Some of you may have seen the “man in white” while participating in the Great Bear Chase. Bruce MacDonald tells us he wears white because “his heart is pure and snow is white.” Bruce missed out on the very first Great Bear Chase but notably has completed all 35 Great Bear Chases since while on classic skis and he’s kept track of all those distances – eighteen 50k’s, fourteen 25k’s and now he’s on to 10 k’s. His first 25 races were all on wooden skis!
What keeps Bruce coming back year and year? “The challenge the Great Bear Chase provides and the grand spectacle.” Some of Bruce’s favorite memories include skiing the first dozen or so 50K races on not much of a trail with no tracks and the old course that involved trails not at Swedetown – in fact, north and west towards Sedar Bay and Bumbletown Hill.
His longest 50K was 6 hours and 10 min in terrible weather. When asked why he continues to race, he tells us because he doesn’t know any better and he wants to keep up his “almost unbeatable Bear Chase record of most time spent skiing the Bear Chase.”
If you happen to see the “man in white” at the Great Bear Chase on March 9, 2019, be sure to say congratulations on completing yet another GBC!