Extreme Whitewater: Day 2, Part 2
Posted on 06/24/08 6:54 PM| by Frances
Extreme Whitewater: Day 2, Part 2
Posted by Frances Fisher, Asst Media Director
Wow! What a day at Primal Quest 2008: Montana!!! Competitor Blaine Reeves of team TravelCountry.com summed up today’s events with one word: EXTREME. Extreme cold, extreme speed, extreme whitewater, extreme danger, and extreme adventure. So extreme, in fact, that the Gallatin River has been closed and all competitors pulled off the water as of 2:50 pm. At that time, approximately 14 teams had completed the TATE riverboarding section and were already headed out on the MYTOPO.com trekking segment. The rest of the 58 teams were spread out from Transition Area 2 (TA2) to TA4, a range of about 35 miles. Today, Montana’s unpredictable conditions brought racers to the edge, kayaking and riverboarding the flood-level Gallatin. But as the water got even bigger over the course of the day, HQ made the call to remove competitors as the extreme conditions posed a severe safety hazard. All teams have been accounted for and will be staged at Transition Area 4 over the next few hours.
Many PQ Staff, Volunteers, and racers worked for hours to rescue team after team from the raging river. At one point, PQ directors were tracking four rescues at one time. One team was stuck on an island in the middle of the river and HQ has been buzzing with their heroic rescue by water course designer Josh Galt of Face Level Sports.
Lead teams (Nike, PeakAdventure.com, and Merrell) had taken off on the first whitewater leg at daybreak, and were off the river by 9:50. Team Bones came off at 10:45, while four teams (MOAT/Peak.com, NikeACG/Gore-tex, BaseCamp, and DART-nuun) were neck and neck, entering the MYTOPO.com trekking segment around noon. The Hunky Dorys rolled in shortly thereafter, but then the flow slowed to a trickle as the river grew ever bigger.
Kayakers had difficulty staying in their boats during many of the rapids, especially going through gnarly waves at the intersection of the Gallatin River with Portal Creek. Once out, boats, swimmers, and paddles quickly separated, making it very difficult for teams to recover and get back in the boat. The relentless Gallatin offered very few eddies or slow sections to take refuge and regroup. The more time racers spent in the water during the kayak, the worse off they were for the start of the riverboard section, since their core body temperatures had already begun to drop. Once on the riverboards, racers contended with waves three feet over their heads as they clung to their riverboards. Team TravelCountry.com claimed the waves were nothing compared to surfing in 10-footers, but they admitted that the water was a bit chilly for their Florida-based bodies.
Teams equipped with Dry Suits (as opposed to Wetsuits) tended to fare better against the frigid water temperatures. Several competitors were pulled out of the TATE Riverboarding segment at the medical checkpoint due to hypothermic conditions. One racer had a temperature around 90 degrees! Thanks to the efforts of the medical and safety teams as well as the conditioning and skill of the athletes, no injuries were reported despite the dangerous conditions. Many teams did elect to walk sections of the river rather than re-enter the water at certain points.
Meanwhile, the front-runners are well underway on the MYTOPO.com trekking segment and should be onto the Sportraxx by Simpson MTB section by early morning. Teams pulled from the river will be relocated to the start of the 37-mile trekking segment and will be underway later tonight. Two teams have dropped out as of this posting due to minor medical issues.
Tomorrow brings even more extreme adventure as the racers reach the Yellowstone River, which is historically bigger and badder than the Gallatin that has given racers so much trouble today. Course designers are working overtime to make tomorrow’s Travel Montana Kayak segment safe, even as the river takes racers over 40 miles down pumping whitewater.
Stay tuned for continued EXTREME adventure…
