Nunavik students prepare for the challenge of a lifetime

From left, Jaanimmarik student Daisy Gosselin, teachers and coordinators Maxime Saunier and Valérie Raymond, student Eric Lemire and Elijah Thurber-Snowball prepare for cross-country ski training in Kuujjuaq Feb. 28. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

A group of 10 Jaanimmarik high school students and their teachers, pictured here, will cross-country ski from Kuujjuaq to Tasiujaq starting March 19. (PHOTO COURTESY OF V.RAYMOND)

KUUJJUAQ — Eric Lemire is gearing up, physically and mentally, for the biggest trip of his life.

It’s a sunny but piercingly cold Saturday morning in Kuujjuaq. Lemire and some fellow students from Jaanimmarik high school put on layers of clothing before they step into their skis.

Lemire, 14, is one of a group of a dozen students aged 13 to 17 along with teachers who are training to cross-country ski along Ungava Bay between Kuujjuaq and Tasiujaq later this month — a distance of roughly 140 kilometres.

“At first I thought I was going to freeze to death,” Lemire laughed. “But it’s going to be fun. We’ve got tents, and good clothing.”

Lemire first tried cross-country skiing a few years ago, when he borrowed a pair of skis for a weekend.

At first he found going down a slope “scary,” but now he says he’s mastered the sport and enjoys the pace of it.

“It’s your cardio for the week,” said Lemire. “When you’re on the land on a snowmobile, there’s always wind in your face and it can get cold, but it’s OK on skis.”

Valérie Raymond, one of Lemire’s teachers at Jaanimmarik who is leading the expedition, said the trip was inspired by Projet Karibu — a group of four cross-country skiers who made a four-month, 2,000 kilometre-long trek from Montreal to Kuujjuaq last year.

That sparked an interest in a few Jaanimmarik students, she said.

“They really liked it,” Raymond said. “So we thought we would do a project to foster perseverance in school through an outdoor activity.”

One of the Projet Karibu skiers, Marie-Andrée Fortin, will even accompany the group to Tasiujaq.

“We thought it was a good idea to bring the communities together,” Raymond said. “They can go to Tasiujaq by snowmobile, but this way, they can take ownership of their own travel.”

The group plans to do about 15 to 20 km a day, and Raymond estimates the trip will take about eight days to complete.

“They’re used to going on the land, but skiing for long distances is different,” Raymond said.

Students must have the right gear to withstand cold temperatures, especially because they’ll be sweating, she noted.

The trip is funded in part by Makivik Corp., while students have been fundraising and have also received donations from southern sporting companies.

Cross-country skiing has been growing in popularity in Nunavik’s largest community in recent years, with the expansion of a local cross-country club.

On Feb. 28, a group of about a dozen other young students — unrelated to Raymond’s group — can be seen skiing out of the community towards nearby Stewart Lake.

The Kuujjuaq-Tasiujaq is just a pilot project this year but Raymond hopes to see outings such as this catch on. She said students in Kangirsuk just bought their own skis, while schools in each community have talked about skiing to meet each other in Aupaluk in 2016.