Fulda Ice Climb held for the first time in Whitehorse

The 12 competitors taking part in the 2008 Fulda Extreme Arctic Adventure had their hands full with the ice tower climb on Wednesday afternoon in Whitehorse.

The 12 competitors taking part in the 2008 Fulda Extreme Arctic Adventure had their hands full with the ice tower climb on Wednesday afternoon in Whitehorse.

Frank Busemann, a German decathlete on Team Busemann, was the only competitor who was able to make it to the top of the tower within the allotted time during the event’s competition.

“It was really frustrating, more than anything because we watched people (the mountaineers) and they went up so smoothly,” said Leigh Ann Nevermann, one of the two members on Team Canada. “We have never tried doing that before and then all of a sudden you are expected to do the same thing. It is a hard event, so anybody who can get up will get my respect.”

The Fulda Challenge began on Sunday when competitors drove from Whitehorse to Dawson City for the first event, which was a car race held in a set-up track at the airport. Other challenges include a mountain run, a skating competition, a railway cart race, a biathlon, the ice climb, a mountain bike race in Haines Junction, a rhino ATV race, a half marathon and the last event is a regular ATV race, which will occur in Whitehorse today. In total there are 10 challenges in the competition this year.

This is the eighth year Fulda has put on this event, which features six teams in total for the 2008 competition. Five teams are from Germany and the other team is from Canada. The German teams are made up of one athlete and one celebrity, while the Canadian team is comprised of two athletes. All teams in the competition are mixed between one male and one female.

This was the first year the ice climb was held in Whitehorse and no point scores were available on the day of the event. Total Points for the competition will be added up and a winning team will be announced later today. No results are listed on the website.

Nevermann, who was born in Toronto but currently resides in Thunder Bay, Ont, said she isn’t sure how Team Canada is doing so far in the this year’s competition.

“We haven’t been able to check our standings, but we figure we are somewhere in the middle,” she said.

Nevermann has been training ever since she found out about being selected to compete in the challenge two months ago.

Although the ice climb is difficult, she said it wasn’t the hardest event she has done so far in the competition.

“This one (ice climb) when you fall off you are done, so it’s not that difficult as (when) we drove off the Dempster Highway and did a mountain run all the way up a mountain in snow shoes (on Monday),” she said. “That was more challenging for me because it didn’t end and it took me a little less than an hour to get all the way up there and then we had to get back down, so a little more mental toughness I suppose.”

Nevermann said she is enjoying her time in Whitehorse and taking part in the Fulda Challenge.

“Everything has been good,” she said. “I have no complaints.”

Benjamin Hartmann is one of the members on Germany’s Team Monique Garbecht-Enfeldt. He said climbing the ice tower was a real challenge for his team.

“This is our first discipline, in which we are not so good because we both couldn’t climb up to the clock and ring it,” Hartmann said. “We just came up to maybe the second stripe and were dismissed because we were falling down.”

Hartmann said competitors had to be pretty tough to climb the ice tower.

“The problem is you have to be very strong for it,” he said. “You have to need lots of power in the arms and the legs that’s pretty hard and that is why the race is so hard. There are other competitions, in which you need very much endurance and therefore you don’t need to be so strong.”

He said he was surprised at how difficult the climb ended up being.

“It looks so simply getting up there, but when you are doing it you realize that it is pretty hard, harder than you thought it would be,” he said.

This is Hartmann’s first time in the Yukon Territory and he said he is enjoying it.

“I’m pretty happy to be here at the Fulda Challenge and especially here in the Yukon Territory,” he said.

Hartmann said is glad about participating in the Fulda Challenge because it has given him the opportunity to visit the Yukon, which is something he might not have done otherwise.

Hans Stuck is the sports co-ordinator for Fulda at this year’s competition. He said the ice climb requires the right technique to be successful at.

“It needs a bit of knowledge on how to do it,” he said. “If you know the technique then you will be a lot better, but some tried really with force and that doesn’t work.”

He said he was impressed with Boosman’s climb.

“He showed how much you can do with the human will,” Stuck said. “When he came down he was totally exhausted, but we cheered him up and he wanted to do it and he did.”

Stuck said the competition is going well this year and he is happy about it being in the Yukon.

“We are happy to be here in Canada,” he said. “We appreciate the welcome of the Yukon to the FULDA challenge and I couldn’t think of any better place to have it happen.”