The one-foot high kick is clearly not an Arctic winter sport for the un-coordinated. Starting from a running or standing position, competitors must hit the suspended target with one foot and land on the same foot without losing their balance. In the two-foot high kick, they must hit the target with both feet simultaneously and then land on two feet at once. The height of the target is increased until there are no competitors left standing.
The event is one of nearly a dozen sports that set the biennial Arctic Winter Games apart from other international winter competitions. Nearly 2,000 young athletes, cultural performers and coaches from north of the 55th parallel gathered in Grande Prairie, AB in 2010 will gather in Whitehorse in 2012 to compete in such sports as skiing, dog mushing, curling, gymnastics, and Dene and Inuit games – which the Dene and Inuit have been playing for centuries. Participants include teams from northern Alberta, northern Quebec, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Alaska, Greenland, the Russian region of Yamal, and the Sami (from Norway, Sweden Finland and Russia).
Despite not being particularly athletic, I braved the possibility of public ridicule to try my, er, hand at the one-foot high kick during a community celebration before the Grande Prairie Games. Pat Gustafson, sport technical director for Arctic Sports/Dene Games, kept a watchful eye and offered instruction.
Standing in the gym at Grande Prairie Regional College, the concentration was etched on my face as I stared at the target as though this, alone, would make it magically connect with my foot. I raised my arms to get some momentum as I tried desperately to leap up, hit the suspended target with one foot and land on the same foot.
But my brain just couldn’t quite process the order of things. I kept kicking with one foot and landing on the other. I was no better at the two-foot high kick. But I was clearly not the only one having trouble getting the hang of it. “Is there a trick to this?” another would-be competitor asked.
I fared better at snow snake an hour later in nearby Muskoseepi Park, a 1,100-acre green space where the community comes together. Balancing the wooden spear with the heavy end between my fingertips, I tossed it forward and watched it slide along the snow as though I was about to harpoon a whale. The person whose stick surfs the furthest along the snow in a relatively straight line wins the event.
Aluk, a big fuzzy Pachyrhinosaurus dinosaur chosen as the Games’ mascot didn’t do too badly at snow snake either – once he stopped trying to use the stick as a giant toothpick. Aluk’s name was partly inspired by Grande Prairie schoolteacher Al Lakusta, who discovered pachyrhinosaurus fossils in 1974 at Pipestone Creek, just west of Grande Prairie.
The Arctic Winter Games will be sandwiched between the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the Paralympic Games. The timing offers visitors and journalists an activity to fill the gap between the two Vancouver events, says Debbie Reid, president of the Arctic Winter Games organizing committee. It’s also when the real Northern athletes will stand up and show the rest of us how these Dene and Inuit sports are really supposed to be performed.
Arctic Winter Games (www.awg2010.org)
Travel Alberta (www.travelalberta.com)
Tourism Yukon (travelyukon.com)
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Hélèna Katz lives on a small alpaca farm in the Northwest Territories, next to Wood Buffalo National Park where the bears and the bison roam. Her work has appeared in Canadian Geographic, Up Here, VIA Destinations, More and Homemakers, among others. Her website is at: www.katzcommunications.ca.