The Payak

We are always striving to improve your experience at the Payak. After feedback that people enjoyed the 25 km option in the virtual challenge last year, organizers decided to keep that theme alive. This year there is no 30 km course for the live event, only the 25 km – one loop of the 50 km! So now those skiers will work through the biathlon 4 km loops, up Norwegian Woods, down Madeley Road and back into the trail system to Porter’s Glide and Around the World. There is a 30 km option for the virtual challenge. Click here to see the courses!

What a great turnout! There were 445 people, aged 5 to 75, who skied the Virtual Coast Outdoors Payak Challenge! From Whistler to Mt. Washington, Vernon, Ottawa and Quebec, the total distance skied was 12,120 km! That took participants 1,035 hours of skiing, or 43 days and 3 hours!

The winners of the distance challenge were Lyndsay Sayers (415 km) and Hector Aragon (100 km). Honorable mention goes to Karen Nakagawa (355 km) and Tobi Henderson (325 km). To win the distance challenge you needed to register for all distances skied, and upload your .gpx file to verify the ski.

Did you win a draw prize from one of our fantastic sponsors? Check the list and see! Please arrange to collect your prize by April 11 from Coast Outdoors. If you are unable to pick it up, alternate arrangements will be made, but do your best please so volunteers do not have to make shipping arrangements. Click here to see the final awards ceremony.

The first 75 first-time Payak registrants receive a toque. Click here to see if you are one of those registrants. You can pick these up at Coast Outdoors on Lynn Avenue in North Vancouver as well. Please try to pick up items within the next two weeks.

Click here to see the first virtual award ceremony for the Payak! Lots of great draw prizes, from buffs, hats and mugs to poles and gift certificates for summer fun. Watch the video to see if you won a prize from our sponsors, KV+, Swix, Fischer, Salomon, and of course, Coast Outdoors! You can check if your name is on the list of winners but you need to watch to see exactly what you won! If your name was called, head over to pick up your prize at Coast Outdoors.

Remember, registration stays open until March 21, 2021. Enter your results by midnight. Manual results are fine unless you are skiing your way to the distance championship, in which case we need you to upload the GPX file to confirm your ski!

Virtual awards ceremonies and prize draws will take place on the Coast Outdoors Facebook Page, this Tuesday, March 16 and next Tuesday, March 23. You do not have to be present to win and can watch the video of the awards afterwards. This is your last week to ski and qualify for some amazing prizing!

We have discovered an issue with multiple results for a given entry with the same first name, last name and email address that results in previous values being used, even if the distance skied (for example) is different. To bypass this issue, when you are entering multiple results, please add “-1”, “-2”, “-3”, etc. to the end of your first name, increasing the number for each entry, so that your first name will be different each time.