It’s 5 a.m. in Edmonton’s Hawrelak Park and over 350 soldiers are about to embark on a physical and mental journey. In an impressive demonstration of strength and endurance, these men and women from Canadian Forces Bases Edmonton, Wainwright and Shilo will tackle the Mountain Man Challenge.

In the 17th running of this competition, soldiers must run a 32 kilometre foot race with 15 kilogram (33 pound) packs strapped on their backs to Emily Murphy Park. From there they portage a canoe 3.2 km and paddle east to the Capilano boat launch which is another 10 km along the North Saskatchewan River. The intense challenge ends with a 5.6 km run to Forest Heights Park,

Captain George Cheeseman, a twelve year vet of the race says. “We just like to challenge ourselves individually, we're soldiers carrying a ruck, just a lot of us are alpha personality type and we just like to get out there and hit things hard.”

The first finishers of the race were expected to cross the finish line at around 10 a.m. with the majority completing the course by approximately 1 p.m.