We picked this race out
over seven months ago. We have been training,
saving money, and focusing mental and emotional
energy into this race since the beginning of the
year. This race would represent the longest,
hardest race any of us had ever done.
Pam, Mike, and Grant got to Denver several days
before I flew into Salt Lake. A fluke of
scheduling put a meeting immediately before the
race. I had to leave immediately from my
managers meeting at the Outer Banks and fly to
Salt Lake, rent a car, and drive 4 hours to Moab
to rendezvous with the rest of my teammates.
This worried me a bit because I'd be going
straight from sea level to several thousand
feet, while the rest of my team had several days
to acclimate to Denver's 6,000 feet of
elevation. It had become a race just to get to
the course!
Fortunately all of the flights got there on
time, and I arrived in Moab in a shiny, clean
rental car at about 11AM the morning of the
race. Quick hugs and greetings were exchanged
with the team and our fantastic support crew
(Wendy and Eric who had scheduled their vacation
around supporting our race - and rented an RV to
boot!) and Grant's parents (Pat and Rod - the
Hosers). Immediately I checked all of the gear I
had shipped out a week prior to make sure I had
what I needed, and knew where it was. Then we
boogied down to the Red Cliffs Lodge for the
gear check in.
We got to the lodge and started looking for our
bikes (also shipped to the lodge) and gave them
a quick tune up. The next step was looking for
the race organization. We spent a couple of
minutes running around the lodge, looking for
the staff (the gear check was supposed to start
at 10AM and it was now closer to 1PM) and
finally located some staff down at the pavilion
by the Colorado River. There ended up being no
gear check and they handed us our maps, shirts,
and race booklet/passport. Since we then had
over 4 hours until the pre-race meeting we broke
into pairs plotting checkpoints, splitting up
food, breaking up mandatory gear, and figuring
out what to bring on our first leg (biking).
At 6:30PM all the teams assembled at the
pavilion to listen to the RD (Will) let us know
about what we needed to know. "Stay off the
fragile desert soil", "it will be cold", "listen
to ARFE" were some of the things I vaguely
remember. At this point we were all barely able
to stay put - months of planning and preparation
had gone into this moment - only 30 minutes
away! We then went back to the RV (our mobile
transition area) to grab the last of our
equipment and get ready for the start.
7PM
rolled around just starting to get dark. All 39
of the teams assembled under the inflatable arch
that was to be the start and finish line. Lights
came on. Straps, buckles, shoes, waistbands,
water bottles, sunscreen (just kidding) were
checked and re-checked. Will shouted "GO" over a
megaphone and all the teams clipped into their
pedals to sprint towards a tiny 8 foot ramp that
led out of the parking lot. We opted to run
cyclo-cross style to the stairs on the right to
avoid the other 120 people, bikes, and various
trekking poles strapped to the packs. A nice
little spin along the road warmed us up as we
quickly turned onto another road that led us up,
up, up into the mountains. We started with a
conservative pace (we had 3 more days to go!)
and ended up trading some towing with Pam. The
altitude seemed to effect her more than us. We
leap frogged teams along the road as the sun set
on some beautiful mesas and towers all around
us. We rolled up to CP 1 somewhere in the
middle/back of the pack.
At CP1 we took a right onto a dirt 4X4 road that
led us again up, up, up into the La Sal
Mountains. This road was deeply rutted and
difficult to stay on the bike at times. The
temperatures started dropping at this point and
it started to feel like rain. We reminded each
other to eat and drink and kept going up. About
an hour later it started to rain first a little,
and then quite heavily. We threw on our rain
coats and wondered where the desert was. A
couple more miles (and 4,000 feet of elevation
gain) took us to CP2, where we were greeted by
nice cheery volunteers with a fire, tent, and
maps and points for the "Rogaine" section ahead.
Mike and Grant plotted the points while Pam and
I switched our shoes for the trek and tried to
warm up by the fire.
