Nike on the ropes course (Photo Courtesy Will Ramos)

Lunch Time! (Photo by Frances Fisher)

Big Sky Country! (Photo by Frances Fisher)

Nike on Saddle Peak in the Bridger Range (Photo by Josh Gage)

Merrell/Zanfel Adventure’s Robyn Benincasa gets in a cat nap at Checkpoint 23. At this point of the race, she’s probably not the only one who could use a nap. 

Photos from the course on Day 4…

All photos by Andres Vargas

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

Wondering what Nike and Merrell are facing right now, as the battle for first and second place in the Bridger Mountains? Then check out this photo sent from Will Ramos from the field. 

Off their feet and on their bikes (Photo by Will Ramos)

Pizza! Breakfast of champions! (Photo by Wouter Kingma)

Fueling Up! (Photo by Wouter Kingma)

More great photos from the crack team of adventure photographers covering Primal Quest. 

Soup is good food! Especially after a dip in the Gallatin! (Photo by Andres Vargas)

Team Merrell Halti Multimania on the move (Photo by Mike Hedge)

It wasn’t all bad on the water! (Photo by Jason Perreira)

Checkout these photos shot by 15 year old Jessica Hill, the daughter of volunteer Sean Hill, working on the water team. I think Jessica has a future in adventure photography.