Hundreds of soldiers use Edmonton river valley for endurance competition

Hundreds of Canadian military members are taking part in a gruelling endurance race in the River Valley Thursday morning.

Hundreds of Canadian soldiers are using Edmonton’s river valley on Thursday for an endurance competition.

Exercise Mountain Ram is putting 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group as well as regular and reserve unit members from across western Canada, through demanding activities including a 29-kilometre rucksack march to start, followed by a 3.2-kilometre canoe portage, a 11.2-kilometre canoe paddle and a 4.8-kilometre rucksack run to the finish line.

A rucksack is a heavy-duty backpack that’s made to carry large loads.

Edmonton-based Pte. Zavier Provost, who is competing in the Mountain Ram for the first time, said he expects the most difficult part of the competition to be the canoe portage.

“It’s going to be the shortest, but it’s going to be the most physically demanding, because it’s a full canoe just by yourself, plus all the equipment inside of it,” he told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday morning.

Lt.-Col. Sandy Cooper, the deputy commander of the 3rd Canadian Division Support Group, said the Mountain Ram “is a big, physical and mental challenge” designed to build and test resilience and fitness.

“Every time you do something that’s really hard, you learn something about yourself,” the 46-year-old Cooper, who’s competing in it for the eighth time, told CTV News Edmonton. “How that translates into kind of making us better as soldiers, I think we learn what we can do, we learn that suffering is something that we can endure, and that certainly will help on operations.”

The soldiers are using north Rundle Park, Dawson Park, Hermitage Park, river valley bridges and the North Saskatchewan River for the competition.

The canoe race will take place late Thursday morning between Dawson Park and Hermitage Park.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Klippenstein