Discussion: Expedition Alaska

Do we have a team list for Expedition Alaska? I was on the site and didn't see one? http://expeditionak.com/

Dave Adlard sent out a de facto team list (based on check-in schedule but including team numbers) last week to registered racers:

1 - Vidaraid
2 - Tecnu
3 - Yogaslackers
4 - Everest
5 - Explorer
6 - SORB/USMES
7 - Wandering Nannut
8 - NYARA
9 - Nuts
10 - Rogue
11 - Eqilibre
12 - GOALS ARA
13 - Gung Ho
14 - Cameltoe
15 - I Don't Remember
16 - Everyday Adventure
17 - Southern Exposure
18 - Soteria ("or as yet officially unnamed")
19 - Orion
20 - Boom Boom Pow

Thanks Abby, looking forward to following this one.

Sure thing. If we get anymore relevant pre-race info, I'll try to add it here.

There are Attackpointers to cheer for on Tecnu and GOALS ARA. Any other teams?

Cameltoe has TrishTash.

Any word on whether the fire has affected the race?

http://teamyogaslackers.com/2015/06/16/impending-d...

Going to be fun to watch!...though racing or as they say surviving it would be even better ; ) Good luck to those racing. Stay safe.

Team Yogaslackers has esand17 (Erik Sanders)

jackson 5 in team Equilibre (alex Provost)

Shouldn't have waited until today to look at gear list in detail. I need to track down 2 ice pickets. I'm scared.

That's an intimidating pre-race communique. Race smart up there!

Chelsea Luttrall (Owner of Journey Racing) is guest racing with Équilibre as well.

I'm in, but don't remember my team name. Ice pickets are less scary then when first read them as Ice Picks. Not sure shanking a bear with one of them would do much good.

I'm looking forward to sitting this one out and watching dots. Though if I were going, I'd significantly get to increase my race gear stash. That would be cool.

Oh my goodness, the gear... So. Much. Gear.

So, no fire issues?

Haven't heard anything from the RD about the fires.

Given the communication so far, you'll probably find out the day before the event ;-)

Just concerned because I'm shipping the g/f off this Saturday so it's a long way to go to not race!

Just write Adlard, publicly or privately. He's all over FB and I'd expect him to answer that concern.

An update from Adlard this morning re: the fires --

First, and most importantly, we extend our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the folks who have had homes burned in the fire. As much as the race is all-consuming to us right now, it is a pretty small thing compared to people losing their homes and livelihoods. We will be making a donation in the racer’s names, to the rescue relief fund. If you would like to contribute, please let me know.

As far as the race goes, at this time, the course itself isn’t immediately threatened, though we are keeping a close eye on it, and have already started looking at “Plan B” in case we need to move anything.

The major “Willow” fire is currently affecting the highway on the way to the McKinley Lodge, though from the reports we have received, it appears that the road will be open by next week. Again, we are monitoring it, and will keep everyone informed. The lodge itself is about 50 miles north of the fire, but there are very few (approx. zero) options for driving around it. We are trying to develop an alternative in the meantime, just in case.

Thanks for the scoop. Another update about the race I receive through the grapevine.

Thanks, I'll let her know - WTF is a "FaceBook" :-)

Love that I only find out about this through AP and no response to my message asking for more information.

Well I certainly signed up for an adventure. :)

AP rules!

Weird, my husband, who's registered as our team captain, received that by email. We assumed it went out to someone on every team?

Not heard a thing - although the team captain is enroute to Alaska at the moment.

Kyle, I just looked up ice pickets. I didn't know what they were. I guess they are needed as safety equipment in case a teammate falls into a crevasse? Dang. Good luck out there everyone. This race seems to be an example of "safe, fast, happy: you can only pick two."

So are pickets anchors?
I thought it had something to do with the teamsters.... Or a fence :-)

Snow anchors, right. Cool thing is that we are going through snow school and crevasse rescue prior to the race. This is a pretty nice bonus in terms of things to take away for other adventures. We also are going to be following a GPS track while on the glacier. This should keep us out of some trouble, but the route will be about 3-4 weeks old by he time we get out there. From what I understand about glaciers and snow lots can change. Especially with the heat the area has experience. The GPS track could have been on snow 3 weeks ago but now on a 100 foot ice crack. Pretty typical for AR glacier sections to get canceled or modified. PQ San Juans and ARWC France come to mind. Also the fast time for leg 1 is predicted to be 24 hours. There are 4 hours of twilight each night which I hear is pitch black if there is cloud cover. Do bears hang out in glaciers? I just had a last minute freak out and dropped $700 on clothing at REI! This isn't the most gear intensive race I've done. That would be ARWC France. But it's probably going to be the most expensive (and we won a free entry).

