]]> http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/2009/06/09/photos-hint-at-badlands-bike-challenges/feed/ 0 http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/2008/06/26/video-of-day-2-river-rescue/ http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/2008/06/26/video-of-day-2-river-rescue/#comments Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:49:49 +0000 Kraig http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/?p=388  Team 54, Werewolves/MPGear.com continue to post in their excellent blog of the race, with good updates on the progress of their team and general information on the course. Yesterday they posted this video of two team members, Tom and Paul, getting rescued from an island on the Gallatin River when whitewater became a little too wild. The footage was shot with the Werewolves’ GoPro Hero 3 Camera.

Major props to PQ River Director Josh Galt for getting the Werewolves, and others, back to shore safe and sound. 

Fred Abaroa, host of the GoFar Podcast, interviews Team Tecnu Extreme/Esprit de Corp co-captains “Earring” Doug Judson and Charlie “Sherpa” Kharsa as the team prepares for Primal Quest in just a few weeks.

Both men talk about how they got started in the sport, the races they’ve competed in, and the team’s background in other sports. They talk about the team they’ve assembled that has vast amounts of experience, but have been racing together for less than a year. 

At the time of the taping of the podcast, there was just three weeks to go until PQ. The team is training well, and is focused on Montana, where they hope to make their mark and serve notice to the adventure racing community that they are team to watch.

To listen to the entire podcast click here or subscribe directly in iTunes. 

You can listen to the interview by clicking here or subscribe directly to the GoFar Podcast directly in iTunes.

First, we have an interview with Justin Wakefield of GoPro, a new partner for Primal Quest, who will be outfitting racers with their Hero Cameras for the 2008 race to capture an unprecedented amount of video and still images from the field. 

Teams interested in getting a sneak peek at Primal Quest Montana will want to check out this interview with Chris Caul, the 2008 PQ Course Designer. Chris discusses getting started in adventure racing, moving on to course design, and much more.

Next up is an interview with Vernon Winter, a veteran adventure racer and endurance athlete, who also happens to be hand crafting custom made ceramic vessels for every 2008 PQ competitor. Vernon talks at length about his experiences in the sport, the adventure racing community as a whole, and what it’s like to race in a kilt!

Finally, GoFAR has interviewed the Dancing Pandas, one of the teams competing in Primal Quest Montana. Each of the team members chime in with how they got started in adventure racing, how they came together as a team, and some of their most memorable moments while racing. 

Can you name these two World-Class Climbers?

Clue: They are the leaders of the Primal Quest – Montana Climbing Team

Leave your guesses in the comments!

While many of us were fast asleep Friday morning, the Director of Primal Quest, Don Mann, and Chief Operations Officer, Dawn Taylor Mann were busy climbing to the top of one of the Seven Summits.

We received this quick note from Dawn yesterday:

We’re back after a successful summit of Kilimanjaro at 6:45 am Jan, 11. All six people in our party made the summit despite the -5 degree wind chill on the top (after the sun came up). The entire 7-day trek was more wonderful than any of us ever dreamed of… although the 6+ hour steep summit push in the dark, windy night was a real soul searching experience… very difficult! The views, the people (guides & porters) and every aspect of the trip so far have made this an experience of a lifetime. We had sunny skies the entire trip. A rare commodity, as we understand.

Don and Dawn are following up their climb of the 5,895 metres (19,341 ft) tall mountain with a four day safari. We can’t wait to hear their stories and see their photos in person!

Photo: Flickr/pintaa Some rights reserved.

In November, Denise and her Team Beyond Sisters will participate in the Breast Cancer 3 Day, a 60-mile walk over the course of three days. Net proceeds benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust, funding important breast cancer research, education, screening, and treatment. We all know people who have suffered from Breast Cancer won’t you consider supporting this worthy cause?

Visit Denise’s page to donate today!

In December of 2006, 35-year-old Danelle Ballengee lay helpless in a gulley in Moab after slipping on ice during what she thought would be a routine two-hour trail run with her dog, Taz.

The adventure racing champion and one of the best multisport women athletes of all time spent the next 52 painful hours wondering if she’d live or die, unable to move more than a quarter mile (to a puddle she’d drink from) by dragging herself across the canyon floor. She had broken her pelvis.

Temperatures dropped into the 20s during the two full nights she lay there, and Danelle, wearing only thin, long pants and a short sleeve shirt, did sit-ups to try to stay warm. Her dog Taz, a three-year-old German Shephard, Golden Retriever mix, lay his head on her stomach the first night, but the second night, Taz paced back and forth and wouldn’t come near his wounded owner. On the third day, Taz took off running, but returned with help.

