who say that the CSM is harder than an Ironman. I did my first full IM this past August, largely inspired by another CDB who had told me that if I could do the CSM I could do an IM. Of all the endurance events I've done, there is simply nothing that beats the body up like skiing 100 miles and sleeping outside. And there are so many factors beyond your control, extreme cold, snow conditions, equipment failure...so many things can go wrong! And the training season is so short. Definitely an event that pushes and tests you.

Even though every year I have at least one moment where the going gets so tough that I vow never to do the CSM again, I know that I will be back year after year after year. The best motto for the CSM that I've heard is "Never Again...Until Next Year!"

Cool!

Good for you for stepping up again this year after getting so close last year. The conditions on Sunday last year were really tough, ao you should be good for completing it this year. Hard to believe this year's CSM is only 10 days away. With the frigid temperatures, this has been a challenging year for training, to say the least, but the forecast for next weekend looks really good.

I will keep the CdB maple liqueur, ummm, on ice at Gold Camp. Bib #383, with a green pack and a small beaver mascot on it. C'mon over for a drink.

See you out there, and best of luck!

Awesome - I'll keep an eye open for you at Gold Camp and on the trail. Thanks for the encouraging words - Sunday last year certainly was tough - hoping that mother nature is a little kinder this year!

Yes, the CSM is an epic event. I may do the event as a tourer again this year (start at 8am which means you get to sleep in). It will be a game time decision based on weather, but being undertrained due to wimping out from the difficult weather this January will make it a bigger challenge than normal.

Hope the event is successful this year, it's a great event that deserves success.

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"No more hurting people - Peace"

wow - this has been added to the life list. thanks. i did the canadian birkie several years ago, and enjoyed it. i've left canada but will definitely take a run at this event if/when i'm back in canada. sounds epic!

-mike

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

i'm registered again, but not committed. if its -25 overnight, i'm going to the dorm. and if its -25 during the day, i am not even starting. every year, it is more and more difficult to deal with the cold during training and especially during the event.

Chris - is the CdB liquor available for sale someplace? i haven't heard of it before but it sounds tasty.
edit: lots available. the SAQ up at Farm Point has 28 bottles!
http://www.saq.com/...mp;postalCode=J9B2C8

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run well, run happy
george

off topic, but important:


if you're into the maple thing, try buying a bottle of Sortilege - it's a maple-flavoured whiskey. excellent, excellent stuff, and really warms you up. used to only be in quebec but i'm pretty sure the LCBO has it now, too. . .

-mike

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

thanks, Mike. i can't drink hard liquor, turns my stomach. dates back to an overly-enthusiastic last-night-of-training-camp party on Mallorca about 10 years ago. fortunately, beer, wine and cream liqueurs go OK.
my wife enjoys good whiskey. i live in Quebec, nearest SAQ is about 8 km up the road :-)

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run well, run happy
george

Ah, I see you've discovered where to pick up Coureur de Bois (the drink, that is). It's only available at the SAQs in Quebec - nice and close for you, but I have to travel across the river to get a bottle.

I hear you about the cold being more difficult to deal with as we get older. You Permanent Bib guys have earned the right to do whatever you want during the CSM! Hope to see you along the trails and in Gold Camp.

Thanks for this , for noting my quote ( I still stand by those words), and for letting us know that next year is the 50th anniversary.

This is a truly amazing event. Every nordic skier should consider doing it at some point in time.

This year, I am sure, if the weather holds the conditions will be amazing. Tons of snow.

If my back was not so wonky, I would be there in a second this year to have another go at it. Maybe something to keep in my mind for next year and a goal if the back ever comes around.

Best wishes to all skiers doing this year's CSM

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I've been skiing for 35 years, and it's always been a dream of mine to do the CSM.

I'm going to target next year. For people doing it this year: bonne chance!

Great post. I thought you guys were crazy 40 years ago when I was doing XC marathons (longest was a paltry 60 Km @ Hinton in AB). Back then they had a number of CDB events, including one at Hinton. Unfortunately, after running it for a couple of years some lousy weather caused them to cancel and I got into other things.

Now, at over 60, I get cold way too fast. No problem when I'm moving but the old body isn't real happy keeping warm when I stop.

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BC Don
Pain is temporary, not giving it your all lasts all Winter.

Actually 2016 will be the 50th anniversary, so there's two full years to gear up for it. And if you want the special honour of being a gold coureur des bois on the 50th anniversary then you still have time - all you have to do is get the bronze coureur des bois this year.

Damn you Rolldown, you've now got me thinking of registering again this year!

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"No more hurting people - Peace"

I have not been on skis in almost 2 weeks being on the road on business. So I have a built in excuse to not participate. But maybe I should try to do multiple stages each day as a tourist. I just don't totally trust the coordination of my left leg on technical terrain right now.

I just don't totally trust the coordination of my left leg on technical terrain right now.

