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I keep telling myself that this is going to be my last expedition race... but for some unknown reason I always seem to come back for one more. Am I addicted to Adventure Racing? Aren’t we all addicted to AR? There is something mysterious about AR that leaves us wanting more every time. And frankly I think that it’s this quest of the unknown that adds to the desire to participate and excel in the next race. As if from one event to the other, the growing challenges are feeding the addiction and the need to participate becomes stronger than reason. I cannot help but think about it all the time, it is now become a part of who I am.
We started to think about going to Expedition Alaska towards the end of 2014. We decided to make it a project and our team had then been training really hard throughout the next 6 months in order to be as ready as we could possibly be for the level of adventure ExpeditionAK was promising to give. Despite efforts, one is not safe from injuries. One month from the start our secret weapon and the soft spirit of the team, Ursula Tracz, injured her ankle during a training event in Ontario. This was devastating news for all of us, but we had to plan for her replacement. Saying that finding an experienced and equally ready female adventure racer is a hard thing to do 5 weeks prior to an expedition race is an understatement. We reached out to many top female racer we knew as there was just no way that we were passing on this race. For us the race started at that time. Game on! Putting a team together is the first challenge of adventure racing. The Equilibre lies in each of its member’s skills, strengths and weaknesses. It is never easy to find a girl teammate who is willing and prepared to endure such things. The physical pain of being out there in the wild and the mental stress of being with us tree French Canadians clowns. Chelsea Lutrall from Colorado, USA who had raced against El Capo (Alex) in Florida Sea 2 Sea in 2014 was able to fill in last minute. Chelsea was thrilled to be joining the team and fit right in with our wild spirits.
We landed in Alaska on June
23rd. We did some shopping in lovely Anchorage the following day and were ready
to go by mid-day. The organization had plan on providing transportation for the
teams late evening that day. We were not delighted by the idea of waiting all
day. Someone from our team had the old school but brilliant idea to contact a
local radio station and ask them to broadcast live our request for a ride to
the Princess Mckinley Lodge. It took about 5 minutes and we received a call
from a generous family offering a ride! What a cool way to get in touch with
local people! We soon were on our way with some amazingly kind people, that was
a good start and the luck we were hoping to carry on with during our stay in
Alaska.
After 4 days getting gear
organized, doing crevasse rescue crash course, bear talk with a wildlife
specialist, wilderness first aid course and the famous team parade (that we
almost missed) we were ready to board the bus to the race start on the shore of
Eklutna Lake.
THE START
The race started with running
a half marathon along the lake, then up to the base of the glacier. Before we engaged on the glacier, we were told
that the longest continuous glacier segment in adventure racing history had
been in Patagonia Expedition Race and was 8 miles long; the Eklutna glacier was
20 miles long, more than twice the distance! A glacier of that magnitude is a
wild place to be when you try to go fast and light. In fact it is a pretty wild
place to be period. I am speaking for my team and this first segment was
probably the scariest and the most technical thing that I have ever done in a
race. We reached CP1 and CP2 in good spirit with the leading teams. It felt
great to be with these teams and we were having a good rhythm.
At some point we realized
that Chelsea was not feeling very good. She was suffering from asthma but seemed
under control. On a way down on the glacier, we spotted some big cat tracks
(cougar or lynx). I remember telling my teammates: « Hey guys! Let's follow the
tracks ... I am sure that this big cat will take us down the glacier safely ». We
didn’t. Half an hour later, we found ourselves in crevasses country with no more
tracks to follow. I wish I could explain this scenery, the number of crevasses
and how deep they were but you’ll have to visit Alaska I guess. Being roped up,
we knew that if someone fell, the person behind had to jump the opposite direction
and hang on their ice axe on the ground. I would say at this specific time and
place, we were moving at a pace of 0.5km/h at the most. It was a terrain
extremely difficult to navigate where many experienced racing in its most
critical way, including ourselves.
Out of the crevasse land, we
arrived into some kind of avalanche slope (without the avalanche hazard) where we
were able to slide down on our bump and self-arrest with our ice axe when we
felt we were going to fast or when there was a river to close to us. Fast, fun
and scary at the same time, but clearly the fastest way down! From that point,
we had a 6 km on the ice left before exiting the glacier for good, but Chelsea
had really tough time breathing.
As Unfortunately, Marco
from Columbia Vidaraid fell in a deep crevasse and got injured enough so that
and team Columbia Vidaraid had to withdraw from the race. AR legend Mike Kloser
was around at the time skinning his way making sure of the route. We helped him
flagging a safe lane around the danger zone. A 30 minutes time credit was hand
out to us for helping out. We climbed the last glacier part under a magnificent
moon but were barely moving as Chelsea’s conditions had deteriorated badly.