In the meantime, a neighbor had noticed that Danelle hadn’t been back to her house in over 24 hours called Danelle’s parents, and soon the Moab police were notified.

On the third day of her disappearance, Moab authorities found Taz running along the side of the road. When they called the plucky dog, he turned around and headed back up the trail. The authorities followed, and after five miles of following Taz, they found Danelle. She was immediately airlifted to a hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado, then flown to Denver Health Hospital, where she had a surgery that put a metal plate and numerous screws in her pelvis.

Danelle’s physical and mental toughness—and her wonder dog Taz—surely saved her life from ending on the desert floor. And it’s that same strength that has gotten her back to the sports she loves within months following the accident.

Rehabilitation hasn’t been easy for Danelle, who also suffered severe frost bite in her feet and toes, but laying on the couch grew tiresome, ironically. Confined to a wheelchair earlier this year, she had her mom take her to an outdoor mall so she could wheel around doing laps as fast as she could, just to get the blood flowing. By spring, Danelle was hiking—albeit painfully—on the trails near her Dillon, Colorado condominium. And in May, she stunned all by competing in the Adventure Xstream 12-hour adventure race in Buena Vista by herself, completing the day in just under 12 hours. A month later at the Teva Mountain Games’ four-sport Ultimate Mountain Challenge she competed in downriver kayaking, mountain biking, trail running, and a hill climb time trial on a road bike. She placed fifth.

Today, Danelle says she might hold off on signing up for races until she feels she can compete at a higher level. “It just takes so long for me to recover these days,” she said via cell phone while hiking one of Summit County’s peaks with her dog, Taz, and her boyfriend’s dog, Caribou. “My pelvis is pretty secure with the screws and everything, but my muscles and everything just hurt so much after doing something like that.”

Danelle spends most of her time mastering a new adventure; she and her boyfriend recently bought Milt’s Diner in Moab. “I make milkshakes all day,” she laughs. “It’s a lot easier than adventure racing.”

Besides running the blender and flipping burgers, Danelle has joined Primal Quest as part of its management team, and is enjoying working on staff for the 2008 race. “It’s been real fun so far,” she says, “I’m excited to still be a part of the sport, hang out with the people and still be active, even if I can’t race at that level.”

Those who know of Danelle’s long resume—three-time Primal Quest champion, two-time adventure racing world champion, four-time Pikes Peak Marathon winner, the women’s record holder of hiking all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks (which she completed in 14 days, 14 hours and 49 minutes), and six U.S. athlete of the year awards to name a few—know that if she chooses, Danelle will be back at whatever level she wants.

For now, she’s happy serving up dinners at the diner and working with Primal Quest, and we feel extremely lucky to have her racing expertise and strength of spirit on our management staff.

Primal Quest CEO Don Mann on Danelle Ballengee:

After Dawn and I heard of Danelle’s accident, I decided to call her and ask her if she would like to work with us on the Primal Quest team. I was not sure what she would be able to do, but thought she would like to stay involved in the sport during her recovery.

I was and always will be so impressed by Danelle’s response and her amazing attitude. She told me she would be very excited to contribute to the sport that she loved and that she couldn’t wait to break out her maps and begin work. Danelle designed a beautiful and challenging preliminary course in just a few short weeks.

Her very humble attitude matched with her unbelievable strength in body and character has inspired me a great deal as well as everyone else who knows her. Danelle is not only one of the most accomplished multi-sport athletes in the world, but a world-class human being. We are all very fortunate and grateful that she has joined our team.

—–

To aid in Danelle Ballengee’s recovery, you can mail checks to a fund in her name at FirstBank, P.O. Box 347, Silverthorne, CO, 80498, or you can drop them off at any FirstBank branch.

Tell us about your racing, training, and/or team support adventures. Simply fill out this form and your stories may be featured on the Primal Quest website – a great way to get your team out there for your sponsors-and potential sponsors!

Please forward this opportunity to everyone you know who is involved with adventure racing. Submit soon and submit often, the more stories we get by THIS FRIDAY, August 10, the better!

Jamie & Chris Webster (f/k/a Chris Rumohr)
Directors of Competitor Relations

Jamie.Webster@ecoprimalquest.com
Chris.Rumohr@ecoprimalquest.com