Lead teams made it through the Crazy Mountains yesterday during the TATE trekking segment and couldn’t have been happier.  Team DART-nuun literally bounced into camp after what they called a looooooooong but truly amazing trek.  They reported that when they started the trek at 3:00am, parts of the trail were pure ice.  One they were up and over the initial ridge the conditions became more forgiving as the ice softened to slush and got downright sloppy.  

Team Bones’ colorful teammate Walter said the land was “Absolutely Delicious… like Ice Cream!”  Wonder if they’ve been running out of food and confusing snow capped mountains with Sno-Caps candy!  He went on to say that the whole race has been spectacular — “We’ve seen parts of Montana the locals don’t even know exist.” They commented that now that they’ve accomplished 3 out of 5 grueling but scenic treks, they feel that they will be cruising home from here on out.

Team TravelCountry.com was trucking along on the trail, feeling good after “smoking” the trek.  Their spirits were high even though these native Floridians haven’t been able to train on anything like what they’re seeing now.  They felt their collective experience with road biking really helped them make it through the 107-mile monster bike ride (aka “Death March” according to team member Blaine Reeves).  Blaine also said that though he’s been Adventure Racing since 1995, the most beautiful view he’s ever seen was during this TATE Trekking segment.

Team BaseCamp was nearly to TA9 when we caught up with them.  They caught views of a beautiful sunset over the flat valley constituting the only barrier between them and TA9 and some much deserved rest.

Today, the vast majority of teams are entering these beautiful Crazy Mountains and will experience the ups and downs (literally) that these forerunners experienced yesterday, before moving on to the Sportraxx MTB segment that will get them to the next epic TATE Trek through the Bridger Mountains. Soon they will face a rarity for Adventure Racing — a true free-climbing section during the MindQuest Climb & Rappel segments.

Stay tuned for continued adventure….

Photos by Gulnur Tumbat, trusty sidekick to intrepid girl reporter Frances Fisher

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Photos, Primal Quest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.