Waiting for us at the end
of the 20 miles long glacier was a very sketchy scramble down. At that point
Chelsea’s spirit had taken a serious dent and she started to talk about evacuation
(we had seen snowmobile track shortly before) and wasn’t sure we were at the
right place as it seemed very sketchy… We decided to set up the tent and rest for
2 hours hoping things would get better. It was the only thing we could really
do. We had the jetboil so we made warm food and pulled the tent out.
We woke up a bit cold and called
the race director to discuss options. Dave simply told us that he could see us
on the GPS tracker and that we were exactly where we needed to be. He said « Get
your ass down to the transition! ». It took us a really long time to collect
the 4 remaining CPs, but we eventually arrived at the TA safe.
THE HARD STUFF
Somehow we still arrived at
TA1 in Alyeska in 6th place but quite a long time after Tecnu in
first. I can't emphasize enough about how great all of the volunteers have been
during this race. At every transition, we were welcome with hot food and drinks
and a chair for each team member to sit around a fire.
We elected to sleep again
and discuss after. Unsurprisingly, Chelsea eventually withdrew from the race. Deep
down we all knew that it was not safe for her to continue, but the feeling of
defeat we felt at that time was so strong that one has to express it. This
feeling of defeat is also part of the deal in AR, whether for an injury, a
missed CP or a withdrawal. I remembered having a few tears running down my
cheeks. All the commitments, our families left behind, resources involved, sponsors,
money and training we invested, the time away from work… it seems like a mountain
of sacrifices for such an early exit and unexpected after a great start.
What now? It did not take
long for the 3 of us to decide to push forward after all, what would we be
doing all week? We might as well make the best out of this trip. Now racing in some
sort of sub-category, we left the TA in *9th place with some vengeance
at heart going into the hardest segment of the race named the «The Soul
Crusher». Back at the TA, it seemed like a good idea to bring only one of our
Alpacka Gnu packraft. Let me tell you that a 2 person’s boat with 3 soaking wet
guys with heavy packs on their back wasn't the wisest move. Seriously, on flat
water it was manageable but on moving water, we had to take shorter breath in
order for the boat not to tip over! We got to CP5 where we had to take a
picture on an iceberg in the middle of a lake, lot of fun! We then took a power
nap on the beach at CP6 and we moved forward into the crux of the race.
THE SOUL CRUSHER
For the following 16 miles,
we spent over 24 hours and our souls got crushed many times. Thick bushes,
devil’s club, scary packrafting sections with deadly strainers in the middle of
the river, freezing water, ice and snow (we stayed up thanks to our Hillsound
crampons), scrambling at places where falling was not an option and being cliffed
out more than 50 times. We finally arrived in Whittier, tired, soaking wet,
cold and «crushed». But maybe not as crushed as many others as somehow we had
managed to overtake 8 teams and we now were in *2nd. Being in the
race but not being fully ranked has a cooling effect when at TAs. We were quite
relaxed and enjoyed taking extra time to hang and talk with the volunteers and
race staff. Got to look at the bright side, we usually don’t do that when
racing so that surely was an upside.
We left the transition
early in the morning of July 1st all dress up with our dry suit on, ready to
attack the first official paddling leg of the race (out and back). We even
stopped to pick up a few donuts and much needed coffee on the way! These small things
are the kind that gets our spirit back on track like you cannot imagine.
LIVING AGAIN
It felt good to be seating in
a kayak after spending the last 2 days on our feet. It did not take very long before
we started to feel sleepy (especially me) on the water, even though we were in
bright day light, which is almost 22 hours a day here in the summer! The sun
was warm and it felt good, but that would be he’s only visit for the entire race.
The view was magnificent; there were water falls in every direction, huge
glaciers dropping in the ocean, bald eagles flying around. A whale even came to
say «Hi»
in front of our kayaks, showing her tail as friendly wave. After 8 hours sitting in the boats with a
strong headwind for the last hour, we were looking forward to getting back on
our feet for next and longest section of the race with 100 miles of trekking
and packrafting.
What
a relief it was to come back to TA and find our second Alpacka raft had arrived
and was there with the rest of our paddling gear! Again the kind volunteers had
heard our tales and made sure we had all of our gear to continue on. I cannot
imagine what it would have been without. Now at dusk, we reloaded our packs and
changed for some not so dry clothes. We went on our way got to portage pass,
then down to Portage Lake where it was again crazy windy. We took over
an hour to cross the 2km lake to CP 16. At that point we had a mandatory
trek (still with our Alpacka rafts) of about 700 meters on the shores
of the lake on slippery rocks. An administrative thing as the parks service did
not want us to go in front of the visitor center paddling in our boats. Well
there where not many visitors at 4 am but we trekked anyway and went on down river
on some really fun class 1 rapids for well over 10km.
But
even the rocking river could not keep us awake. Must be similar to the rocking
chair effect on kids… it was in the middle of the night, it was freezing cold, barely
awake and from what I can remember, it was raining (or was that in my dreams?).
