CAL CARY The Daily Progress
The smell of freshly chopped wood traveled through the air, tickling the noses of those sipping away at their crisp lagers. In the distance, sounds of a two-stroke engine could be heard screaming away. Blaring from the speakers, a countdown began as the announcer started the timer. And as the clock hit one, the shiny axe heads were lifted toward the sky before making their way down to a loud thud sending wood chips flying across the ground.
Devils Backbone's Oktoberfest kicks off in Charlottesville this weekend
Lumberjacks and lumberjills took to the stage wielding axes, saws and chainsaws on Sept. 21 for the fourth Lumberjack Classic at Devils Backbone Basecamp in Nelson County, sponsored by chainsaw manufacturer Stihl. In previous years, the event has brought more than 2,500 in attendance, and this year was no different.
"It's fantastic, this is easily our favorite event we do at Devils Backbone," Jenny Phillips, the brewery's sponsorship and experiential manager, told The Daily Progress. "The athletes are so friendly, down to earth and just great people. They are so appreciative of it, and we love hanging out with them and having them out here. It's great for the community too, having exciting stuff and bringing people to the great outdoors over a beer."
The timbersports competition brought 40 of the top-ranked athletes in the world to Virginia for the weekend to compete in head-to-head challenges. Most of the athletes were from the United States, but several came from Canada, Czech Republic and Belgium. Admittance to the competition was decided based on their professional rankings in the Stihl Timbersports competition ring.
The event ran over two days, Sept. 20 and 21, and athletes competed in multiple different challenges: single buck, double buck, block chop, stock saw, hot saw and springboard chop. Each category presents a new challenge for competitors to find a way to turn a piece of wood into a much smaller piece of wood. Single and double bucks utilize hand-pulled saws that are 2-meters in length. In block chops, competitors use an axe to split a block of wood in half. Engines rev for the stock saw and hot saw challenges, during which the athletes rapidly slice through tree logs. And the springboard takes competitors 10-plus feet in the air, where they need to chop sections into a tree while using a board to scale up in order to cut the tip off. All challenges are time based and recorded in a computerized log.
Entering the competition from Quebec, Stephanie Waud was able to set a women's national record in the single buck challenge with a time of 12.795 seconds, beating out the previous record of 12.97 seconds.
"I have never cut so fast, I am super happy about it. J.P. did a great job sharpening my saw," Waud said, referring to J.P. Mercier, a Quebecois lumberjack and saw builder who owns a business called Mercier Racing Saws where he builds and sharpens saws for timbersports athletes around the world.
Cal Cary (202) 549-2611
@calcaryphotography on Instagram
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