The whine of chainsaws and smell of green popular filled the air in Kaslo on the May Long weekend as 72 athletes compete in logger sports on the shore of Kootenay Lake.

The Kaslo Logger Sports have been held since 1974, 100s of spectators come to the town of 1000 people to watch professional athletes and novices participate in sports that exemplify the area's heritage, and current economy. "People love it, they see the history, they come for it," said Andrea Hand, the chair of Kaslo Logger Sports, an MC for the events, and a competitor. She's also a paramedic.

Competitors are local, but also from places like Horsefly, Williams Lake, Calgary, Montana and New Zealand.

Events include things like climbing 60 foot poles and dropping back down at the speed of gravity; relaying up logs to saw off the end and then relaying back down; using tricked up 250 cc chainsaws with specially designed chains to cut through logs in two to six seconds; log rolling; pull-sawing and all kinds of chopping.

There were 15 events on Saturday and 21 on Sunday. Saturday is for novice and intermediate athletes, who Hand says don't usually have a chance to compete at such a level.

Sunday is for professional athletes, who compete in international circuits and hold world titles.

"I absolutely love it when the crowd recognizes these athletes and are wowed by them, as they should be, these are decorated athletes," Hand said.

"These are the top of the top, and for Kaslo to have them continuously come back, it's absolutely overwhelming."

Over 70 individuals and companies sponsor the sports, which allows them to bid for Canadian Championships. This year they hosted five: the novice double buck, the intermediate underhand chop, the open unlimited hot saw, the ladies ax throw and the ladies choker race.

Hand participated in 13 events. Her favourite is the underhand chop, where competitors stand on a green popular block and swing a razor sharp ax between their feet until the log breaks.

Andrea Hand competes in her favourite event, the underhand chop. Photo by Meagan Deuling.

Most logging towns in the interior of B.C. had one form of logging days or another, but many don't anymore. Revelstoke's last Timber Days, which was also held on the May Long weekend, was in 2019. Now the Forestry Museum has taken over the event, but instead of having logging sports they will have a group called the Laughing Loggers come to town to put on a show. In an email, Barb Wadey from the museum says this will require less volunteers. It will happen this year on Sept. 16.

Click below to hear a radio report on this story: