By Sean Clancy
Photos by Christina Chacharon

25 Hours and 50 minutes after starting in Chelan, Team nuun-SportMulti crossed the finish line in Plain as 2010 Trioba Champions.

What a race!

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…

For Adventure Racers seeking a truly wild, gnarly, challenging and fun point-to-point course, the 2010 Trioba 24 Hour Adventure Race did not disappoint. The race was professionally directed with by ournuun-SportMulti teammates Glenn Rogers and Ryan Van Gorder. In the months leading up to the race, Glenn and Ryan posted random photos of locations they were scouting for checkpoints on the course. The photos depicted mountain-top fire lookout towers, mine entrances (?!), a ruined “castle” (seriously), rattlesnakes and some very large mountain lion and bear paw prints. We knew the race would offer serious navigational challenges and options, massive amounts of elevation gain and loss, and brutal amounts of rocky off-trail terrain. Oh, and a substantial paddle. Having known and raced with Glenn and Ryan for a while now, my expectations for the race were very high.
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Thanks to my wife for reminding me that I haven’t finished this set of posts breaking down the Untamed New England race course . . . it’s been a really busy week or two!

In case you’ve missed them, installment 1, 2, and 3 are also here on Adventure World.

Leg 4 was a couple loops based from the Primus Camping transition area, it came at the end of the savage Leg 3 trek.  We knew that trek would be tough, and the Primus Camping TA was perfect to include here as before and after each loop it let teams access their gear bins, camp stoves provided by Primus, and even roomy tents to sleep in also from Primus.

Teams arrived to the Primus TA and had a bike loop to complete, and a trek/swim loop — but these loops could be done in either order and the Primus TA would be the hub for all the loops.  Plenty of action through this TA, and a beautiful setting on the Aziscohos Lake.  Our vision was that the swim/trek would showcase the water and islands around the TA while the bike leg would introduce some nice technical riding to the event.

What nobody realizes is that the Leg 4 loops were absolutely butchered at the last minute by land managers over in Maine.   This slipped under the radar for the first 9 months of our permit conversations, and it was a big disappointment to rework this section (although the bright side is I have some great biking terrain to include in a future event, if I can negotiate access!).  So we originally had a very tidy bike leg, with plenty of technical riding etc, but we had to re-route this at the last minute and our options were very limited. Continue Reading

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!

Helena Lindnord from the swedish media accompanying team Explore, was interviewing Jari Kirkland earlier today, and Jari said before resting or showering she wanted a juicy hamburger and french fries! And her wishes were granted, and her whole team got a share, as well as some ice cold beer that went with meal.

That closed the action for Playa Samara tonight. The remaining 4 teams that remain in elite competition have been neutralized at checkpoint 36 for safety reasons and will spend the night there once they arrive. Tomorrow at the crack of dawn team Quechua #12 will be released at 4am, then Bosi Zoom Radio #15 at 4:30am and all other teams and racers at 5am.

The second place is expected to arrive at the finish line at 7:30am.

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.

To order the race DVD, visit http://legendaryrandyericksenfilms

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.

The next stage is the longest trekking section of the race, under a merciless sun. This must have weighed in Brazil´s decision to retire from the race, once they concluded the mountain bike section in control point 14. This decision leaves Quasar Lontra, one of the favourite teams, to be out of the race. As with the Finnish Omjakon, the remaining members Rafael Campos and Sabrina Gobbor have decided to continue the challenge without Xuxa and Victor Lopes.

The race has been full of expectations. The Swedish Explore has remained first throughout the day. When they crossed the San Juan river mouth, they were three hours ahead of the team Safety Smart Wear (team 16), that has had an amazing take over. Although they have lost precious time due to navigation issues, they have been quick to overcome them and remain in second place. Amongst the members of this team is Costarrican Ligia Madrigal, considered the best mountain bike cyclist of the country. Continue Reading

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.

At the canopy La Linda of Sarapiqui, a great thunder storm broke out and although nobody was injured, the electrical lightning affected some of the members of the teams, who could feel small electrical discharges from the cables above the trees.

