Spring is here and we are jump starting the season with stories from the world’s highest adventure race and another at the ‘end of the world.’ Get a jump start on summer with our tips for endurance paddling and lightweight backpacking. Also, dream of a tropical location in the Route of Fire and reminisce about winter with a recount of an ascent of Mt. Washington. This and more in our new issue online!
By Miles Ohlrich
I’ve been impressed with the quality of races that Trioba puts on here in Washington state, and was looking forward to Trioba’s 33 hour “midnight start” adventure race that would take place in Chelan this fall. I attended as part of Team Mergeo: our team was Miles Ohlrich (me), Roger Michel, Andrew Feucht, and Beth Brewster.
We discovered that the gear drop was an adventure in itself when our team arrived together in Chelan Falls. Staff directed us to drop off our kayaks and continue to the next drop-off spot in Entiat. As we drove, we tried to guess what the course would look like, but we never suspected when we dropped off our bikes that we would next be going to Plain, at the far end of the Entiat crest. I suspected that we would need to be transported somewhere, and when we arrived in Plain to get our maps and final directions, we discovered that we would be boarding a bus for an hour and a half bus ride to somewhere back in the Chelan area.
The map work was somewhat daunting – we copied checkpoints onto 10 maps that covered a 100+ mile point to point race across northern Washington. I feared that at least a few of the roads on the USGS maps that we received would not exist any more, and that there might be a few new unmapped forest roads that would keep us guessing, making our navigation a little trickier. We used as many supplemental maps as we could to identify the most appropriate routes in the two hours that we had before we boarded the bus.
We rested as much as we could while the bus carried us on the 1.5 hour trip back to a park in Chelan for the midnight start of the race. There, we were given an orienteering map of Chelan containing 12 marked check points (CPs), and in “street scramble” style, we raced around town to visit the CPs in any order, answering a question on our answer sheet about some object at each location. We turned in this answer sheet at the finish location just outside of town at the base of Chelan Butte. During the next leg, we trekked through the Chelan Butte Wilderness Area, mostly off trail. We travelled through rugged scrubland with occasional thick sagebrush and scattered trees and bushes. The initial climb from Chelan up to Chelan Butte was incredibly steep, and we found ourselves sliding backwards on the steep gravelly terrain as we struggled up the 2600 foot climb. Ahead of us, we could see the bobbing headlamps of the two teams in the lead, and behind us, a line of small glowing orbs snaked up from the bottom of the hill. The moon and stars danced above us.
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It’s high time I conclude this series of posts looking into the 2010 Untamed New England. There’s tons of other stuff going on in the world of the Adventure Racing World Series and I need to make room for that material — Costa Rica, France, and the UK recently wrapped up their World Championship qualifying events, too.
Team nuun-SportMulti at the 2010 Trioba 24 hour Adventure Race, was composed of racersMatt Hayes, Mari Chandler, Sean Clancy and guest-racer Jeremy Rodgers. Mari and Sean went into TRIOBA with an 5-race winning streak together. For most of those races, their 3rd teammate was ace-navigator Glenn Rogers. This time around, Glenn was the race DIRECTOR, and teammate Matt Hayes would step into the navigator role. Could they keep the magical streak alive? Glenn and co-director Ryan Van Gorder promised to throw some curve-balls to prevent ANY team from having an easy go of it. By the time teams reached the finish line, the 2010 TRIOBA 24 would go down as a classic and one of the harder-but most rewarding-events in memory…
In case you’ve missed them, installment 1, 2, and 3 are also here on Adventure World.
Tonight at 8:05pm our first team crossed the finish line, the Swedish team #17, Explore. After 84 hours of racing, including 185km of mountain biking that ended just a few kilometers before the end, they entered Playa Samara where a big crowd of staff, media and other competitors who are no longer in the race greeted them with cheers, flashes and applause. Everybody wanted to witness the last steps of a team that set the race pace since the beginning and remained strong through it all, even despite Per Vestling’s very bad knee. At some point the paramedics recommended him to stop, but he inspired so many by walking through that finished line, doing what he did best, smiling big!
We have already shown a few clips from Randy Ericksen as he filmed Team Adventure World Magazine at Untamed New England. Here is an unedited clip as he followed Team GOALS ARA at night bushwhacking off of Magalloway Mt. The team was comprised of Mark Lattanzi, Masha Glanville, Jonathon Neely and Jeremy Kuhler. Stay tuned for more race clips in the coming weeks.
Next month, Cynthia Aguilar will attempt to complete a 130 mile solo paddle board crossing from Cuba to Key West. Her goal is raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and her non-profit organization, Keep Paddlin’, Inc. The 26-year-old is out to show people that one person can make a difference. She has undertaken other endurance events as a way to raise money and awareness for individuals and groups. She also hosts paddleboard races as a way to help others in need.
Most of us remember the story of Aron Ralston, the young adventurer whose arm became pinned under a boulder while cayoneering in the backcountry of Utah in 2003. After realizing that there was no help forthcoming, he was forced to amputate his lower right arm using a pocketknife. The trailer to 127 Hours is a sneak peek to the big screen adaptation of this survival story. Ralston is portrayed by James Franco and the movie is directed by Danny Boyle, the Academy Award Winning Director (Best Achievement in Directing) of Slumdog Millionaire. The movie is set to release on November 5, 2010.