Dev,

As I seem to recall, most of the terrain for the CSM is not that technical(with one exception). For the most part it's gently rolling topography, through forests, over farmers fields and across frozen lakes. On a good year with great snow, honestly, it's some of the best classic skiing you'll ever do.

The trails used are only used for skiing for the CSM. Since it's a classic only event many are the old-school style of narrower trail, and they typically set it with a double classic track by snowmobile, most of the way.

There is one section, section-3, on Day-1, if the event is running east-to-west from Lachute to Gatineau, that does have a rather tricky long downhill right near the end. It's famous in CSM lore for many a broken ski and pole. Other than that, I don't recall any other parts of the trail that overwhelmed at all - long gradual ups and long gradual downs for the most part.

Now that I know '16 is the 50th, I am considering seeing if I can get ready for it. I've got two years!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Come to the dark side ...

Bmas, I've seen you skiing with a "silver"-sized pack this year, the snow conditions will be great, and the forecast looks awesome - what do you have to lose? You too, Dev.

Fleck: yes, while Section 3 is quite technical, there are plenty of other challenging parts throughout the 160 km. But you're right, the CSM contains some of the best classic skiing we will ever do. See you there in 2016 for the 50th.

How did it go? Were you able to finish this year?

How about the other "Snowtwitchers" who were planning to do this year's CSM?

This year had some of the best-ever conditions, but it was still a tough, tough event.

Here's a report I wrote to some friends:

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Ouch.

I should know this by now, but 160 km is a long, long way to ski.

Last weekend was the eighth year in a row I’ve done the Canadian Ski Marathon and the fifth year in a row I’ve done the Gold Coureur des Bois version (hauling a pack, bringing meals, sleeping outside). This year we had the best conditions ever: a deep layer of accumulated snow, fresh snow earlier in the week, relative warmth, and next to no wind (and what wind there was, was a tailwind). With a high of -8 Saturday, -10 Sunday, and a low of only -15 on Saturday night, this was the first time over the course of a CSM weekend that I wasn’t cold. We even had volunteers taking good care of the fires at Gold Camp, restarting them at 3 a.m. so they were going well when we got up at 4 a.m. and we could stay warm. (I’ve pretty much reached the pinnacle as a gold camper, as earlier in the day volunteers who started the other campfires came to my fire three times to “borrow” a flame!)

Despite all of that, the CSM is a really, really tough event. I didn’t come close to missing the cutoffs (made it to the start of the fourth section cutoff with 3 hours to spare on Saturday and with 1.5 hours to spare on Sunday), but I felt totally beaten up at the end of each day. At the fourth checkpoint on Saturday I felt pretty good, and thought, “hmm, maybe I’ll only feel ‘crushed’ instead of the usual ‘destroyed’ when I reach camp,” but the last section took a lot out of me and I was indeed ‘destroyed’ at camp. I reached camp relatively early at 2:30 p.m. and there were already 40+ skiers there, a testament to the excellent ski conditions and to the quality of skiers the CSM attracts.

I shared a campfire with Zoe, George, Dave and Wayne. As usual, it was a very sociable time at camp, as other skiers came over to share stories of the day’s ski and past CSM’s. The 750 mL bottle of Coureur des Bois maple syrup cream liqueur that one of our party hauled 80k attracted a lot of attention from nearby campers.

I had my best night’s sleep ever at camp, sleeping for maybe six hours. Despite that, Sunday was still a struggle for me. I had a good first section, then got progressively slower. By the last section I finally felt better, but it was still a slog to get to the finish. The CSM route changes slightly each year, depending on trail conditions and on where organizers get permission to go over private land. This year we were “rewarded” with an extra four kilometres of skiing, making a total of 84 km on the second, hillier and tougher day. I usually get emotional at the end of CSM, but on Sunday I was just too tired to show any emotion.

Everything about the CSM weekend is hard: from organizing food, transport and clothing; to getting up at 3 a.m. on Saturday to drive to the start; to not crashing while skiing in the dark for an hour each morning; to choosing the correct waxes and re-waxing when necessary; to fueling properly and regularly; to staying warm all weekend; to tending the campfire; to not wiping out on icy roads between sections of trail. The skiing is actually the easy part; though there are still some very tough ascents and hair-raising descents.

So with a fifth Gold finish, I’ve now earned a permanent gold bib (and will get the same number for the rest of my CSM career). The permanent bibs are issued in numerical order and are currently in the 300’s, so I put in a request for bib #327, one digit different than Zoe’s #227, who received her permanent bib many years ago.

The unofficial motto of CSM skiers is “never again… until next year.” Right now it is very, very tempting to chop off those last three words. After eight years in a row, I am pretty sure I will take next year off, then maybe come back in 2016 to do the 50th anniversary event. I guess I have to wear that gold bib at least once.

Congratulations to all 2014 Canadian Ski Marathoners!