Check out the latest from the RD on FB. WTF does that mean?

MSP=got to be Minneapolis-StPaul airport. Maybe issues with highway road closures to get to your first lodge? Adlard really shouldn't be dropping his unfiltered stream-of-consciousness thoughts on everybody at this stage.

My favorite piece of gear is the tennis racket for mosquitoes, although I would opt for a badminton racket. Those pesky bugs will be a bigger problem than bears.

Very slick set of online technical tools to follow along with the teams on the Expedition Alaska website. However, does anyone know where the written play-by-play is being done?

FB post says follow live tracking and blog on the ExpAK website. I'm not finding the blog. Tracking is working nicely.

I think we need to start it here phatty. I expect a full write up from France when I wake up tomorrow! :-)

Looks like a very tight cluster of teams at front right now.. all doing same route. I'm behind on this but the routes are so similar.. is there a zip line or via ferrata or???

I first I just thought the first couple teams cliffed out and rerouted... but all doing same thing as far as I can tell?

Good for some; I'm getting nothing from the website at the moment (and yes I'm using the recommended browser - Chrome).

I'm watching the bobbing bubbles, while the Vet ER makes my dog vomit the bag of chocolate chips he ate. Is racing on a glacier a safe idea? I assume they have crampons on, right?

The SPOT tracking and leaderboard functionality so far is top notch in my view. It would be cool, however, to have a little more commentary from the field / HQ. Perhaps this will begin once teams start to get off the ice.

Teams are following a GPS route for the glacier. At TA1 their GPS's will be sealed.

Turns out it's just my work computer that's restricting access and making it not work. Seems to block anything fun that I try and look at - I'll just need to get all my viewing done at home!

What happened to Teams 16 and 17? No news on why they turned around...

my wife sent me a facebook post that I think deals with that... returned to base and taking shorter route

Before the race started, they said that communications would be poor in some areas they're going and that for the most part, photos would be posted after the race. Maybe that is preventing them from posting news as well?

Vidaraid just reported Marco fell into a crevasse and they got him out but a helicopter is on its way to get him...hope he is ok. So sad for him and their team.

Wow! I hope they were roped up when he fell! It's pretty standard practice during glacier travel if there is "risk" but in my experience only about 50% of the glacier travel is deemed "risky". (I'm no expert on glaciers... 95% of my glacier time has been on the racecourse)

I think it's great that this section is early in the race when everyone is at their sharpest.

Their FB page says that Marco hurt his shoulder. Organizers estimated that 1 in 50 racers would fall into a crevasse, which is why they made teams go through crevasse rescue training beforehand.

I've fallen into a crevasse while roped - scary stuff when the ground opens up under your feet!

I'd be more concerned about getting wedged between two eternally cold ice cubes.

Sucks for Marco and Vidaraid.. hope it's not too serious.

I hope Marco will be alright! I thought maybe their tracker stopped working (I was even prepared to joke about how it is usually Yogaslackers with the bad tracker). Is there a reason breathemag doesn't have anyone doing live coverage of ExpeditionAK?

The race organization needs to make an arrangement with Breathemag to help cover their costs so I guess EA didn't do that. Maybe LosDobos knows more.

@JayXC, no kidding. I fell into a crevasse while accompanied by experienced mountaineers on a 10-day glacier mountaineering course. The following year on the same course, a student roped to an instructor died in a crevasse when her fall triggered a small, freak summer avalanche. Count me among the wimps who would rather not follow a GPS track on a glacier in a race with teammates who may only have learned their glacier skills on a grassy lawn a few days earlier. (I expect Vidaraid has been around long enough that they've honed their skills on real glaciers though.)

Kyle's feet might be a concern as they roll into TA1. See video on FB.

Looks like Bean had his pack too...

Sounds like Kyle's feet aren't too bad, but we'll see. Tecnu's FB page says he just had to hike a few miles in mountaineering boots instead of trail shoes that I guess the rest of the team was able to pick up at one of the CP's.

Looks like all the Yogaslackers came into TA1 barefoot, too.

I would have like to have been there doing my "thing" for Breathe, but was never asked to help. They have a couple of great photographers in Chris and Aya, but I haven't seen any good daily updates either

So is there a map or a race book out there anywhere? It looks like the checkpoints on the second leg can be tackled in a few different orders, but it is hard to tell from the live tracking map.

Shout out to Yogaslackers for helping Marco and the Vidaraid team. Class act for sure. Love this sport!

Team Equilibre is out :(
just got word that Chelsea had an asthma attack and couldn't keep going.
The boys are now racing as a 3 person team :(

I haven't seen any good daily updates either

I haven't seen any daily updates.

