DORIAN GEIGER
Sports Editor
Saskatonians cursed loudly and armed themselves with an arsenal of snow shovels to dig themselves out of the oblivion of snow that enveloped every nook and cranny of the city over the weekend. Not everyone’s lives were turned upside-down by the prairie flurries and snow banks, however, and a rarely seen spectacle of Saskatoon’s winter sporting scene came out in numbers: cross-country skiers.
Returning only the evening prior from a weekend trip to Phoenix, Ariz., I was making the difficult transition of staring at palm trees in a jacuzzi to adjusting to the Saskatoon white out.
As I began to shovel out the Everest-like blockade in my driveway to make the treacherous trip to my French class, I noticed a cross-country skier sleekly gliding towards me with two poles in hand.
When I first laid eyes on Peter Howard, a microbiology professor, making the trek down my street on two thin pieces of lumber (or fiberglass — I wasn’t sure but they looked ancient) I was reminded that I haven’t seen someone ski with such vigour since my mom owned a Nordic Track in the ’90s.
After shuddering and attempting to dispel that recollection from my memory, another youthful vision presented itself to me; I was reminded of when my grandparents would ski from their acreage to ours through winter-swept stubble fields for an afternoon visit. For me anyway, it produced warm, fuzzy feelings of nostalgia.
“I’m embracing winter I guess,” said Howard, who lives in close proximity to the university on the south side of 8th Street.
“I usually try to walk or bike to work and so this is one of the few times of the year I can ski to work,” he said. It was clear that Howard wasn’t going to let silly Mother Nature impede the all-important task of teaching science.
Though Saskatoon’s riverfront and Spadina Crescent have always been popular for cross- country skiers to strut their stuff in winter, it is not often you see these zany enthusiasts propelling themselves down your street.
When asked if he has had the chance to ski to his classes thus far this winter, Howard laughed.
“There’s too much pavement for that!” he exclaimed.
Environment Canada reported that Saskatoon received an astonishing 25 centimetres of snow during the weekend storm. Howard said that until the excessive amount of snow fell on Saskatoon he and other skiers had been braving the intense slaloms of the city’s golf courses to get their cross-country skiing fix.
“It’s nice. We were hoping for snow because the golf courses didn’t have enough on them… so it’s great to have a big dump like this,” noted the U of S professor.
And after witnessing countless cars catastrophically caught in various embankments of snow, I was convinced Howard’s winter sport of choice was one of the more efficient modes of transportation in snowy Saskatoon.
Sports writing isn’t always about in-depth coverage and hard-hitting game stories. Sometimes it’s about culture.
Canada’s status as an arctic wasteland is an image that is entrenched within our culture. So what do Canadians do when it’s cold and it snows a lot? We conceive and employ weirdly unique sports to cope with our wintry surroundings and cross-country skiing is one of those things that blends sport and Canadian culture so well.
Stuck in your driveway? No buses? Pick up a cheap pair of cross-country skies at your local pawn shop. And if your student budget is really hurting and a little espionage doesn’t bother you, Cluricaune’s Irish Pub at the Park Town Hotel on 25th St. is rumoured to have a few nice pairs hanging from their walls. Homemade snowshoes also bode well.
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photo: Dorian Geiger
