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.

Once on top, we tested our night time navigation while traversing across ridgetops and valleys formed by years of erosion in this arid land. We leapfrogged past another team when we dropped directly down to a fire road that was longer but easier while they sidehilled along a high slope. We also chose routes to save our feet from blisters this early in the race: running ridgetops and going straight up/down slopes are good shortcuts. Contouring across slopes is hard. A lot of routefinding choices presented themselves in this rugged terrain. I enjoy trekking navigation though, as I can continuously consult my map while still keeping a good pace. I tripped over more than my share of bushes and fallen logs, however, while I had my face stuck in my map.

The sun came up as we traversed a ridge with views down to the Columbia River to the east. The next CP we found secreted inside an abandoned mine, its entrance barely visible above a stream of tailings. Daylight now, we worked our way through the last couple CPs, through an apple orchard on the edge of town, and ended at the Chelan Falls City Park at our kayaks.

We launched into the Columbia River for a 20 mile tour down to Entiat Park. Waterskiers dotted the glassy slow-moving river like bugs. Orchards hugged the shoreline wherever flat land snuck in between rugged cliffy slopes. Two CPs were placed on small islands in the river along this leg, and the chance of missing them kept me somewhat focused on where we were, although the warm morning sun teased us with thoughts of napping. Roger and Beth in the rear kayak temporarily drifted into a dream state, and Andrew and I felt a stiffer resistance to our paddling as the tow rope between our boats went taut. In general, though, we all kayaked peacefully and happily, resting our weary legs for the stages to come.

Off the water at Entiat, we each grabbed a quick sandwich from the gear bin while we changed into our biking gear. We started with an easy ride up Entiat River Road, and then we turned up Crum Canyon road where we climbed gradually, then more steeply. We had all left our bikes at the road and hiked to a CP on a small hilltop when Andrew and I heard Beth scream behind us. Apparently we had disturbed a nest of rattlesnakes, and five baby rattlesnakes stared her down and slithered at her. Beth has a snake phobia, so she threw Roger in front of her to ward them off. Apparently, the smell of Roger by itself was enough to defeat the snakes. We were not taking any chances, however, and gave the area a wide berth on the way back from the CP.

We continued to climb, eventually attaining a pass where we picked up some singletrack. Finally, we get to ride some trails! The singletrack quickly turned into a rocky rut through the scrubland. While cursing the race diretor, we rode our bikes through the scrubland to the side of the singletrack because it was easier. However, after a short while, the rut disappeared and we glided down along a ridgetop. The race director was forgiven. We picked up another section of singletrack shortly thereafter that was absolutely divine. As I sped through wide graceful turns along the smooth dirt down a ridgetop, I cast off my prejudices that mountain biking should somehow always include technical hard-as-nails terrain. My spirit soared into the sky, but only too quickly we dropped back onto the fire road again. In front and above us was Steliko fire lookout. Quickly dispatching the short climb, the checkpoint, the view, and the descent, we dropped down the fire road to the town of Ardenvoir, then up Mad River road to the next transition area (TA).

At this point, we could choose to do a “pro” course option, which was available to any teams that arrived before 9pm. It was now 6:30pm. The pro course contained only two CPs: one nearby up a steep, steep 1000 foot climb. The second CP was 3 miles along the ridge beyond that and did not look fun at all. DART had taken 3.5 hours to finish the pro course, and team Verve arrived back at the TA while we were still there, also having taken 3.5 hours. These were the two fastest teams. We had heard that the next team behind us was a couple hours back, so I decided that we should just get the first CP. That way, if another team did arrive before the 9pm cut off, they would have to get both CPs in order to beat us, and even if they did, they would be facing the real possibility of not getting to the finish before the 9AM cutoff, risking disqualification. Andrew pled, however, that we go to both CPs, as he was insistent on doing the whole, whole course. I assumed temporary insanity on his part and ignored his plea.

We climbed a slope up to the pass to get the CP, then decided that we would go down a different, easier looking way. The slope is always more gradual on the other side of the valley. Anyways, the easier way was at least as difficult as the way we went up, but we finally managed to get down the gravelly scree slope, push our way through the thick brush-filled, dry creek bed, and get back to the TA again.

