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!