10 minutes later we were trekking (fast) out of
CP2 heading up into the La Sals further. We
planned on bagging maybe 5-6 of the 8 "optional"
checkpoints. There was a 2 hour penalty for each
one missed and we wanted to make the 11AM cutoff
for paddling the next day. We headed up a fire
road for several miles and about 2,000 feet to
bag CP 6. We started to notice more wind and the
rain changed into sleet (or was that stuff
snow?). Heading farther up into the mountains we
had problems finding a route leading to CP 7. We
encountered some snow left over from a previous
fall and the temps definitely dropped into the
30s or low 40s at this point. The trails wound
up into a steep rock/avalanche bowl and we
realized we must have missed a trail off to the
the right.
Instead
of heading back we decided to go “around" the
mountain because our altitude was good. We
bushwhacked deep into a nasty steep, rock-strewn
slope. After 20 minutes we realized it was going
to be incredibly difficult going and
contemplated going down. The slope was probably
60-70 degrees so we decided to go straight up
the nasty, snowy, rock fall of a slope. Grant
contends it was a 5.6-5.7 climb, but I think it
was just about the nastiest rock scramble I've
ever done. We were certainly gripping each hand
hold we could find, let me tell you! We were
trying not to kick rocks loose on those below us
and pushed several hundred feet upward. The
footing was treacherous and several times I
wondered if one of us might end up with some
broken bones, but we pushed on. We eventually
came out at the top of the mountain above tree
line, on a nasty scree slope covered in snow at
almost 12,000 feet! We ran into team ARFE when
we came out of the trees and we combined nav
data to figure out where the CP could be. We
were all pretty cold and tired at this point,
and we got some food into us before we proceeded
down the mountain. Grant and I were out in front
and eventually crossed a trail the led us back
up to the elusive CP 7 - two down!
Feeling much better after being off the top of
the mountain (wind and sleet aside) and moving
ahead in the race we moved quickly down the
trail to CP 10. This point was manned and had a
toasty fire and warm tea for our chilly team. We
had a brief conference about what CP to do next
and headed back out the road to get CP 5.
The road to CP 5 turned into a mud track that
led across a field. The funny thing about this
field is that it looked down onto Moab
(beautiful!). About the time we entered the
mudfest the wind picked up several notches and
we started getting pelted by the sleet. We
stopped briefly for some food and to throw on
every bit of clothing we had to protect
ourselves from the savage winds. We encountered
a two person team that seemed confused and
pointed them in the right direction. We then
descended into some trees and blessed
protection. The trail then degraded into a very
long mud pit that we slipped and slid down to
get to CP 5 which was located in a bush just off
the trail.
This
trail ran into a road that took all the way back
to CP2 (now CP 11) and our spirits lifted as we
left the mud and elevation of the trails behind.
The rain slacked a little and we looked forward
to the sun coming up, because it was about 6am
at this point. We got back to the CP and punched
our passport, getting ready to switch back onto
our bikes. Oddly, at 7-7:30 am the sun had still
not come out, and we decided as a team that the
sun had taken the day off. Or maybe the sun
doesn't rise in Moab. At any rate, anything that
wasn't wet at this point got soaked on the ride
back to the lodge. The sun finally came up and
we all enjoyed a 30 mile bike back to the lodge
that was almost all downhill.
We arrived back at the lodge and after punching
in went straight to the RV. It had been about 12
hours at that point and we were all ready for
warm dry clothes and some real food. Our
wonderful support staff hooked us up with some
food, took our wet clothes and we got ready for
the next leg - a 25 mile paddle. We ate, tried
to dry out our pruney feet and dressed up in
some warm clothes, knowing the water was going
to be COLD. We grabbed a little water and food
(not enough) and ran to get our AIRE 2 person
duckies. Grant and I grabbed one and Pam and
Mike nabbed another. We got down to the bank and
discovered a muddy 2 foot drop into the river.
Grant decided to jump into the water before
getting into the boat and I hopped in behind
him. We tried to steady the other ducky while
Pam/Mike got in. The first 3 miles were full of
Class I-II rapids and faster moving water and
then it settled into a slow slog of a paddle.
We finally had some time to go over the past
couple of hours so we chatted about our standing
in the race. It turns out several teams had
realized the 2 hour penalty per CP was faster
(and more restful) than actually getting the
CPs! They had gone for mandatory CP 10 and then
booked back to the lodge for some sleep.
Getting
to the boats we felt we were way behind but
found out later we were in the first 1/3 of the
pack.