We enjoyed the hospitality of the volunteers as they poured us coffee and cup-of-soup, and we relaxed in the TA for much longer than we might otherwise would have. We were enjoying ourselves, and we didn’t feel the need to push the pace. The navigation during the next section was going to be the trickiest of the whole race, and our main goal was to stay on track and get up over the Entiat mountain range to the finish line before 9am without losing our way or getting overcome by sleep monsters. Ready to face our second night without sleep, we got back on our bikes and headed out the forest road up along Tillicum Creek, then up Indian Creek.

A couple kilometers up Indian Creek, we came to a decision point. I had researched this particular spot extensively in the two hours before the race and pulled up some info from several different extra (more recent?) maps. We could go one of three possible ways. Going right, we could traverse a possibly decommisioned road for a kilometer up to a junction. At that point, there were two roads, but the slightly shorter one was also probably decommissioned, so the longer road was a possibility. On the other hand, we could originally go left from Indian Creek and take another road that looked reasonable but longer. However, maps seemed to indicate a lot of other roads in the area that could potentially confuse us a lot in the night, and I was skeptical of this route. I had chatted with one of the race officials in the last TA and shown him our map, and from some casual comments he made, I got the feeling that going right would be more interesting (for him or for me??). So we went right.

The possibly decommisioned road was definitely decommisioned, but a bike trail followed it the whole way up, or at least followed where it would have been had it not been washed down the cliff to our right. In a few spots, there was so little room to even put a trail that we teetered over the edge of the dark abyss. And given that the road had already washed away over the edge, I was not too confident about what still remained, especially as we had already raced for 24 hours and had cobwebs in our brains. After making it through all the particularly scary parts, however, we heard Roger shout from behind us and yell for help as we went through a short stretch of road dotted with saplings. I’m not sure how he fell, but I found him splayed on the ground gripping a fallen sapling with his head dangling over the edge of the cliff and his bike
on top of him. He wasn’t sure in the dark exactly how close he was to the edge, so he decided to sit tight and not move a muscle until he got some help. Having survived a cliffhanger, we continued on. At the junction where the good road was supposed to start, we were pleasantly surprised and elated that it did just that. No surprise is a good surprise.

I got a flat. It was just a slow leak, but after pumping it up, it went flat again 15 minutes later. We decided to stop and fix it. Halfway through fixing it, I discovered that the tube that I had brought with me had a Schrader valve instead of a Presta valve. Then I discovered that a Schrader valve wouldn’t even fit through my bike’s rim. Du-oh! Ironically, we had already fixed one flat this race, and Andrew had discovered that he had also packed a tube with a Schrader valve. We borrowed Beth’s spare tube to fix my flat, noting sardonically that the only two tubes we had left were the wrong kind. The finish line started to look a lot further away. At least I had my old tube which only needed to be pumped up every 15 minutes. I took out the small thorn in my tire before I installed the new tube. I hate it when I forget that step.

The next two checkpoints we could reach by taking a singletrack almost straight to them. How hard could that be? We never saw the singletrack. We followed the road to its high point a couple hundred feet higher than the missing trail, then bike-whacked along the ridge to the shallow hilltop where we located the checkpoint on a rocky outcrop. After this, my feeble brain turned to mush as I was still confused about the missing trail, but Roger stepped in and guided us down the far ridge, which turned rideable lower down as if we were on a very old abandoned road (the trail?). We reached an intersection of two logging roads where the map indicated the trail continued on the other side. Where the trail was indicated, we did find an old road through the thicket that was so overgrown that mature trees were growing through the middle of it, and we could only identify it as a road because the forest was even more impenetrable on either side. After exploring it for 20 yards or so, we decided to come up with an alternate plan.

Roger says “If we had the map to the south of this one, we could see if these two roads connect…”. And we did, and they did. I had not bothered to look for alternate routes previously, because the direct (yet non-existent) route was so obvious. Problem solved, we contoured around Sugarloaf peak to the other side and headed for the CP on the summit.

At Sugarloaf, we said hellos to the cold and lonely race volunteers there and prepared for the long, freezing pre-dawn descent. I had to stop two more times on our way down to put every last piece of clothing on that I own – I am so glad that the scattered thunderstorms did not catch us in the night, as I am still somewhat dry at least. We dropped 2000 feet down a forest road to French Creek, then switchbacked onto a long windy forest road that would eventually take us
to the last CP and then to the finish.