For the next task, the teams took hold of their bikes to get ready for the third stage, and head towards the daring nocturnal task of the descent of the Ravine of Caños, in Río Cuarto. This task was a proof of team work, in which they had to deliver between what was safe and what was risky and faster competition wise. This was undergone during the night and in very harsh weather conditions. Only one third of the teams managed to accomplish this task before the end of the day. The rest of the teams arrived to the control post #12 early this Tuesday morning, thus completing 10 miles of trekking.

Every aspect is taken into account. The captain of the Swedish team, who leads the race, commented about how complicated and technical this task had been. The Argentinean team Tierra Viva, said that the team´s security was the main issue during the river and canyon crossing without ropes. The Finnish team Multisport Omjakon (team 2) were the only ones that decided not to cross the canyon and headed for their bikes at 9.45 p.m. This will result in a penalty that will amount to twice the longest timing in this stage, probably 10, which will make it very difficult for the team to classify in the first places.

But still, anything can happen.

Sara Lingafelter and a group of ‘kick ass girls’ (her words) 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!

A Woman’s Place is on Top of Mount Rainier from Sara Lingafelter on Vimeo.

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.

This all happened at the 4th transition of the Costa Rica Adventure Race. At the second transition earlier today captain Pekka Sorjonen, team 1 of Multisport Omajkon had to abandon the race starting the canopy section, due to health problems that had been affecting him for the past 2 or 3 days. However, Toumas Hallila and Heikki Hihnala have decided to continue on the course, even after their team has been drawn out. Tonight they were looking strong at checkpoint 11 at around 11:15pm.

Nontheless, this leaves Finland with little chances to win the first edition of the ARCR.

Unlike other teams that have been giving us some unexpected surprises at the front, where Sweden’s team 17, Explore, continues in the lead by only 10 minutes, with the Colombian team #15 Bosi Zoom Radio at their heels and probably closer at every transition. And even more than that, seeing Costa Rica, with team #5 come out in third place at the end of the checkpoint 12, which was the exit of the canyoning section where all teams of competitors had to race through the night. Real Costa Rica Coastal Challenge got cheers from the 7 or 8 staff and media team that were standing over the bridge expecting France to come out next. Of course Quechua, team #12 team was close behind them on the trail. Continue Reading

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).

Unfortunately the Finnish Omjakon multisport.fi (team 1) has been forced to withdraw from the race due to captain Tekka´s unexpected physical indisposition. Even though the team will not be able to classify, the three remaining members will continue in the race.

After the rafting, mountain bike, and canopy sections all teams arrived at Lake Hule in Rio Cuarto. Tonight they will be travelling through the canon of Lake Hule Río Cuarto. This task is a very technical one which is made more difficult due to weather conditions. The major obstacles being¸ rain and mud.

In tomorrow’s early morning we will know if Sweden keeps the head of the race.
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Earlier this year, we posted about snowboarder Kevin Pearce’s accident prior to the Olympics. Kevin appeared on The Today Show with Matt Lauer and below is that interview.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Photo by Cole Barash

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.

By Jan Smolík

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.

It was horrible experience mainly to those that arrived during night. It was almost freezing, you could see vapor coming out of your mouth when you breathed. Strongest and fastest teams were the most affected, which made it sort of fair. Jarda from the leading team AlpinePro/Nutrend/Merida was talking about this section 12 hours ahead as he is not good with cold. With cards attached to wrist of all competitors everyone had to swim. But they managed to cope with that. “Actually it was good because we lost any need to sleep. During most of second night we were swimming every couple of minutes, so we were wide awake. We did no sleep at all,” explained Jarda Krajnik at the finish.

The rest of the stage was fast, but still up and downs. No flat section. Although they had a comfortable lead, AlpinePro pushed hard and after a little under 55 hours of racing they arrived to the finish line. They looked fresh; it seemed they were only at an afternoon trip. After racing at world champs in Portugal and Bergson Winter Challenge, maybe they were. Continue Reading

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.