Hot!!! Everybody agreed, as they ended their mountain bike task, in stage 6 at Pedacito de Cielo in San Carlos. A remote place surrounded by mountains, and very hot. At some points, the bikes had to be carried over the mud and the swamped trails. Exhaustion is starting to set in. The teams took between 30 minutes and an hour to complete this stage.
After a long and hard first day, already the teams are setting the pace differences between them. Although during the rafting section, of the first stage, the teams were quite even, it was not until the biking task that timing became an import issue. Once they came out of the river, the teams were struck by the heat and navigation dilemmas started to arise.
Sara Lingafelter and a group ‘kick ass girls’ reached the summit of Mount Rainier earlier this month to raise funds for Big City Mountaineers through the Summit For Someone program. Sara created this video from the climb and we couldn’t pass up sharing it with you. Stay tuned for some mountaineering gear reviews from Sara!
The race tonight has developed in unexpected ways.
Finland Multisport.fi, team #2 that had remained at the front all day, and while in the 3rd position, decided to not risk the canyoning section at the Laguna de Hule checkpoint and has advanced directly to the mountain bike at 9:45pm. This has changed their time from being just 30 minutes away from the lead to falling back to last place.
Equipo Explore (SUECIA) heading since today’s second stage
Colombian BOSI Zoom Radio Team is just 30 minutes behind the leader, crossing Hule lagoon canyon.
Sweden´s Explore team (17) is heading the race followed 30 minutes behind by Costa Rica´s Bosi Zom Radio team, and barely a minute behind, is the Finnish team Multisport.fi., (team 2).
Earlier this year, we posted about snowboarder Kevin Pearce’s accident prior to the Olympics. We also posted about his recovery. Kevin appeared on The Today Show with Matt Lauer and below is that interview.
Regardless whether you are male or female, one has to be inspired with an athlete like Rebecca Rusch. We make it a weekly ritual to check out her site to see what is new with the ‘Queen of Pain’. After winning her second Leadville 100 race in as many years, she continues to dominate her sport. Check out this video by the folks at Specialized as they chat with her about her preparation for the event.
Czech Adventure Race 2010 ended with longest stage of all: 190 km on bikes. However, it was mainly on tarmac roads, so that it was fast. But organizers did not make it that easy. Only hour or two into the stage there was special task that was most unpleasant this year. Orienteering itself would not be unpleasant, but seven of ten CPs were located in a fashion it was necessary to swim to them.
The long awaited moment has arrived, Costa Rica Adventure 2010 is about to start!
At 7.30.a.m. the 18 teams, a great number of members of the press and all the staff from ARCR were ready at La Virgen of Sarapiqui. Last minute preparations and details were being taken care off, instants before the race was due to begin.
Team Adventure World Magazine just returned from competing in the Untamed New England Adventure Race. The team was an all women’s team and consisted of Paulette Kirby, Katie Ferrington and Marghi Geary. Randy Ericksen, who created the Primal Quest Badlands DVD, followed the team and here is Video #3.
To catch you up, I’m examining each leg of the 2010 Untamed New England. Legs 1 and 2 can be found here and here.
During the first evening and night Czech Adventure Race continued with inline-trekking stage. As there were many tarmac roads in the area, organizers decided they will allow teams to choose whether they want to skate or walk. Running on tarmac is just plain boring and damages knees. All CPs of the inline-trekking stage were located on tops of hills in a fashion that ensured it will not be an easy decision. Many roads were also broken with bad tarmac, so skating on them was not that simple.
Team Adventure World Magazine just returned from competing in the Untamed New England Adventure Race. The team was an all women’s team and consisted of Paulette Kirby, Katie Ferrington and Marghi Geary. Randy Ericksen, who created the Primal Quest Badlands DVD, followed the team and here is Video #2.
Team Tecnu Extreme competed at the Untamed New England Adventure Race last week. 41 teams from the US and Canada as well as Ecuador and Denmark all came to Dixville Notch, New Hampshire to compete in the 3 day race and hope for a chance at qualifying for a spot at the World Adventure Race Championships that will be held in Spain in October.
Team Adventure World Magazine just returned from competing in the Untamed New England Adventure Race. The team was an all women’s team and consisted of Paulette Kirby, Katie Ferrington and Marghi Geary. Randy Ericksen, who created the Primal Quest Badlands DVD, followed the team and here is the first of 3 video clips he shot of the team.
It’s high time I conclude this series of posts looking into the 2010 Untamed New England. There’s tons of other stuff going on in the world of the Adventure Racing World Series and I need to make room for that material — Costa Rica, France, and the UK recently wrapped up their World Championship qualifying events, too.
I’ve been impressed with the quality of races that Trioba puts on here in Washington state, and was looking forward to Trioba’s 33 hour “midnight start” adventure race that would take place in Chelan this fall. I attended as part of Team Mergeo: our team was Miles Ohlrich (me), Roger Michel, Andrew Feucht, and Beth Brewster.
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Adventure World Magazine is the official magazine of the United States Adventure Racing Association. The USARA has expanded the adventure athlete market and sustained the growth of multi-sport racing and endurance events for over 10 years.