Sleepmonsters started to sneak out and grab for us. Roger looked at Andrew and asked Beth, “Who is THAT?” with a serious face. “That’s Andrew. He’s on our team, remember?”. Roger rode his bike into the ditch. We plied him with caffeine, and after many more minutes of unsteady weaving, he was awake and back in the game again.

I had difficulty keeping track of where we were on the map – my short term memory was fading. I stopped every few minutes to verify where we were on the map, relying heavily on my altimeter watch. Only one more checkpoint. We dropped down to the 2400 foot level and leveled off – check. We followed the road through a left turn – check. Road on the right – check. Now the CP would be ahead of us at the next intersection right before the road starts a gradual descent. We travelled for a longer while than I expected. The road was not descending yet, so I wasn’t too worried. In fact, it was ascending a little bit. Then it turned 90 degrees to the south. What? I think we’re lost.

We cannot be too lost, however, as team Manny’s had just joined us, and they are similarly confused. We scratched our heads and looked at our maps, and Roger, who had been asleep on wheels not too long ago, pointed out our exact location. Apparently, part of our intended route had been decommisioned, and we had unknowingly continued on a somewhat parallel road to the east with similar characteristics. All we had to do was keep going forward, and we would loop around and connect back to our original route shortly. Onward!

With dawn rising, we pushed forward and easily found the last CP along the road five minutes later. We continued with team Manny’s down to the paved road, then followed it as it meandered over one last ridge before dropping into the town of Plain. Two more miles on the road and we were back at the finish line and the lodge. Trioba staff had just put the eggs on the grill, and breakfast was waiting. Success!

We finished in 30 hours and 35 minutes, and we reached all of the checkpoints, including one Pro-course checkpoint. This was good enough for 3rd place.

You can pick up the previous items in this series via the previous post at http://www.adventureworldmagazineonline.com/adventure-racing/untamed-new-england-leg-4/.

Leg 4 of Untamed New England put teams in extreme northwest Maine, much closer to Canada than the race finish line at the Balsams Resort in New Hampshire.  Leg 5, therefore, would be the great connector from this remote Maine outpost to the Balsams ski lodge.

Teams complete a conservation project at Untamed New England 2010

We considered several creative ways of handling this Leg 5, but ultimately settled on abike leg broken into two parts with a conservation project right in the middle.  Untamed Adventure races incorporate “green work projects” where racers complete hands-on tasks that give back to the community we’re racing through; previous projects in the 2010 Untamed New England included bog bridge building and trail marking (both during the Leg 1 paddle).

This final project would be clearing a new trail for the State of New Hampshire.  New Hampshire has a beautiful waterfall hidden a 1/2 mile deep in the wilderness, and our racers would help cut the new trail to the falls.  The trick for the racers, however, was that they would build the trail from the waterfall out to the road, instead of from the road in to the waterfall.  This meant racers had to get to the waterfall somehow, and we developed our “Team Waterfall Climb” activity to be a fun break for teams and a creative solution to getting teams to the falls to start their trail clearing.

4th Place "Running Free" team from Canada on the Waterfall Climb

The “Team Waterfall Climb” had all teammates roped together via their climbing harnesses (in the style of a glacier traverse), and we placed a set of orienteering flags along the cascades going all the way into the dramatic waterfall.  This was a beautiful location, cool water with the occasional o-flag sticking out of the bank of the river, and lots of verdant greenery.  Teams seemed to enjoy this climb (more a scramble up, over, and around the series of small falls), although this was yet another way for racers to get very wet and I know many who did this stretch in bike shoes spent a lot of time slipping and falling.

After the Waterfall Climb, teams had a short bike-and-tie section (which we also had to rework due to the Leg 4 course changes) before moving in to the final stretch of mountain biking to the finish line.

The biking into the Waterfall Climb wasn’t particularly technical nor tricky, but the portion after the falls was very difficult.  The maps were way out of sync with the terrain, some of the riding was very tough, and Checkpoint 33 proved elusive.  Many teams resorted to bushwhacking -as in Leg 2- through the dense forest to reach CP 33 at Coleman State Park; others managed to stay on their bikes but ended up learning by trial and error that to reach CP33 to the South of the Waterfall Climb, one had to bike a significant way West — not intuitive.