The bucolic paddle took us down through a
beautiful canyon full of waterfalls that
evidently didn't exist normally. We quickly
realized we hadn't brought enough food and water
after the first hour or two. Grant and I started
dreaming about what kind of goodies our support
crew may have for us as the paddle stretched on
and on and on. Grant tried to use his famous ESP
with our support crew, telling them mentally
about our wishes for hot pizza. About 4 hours of
paddling brought us to the next TA, and showed
us that the rain had shorted out Grant's ESP; no
pizza. We had caught up with several teams ahead
of us and realized we were doing pretty well. It
was a multi-day race and we were still going
strong!
At the TA we ran into some confusing news. The
route had been changed because of the flooding
and we were in for an additional 50 mile bike
leg instead of the regular course. This meant
about 100 miles of saddle time ahead of us!
First we had to do the ropes/rappel section
though. We decided to complete the ropes section
and address the bike suffer-fest when we got
back.
We grabbed more hot food, dry clothes and
grabbed our gear for via ferrate/rappel. We made
a pizza order and climbed into one of the most
beautiful sections of the race we had seen. The
climb was back in an unbelievably beautiful
canyon section full of arches, sweeping rock
walls and an unbelievable view of the river we
had just gotten off of.
We
came around a corner and were amazed - the
rappel was 250 feet up and one rope even came
down in front of an arch with a waterfall! We
ran around the corner to the via ferrate and
pulled on our harnesses. We all double checked
each other out because of the sleep issues at
this point and then clipped in and headed up the
climb. It had started raining again and a small
waterfall was coming right down the climb we
were on. My precious dry Gore-Tex shoes filled
up with water. We got to the top and were
directed around the corner to the rappel site.
This was Pam's second rappel ever and first one
outside! She sucked up some nerves and headed
out on the rope first, followed by Mike, Grant,
and then myself. The rope was so heavy (250 feet
plus water) that the first 50 feet I had to pull
the rope up and through. Then I came out past a
ledge and jumped out into a free rappel. I slid
down quickly to the ground and we all happily
headed back to the RV.
Back at the TA we met with more unwelcome news -
there was a 2.5 hour delay while the race was
being re-routed. The flooding had taken out one
of the TAs downstream. Even worse, they had to
close down a canyon section because of flash
flooding that was breaking loose boulders onto
the teams ahead of us. Only 6 teams had managed
to get that section. We changed (again) in to
dry clothes and settled in for a quick nap. Our
support staff woke us an hour later for pizza
and we chowed down hard.
The organizers held a quick race meeting to give
us the change of plans. The race would pick up
from CP 24, skipping the flooded out trails,
canyons, etc. Teams would be given time credits
for the time spent at this Transition Area
(several hours for us, at this point) -- but in
the end I don't think the organizers bothered to
factor that into their race results. Anyway . .
. we settled in for a quick team meeting and
decided to try and get the biking done before
taking a break and sleeping. This would come
back to haunt us later.
Fortunately
the weather had cleared and it looked to be a
NICE night for us to ride out.
We settled into a nice spin drafting down the
road toward Moab. It was a nice 50 degrees and
it seemed like a great leg ahead. After about 9
miles we turned to go straight into Moab and as
we took the turn the temps dropped sharply by 10
degrees or more. The wind picked up (almost
blowing all of us off the highway) and it
started to pound us with rain. Realizing the
highway wasn’t the best place to change into our
rain shells, we pushed ahead until we found a
building with a porch to stop at. We threw on
our rain gear (AGAIN) and tried to figure out
what to do. We pushed on.
The road through Moab was flooded. There was
standing and moving water across the highway and
mud and crud everywhere. We zig zagged through
the town (looking longingly at the Denny's) and
headed up into the hills towards the Kokopelli
trail. About 2 miles and lightning started
coming down all around us. We sought shelter
under another porch. At this point I voiced
concerns about the lightning and getting through
the night with more rain and cold. We all
decided we were not going to quit and continued
on when a dry spell hit. The road took us back
up towards the La Sal Mountains again. A nice
treat at this point were the fireworks courtesy
of Moab's homecoming.