Here are the photos, day by day.
http://perpetualmotionevents.zenfolio.com/f9472419...

From the Yogaslackers' FB page:

Wow. The first leg was more about survival than speed. The short story is that the team back tracked to help rescue another team that fell into a crevasse and Jason took a nearly deadly fall. We will post him telling the story when we get to a more reliable source of Internet. For now, they are re packing gear, eating and getting ready to rock for the next leg. Keep cheering them on and sending them a whole lot of love and support!

Here's the video of Jason explaining his accident.

I just read on Team Equilibre's FB page that they're now continuing unranked. Ugh. It seems that they moved back onto the racecourse pretty quickly after ensuring their teammate was safely in the TA, which is a good sign. It'll still be a great adventure to experience.

This YogaSlackers video gives me nightmares...

Vidaraid posted a pic of Marco in his hospital bed, shoulder's back in. And they thanked Yogaslackers and Mike Kloser for helping to "save his life," as they wrote it. Should AR events have this level of risk? Maybe he wasn't in that level of danger and Vidaraid misread the situation, but a moderate or high risk of death should not be part of AR. We do crazy things from time to time and because of our experience and qualifications, "get lucky" and not get hurt. But unstable ice injures and kills people all the time. And to race across it seems dumb.
What do you others think? Am I just being a "hindsight is 20/20" chicken little?

afsheen.... that's a tough call. I think a lot of the things we do, we'd do in training anyways (Glaciers may be the exception) and in most instances we are a lot better off having our team and/or race support there as a safety net. I can think of several instances where people have sustained serious injuries on a race course doing something that they could easily have been doing on their own. The fact that they were on the race course and someone else was there to stop the bleeding or call for help, may very well have been what saved their life. On the extreme end, I know of a couple people who perished during training and had they been in a race doing the same thing, things may have gone differently.

Many people will remember when Danelle Belangee (sp?) had a very close call on a training run and could very easily have died. (I think they found her after a couple of days, thanks in large part to her dog)

I had a teammate (AP'r Bender) who fully dislocated his shoulder when he took a big tumble while we were scrambling down a steep slope of knarly blow downs. He was tangled up in thick, thick bush and in extreme pain, but fortunately Urthbouy knew how to deal with it. If he had been on his own I don't know how he would have gotten out of that mess.
I'll never forget A) how someone could go from such intense pain to blissful relief so quickly and B) the fact that he was able to carry on and finish the race. I thought we were done!

The main thing to remember is that YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE for your own safety. Maybe it's a North American thing (boo, hiss... i r 1 2), but a lot of racers seem to think that paying some money to an organizer absolves them of their obligation to look after themselves and make smart choices.... just because the RD thinks it's safe, doesn't mean it is.. or doesn't mean it's safe for you.

Tecnu on the ridge. I was wondering what the route would be after CP8, guessing those lazy river valleys would be a gnarly tangle to trek through, and not sure of the raftability of those little rivers.

Doing the "Play" function on the tracker - those river bottoms look super slow. Also, it looks like Tecnu (or their tracker) bypassed CP4?. Seems unlikely though, with talk of their lead on the other teams.

Tecnu has now met the problem with the ridge route. A deep ravine, and I'm guessing they realize they need to get to the other side of the valley to make a safe decent to the next TA.

@afsheen, like FB said, it's a tough call. Personally, I would love to race across a glacier, but it would be up to me to do it safely. I think everyone racing at this level knows that no AR course is intended to be safe, which is why there are safety requirements in place: teammates, ropes, trackers, etc. The fact that Marco was rescued without any further injury is an indication that the safety precautions put in place by the race organizers worked.

YS tracker has been silent for the last 10 hrs.
Interesting route choice by Equilibre and North Zealand Club. Both chose to head down the river out of the lake with Equilibre back tracking around the point. North Zealand was actually on the point and decided to paddle down river anyways. I wonder if that little bay to the south is actually full of ice making it seem like 'land'.

As usual, Yogaslackers have disappeared. Where will they reappear this time? ahead of Tecnu? Camped out, recovering from a destroyed packraft and hypothermia? Oh, the suspense!

That ravine doesn't show up on the topo map very well. I assume Rob/Kyle would have seen the sat view during route planning however.

I partially agree with FB. When we do WT course testing, it's more dangerous than doing the race since there are only two of us, we don't publicize where we're going, and there are no medics standing by nor any race HQ watching our progress. I've taken extra measures - like buying my own Delorme Inreach tracker and putting our planned route in a sealed envelope for my husband to open if I'm not back by a certain time. (He may be doing the race so I can't just tell him!) Still, we try not to do anything too risky since we know we couldn't get help quickly.