Biking the "trails" at Untamed New England

At Checkpoint 33 there was a payphone that teams had to use to call the race finish line.  This was a method to have an “un-manned” checkpoint but up-to-the minute details on which teams had arrived here, and so near to the finish line it served as a warning for the staff and spectators that another team was approaching.  There was still some good climbs and technical riding through the Balsams Wilderness between CP 33 and the finish line — but it was really the home stretch.  My heart goes out to the team who had a major bike mechanical through the rocky trails after CP 33 and had to call on their satellite phone to organize a rescue — no serious medical problems, but race-over after getting so close to the finish line!

Once teams finally reached the Balsams, we had an optional orienteering section (rogaine) where teams could earn time bonuses by visiting additional trekking checkpoints around the resort.  The optional section made for an anti-climactic finish area, as teams never knew how they stood in the race results until after some calculations and waiting to see what other teams had to do.  I wans’t happy with this, and the optional section ended up having no impact on the final results, and future events will not use this style of rogaine finish, for a variety of reasons.

Eastern Mountain Sports / CheckpointZero team at the mountain summit mid-race during Untamed New England

In closing, one of my favorite moments from the Untamed New England finish line was when the Eastern Mountain Sports / CheckpointZero team arrived in 6th place with an hour remaining for them to obtain optional points.   Jennifer Shultis, their Captain and an iconic New England racer, biked straight up to the beer truck and pulled a Long Trail Ale out before she had even fully got off her bike.  Anybody curious if her team was going to try to clean-up on the optional trekking section had just got their answer: Jenn was in beer drinking mode and after 3 days of rugged, remote, and sometimes downright brutal terrain this team had accomplished their goals.  Finish lines are for celebrating, not for plotting bonus UTM coordinates!

In closing, let me give a hearty congratulations to the winning team GUATS Adventure of Ontario, Canada.  With 2 members tracing their racing roots through the Canadian AR giant “SupplierPipeline” team from years ago, it’s no surprise to see them atop the podium.  2nd place went to a very fast and well-prepared Danish team “Skandia Key Experience;” after the race, they commented how “Untamed New England is not like other races — but in a good way . . . every race claims to be tough and has cautions on the website about taking it lightly, but Untamed New England really delivers!”  Finishing in third place New Hampshire’s “Team Granite” did the home state proud; this team is the current USA national champions (USARA National Champions from 2009), just to put in perspective how strong a field this was.

GUATS Adventure from Ontario, Canada make their way to the Untamed New England finish line as the race winners

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.

After a pre-race meeting in the town of Plain (the location of the finish) at 9pm where we received out maps and checkpoints, teams were bused (yes, in an old schoo bus!) 90 minutes to Chelan where the race began with a surprise midnight Prolog: an urban orienteering course in downtown Chelan. The local police gave us some funny looks as we bolted down the street hooting and hollering. Checkpoints could be hit in any order, so teams crisscrossed each other as they scrambled to complete the Prolog and begin the actual race in the mountains. Instead of punching our passports at each CP, we were given a list of questions and CP locations where we could find the answers. Names and dates on statues, address of the post office, etc. It was actually a fun way to start the race, and the only time we would be running on a flat surface!

Our team finished the prolog and began the first leg of the race, a 20+ mile mountain trek, about a minute behind Team Verve of Seattle, led by Latvian ace-navigator Peteris Ledins. The trek began with a substantial 3,000 foot, very steep climb straight up to a mountaintop before settling into more of a rolling (ok, steep and endless) rhythm between checkpoints. Peteris out-smarted us to one CP in the first couple hours of the trek, earning an instant 25 minute lead. We finished the 7 hour trek, which had 7,000′ of mostly off-trail elevation gain, in 2nd place. Team Verve is known for their exceptional navigation and fast travel on foot through gnarly terrain, so we were not surprised that they were able to maintain a lead heading into the first transition.

After the trek came a 20 mile paddle down the SLACK Columbia River. The river was moving at less than 1 knot, if at all. Because we were racing with guest-teammate Jeremy Rodgers, of the USA Wildwater Kayak Team, we knew we had an advantage over everyone in ‘horsepower” but also reading the river. After a bit over 3 hours, we exited the paddle less than 10 minutes behind Verve and made a quick transition to the following mountain bike leg with the intent of a quick pass for the lead.