Children from the neighbouring High school Claudio Lara Campos, from La Virgen of Sarapiqui attended the event in order to join the members in the first trekking stretch of 1.5 miles along the main road of this community. A great entourage of vehicles escorted the team while the locals greeted them as they passed by.

Faithfully supporting their teams are the sponsors: Columbia, Red Bull, AeroDiva, Toyota and Toyota Car Rental.

The race was officially given the go, at the fire of the gun, in Sarapiqui´s bridge, at 8.a.m on the dot. High anxiety mingled with smiles, even though a very tough and rough time lays ahead of each and every team during their different tasks.

At the start of their 27.5 mile rafting along the Sarapiqui river, the team QuasarLontra from Brazil (team 18) were the first to embark, followed by Sweden (team 17) and France ( team 12) in the third place.

Four hours later, heading the race, the Finnish team (team 2, Multisport.fi) arrived at 12:50 p.m. local time, followed closely by the Swedish from Explore and the French Quechua.

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.

We called Leg 3 the “3 Summit Trek” and we knew this would be a difficult stretch for teams.  Over 30 miles, with long off-trail sections, punctuated by some mountain summits and a rope course mid-way through.  If anything, I think we undersold the difficulty of this leg.  The teams who completed the whole stretch arrived at the Primus Camping transition area and uniformly declared that to be the most challenging trek of any race they’ve done.

Of course, with the benefit of hindsight maybe teams will change their view, as teams in Untamed New England had raced in harsh places such as Patagonia.  I need to follow up to see if teams still stand by their opinion.

Regardless, this was a trek to remember and I’m guessing there were as many routes through here as there were teams.   For a look at the route taken by the winning team GUATS Adventure, check out this google map where they outlined their trail/road travel (in blue) and their bushwhacking (in red).  The GUATS gang is partially made up of the old SupplierPipeline team, so these are among the most experienced racers in North America.  GUATS went on to win the race, powered by this legendary effort on the 3 Summit Trek.  Truly, their effort on Leg 3 will go down in the record books!

Besides the route decisions and off-trail travel, this Leg had some scenic views and our main ropes course for the race.  We intended to rig a tyrolean traverse and a rappel mid-way through the Leg, but the rope crew made a last minute change and setup a zipline instead (it’s really just a tyrolean where you start high and can slide down, requiring no effort to cross).  I was initially disappointed in the change, but once I tried the zip line out I was convinced that having this low-effort element to the race would be a welcome change from the brutal trek the teams were in the middle of.  So, while the rope site wasn’t a technically difficult one, it would be a chance for teams to switch muscle groups and put their climbing gear to good use!

It’s hard to do justice to the intensity of the wilderness through here.  There are areas where trees have grown so tightly together it’s almost a wall of branches, bark, and deadfall.  There are mazes of moose trails up and down the mountains, but you can go crazy trying to follow a compass along routes like that.  This trek did showcase the true wilderness of New England and just how remote and rugged it can get out here.

The first team to finish this leg was GUATS adventure from Ontario, and this proved the turning point of the race for them.  They passed a number of teams on the second half of this trek.  The Danish team came in a few hours later, and Team Granite from New Hampshire came in just a minute after the Danes.  It’s telling to see that this would be the eventual race podium . . . this 3 Summit Trek will surely go down as one for the ages.

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.

One team has already withdrawn from the race prior this stage. Ivos and jeho parta were not able to locate CP8 on stage one and got lost. That demoralized them along with the fact they were far behind. Other team B Team Ekonom Praha Outdoor withdrawn due to back problems of one member.

All the teams decided to take skates for the first inline-trekking stage. The leaders – AlpinePro/Nutrend/Merida – were able to ride fast, and returned at 2 a.m. They were able to continue quickly with just thirty minutes in the TA. Other teams were not that fast. Lokal Blok, second before this stage, lost one place during inline-trekking and went to sleep for full 90 minutes. It seems they had some problems from the very beginning, as it is unusual for such a strong team to sleep during first night. Estonian Ekstreem Adventure was third after this stage. Continue Reading

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/Staphaseptic (Kyle Peter, Matt Hayes, Brian Schmitz, & Mari Chandler)

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.

