GNCTR Final Day

Saturday we were up bright and early (AGAIN!) and were on the bus at 7 a.m. to get to the race hill. I hopped in our little 26-foot-long U-Haul and drove it all the way to Gallagher Hill where the race was happening. After finding a place to park the submarine among the giant windrows, and after last minute snow-fencing additions to many team’s sleds, the races were set to start.

Our first run of the day for our competing sled had the one and only Rick Mercer steering. It went quite well, except for the fact that our brakeman, also our construction coordinator David, was launched off the back of the sled after a particularly quick and unexpected turn by Rick. Since losing any part of the sled, including its riders, results in a disqualification, our DQ count was at one.

After the sled came off the hill, we noticed one of our skis was bent at an impossible angle. We removed it and began the very precise repair of hitting our support strut with a hammer to straighten it. Unfortunately that didn’t quite work, and the strut sheared off.

Because we’re engineers and we’re prepared, we had an extra ski in the depths of the U-Haul, and were able to compete for a second run.

The first run of the day for our non-competing sled had the Travel Channel’s Bert the Conqueror as a rider. Our sled made it down safe and sound for the first run, albeit at a snail’s pace!

The second run for the competing sled was even more exciting. Right from the start, our sled began fishtailing, and continued to do so the entire run down the hill. Since I am clearly a superior brakelady, I was able to hang on to the sled until the run flattened out. Our sled then made a complete sideways turn, our ski then dug in and we flipped!

I was thrown clear of the sled (thankfully), and all of our riders (including Rick) were housed safely inside our fancy green garden fencing, as well as our strong aluminum roll cage. Because we hadn’t quite made it to the finish line, we had DQ number 2 for the morning.
The second run for the competing sled was great as well. No crashes!!!

Lunch had finished and the head-to-head King of the Hill races were set to start. Because we didn’t want another rollover, we decided to groove the skis and slab of the competing sled in order to help it go straighter. And guess what! It didn’t work. This time we had a much gentler roll, and did so quite early in the run. We were out of the competition.

Our non-competing sled had much better luck at KOTH. Even though that sled is amazingly slow, the team we were racing against had a minor wipe out near the finish line, and we therefore won by default! Our second run wasn’t successful, but making it through one round was more than enough accomplishment.

After a day full of crashes and mishaps, and some incredibly fast, successful toboggan runs by other schools, we were ready to call it a day. We all cleaned up the hill, and then went back to the final closing banquet for our formal awards.

The overall first-place winner was the University of Calgary with Queen’s taking second, and Ryerson in third.

Although we didn’t win First Place like we did last year, I was still excited to lead a team of future engineers. For them, there will be another GNCTR next year where they can learn from our mishaps, and hopefully bring that trophy back to the U of A!

Elaine Rippon
GNCTR Captain

GNCTR Tech Expo -- and Rick Mercer!

Friday, after another extremely early day, we got to show off our
technical display that we had been working on for months. We made a
full-on farm yard, complete with hay bales, a barnyard made out of
reclaimed wood, and of course, candy piñatas shaped like sheep (our
theme).

Technical Display day is where all of the teams team shows off their handiwork
and the specific elements of their sled. Judges come around and evaluate
the sleds and ask you questions based on your designs.

An important part of technical display day is team spirit, where each
team does their cheers. It’s pretty wild—check out the video above to see what it’s like.

The most exciting part of the day was getting to talk to Rick Mercer, literally my idol. Christina, our costumes co-ordinator, made Rick his own Sheep costume for him to wear at Activities day, and hopefully race day.

The judges came to do our presentation, and I think (hope!) that it went really well. We have a really innovative sled design modelled similarly to a snowmobile, which is different than any sled design I’ve been involved with.

Well, it’s dinner time again! Signing off for today. Hopefully I’ll see some of you at Race Day Saturday—Connor’s Hill at 9 a.m. -3 p.m.!

Elaine Rippon

U of A GNCTR

GNCTR 101

By Elaine Rippon

The concrete’s set, the sled welded, and the costumes sewn: GNCTR is finally here! After countless hours of work, the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race (GNCTR) is finally kicking off.

If you’re wondering what GNCTR is, I’ll give you a bit of background. GNCTR is a competition started in 1972 as a competition between the Universities of Alberta and Calgary, and NAIT and SAIT. Today, teams from all across Canada design and build their own sled which they race down ski hills on concrete toboggans. To compete with a concrete toboggan, the sled must have a running surface of at least 50 per cent Portland Cement, room for five riders, steering, braking, and a functional roll bar, all weighing in at under 300 lbs.

Over the next few days, I, the Captain of the University of Alberta Team, will be blogging about our experiences at competition. There are lots of exciting things that I’m definitely forward to, like Activities Day, which will be on campus, our Technical Exhibition, and of course, Race Day!

Wednesday a few of us went to pick up the U-Haul to take all of our equipment to competition.

After about an hour of arranging and re-arranging, we managed to fit three sleds, two technical displays and emergency tools into the truck. We got to the hotel in downtown Edmonton around 3 p.m., and fortunately checked in with no problems (whew!). The U of A team is now decked out in our amazing hand-sewn Sheep and Shepherd costumes (our theme), and have had a few rare moments of rest before we head out to the opening ceremonies.

Since a half-hour of rest is more than enough, I’m calling a meeting with all 52 members of the teams so we can do a final practice of our opening ceremonies skit.

Wish us luck!