Bundle up and get active with Jack Frost Challenge

KRIS Kuzdub will be taking extra care while bundling up before heading outside this week as the forecasted high for today is pegged at -25 C and with the wind chill considered it could feel colder than -40 C at times.

Today also marks the start of Winnipeg’s Green Action Centre’s Jack Frost Challenge.

All week, teams and individuals will be competing against one another to log the most outdoor, active kilometres.

Kuzdub, the Green Action Centre’s sustainable transportation co-ordinator, says maybe it would have been nice if the challenge landed during one of the more moderate weather weeks, but she thinks the encouragement to get out the door might be needed now more than ever — even if it’s just for a quick walk around the block.

“Manitobans are tough, we can do it. Just bundle up,” Kuzdub told the Free Press.

After activities outside, participants log onto the website and track their kilometres. There are participation prizes, as well as prizes for the most kilometres logged by a team and by an individual.

A reminder to readers that Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued an extreme cold warning for all of Manitoba and notes in this week’s forecasts that frostbite is possible within minutes if the proper precautions aren’t taken and skin is exposed.

Kuzdub said unlike other commuter challenges hosted by the centre, people don’t need to be travelling long distances, simply getting outside and making a snowman and using your smartphone to count your steps will do.

“People need this this year, myself included,” Kuzdub said.

In 2020, the Jack Frost Challenge had 1,400 individuals registered to compete and more than 220 teams.

This year, as the competition marks its 10th anniversary, more than a thousand individuals have signed up with more than 400 teams registered.

Linda Loewen lives in North Kildonan and has signed up for the group competition for the first time this year. She registered with two friends and a friend of a friend. They won’t be trying any of the currently trendy outdoor activities such as fat biking or cross-country skiing, instead, they’ll be sticking to the basics and walking as much as they can.

Loewen says she wasn’t much of a walker before, but since the pandemic began she’s found peace and beauty in just walking around her neighbourhood and down the river paths.

“It made me appreciate it more than I probably would have in the past,” Loewen said She’s particularly fallen in love with Fraser’s Grove Park and has made it a ritual to walk past it every time she is on her way home.

“I’ve seen the seasons pass. I started walking when there was still ice and snow then watched as the river melted… That’s my quiet, peaceful meditative time.”

Loewen signed up for the Jack Frost Challenge because despite the peace walking has offered her in the last year, she’s struggled to get moving again since the holidays.

“We just need to get outside because we’ve been so cooped up and people are feeling that. People might just need that little extra push,” Kuzdub said.

She also hopes the challenge has some of the lasting effects it aims for every year, such as helping people appreciate the time outside, and maybe learn that biking to work or walking to the grocery store wasn’t as much of

a chore as they’d built it up to be in their minds.

In order to show the impact, the Green Action Centre tracks the cumulative kilometres moved and travelled by participants. In 2020, it was a total of 28,497 km, and if the same distance were covered in a car, it would have created approximately 6,348 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, their estimates show. It demonstrates that every climate action matters, Kuzdub said, and it also burns calories and is fun — so there’s really no downside.

The competition runs from today to Feb. 13 and people can still register at greenactioncentre.ca/jackfrostchallenge.

sarah.lawrynuik@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @SarahLawrynuik