Well we are all here in Punta Arenas. Dustin and I made it in around midnight Saturday night and Julie and Joe followed (due to a delayed flight) around 4 AM. It takes about 30 hours to get here so it is a pretty long trip.
We checked in on Monday with a bunch of other teams. The gear check was extensive. We had to show every piece of gear on the gear list http://www.patagonianexpeditionrace.com/en/races_2012_equipment.php We were missing the 5 fishhooks from the medical kit and had to find a place to purchase them. Other than that and a couple of trips between race HQ and the hotel we got it all done.
Next came the skills check. First we all had to paddle out into the straight of Magellan, capsize our kayak, and get back in use a deep water entry in less than 5 minutes. The water is about 38 degrees so Dustin and I did it in about 45 seconds. We were wearing dry suits so that did keep us pretty warm, they just dont have much insulation.
After that we watched a rescue demonstration where the French team paddled out and were rescued by a Chilean navy helicoptor. I think the Navy was mostly proud of their coptor and rightfully so as it was pretty cool. We did our ropes test that was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. We ascended up a pole, transferred to a tyrolean, tracersed to a second pole and rappeled down. It was incredibly windy on the ground , but intense on the pole. It was taking people a lot longer to do it than they had expected mostly becuase they set the ropes so you had to pass over a rop on the way up and on the way down. That is always slow.
The opening ceremony was really cool. All the folks I know from the US and the movie (which you can download on iTunes though I have the DVD and studied it extensively) were there. Almost everyone seems to come back to this race. The cermony was fun, but the big thing was getting the maps at the prerace at 11 PM. We got to see the course. This calmed Julie down. It made me a bit more nervous as I could tell what we would be facing.
Course
75 km bike to tip of peninsula with a 2:30 AM start
25 km paddle across straight of Magellan. The start was timed so we would have favorable weather conditions for the paddle.
10 km portage on island
25 km paddle in Fjord lake to CP4
20 km paddle across another straight though we will only be allowed to cros if conditions are favorable.
The next 2 sections are a short trek meaning about a day and a long bike meaning about 2 days
Then the long trek. These are legendary, usually taking 3 to 4 days. Most parts of this trek were inaccessible last year and the organizers spent all year with volunteer crews opening them up. 3 major mountain passes, peat bogs, beavers (yes they have a big problem with beavers), snow, forest, navigation, you name it, but in the end we get to the Beagle Channel.
After that we paddle 40k to the base of Mount Darwin, turn north and paddle to one of the most incredible glaciers in the world. When asked how long it would take they said 2 days. Why? Its into a headwind which here means you dont move very fast. Teams might paddle in the morning and have to camp in the afternoon and evening so they can avoid the winds.
That is it. We dropped off all our bags that are now heading to the different drop locations. Five food bags and 3 gear bags. The checkpoints are all manned and the people are there and waiting already. We are all in our race clothes. I miss my family so make sure to give Linda your support. Ill have some incredible stories in about 10 days.
No comments:
Post a Comment