Throughout the race we want to take an opportunity to thank our partners, without whom there wouldn’t be a Primal Quest. Each of them plays a vital role in the success of the race and deserve credit for allowing us the opportunity to have this great adventure.

Today the spotlight falls on Tate Incorporated, a company that specializes in training and education for high risk personnel in both the public and private sector, as well as research and development, testing, and implementation of new technologies. 

Tate’s training procedures focus on employees, both for the government and private industry, who are working in hostile or high threat urban and rural environments. Their background in special operations and SERE training make them an excellent choice when for offering a wide array of services, including threat assessment, survival training, and high risk operational education. 

Amongst Tate’s list of illustrious clientele include the U.S. Air Force and Army, the Center for Navel Analysis, 720th Special Tactics Group, Joint Military Attaché School. In addition to these, dozens of civilian corporations contract with Tate to handle their high risk training operations for their over seas personnel working in hostile environments. 

Primal Quest is proud to call Tate Incorporated one of our segment sponsors. Thank you Tate for all of your support!

Throughout the race we want to take an opportunity to thank our partners, without whom there wouldn’t be a Primal Quest. Each of them plays a vital role in the success of the race and deserve credit for allowing us the opportunity to have this great adventure.

One such partner is Mindquest, a company that specializes in improving performance under extreme and high risk conditions. The Mindquest programs are specifically designed to enhance human performance, whether it’s in the boardroom or out on the adventure racing course through carefully assessed, and scientifically backed, solutions.

Mindquest offers a variety of solutions for teams of all types and sizes, including leadership and team training, seminars aimed at quickly enhancing performance, and assistance in creating your own instructional programs. 

The staff at Mindquest consists of operational psychologists, intelligence, security and crisis management specialists, cultural experts, and much more. The highly educated and talented Mindquest team has the experience and knowledge to help everyone from CEO’s to professional adventurers alike. 

Primal Quest is proud to have Mindquest as one of it’s segment partners. 

One of the most demanding and challenging mountain bike races in the entire world has gotten under way in Banff, Alberta, Canada, where 17 riders have set out to ride the Continental Divide Trail from Canada to Mexico. 

The event is known as the Tour Divide , a 2711 mile long, self supported mountain bike race, which is celebrating it’s 10th year of competition. Riders set out from Banff yesterday and will continue until they reach the U.S.-Mexican border in Antelope Wells, New Mexico. The tops racers are expected to arrive in roughly 20 days, after facing challenging climbs, crazy drops, and miles of single track. 

The Tour Divide Leaderboard provides tracking from SPOT, the same team that will bring their sophisticated tracking to Primal Quest and is the race’s presenting sponsor. Expect a more advanced version of this leardboard when PQ gets underway in a little over a week. And to follow the Tour Divide, watch for updates to the Race’s Official Blog. 

Photo by Will Ramos

The GoFar Podcast has released another very interesting episode this week that continues a string of shows with a focus on Primal Quest. This time, show host Fred Abaroa interviews Lara Usinowicz from Restop and John Dark of SPOT, two of the sponsors for this year’s race. 

The first half of the episode is focused on Restop and their personal portable sanitation systems that allow hikers, campers, boaters, or anyone else in the backcountry to safely and cleanly dispose of human waste, protecting themselves and the environment in the process. This approach to keeping the environment clean is shared by Primal Quest, which makes us proud to have Restop on board as one of our partners for the 2008 race.

In the second half of this episode, we learn a lot more about the SPOT Messenger, which has quickly become the must have new gadget for outdoor enthusiasts. John talks about how the Messenger can be used by friends and family to track someone nearly anywhere on the planet, and doubles as a personal locator beacon allowing someone to call for help, even in remote locations. Each Primal Quest team will be carrying a SPOT Messenger, which will link directly into our online tracking system which will give fans of the race nearly real-time updates of where teams are at on the course, while also updating the leaderboard as well.  SPOT is the presenting sponsor for Primal Quest Montana and we couldn’t be happier to have such a great partner assisting us in bringing race coverage to an entirely new level. 

You can listen to the entire episode by clicking here, or as always, subscribe directly to the show through iTunes. 

Primal Quest presenting sponsor SPOT is offering up a very cool prize in the form of their award winning Satellite Messenger device signed by the winning PQ team. Simply go to this page, and fill out the form to sign up for the contest.

But that’s not all. SPOT also has a special offer for Primal Quest fans. If you purchase and activate a SPOT Messenger before July 15th, you can get 6 months of tracking service for free. You can purchase online from the SPOT Store and when you activate the device, use the promo code “PRIMAL8″ to receive your six months free tracking service.

The National Geographic Adventure Blog has posted an excellent review of the Satellite Messenger device from our friends at SPOT. Adventure West Coast Editor Steve Casimiro calls the Satellite Messenger “the most important outdoor product of the last couple years” and compares it favorably to other devices such as Personal Locator Beacons and even satellite phones. In fact, he thinks that SPOT’s little device trumps both of those products in terms of reliability, affordability, and versatility. 

Steve goes on to discuss how the SPOT Messenger works, who the product is for, and how it can save lives and do so much more. He concludes his review with the following statement:

SPOT changes the game. For the first time, affordable, reliable emergency communication is available to all of us. Even if you use it for nothing more than reassuring your family when you’re a few hours late from your ride or your paddle or your climb, it’s just plain smart.

You can read the entire review by clicking here, and be sure to checkout Adventure‘s newly re-launched webpage with a cleaner, easier to navigate interface while you’re at it too. 

Primal Quest is proud to have SPOT as our presenting sponsor for the 2008 race in Montana.