Winter thrills(2)

Participants in a 50-kilometer run over Dalinor Lake in the middle of winter organized by Ma Demin. Photo: Courtesy of Ma Demin

Deng Xiaowen, a 21-year-old professional rally car driver who races in the Wudalianchi Rally Car Competition for FAW Volkswagen Team, laid out some of the risks of racing on ice.

"It's really slippery, so there's almost no way for the car tires to get any grip, and it's very difficult to keep the car straight," said Deng. "You're on the borderline of losing control of the car at every moment."

Deng, who has been driving professionally for six years, has raced in all sorts of challenging environments, from dirt to gravel to swamp, but he said that driving on snow and ice was the most challenging of all.

"The car drifts [a loss of traction in the car's tires] more easily on the ice than on other road surfaces. It's a real test of a driver's skill," Deng said, adding that one usually needs to be driving at 200 kilometers per hour for a car to drift, but on ice, it starts happening at 50 kilometers per hour.

"If drivers don't handle the drift well, the car can divert off the route or even roll over," Deng said. "But if you control the drift well, the wheel will kick up a wave of snow and ice, which you can see through the car window. It's pretty exciting."

Finally, driving in snowy environments could make the simple act of just seeing where you're going a nightmare. "It's all white," said Deng. "In that environment, drivers can easily get lost or miss bumps in the road, which can pose a great danger to the driver."

Dai Hailong, one of the organizers of the Harbin Ice and Snow Rally Competition, said that they make sure to mitigate these risks as much as possible by enforcing a number of safety precautions. These include ensuring that all cars have studded tires to reduce slippage, and roll cages to protect the driver in the event of a car spinning out of control.

"All the cars also need to be installed with a four-point or five-point safety belt and Head and Neck Support devices [HANS]," said Dai.

Running on the ice

Closer to home, Ma Demin, 38, has made a habit out of organizing annual long-distance winter runs in different regions in China.

Running may not sound like an "extreme" sport, but it is a different proposition when one is running distances up to 100 kilometers, in sub-zero temperatures.

In 2011, Ma organized a 50-kilometer winter run over Dalinor Lake in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region; in 2012, a 100-kilometer run on the Yellow River in Shanxi Province, and in 2013, a 42-kilometer run through Beijing's Olympic Forest Park.

Ma said that the most challenging winter run that he had organized and participated in was the one at Dalinor Lake. "The temperature was only -22 C, and the wind was roaring. I sweated so much that couldn't get out of the down jacket I was wearing [during the race]. It was frozen onto my body," Ma said. "Some of the studs from my spiked running shoes fell off because of the ice and snow, and the uneven gravel terrain. I was constantly slipping."

For Ma however, the rigors of running in the winter are also its pleasures. "The air after snow is very fresh, and it's good to get some exercise in the winter."

The key to running in the winter, Ma said, was dressing appropriately, which meant wearing a pair of spiked, water-proof running shoes. "Runners also need to cover up their extremities, such as their hands and their face. Since you will start to sweat while running, you have to guard against frostbite," said Ma, pointing at a frostbite scar on his ear that he acquired during the course of his run on the Yellow River.

Finally, Ma advised winter runners to wear reflective clothes, and a good pair of sunglasses. "It's very important for runners to wear sunglasses that are UV-proof, since sunlight reflected from the snow can easily blind the runner," said Ma.