VIEW FROM THE TOP 4 is only day three. t two days of Dis~annel Eco-ChalJ were golden and he pictures in a tray teams bested the Heavy burden: Competitors must at all times carry all the gear theYlI need for the 197mile race. the man’s finger lands. The only female member of Outback is doubled over in pain with severe abdominal cramps. She confesses she is suffering from an ovarian cyst. Burnett has the team flown off the course. The woman is taken to a local hospital, where a melon-size mass is removed from her abdomen.
ECO - CHALLENGE By Robin Postell \There is something crafty, 81~tnost devious, about the we~ther here. It’s like having a fever; one minute temperatures are hot, the next cold. The sky smiles brightly with the sun, then frowns full of clouds like a petulant child. Welcome to Patagonia. Race director Mark Burnett has been saying almost de fensively that it will be the weather here in Argentina that dictates the fate of this competition, the sixth annual Eco-Challenge. He has warned teams not to underestimate the volatile weather conditions, and by late afternoon of day three, I’m beginning to believe him But Team Greenpeace from New Zealand seemingly has outsmarted the weather Since carrying extra weight is a big no-no, Greenpeacers have brought with them _______ as little as possible and have sacrificed warmth as a result. Team members confess that this is one of the few times in their racing history that they feel real fear. It is cold. They are tired. Puffs of white air punctuate every breath. Still, Greenpeace is thriving out here _______ in the wilds. Its members seem unbeatable as they hack their way through thick bamboo forests, rush through checkpoints with barely a pause, chalk up the weather as just another obstacle to overcome— and observe the Eco credo to preserve and protect the land. All in a day’s work for an advenre racer. Along with the U.S.A’s Team Atlas Snowshoes/Ruhicon F a handful of other Greenpeace has man~ to get itself over the looming Is mountain visible from Camp I One, and is sInk ~ out on the second leg of the . ‘ ~. But riot everyone i~ ~ so well On the second day, Davic.1 Kelly of leam LISA. clung with. lu’; horse, got stLjJk in mud up to his chest and had to be pulled Out ut his clothing to safety Now, an entire team is in need of help. As a cold front moves in. Burnett is forced to swoop down from the sky in his $1 700an-hour helicopter to rescue Team Outback Canada.
The Oulbackers have been roaming about in the crest, lost and listless. Their navigator is already in Che advanced stages of dehydration. Burnett tells him to point to a spot on the map where he thinks his team is located, then frowns when he sees where first leg of the race, which included 13.7 miles of kayaking through the frigid waters of Lago Correntoso; a dangerous 200-meter swim (with gear for the duration of the race strapped tightly to competitors’ backs) across the Rio Limay, where many had to be rescued; a 24.8-mile horseback ride across expansive pampas; and an excruciating 23.3mile trek through the mountains. By the fourth day of the 12-day race, Patagonian weather has made its ~redictably unpredictable turn for the worst. Gale-force winds whip through the mountains, where many teams are headed. It’s the beginning of Argentine summer, and the race is wrapped in the frigid blanket of a blizzard. Burnett, the founding father of all this madness, broods over the foul weather, all the while knowing that it is what makes his race a great television show. Since 1996, when Discovery Channel bought the rights to put Eco on the air, inThe EcuChallenge credo requires that teams in the race preserve and protect the environment along the way. I VIEW FROM TOE TOP
clement weather and the generally petulant moods of Mother Nature have made for great ratings. Burnett seems to thrive on this weather snafu, although he exhibits genuine concern for the teams that are lost in the forest or shivering through the snow in the mountains. The director summons back to Camp One the teams still on the mountain, creating a twotiered race. Twenty-one teams now wait at Camp One for instructions. The race, for them, is halted. Other teams, either lost in the freezing cold or too exhausted and scared to continue, break radio silence and request to be evacuated from the course. Still, the top teams race on in the cold hours ahead, embarking on the second leg. They will mountaineer, trek across rough terrain and rock slabs, and ascend and descend on fixed ropes. It is a busy and sleepless night 2
