CANMORE – Famous video game characters Mario and Luigi used speed, agility and wits to search for something elusive at the Canmore Nordic Centre, but this time it wasn’t Princess Peach.
In actuality, buddies Jordan Koroll (Mario) and Alexander Rivett (Luigi) of Canmore powered up to take on the Summit Seeker Adventure Race as part of Rocky Mountain Adventure Racing’s event on Saturday (Sept. 28), which also featured the inaugural Western Canadian Youth Adventure Racing Championships.
The Super Smash Brothers didn’t have the luxury of speedy go-karts to buzz around the mountain trails, but still, no other teams had a blue shell to prevent the first-timers from winning the men's navigation race with 885 points.
“We went for the highest points and the longest distances,” said Rivett. “I think other people were a bit smarter in going the shorter distances and got more checkpoints worth less, [but] we thought we would try to go hard and go farther and get the higher checkpoints.”
Adventure racing is a multi-sport competition involving teams navigating against a clock while gaining points by finding checkpoints. The Canmore edition had three, two-hour sections – biking and two trekking – which had participants use clues, maps, cell phones, and compasses to locate the markers that were carefully spread around the area.
Organizers hid the checkpoints in places like dry river beds, beside trails and inside concrete creek cylinders. Due to the vast network of trails at the Canmore Nordic Centre, participants had to put their navigation skills to good use or risk getting lost.
“There was a constant discussion along the trail to be like ‘Hey, do we have enough time to get that 50 points or that 60 points that’s super far away or do we stay closer and get the two 20 points?’” said Koroll. “So it was a lot of open discussions along the way which was quite nice.”
“We didn’t have a single fight the whole time, did we? We’ve been hearing stories of some couples having a bit of an argument,” Rivett said with a laugh.
Depending on distance and difficulty, each checkpoint has a different point value – the farther it is from the start the more points, etc.
Locating a few checkpoints gave Koroll and Rivett some Bowser-size trouble, but Rivett thinks the Nintendo-character costumes gave them a level up on the course.
The pair was actually late signing up, earning the team name Better Late Than Never after Koroll saw a poster for the adventure race at a local coffee shop 48 hours before the big day.
A birthday present to himself, Koroll immediately got ready for the six-hour day, had the red and green costumes express delivered for the next morning, and then voluntold friend Rivett that he would be joining him on the great adventure.
“I wanted to go out and do something hard with a good buddy and just see what it’s like and obtain a new experience and I would absolutely love to do it again,” said the birthday boy.
In the women's category, Sensitive Souls (Holley Thomas, Sarah Danielsmith) took first place with 705 points, and in the mixed category, Badass Explorers (Elise Vajsabel, Boris Vajsabel) were the overall winners with 905 points. In the youth category, XCBC Boyz (Ian Thompson, Andrew Thompson, Owen Kory and Avery Balbanida) were in first with 470 points.
The adventure organization started virtual events three years ago and has had events in summer and winter, including the Arctic Fox Winter Stage Race in Canmore.
Chris Fenlon-MacDonald, organizer of Rocky Mountain Adventure Racing, said the concept is still new to the Bow Valley, with an aim to grow the sport, especially for younger adventurers.
“This is our first summer in-person event that we’ve done [in Canmore] and the growth over those has been pretty significant, so it’s awesome to see,” said Fenlon-MacDonald.