North Vancouver lumberjack Stirling Hart carved out a piece of history Saturday, winning the Champions Trophy of the Stihl Timbersports Series in Marseille, France.
Hart topped nine-time world champion Jason Wynard of New Zealand, last year’s Champions Trophy winner, in the final held in a stunning setting next to the MuCEM Museum in Marseille’s harbour. Hart was happy to earn top spot this year after finishing second in last year’s event, known as the world’s leading logger sports competition.
"Last year I was so close to winning the Champions Trophy – that was going through my head the whole time," Hart stated in a release. "I am thrilled to have won. My focus is already on the next international competition. I will take a few days off to enjoy my win here at the Champions Trophy and then start preparing for the World Championship."
The Champions Trophy competition sees the world’s best axemen competing in a knockout tournament. In each round the lumberjacks go head-to-head in a race to complete four saw-and-axe disciplines: stock saw, underhand chop, single buck and standing block chop. The event is the ultimate test of a lumberjack’s skill, speed, stamina, power, and precision.
Hart finished first in qualifying in Marseille, completing the four chops and saws in one minute five seconds to advance into the quarterfinals. There he topped France’s Pierre Puybaret with a time of 1:03 before ripping off his best time of the competition, 1:00, to narrowly beat Australia’s Mitchell Argent in the semifinals.
In the final Hart and Wynard were dead even following the stock saw but Hart earned a small advantage in the underhand chop and never looked back, ripping through the single buck and standing block chop to win in 1:03.
Hart was born and raised in Maple Ridge but has become a fixture on Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver, thrilling summertime guests with his chops and climbing ability as part of the resort’s Lumberjack Show.
Hart was born into a lumberjack family, following a line carved by grandfather Gordon Hart, a Canadian champion axeman, and father Greg Hart, a world champion speed climber. Stirling Hart first excelled as a climber, setting three speed climbing world records by his early 20s before moving over to Timbersports.
Aside from his talent in all aspects of logger sports, Hart is also known for a scar the runs down his face, starting near his right eye and ending at his mouth. He earned the scar while competing in a springboard event in Australia where his axe fell out of his tree while he was placing a springboard, the tip of the axe catching him in the face.
“I don’t have a beard, so I had to get a scar,” Hart joked during a 2015 interview with the North Shore News. “It’s become my predominant marking. Everybody recognizes me in public: ‘Oh yeah, the kid with the scar across his face.’ It’s worked out good for marketing as well. . . . Climbing I’ve torn both ankles, broken both feet. Shoulders, knees, hips. None of them were quite as dramatic as taking an axe to the face.”