More information at: http://csm-mcs.com/

Hi Rolldown - yes, I made it this year and earned that precious gold pin. And you are right, I was thinking several times this weekend that no matter how you cut it, 160KM (or 165, as it turned out this year) is a hell of a tough weekend. I found the conditions to be much more forgiving this year and I managed to get to Gold Camp around 4:00 - a long time after you arrived, but still in daylight (in contrast to my experience last year!) I was so relieved to have a campfire and lots of time to set up my sleeping area, get some food and take care of my skis before it got dark. I guess in some ways it is a blessing that last year was so tough - this year felt like luxury by comparison! Day two was long and tough and I definitely had some moments of doubt early in the day. I had started a few minutes before 5:30 - was probably one of the first 20 skiers out of Gold Camp - so I spent pretty much the entire first section getting passed by stronger skiers and not passing anyone myself. Between that and the fact that I was sore and tired I started to feel like I wasn't sure that I could get through the tough sections to come. I'm not a fast skier, so I knew that I didn't have much of a cushion on day two. I gave my head a shake after the first section and put my endurance experience to work - decided to start eating more (in case part of my mental gloominess was the start of a bonk) and told myself to just start thinking 10KM ahead - just get to the middle of the next section, stop for a minute to eat something, then get to the checkpoint. Once I got going I realized that I was doing fine - hitting all my target times for the sections and skiing to the best of my ability. There were a few moments on the way up Section 3 that I seriously considered burying some of my gear in the snow to lessen the weight in my pack :) But I kept climbing and got through it just fine. I made it to the final checkpoint about 45 minutes before the cutoff and settled in to wait for some of my friends. Some made it (including my husband, who skied in to the checkpoint about 10 minutes behind me - I hadn't seen him all day and given that equipment malfunctions and epic falls have kept him from getting his Bronze pin three years in a row I was very relieved to see him make it this year) and some didn't, but that's the nature of the CSM! Not sure if I saw you out there on the trails - I meant to write down your bib number so that I could watch for you (or at least hunt you down for some of that precious CDB liquer), but forgot to do it in my last minute preparations. I'm a blonde lady and was wearing a down skirt (kept me nice and warm!) - you may very well have sped past me at some point on the trails. Maybe I'll see you out there next year. I had told myself that it might be "one and done" for the Gold for me, but seeing a good friend and training partner earn his permanent bib this year has inspired me to give it a try - might take me a decade to rack up another four successful Gold finishes, but it will all be worth it. I had the chance to ski next to a 69 year old woman (Sharon Crawford) who was earning her 26th Gold Bar (her 27th Gold), so there is really no excuse not to keep doing it!

BTW - big, big congrats on your permanent bib - huge accomplishment and you must be very proud!

Way to go, and congratulations! Thanks for the report on your weekend. Yes, I did see you; there weren't too many skiers wearing down skirts!

Congrats again - it must be very rewarding for you to finish the Gold level after coming so close last year.

Thanks! And I saw your post on Tri-Rudy. :) I earned my first Rudy award last year and am hoping for a second one this year. I'm also hoping to do the "Canadian Triple Ski Challenge" by finishing the CSM plus both the 51K Classic and 51K skate ski races at next week's Gatineau Loppet - will be the third woman to do so (or fourth since a friend of mine is also gunning for the award). So the season is not yet done (but I think the toughest leg is behind me!)

I'm hoping we can continue to encourage endurance athletes to take on the CSM challenge - especially as the 50th anniversary approaches!

Pulling up this old Thread on the Canadian Ski Marathon (CSM).

This year the CSM went Virtual and with my re-immersion into Nordic Skiing this past winter after a many year hiatus, I thought I would have a go at it.

I had done the Bronze Coreur de Bois (CDB) years ago - ski the whole 160km ( Winter of either '91 or '92), in two days of about 80km each day. and I thought that with the slightly easier terms for the CDB for the Virtual - only having to classic ski 50km on back to back days (compared to the roughly 80km IRL), but with the same 5kg Pack, I thought why not have a go at it on my own terms. As noted in this thread my wonky lower back HAD been a concern in years past - too much skiing would be a real problem for it. But I was pleasantly surprised this winter - the more I skied this winter, both Skating and Classic - the better my back felt! I was shocked actually!

I had a window of time to enter and get this done due to some work and family issues. I picked two days and went for it at a our local place - Hardwood Hills. Day-1 was awesome - sunny, -10C to start and finishing up about -5C on reasonably fresh snow, made the waxing super easy - Swix Extra Blue for grip. Day-2 turned into the usual waxing nightmare with a huge amount of fresh snow with temperatures rising from -2C to +2C where literally nothing works proper for grip - but I struggled on and finished it up.

I submitted my Strava Data and a picture of my pack on a scale to the CSM and I just found out this morning that I have earned my Silver CDB. Onward to the Gold CDB and camping out under the stars in a snowbank next year! I have good several friends who multi-time successful Gold CDB finishers (One has done it 9X) - so I will be able to tap into their tips and advice!

There's my Goal - one year out - Canadian Ski Marathon Gold Coreur de Bois - 3rd weekend in February, 2022!

I continue to stand by my comments on this thread - that the CSM, is a way under-rated Endurance Sports Challenge!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog