Races start on Feb. 18 and 19 in La Ronge's Riese Park. (File photo/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Dog Sled Racing

Organizers ready for Canadian Challenge set to start next week

Feb 13, 2025 | 4:37 PM

With the Canadian Challenge Dog Sled Race less than a week away, organizers have been busy ensuring the trail is ready for mushers and their teams.

“It’s definitely been a challenge with the extra snow, but these are good problems to have,” said Canadian Challenge President Dan Kirkup.

“We’ve got a great group as part of the trail group, most of which are from La Ronge, some further south near Weyakwin and a couple closer to the Christopher Lake area. It has been great to be able to rely on those people to get out and take up portions of the trail instead of asking one group to look after the whole distance. It’s just a lot of work.”

The trail has changed significantly from previous years with it only spanning between La Ronge and Weyakwin instead of stretch further north to Otter Lake. To make up for the change, mushers will repeat portions of the trail in order to ensure they are travelling the same distances as other years.

“There’s not too many [volunteers] that we have that are North of La Ronge, so when we are talking about travel, it just takes up more time and cost and everything else,” Kirkup remarked.

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“I think it has been a little bit easier this year, but we won’t know until we have everything tallied up at the end and after we are done. It is always a lot of work and the last week or so is always a bit of a panic to get everything done, get the trail staked and make sure we don’t have any trees [on the trail].”

The 10-dog, 322-kilometer (200 miles) race starts Feb. 18 at 10 a.m., while the six-dog, 96-km (60 miles), six-dog, 160-km (100 miles), eight-dog, 160-km (100 miles) races start the following day at 11 a.m., noon and 1 p.m. Kirkup noted Wednesday would be a good day for spectators to come to the races due to the three starts times, as well as the activities the Town of La Ronge is planning for that day such as snow chalk stencils.

There will be 18 mushers participating in this year’s Canadian Challenge, which is down 10 mushers from 2024. Kirkup explained last year many races were cancelled due to a lack of snow, so that brought many more to the Canadian Challenge than usual. He also added there were some last-minute dropouts.

“It is always better when we can get more people in, but I am really happy of where we are now and what we have,” Kirkup said.

“We did have 27 or 28 registered at one point. Some people weren’t able to get their dogs ready to go or were at another race and just didn’t felt this was the best move,” he said.

“We’ve had some dropouts, but that’s OK. People have to make the best decision for them and their team and what they need to do going forward.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com