for DiscoveryEco personnel, and for the active competitors. There’s no such thing as an easy Eco-Challenge, of course, but prior to this race, when teams were permitted to view maps of the route, Team HaIti of Finland voiced its disappointment over what it deemed an undemanding course. The Finns prayed for wet, cold weather—much like their homeland conditions—so that they would have an advantage. Today their wish has been granted. They claim to have thrown away their maps, opting to memorize them instead. But their technique seems as good as any other: Teams Greenpeace and Rubicon—the most experienced in the field—are able to feel HaIti’s breath on their necks. This is the first Eco-Challenge where the competition has been so stiff from the start. Usually, it takes several days for the wheat and the chaff to separate. In the seven-year “This is the only race where you can be the best of friends and the worst enemies at the same time.” history of the race, Eco has included some of the top—and for the most part unrecognized—athletes in the world. On the 51 teams of four from 31 countries, there are industrialists, computer consultants, fashion models, mountain- and rock-climbing guides, university professors, and a team of Princeton grads. Members of the Chilean Marine Corps. A Croatian-refugee replacement coordinator. A Turkish airline pilot. Doctors. Cops. Salesmen, There’s even a U.S. Air Force team, and a French Foreign Legion team. However impressive the starting field might be, the favored team is clearly the “God Squad,” Team Greenpeace. This crew is an unlikely lot of superhumans, who devour adventure racers for breakfast. Captain and navigaton is 44-year-old John Howard, whom adventure-race af icionados call “God.” Many say he is the greatest adventure racer on the planet, winning first place in three of the six EcoChallenges, and first in nearly every other adventure race in existence. Also on the Greenpeace team is medical doctor Keith Murray, 38, and his wife Andrea, a 34year-old garden designer. The Murrays haven’t raced since their firstplace win in the 1997 EcoChallenge. Kiwifruit orchardist Neil Jones, 38, is a rookie to the God Squad, and feels the pressure of just starting out here even though he’s no stranger to hard-core competitions. The Greenpeace teammates are pant of a growing number of elite athletes who have made adventure racing a side profession, traveling to places where most of us have never been or will never go. To pull off a race like Eco takes
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With so much water, it’s hard to stay dry. Teams kayak across icy lakes and rivers, trek through the snow, and rappel waterfalls. / 19 more than big quadriceps and strong hamstrings. It also takes a high 1.0. and good P.R. skills. It takes a little finesse and a let of ego, not to mention no small amount of money. (Entry fees total $5,000 per team, plus the expense of airfare and the vast amounts of training and gear required to participate.) But since their team is totally unsponsored, the Greenpeacers stick to fundamentals, like running barefoot to toughen their feet. They take the minimalist approach, using only the most basic gear and clothing. Nevertheless, they have spent more than $10,000 on preparation and travel. Now Greenpeace is counting on winning the $50,000 firstplace pot. Another favorite is the Rubicon crew, the only team comprised of three women and one man. They have 25 sponsors. If they win, it’s gravy. They have all the latest high-tech gear and clothing. Male member lan Adamson, a 35-year-old corporate trainer, is quick to lend a hand to fellow racers. In fact, in the early days on Patagonian terrain, Rubicon and Greenpeace have taken to traveling together as well as sharing food and navigational strategies. “It’s the right thing to do. It’ll come back as race karma,” Adamson says. “This is the only race where you can be the best of friends and the worst enemies at the same time.” Rubicon’s captain is 31 -yearold Rebecca Rusch, a rookie thrown into the mix of hardboiled veterans. Teammate Robyn Benincasa, 33, has raced well in four Eco-Challenges, though she’s never taken first place. Rounding out the team is Cathy Sassin, 37. She’s familiar with the toll of Eco on the body and soul, having participated in four of its races. Almost from the starting line, it is teams Rubicon and Greenpeace that are neck and neck, though at any moment the stress of the event could bring either unit to its knees. Indeed, by the fourth day, only 39 teams remain on the course. One woman breaks her foot when she’s thrown from a horse. Hypothermia and dehy dration are as typical as the common cold. Hacking coughs and fever are by now daily fare. Burnett is forced to halt the race for those teams that have not yet crossed the mountain pass, an intimidating rock monument with a rushing white waterfall. Greenpeace, far ahead of the myriad unfortunates called back to Camp One, keeps a slim lead on Rubicon in heading for checkpoint 15, a massive waterfall at Pampa Linda. The Haltis trail like hounds. Teams Condor (Argentina), Sierra Nevada (Spain), and Vail (United States—they placed first in the 1998 Eco in Morocco) remain huddled together at checkpoint 12. While 21 teams wait at Camp One, the front-runners now face a daunting 9,000-foot ascent of Monte Tronador. This, after bushwhacking through thick bamboo forests, traversing an active, snowblanketed volcano peppered with loose, avalanche-friendly rocks, carrying kayaks around furious white-water rapids 4