The mountain bike section allowed our team to exploit our strength on two wheels and to build a large lead on Verve. We managed to pass Verve in the first few miles and built on our lead throughout the 3.5 hour, 4,000′ elevation gain ride. Along the way, we stuck to our team’s proven formula for success by assisting our lead navigator, Matt Hayes by thinking aloud and collectively searching for key elevation markers, trails and features to eliminate any costly mistakes. Matt navigated one of the most flawless performances I have ever witnessed, with virtually zero mistakes throughout the race. In such a difficult race, this is exceptional and Matt’s navigation is now at a world-class level in my opinion.

We exited the mountain bike section with a commanding lead on Verve, with Team MERGEO further back in 3rd than expected. The race was ours to lose. We were faced with an “optional” two-Checkpoint mountain trek that only teams who had cleared the entire course so far would be allowed to begin. The trek began with a SKETCHY steep and loose rocky climb out of the TA that involved hands as much as feet! The arduous and risky climb led us up a ridgeline to the first of the two CPs, which Matt nailed with surgical precision. Along the way we saw countless bear tracks and scat, as well as what looked like mountain lion tracks which added to the excitement. During the long downhill run and bushwack back to the TA, we encountered a recently-eaten deer carcass and other fun reminders of the carnivorous inhabitants of the wilderness. We chugged water and nuun out of our Hydrapaks as we headed back to the river-side transition.

Our guest-teammate Jeremy Rodgers had some extreme chafing issues during throughout the race, which came to a head in this section. Even turning his tri-shorts inside-out did not offer enough relief, so with no sign of civilization for miles in any direction, he opted to go au-natural for a bit as we bushwacked across the mountains in first place. At this point in the race, temperatures were in the 80s and the sun was beating down on our SportMulti hats and visors. I do not want to imagine the tanlines and sunburn that resulted. Jeremy visited the PAIN CAVE in a big way and never complained. We finished the 3.5 hour, 2150′ elevation gain “optional” trek in first place with a large lead heading into the penultimate massively masochistic mountain bike ride to the finish

We began the mountain bike, the final leg of the race, at just after 6pm, having raced hard for 18 hours nonstop. Of course we were awake for an additional 18 hours before that as the race started at midnight, since Glenn masochistically started the race at midnight. Sleepmonsters started to kick in as dark fell, but we fought them with Red Bull, FEIN, Vivarin, and caffeinated gels. I had two large flasks pre-filled withVitargo and FEIN before the race, which I somehow managed to not pack in our team transition bin. DOH!

The final bike was navigationally quite challenging, with or without sleep deprivation. After the race we would learn that many teams were either lost during this section or opted to stop and briefly sleep before continuing. From the Trek-Bike Transition, we climbed nearly nonstop, save for some bike-wacking from the trek-bike TA at 1450′ to a fire lookout at 5800′. Although we started the bike in warmer temperatures, wearing tri shorts and unzipped jerseys, by the time we reached the 5800′ checkpoint 4.5 hours later in the darkness we were all donning knee warmers, BUFFs, gloves, and jackets. The temperature had dropped precipitously and light rain and stong wind greeted us above 5,000′. Thunderstorms in the distance provided some help with our navigation, as the lightning strikes illuminated the fire tower structure above us. GOOD TIMES.

After the fire lookout TA we had a mostly downhill ride to the finish, albeit a 3 hour long one, with a nice 1400′ steep grinding climb to break up the fun. We continued to work as a team to navigate flawlessly, and crossed the finish line after 7.5 hrs and 7200′ of elevation gain according to my Suunto T6 watch. Remarkably, nobody on our team had a flat or mechanical throughout the race, except for some chain skipping here and there. (TURNER FLUX + SCHWALBE NOBBY NIC TIRES, FOLKS!). For me personally, this is even more impressive since this no-flat streak on the same tires/tubes includes a 24 hour adventure race two weeks ago and the 100 mile Breckenridge 100 4 weeks ago, as well as training in-between. This is unheard of.

Our rag-tag motley troupe crossed the finish line in FIRST PLACE at 1:49am, after 25 hours and 50 minutes of nonstop racing.