We were on the verge of hypothermia, even with our wet-dry suits. I guess that
after trekking, packrafting and kayaking with our dry suit on, «dry» was not a
suitable word anymore. We eventually stopped on the side of the river
to set up the tent and sleep for 90 minutes. The worst part in pretty much
the entire time we spent racing in Alaska was putting back our wet clothes on
after that sleep.
When
we arrived at CP18, we realize that we still had a 3km bushwack instead of
paddling (upstream) to reach the board walk that was supposed to get us quickly
to the start of the next packrafting segment. We weren’t thrilled as we had not
planned on doing that especially knowing that the cut off time for the rafting
was less than 8 hours away. We went on still with spirit and a good pace
but eventually realised that we just couldn't do the remaining 25km of
trek-packraft and still arrive on time on July 2nd. Grief yet again! At 17:00
that day, we met up with team Yogaslakers (Aka the Yoga-trackers because they
always seem to have a dysfunctional GPS tracker…) and called the race director
to talk options in order to do the rafting. I am so happy that we did and lived this
experience. Where else in the world would you get thrown in a class 1
rapid just to confirm that you are comfortable in white water. Words cannot describe
the trills that we had on the Six Miles Creek, where you go into 3
distinct canyons of class IV and V. Our raft guide, Popcorn, made our experience
memorable.
LET'S RIDE
After
nearly 100 hours of racing, it was now time to jump on our bike for the first
time. We collected a few check points in a historic and very cute little
town named Hope, some may know it from the Iditarod stories of dog sledding
races. From there, we started going up from sea level to resurrection
pass at over 2400 feet. Reaching the top we were delighted with some
amazing aboce tree line ridge riding and incredible views of the mountains
around. The kind of stuff you that remind us why we do these things. Not too
technical going up, but a little more challenging on the way down. We were
trying to go as fast as we could (that’s what we do right?) but with the
sleep deprivation and after hitting a few big rocks we were wondering why Jonathan's
(El Taupin) pedals were 2 inches from the ground? Joe's rear suspension
was busted. We did slowed down to reduce the impact and to make sure
that we could finish the race.
Once
in Cooper Landing for TA5 and tried to locate our paddling gear for
the 30 miles paddle on Kenai Lake. We searched for it
everywhere, asked everyone around and the organization made many calls.
After 4 hours… someone found all of our stuff in a garbage bin. Don't ask
me... We gladly dry suit back on… and off we went on a really windy Kenai Lake.
In order to avoid the wind, we had to hide in every single bay of the lake
which made it for extra milage. I am not sure how many hours we spent on
that segment, but we were there for quite a while stopping in Crown Point on
the way. It was beautiful again and we did not have to use our headlamp a
single time that night. We arrived at Primrose for the last transition of the
race in the middle of the night, soaking wet but somehow happy. We were
again greeted with good food (steak?). We got the tent out and slept for
another 90 minutes until the sun would hopefully warm us out. It
never came.
Expedition
Alaska became even more interesting from the moment you entered TA6,
because the race director was there with maps in hands and was
deciding which segment he was sending you in next. There was 4 different
segments that he could choose from: a trek segment to CP34, a
bike-packraft segment to CP35-36, a long bike ride on Iditarod dog sledding
historic trail (CP37-38-39-40-41-42) and finally a coasteering bike that none
of the team ended up doing. The idea behind all of that logistic was to make
sure that all the teams could arrive at the same time in Seward on July 5th in
order to complete the legendary Mount Marathon race. We were able to do the
bike-packraft in addition to one of the most beautiful mountain bike ride ever
on the Lost Lake trail! I would honestly fly to Seward just to do that ride
again. It is 6 miles of absolute fun, you go from alpine terrain, to
sub-alpine, into meadows, to a pine forest, to a rain forest and end up at sea
level, all of that on a single track. We were screaming like little boys the
whole way down! These guys caugth excellent pictures of that place:
MOUNT MARATHON RACE
The
bike ended ion Seward at Mile Zero of the Iditarod trail. We took a break
before the final and last challenge of this epic race, the Mount Marathon. At
about 11:15am, on July 5th, we crossed the finish line with mixed emotions,
disappointment from being unranked, but happiness for having experienced Alaska
and seeing what we are capable of achieving. I’ve come to realise that these
emotions are what keeps us wanting more.
Thanks
to all of you for following us during the race. Thanks to our families, friends
and supporters, you made this race possible for us.
Hats
off to Equilibre who’s been a first hour supporter
our team for a few years now.
Thanks
to Xact Nutrition for the amazing race fuel that is as good as it is easy on
the stomach, Hillsound for the top
quality crampons and gaiters, Julbo Eyewear for eye protection and kick-ass
look, Alapcka rafts for the best packrafts in the world and Icebreaker for the
love of merino wool. Also Nuun, Swiftwick, Salt sticks, Thule, Raid Pulse,
Salomon and Out there USA.
We
will be back stronger.
Photo credits: Chris Radcliffe & Perpetual Motions events
Photo credits: Chris Radcliffe & Perpetual Motions events