during the previous night, and struggling with frozen ropes while mountain climbing. Team Greenpeace didn’t bring expensive dry bags to protect its gear from the water during the kayaking or whitewater or swimming expeditions. They use big black plastic trash bags instead. They wear cheap Motel 6—style shower caps to keep their heads warm while paddling. ‘Whatever works” is their motto. The lighter, the better. Think more about what you don’t need than what you do. They all carry on a string around their neck a toothbrush, which surely will come in handy because the adventure-racer menu usually includes only high-fat, hightakes them into Chile, and have come down to checkpoint 23 at the Refugio Otto Meiling. Greenpeace comes in first on this leg, and its people fall asleep for half an hour after Always on the go: Racers rely on their own strength and that of wild horses to get to the finish line. when she hears that one team slept 22 hours straight, she says with a laugh, “You don’t win a race sleeping like that:’ HaIti members say they will do without sleep altogether, passing teams Greenpeace and Rubicon and stealing first place. Rubicon and Greenpeace don’t travel together anymore. Tbe race has heated up. By day five, the top teams already have reached the summit of Tronador, which VIEW FROM THE TOP
sugar junk foods. Keith Murray lost his toothbrush on the first day. By the fourth day, the only one left with a toothbrush is Andrea Murray. The entire team shares it, along with a single piece of floss. The Greenpeacers struggle through the freezing weather without proper gear, through a thick bamboo forest. They grab a couple of hours of sleep when no one is looking, refusing to rest in checkpoints where other teams tend to lag. This gives the impression that the team isn’t sleeping, which motivates other competitors to forgo sleep in order to keep up. “What they didn’t understand,” says Andrea Murray, “was that we were sleeping much more than anyone thought.” But consuming bowls of hot pasta. Haiti arrives an hour later, just as Greenpeace is 5
leaving. Andrea Murray’s jacket and shoelaces are frozen solid. She says she feels the teams behind them, and it makes her nervous. Greenpeace pushes forward. Rubicon comes in around 7:40 P.M. Rebecca Rusch is delirious. She has lost her jacket, and her teammates waste precious time trying to find it. It is taking them twice as long to complete the simplest of tasks. They insist on sleeping for two hours, even though it will cost them precious lead time. Other teams straggle in through the night and the following morning. In the early hours of the sixth day, Team Greenpeace finishes in first place, paddling in on the shores of Bahia Lopez. Their time: five days and 33 minutes, during which period they slept only nine and a half hours. A bottle of champagne is popped open on the beach as screaming hordes vie for a peek at the God Squad. Team Sierra Nevada surprises everyone by taking seeond, while the local pride, Team Condor, places third. Teams Rubicon and Haiti come in fourth and fifth, respectively. Team HaIti had chosen to take a risky shortcut around the bamboo forest and had miscalculated; it was the same route Greenpeace had abandoned at the last minute. Had Haiti gone the conventional route, it easily would have finished in second place. The Finns shrug this off, saying it was more important to try for the win and lose than to settle for second. The race is over, but teams continue to cross the finish line for the next several days. And so the God Squad wins again. Teammates return to their hotel, sleep for two hours, then go to a restaurant, where they eat for the next four hours. Then they sleep for 12 hours. John Howard says it will take him a month to recuperate. “I’ll be taking naps every afternoon until I pay back the sleep banker,” he says. Team Greenpeace, along with many others, is already discussing plans for the next adventure race, perhaps the Raid Gauloises to be held in Tibet at the end of April. Following the Eco, as he looks forward to the next competition, Keith Murray admits, “There’s probably some sort of Calvinistic part of me that likes to suffer.” He’s smiling over a rare steak, and after a week without any food of significant substance, he can’t seem to stop eating. Fellow racers at the long table feel Murray’s pain, his hunger, his euphoria—and pass him their leftovers.O4—~
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