Endorphinmag News
Storm in the High Sierra
Gold Rush Mother Lode, round 8 of the 2013 Adventure Racing World Series began with concerns about a wild fire affecting the course and finished with teams exhausted from battling through a storm that brought cold conditions, hail and snowfall to the High Sierra mountains in California.
The race attracted teams and athletes from Paraguay, Denmark, Sweden and the U.S.A. These included SWECO of Sweden (ranked 17th in the world), Outnorth Adventure (Sweden) and adventureteam.dk (Denmark), as well as two very experienced US teams in 'Bones' and Yogaslackers/Gearjunkie.
All of these teams had completed expedition adventure races all over the world and in what became a western shoot out between Scandinavia and the United States it was the home teams who came out ahead, with Team Bones the winners.
The unsupported 4 day race, which began and finished at Long Barn Lodge, saw 15 teams of 4 on the start line, and the favourites quickly established a lead as they kayaked on New Melones Lake, trekked to two checkpoints and then kayaked again on the first day. The kayak ended at a tie off at the end of an arm of the lake and teams then trekked two miles up the river canyon to the TA.
The course was fortunately unaffected by the huge rim fire which has been raging in California but after last year's race was run in a severe heat wave teams were still concerned about the heat, and the dehydration and blisters it could bring with it. At the beginning it was hot and in the early stages a couple of the Scandinavian racers were ill, but they kept going and towards the end of the race they faced conditions more typical of a winter at home.
As the leaders rode through the night for 60 miles on rocky trails on stage two of the race, Team Bones moved into the lead, but it was on the huge 140km trek on stage 3 of the race that everyone knew the result would be decided.
Endurance, navigation and sleep strategy would all come into play over days 2 and 3, and the teams also faced a huge ropes stage. This included 300 foot of climbing, two huge rappels, and a 650 foot Tyrolean crossing above an immense drop. Bad weather arrived just as teams began the ropes course. It was a real test of nerve and strength which took the leaders over 3 hours to complete.
Coming off the ropes course Bones had a 1:47 lead on SWECO, but the remaining trekking offered many navigational and tactical options, and this was when the full force of the storm hit with rain, wind, hail and snow. Teams could choose which of the final trek checkpoints to visit, but if they missed one, then anyone getting more checkpoints would finish above them.
It would have been hard enough for the leaders to make the best choices in good weather, but in the atrocious conditions it took huge resolve to keep going for the optional checkpoints and great outdoor skill and team work to keep the team together, safe and moving forward.
By this stage Outnorth Adventure had a time penalty after failing to complete the ropes challenge, which had been shut down for the very last teams with 4 inches of snow on the ground. Team SWECO did not find CP 18. Arriving at TA 3, only 3 teams now had all checkpoints; Bones, Yogaslackers/GearJunkie and adventureteam.dk.
For the final cycling leg, the weather returned to California mildness. Teams were given the final maps at the start of the last mountain biking stage, and could visit these checkpoints in any order.
Team Bones, comprising Roy Malone, Jason Quinn, Mari Chandler and Andy Tubbs, were the first across the line ahead of Yogaslackers/Gearjunkie and the Danish champions, Adventureteam.dk, who finished the race strongly.
The race was final qualifier before December's World final in Costa Rica, where Team Bones will represent the USA.
To find out more about Gold Rush Mother Lode see; http://www.goldrushar.com
For more on the AR World Series see www.arworldseries.com
Endorphinmag
September 2013.
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