Notes From The Field – Day 2
Posted on 06/24/08 4:33 PM| by Kraig
It’s been another exciting day in Primal Quest Montana presented by SPOT, with the action continuing to be fast and furious. Here are a few notes from the field today:
- The big news of the day has been the Gallatin River, which continues to run very fast following the recent snow melt. In fact, the river continued to rise this afternoon, and has forced race management to pull teams off the river for their own safety. Teams that raced down the river earlier in the day were challenged, but were able to make the run successfully, but current teams are facing different conditions, and have now been pulled off the water completely. Those teams will next be shuttled to TA4 where they will resume the race on the trekking stage.
- Speaking of the river, a number of teams that managed to run the riverboarding section before the closure of the river emerged from the water with the early signs of hypothermia. Fortunately, TA4 was also a medical check station, and the crack PQ medical staff checked each competitor as they checked in, and no one was allowed to proceed until they had properly warmed up. None of the teams suffered any serious issues, and all were back on the trail in short order.
Continue reading ‘Notes From The Field – Day 2′
Another good recap from yesterdays events…
June 23, 2008 – Big Sky Montana
By Craig Stein
As racers assembled at the start line this morning, for the 10 AM launch of Primal Quest Montana, the base of Lone Mountain at Big Sky resort was wrapped in a thick blanket of fog. The TV crew chopper could be heard circling above and nervous energy began to build. As if part of the script, mother nature assisted race producer Don Mann as he counted down to the start by suddenly clearing away the fog revealing the mountain above. Nearly sixty teams of four flew out of the gate as a huge avalanche control charge detonated atop the 11,166 ft. summit signaling the beginning of a long day of trekking through the
Montana back country.
A snaking line of racers pushed their way up the mountain where they were met with a heavy snow
pack above tree line. Along a narrow ridge ropes crews had safety lines preset for teams to hook into for the final steep ascent.
GPS tracking, by SPOT, was available for spectators at the base to watch the progress of the entire field moving through this first mountaineering section. Watching the progress on a big screen, the close proximity of the teams made a clear leader hard to pick out so early in the race.
Continue reading ’3 … 2 … 1 … GO!’
Not only is Primal Quest the “World’s most challenging human endurance competition”, it may just be the most compelling as well. Yesterday, as the race got underway, the website was hit with more than 2.2 million page views, as eager adventure racing fans clamored for news on the event.
We would like to thank everyone who is following the event online and have made Primal Quest 2008 a big success. Stay tuned, we have a lot more racing to come.
Photo by Wouter Kingma
Primal Quest, the “World’s Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition” is seeking volunteers to join the Quest. While we already have an amazing team on hand in Montana, this year’s course is both long and challenging, requiring more resources than expected.
If you would like to witness the “Superbowl of Adventure Racing” up close and personal, and would like to volunteer your time, contact Susanna Greever at susanna.greever@ecoprimalquest.com or go to this page and fill out the volunteer form.
Team CWC Stadium Dogs continues PQ 08 as an unranked team after one of the team members was forced to withdraw following a minor, non-life threatening injury. The team has elected to skip both the Travel Montana Inflatable Kayak section as well as the TATE Riverboarding section, and are en route to TA4 to continue the race.
For the teams at the top of the leaderboard, Day 2 of Primal Quest 2008 started with the lifting of a dark zone at Transition Area 2, and the beginning of the Travel Montana Inflatable Kayak paddle section, the first in this year’s race. Teams Nike, Merrell, and PeakAdventure.com hit the water at sunrise, and began a fast and furious paddle to TA3, where all three teams transitioned to the TATE riverboarding section, and took an icy plunge into the Gallatin River, which was flowing as fast as 14 MPH at times, making for a wild ride. Wild enough for the PQ Management Team to institute a mandatory portage around the infamous House Rock.
Following the river boarding section, all three teams were passed through medical check before heading out onto the trail once more. The three teams who vied for the win in the 2006 Primal Quest, seem poised to push each other to the limit once again.
As the morning progressed more and more teams completed the initial trek and arrived in TA2 and have begun to make their way out onto the water. As of this writing, Team Bones is holding down the 4th spot on the leaderboard, and Team MOAT is running in fifth. Local favorite Team Big Sky is in 12th.
After the riverboarding section, teams will face another 48 miles of trekking before reaching their mountain bikes for the first time. The warm Montana sun will take the chill off after spending hours on, and in, the river.
More updates as they become available.
Photo by Mike Hedge