Leg 1: Portage with a bit of paddlingThe race started at 12:45 PM on Thursday. Teams of 4 were given 1 canoe and a kayak for the first leg of the race, a 40 mile paddle on Second and First Connecticut Lake, Lake Francis, and the Connecticut River & 6 miles of portaging. (2 miles of which was what we in AR call “Boat Whacking”, carrying the boats and all of your gear through the woods.) In the middle of the paddle leg as night fell, we had to stop for an Orienteering Relay. Each one of us had to take a turn and complete a small “O course” before continuing with the boats. We did really well in this section and were back on the river in no time and had moved ahead to 4th place.

Leg 2: Taste of NH trails via BikeBy 1 a.m. we were back on land and off on our bikes. We passed EMS in the transition at the Beecher Falls Fire Station in Vermont and were now in 3rd and feeling great. The bike section started out on dirt roads but became a bit tricky trying to find some of the trails in the dark and eventually a few teams caught up with us. I would guess that there were as many routes across Indian Creek as there were teams. There didn’t seem to be any major trails or roads connecting CP 12 to the Great North Woods ATV Trails to the east. We managed to bike up and down and road paralleling the river and found an old single track that connected them for us. We arrived at the TA 2 convinced we had lost a few more places, but apparently everyone else was having trouble and we had only been passed by 2 teams. Continue Reading

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. Thanks Randy!

Moving on to Leg 2 of the race (after Leg 1 where I began this series), what looked like at first glance to be a straight-forward “connector” leg between the paddle and the 3 Summit Trek had a bit of challenge lurking beneath the surface.  As a race planner, I like the challenges that nobody sees coming.

Skirting along the Canadian/US border, teams biked a logging road network and got into some climbing on the bike up and over the Indian Stream Ridge.  There were confusing new roads introduced in here (not on any map we could provide racers, and we didn’t have time to map the whole network for teams on our own).  It was tricky, and I suspect most teams were already thinking about the tough 3 Summit Trek ahead of them in the race, instead of the more immediate challenge on the bikes.

The crux of the leg was the crossing of Indian Stream itself — a shallow river meandering north/south along the valley.  There is only one bridge over the Stream, and that is many miles South and easily adds an hour or two of cycling.  It looks like most teams elected to cross the marsh and carry their bikes to the other side — a very physically challenging undertaking, particularly as most did this at night.

After crossing the Stream, a well-mapped ATV network set the stage for the final checkpoint on this Leg before teams reached Transition Area #2 and dropped their bikes.

A couple hours after sunrise, Running Free reached this TA first (much to their surprise, as they laughed when they were informed that they reached this location first!), closely followed by Team Granite.  Somewhere in the night the Danish team had given up an hour or two to some new race leaders . . . but it would not remain that way for long.  No lead is a safe lead this early in a race, with so many high caliber teams!

The team from Ecuador made a route error and ended up accidentally crossing the border into Canada.  They were detained by the US Border Patrol for a couple hours, as one racer on the team didn’t have a copy of his passport with him (that was mandatory for all teams for just this reason!).  It was a nightmare scenario: the team from South America getting snagged by border patrol for an unauthorized border crossing!  Imagine explaining why you’ve got a backpack full of climbing gear, headlamps, food, and other equipment . . . all with a thick Spanish accent . . .

A bit of patience, and a few explanations later, and the Ecuadorians were back on their bikes again.  They brushed it off as part of their authentic US experience.

I personally stopped by the Border Patrol office while they were being held, in case I could do something to assist, but the process was underway (lots of paperwork, apparently) and there was nothing for me to to help, other than to confirm their story.  They were sitting in the Border Patrol office with their bike shorts, helmets, bike shoes, race jerseys etc and I wish I had a camera.  BP was treating this like a major offense (I don’t think they have “minor” offenses in their vocabulary) and the Ecuadorians were being made an example of.

No matter, once they got released the Ecuadorians got back on their bikes and kept racing (and, indeed, raced a great race for those so new to this terrain and our style of event).

Leg 3 was up next, for the Ecuadorians and for all the other teams, the very much anticipated 3 Summit Trek.