Before we could say thank you to the TRIOBA organization, they were handing us hot chocolate, lasagna, sodas, and whatever else we needed. First class all the way! We managed to sleep/shiver a few hours camped out near the finish line before waking up with the sunrise and greeting the other teams as they finished before the 9am cutoff. The adventure racing community vibe was strong, with teams lined up at the finish cheering until the last team finished after over 30 hours of racing.

If you live near Seattle, or anywhere in the Northwest, or if you are interested in visiting the adventure racer’s paradise of Washington, you should check out what TRIOBA is doing. This fall and winter they will be offering talks and slideshows at REI and other locations for new as well as seasoned adventure racers. If you are just getting into the sport, Team nuun-SportMulti and other Seattle teams are offering a series of beginner races and clinics for athletes of all backgrounds and abilities.

Contact Team nuun-SportMulti via www.trioba.com or www.dartadventure.com. Sean is putting together similar programs in Boulder, Colorado as well and can be contacted at his Blog: www.clancymultisport.blogspot.com or email: sjclancy AT yahoo DOT com

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.

Ecuador's "Proyecto Aventura" team enjoy the Hospitality at the Primus Camping TA

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.

Teams Complete the Swim/Trek

So, we had to rework the swim/trek to be a bit more conservative since there was a reasonable chance that fast teams might be swimming in very cold conditions.  This meant creating a “visit 3 of the following 4 checkpoints” situation for the Leg 4 swim/trek, and adding a trek-only point in that mix that would provide teams a way to progress in this area of the race without having to swim in case it was wicked cold that morning.  New England weather can be very unpredictable, and the odds of “wicked cold” setting in were probably about 1 in 4.  The other checkpoints on this loop were also shifted so that they could be visited without having to swim (or only having a very short swim).  All of this happened in the final week prior to the race, so it was a bit of a panic to fit all these pieces together.  It actually also shifted some of the other Legs downstream in the race, but I won’t explore that topic here…

Team Skandia Key Experience on the Swim/Trek, with the Early Morning Fog for Company

The end result was a watered down Leg 4 bike leg that could be finished way too quickly to use our original Leg 4 swim/trek, so also a watered down Leg 4 swim/trek.  Ultimately, everything worked out fine and the leaders did choose to sleep once they arrived to the Primus TA.  The lead teams went out on the swim/trek around 6 AM, with a definite chill in the air but because of the precautions we took with the checkpoint placements nobody had to actually be swimming until 7 AM or even later if they chose to walk the long way around the shore of the lake.

Team Granite, from New Hampshire, Prepare for an Early Morning Swim

The weather cooperated that day (now, day 3 of racing) with warm temperatures and clear skies for good photos, so there’s some great pics from this section of the race.  Hopefully teams enjoyed the variety from the Primus Camping TA, and the adventure racing “hospitality” of the Primus tents and camp stoves.  The next stage of the race, Leg 5, would be really the homestretch.

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.

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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.

Along with team 16, the other Costarrican team Real Costa Rica Coastal Challenge, team 5, have stood up for Costa Rica. They have done a great job during the 8 stages of the race so far.

Antonio de la Rosa has stated that although Safety Smart Wear are very powerful, the Coastal Challenge team are very careful and faultless.

Night spread over bringing a much awaited fresh breeze. On arrival at control point 16 in Cocobolo, the Swedish Explore took the strategic decision to rest and sleep for an hour. But their 3 hour advantage was shortened to barely 3 minutes as the Safety Smart Wear team were treading at their heels. Knowing that they were close to the Swedish team, the Finnish Multisport.fi (team 2) and the French Quechua ( team 12), speeded up and they managed to set a 30 minutes distance between them.

The race continues. La Fortuna is next. All teams will have to rest for 2 hours, take a bath, be interviewed, or just, sleep. Tonight everything can happen.

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.

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.

It has been a very rainy, very humid and sometimes very hot race for day 1, just as we had foreseen. And tonight the 17 team that are still in the competition will ride through 57km of very muddy roads to arrive early tomorrow at Pedacito de Cielo or “Little Piece of Heaven”. Which might feel like heaven for a bit, as they start their longest hike of the challenge, a 42km stretch through mountains and rivers where the press won’t even be able to stay close for several hours.

We’ll continue to keep you posted. Follow your teams online as you track them at: www.ARCostaRica.com