Play in the ice of the river

It’s intimidating to say the least. Along the shore, large blocks of ice are clumping together while a little further offshore, crushed ice is moving at high speed on the river opposite Quebec. And we’re going to walk in there? By canoe?

Mary Tison
The Press

Dominick Gravel
The Press

Of course, we have all seen these images of courageous canoeists crossing the river in this moving soup of ice on the occasion of the Carnaval de Québec. It seemed to be a totally inaccessible activity, reserved for a few characters who were a little crazy and lacked strong emotions.

Formerly, the ice canoe was a utilitarian mode of transport that made it possible to connect Quebec and Lévis, or the mainland and certain islands of the St. Lawrence, in the absence of ice bridges.

Now it is a very niche competitive sport. However, Ice Canoe Experience offers introductory sessions to anyone who does a minimum of physical activity.

The founder of the small company, Julien Harvey, welcomes us in a comfortable heated cabin on the edge of the river, at Anse au Foulon, in Quebec. Ice canoeing runs in the family. His father, his grandfather did. “My grandfather knew the time when the canoe was used to transport people from Baie-Saint-Paul to Île aux Coudres,” he says.

Julien Harvey begins by explaining the main principles of ice canoeing to us: it takes five rowers per canoe, including a coxswain at the back and an ice expert at the front. Two guides will occupy these positions, three participants will occupy the intermediate positions. The keyword here is “participant” : we will have to work hard to move the boat forward.

Before getting wet

First, you have to equip yourself: big neoprene socks, hockey leggings, neoprene gaiters, also neoprene boots and finally (to put outside the hut for obvious reasons), crampons.

We begin by practicing maneuvers aboard the canoes while they are still on dry land. When it comes to rowing on open water, the movement is relatively simple, although you have to get used to the seat which moves on slides. The scooter on the ice is even easier to master: you support the shin of one leg on a support inside the canoe (ah, that’s what the leg warmers are for!) and leave the other leg behind. outside to propel themselves.

The problem is the transition between the two types of movement: you have to remove the oar, store it in the canoe (without knocking out your partners and without piercing them with the small point that is under the blade of the oar) and pivot on yourself by placing one or both shins on the gunwale before taking the scooter position. It can be a bit complex.

The guides believe, however, that we are good enough to face the river. We quickly lower the canoe onto the ice on the shore and take our places as it glides through the water.

At the water

It is then that the anxiety flies away, replaced by the pleasure of finding oneself in an unusual environment, half-liquid, half-solid, and of feeling safe there.

We start by rowing, with a distressing lack of coordination between the rowers: one goes too fast, the other too slow. But the boat is still moving at a good speed, which is an advantage when we reach a first pile of ice.

Up front, Yves Gilbert, a veteran of the sport, gets out of the canoe to guide it through the first few meters of transition as the participants struggle, without too much elegance, to stow the oars without crippling anyone and to take the position of the scooter.

And it starts to toddle merrily, with variable efficiency depending on the skill of the toddlers. The ice takes on extremely different aspects: it is sometimes a kind of sorbet, which gives very little traction and which offers the charming opportunity to put your foot in the water (that’s why all those layers of neoprene) . There are more solid pieces of ice. There are thin, transparent sheets of ice that pile up every which way. There is also beautiful rink ice, which allows you to slide without the slightest effort. This is an opportunity to take a short break for a hot chocolate and a pastry, very close to large boats well moored to the quays.

Strange, these boats still seem to be moving. It’s that our ice sheet is drifting with the rising tide. If we don’t react, we will end up going back to where we started. No way ! We get back on board the canoe to continue playing in the ice cubes of the river.

Initiation to ice canoeing can be quite expensive, in particular because of the maximum supervision required ($225 per person). But you can find interesting packages on the website of the Quebec City tourist office, Québec Cité. Packages that allow you to go from ice canoeing to a spa, for example…