We continued cranking upward. The pavement
eventually gave way to hardpack dirt, and then
mud. We had to skirt around a section that was
completely flooded for several hundred feet. The
terrain turned into the high desert Moab is
famous for. It was of course soaking wet. We
pushed further up the Kokopelli Trail and it
climbed upward back into the mountains. It felt
like being on the top of the world because you
could see the clouds moving incredibly fast
under an absolutely enormous sky. At one time I
counted three separate lightning storms in
different spots of the horizon. The Kokopelli
trail is not technical but climbs upwards
forever past mesas, hoodoos, and rock valleys
all around us. We kept an eye on our altimeters
and kept climbing up towards 8,000 feet again.
We were all running on little sleep at this
point. The race had been going for only 30 hours
at this point but we had been up for closer to
48 hours. The fatigue started to take a toll on
us as we started seeing things during this
second night leg. The winds were blowing the
sage, and there were many different colors and
textures than we were used to so during the
several hours we climbed upward we saw many
funny things – frogs, homeless people, and Pam
once mistook Grant and me for walruses (no
kidding).
On that note – the combination of temperatures,
sleep deprivation, and exertion started to take
a toll on us at this point. We had decided to
take a break at CP 25 (our next stop) but it hit
us far before that. Pam started losing heat and
we started to worry about hypothermia.
Being wet in 40 degree 30 mph windy conditions
after going for 30 plus hours takes a toll on
your body. We tried to warm her up by wrapping
her in the emergency blanket and sandwiching her
between two of us, but she kept losing heat. We
started to go into emergency mode at this point
– trying to find a house nearby (none) and
eventually called up the race staff to confirm
whether the next checkpoint might be manned. We
found out that it was, and decided to keep
moving – hoping we could warm up at the fire and
continue on. Something didn’t click with our
mileage at that point and the map data, so after
some conversation we made the decision to send
someone on ahead and confirm that we were on the
correct route. It turns out we had skipped the ½
mile trail turn because it didn’t look like a
trail and added about another 10-12 miles onto
this section to go around. I biked ahead of the
other three and eventually (with a little help
from team NW Nike) came up to the paved road we
were looking for and continued on to the
checkpoint.
This is where the story gets confusing. When I
arrived at CP25 it had started to sleet again
and the race director had decided to shut down
the entire race course. They were calling off
the race. Evidently things were getting worse
with mudslides etc. and the course was no longer
safe to continue on. I let the volunteer know
that I was from team 430 (HRAdventure) and that
the rest of the team was walking towards the
pavement (keep on moving – stay warm!). Some
race staff had been dispatched in a 4x4 up the
Kokopelli trail a couple of hours before to
start to tell teams to go back to the previous
TA, or back to the lodge. The staff eventually
picked up the rest of my team at the pavement –
less than a mile from CP25. The truck swung by
CP25 to pick me up and we headed back to the
lodge. We were under the impression that the
entire course was shut down and because of Pam’s
brush with hypothermia we decided to take the
ride. Many other teams cycled back to the
“Finish” because more or less immediately after
the race was cancelled the weather blew off and
it turned into a beautiful sunny day.
We
got back to the Start/Finish and started to tune
down from the race. We were all frustrated at
the cancellation of the race. We had all put a
tremendous amount of time, effort, and money
into this race and we weren’t even allowed to
race the entire course! Pam had warmed back up
on the trudge off the trail to the pavement and
we definitely could have continued, although we
were going to get some sleep at CP25 to try and
regain some sanity.
On a positive note, we felt like the team worked
very well together. Mike is a fantastic
navigator. Grant keeps us moving and motivated,
even though his mental telepathy is suspect. Pam
is “the heart of the team” as said in the team
bio. I was just along for the ride, but tried to
contribute to the overall good decision making
and forward movement of the team. We do not
doubt we could have finished the whole course if
we were given the chance.
We also made some mistakes, but hopefully we
learn and keep moving on like teams who have
been racing longer than us with higher stakes.
We need to thank our support staff. Without an
RV and numerous trips to the Laundromat it would
have been a much colder, clammier race. The
pizza didn’t hurt either. Thanks SO MUCH Wendy
and Eric and Mr and Mrs Hozer; you're the best!