Most racers don't do that type of training - especially not alone. It's hard to imagine Bender ending up injured and tangled in that bush in a solo training scenario. He was very lucky it happened to be Urthbuoy there, who knew how to fix him up. Most teams don't have FB's team's range of experience, and most RDs accept any team's entry without checking that the racers have appropriate skills and background.

Having come into AR from the world of wilderness activities and tripping, it's unnerving to see the unmerited sense of invincibility during a race. I'm guilty of it at times; I've done a few risky things I would never do in real life. But I've also been in the only canoe to pull off the water in a 90-team race after lightning struck by the lake. Even the race rescue boat came to ask why we were waiting on land during the storm. Aside from our team's concern, it was a race rule to get off the water in a thunderstorm! However, the vast majority of racers - and even some race directors - haven't done much canoeing outside of AR and don't understand the risks.

When you are taught rock climbing, mountaineering or whitewater by experts, there is much more respect for risks and the need for everyone to have a firm grounding in safety and basic rescue techniques. Many adventure racers say they only do whitewater or glacier travel in adventure races - and they sometimes do those things in the dark, which is rarely done by experts.

When you're learning glacier skills for real, you spend hours practising self arrest and arresting other people's falls. It needs to become instinct. Marco was lucky. We don't have enough info to know whether he could have avoided injury completely in an experienced group of mountaineers who kept the rope appropriately tight and arrested him instantly, and we don't know if he could have died with an AR team with less strength and fewer skills. Regardless, the organization's crevasse rescue training likely improved the outcome for him.

Too often, I've heard people say that "it must be safe or else the organizers wouldn't let us do it". That naive belief is the crux of my concern. Most of the people here know better but there are lots of participants who don't. As Ianhoag and FB say, it is up to the racers to get through the activities safely, and everyone needs to understand that and knowingly accept that responsibility. I think if you don't have the knowledge and skills to do an activity outside of a race, you should be very, very careful about your teammates and about which organizers you trust to send you into an activity where you are highly dependent on their safety decisions, precautions and ability to help you. If they only have an AR level knowledge of whitewater, how do they know enough to set a relatively safe race course?

Yes, hard to understand the trips down that river - are they thinking about getting X1 and then reconsidering?

Ok, I'm calmer and less upset today than last night. Though I'm still upset that Vidaraid felt that Marco's life was at risk at the time of his fall, as they wrote, and I am still standing by my feeling that it was an unacceptable risk to put untrained racers on a glacier course. I am like many of you, coming to AR after many years of my own solo adventures in questionable circumstances. I'm not risk averse, and I know that shoulder dislocation can happen even when biking or trekking down a scree field. But racing across a glacier is a technically advanced skill, and the risks multiply if it's for miles. If you've never trekked about crevasses while roped together before, only reading about it and then getting a day's training, that's not enough for me. I'd make my team slow to a careful walk, to make sure every pathway decision is as 100% safe as can be. When one's a race leader, and sponsored, I can only imagine the pressure to move quickly. And Vidaraid, and I guess Yogaslackers too, found out what that means on ice.

I tried to continue this discussion on about race risks, training risks, and how devastated people would feel if something more horrible happened to Marco or anyone else. But found I couldn't really put together my thoughts well, so I'll leave it alone now. It's done, and I hope the race organizers will reach out to Vidaraid and see if there are any opportunities for improvement, or did everything happen as it should when there is an accident.

And not that it matters that much to you all, but I will continue to take risks in my own life in training and in races, but I will continue to take risks only in conditions and events where I have experience and training. Racing in and around ice is not something most AR people have done, and I strongly suggest adventure races not include this type of racing in the future.

Probably a great view for Tecnu right now standing on the edge of the canyon but also a difficult decision point as well. They look to be taking the northern side of it down which may be just slightly less steep.

Here is an image, I believe, of what Tecnu has to come down...

I wonder if Traces of Nuts (9) trip all the way down the river was a planned strategic decision. Is it possible that trip and then following the RR tracks most of the way to the TA could be faster?

Might want to check the train schedule before attempting the RR tunnel

What's the red XX where the stream joins the lake below the canyon for? Anyone? There is also WP near the RR bridge. I wish there was a race booklet available somewhere...

You've probably clicked on it and seen the helpful info provided: "Warning!!!" followed by its latitude and longitude.

According to tecnu FB, which shows a race booklet page for segment 2A, teams can take the bail out route through X1 instead of attempting the descent to Whittier. From there, they are to continue to segment 4, whatever/where ever that is!

Does it say anything about the XX control? Maybe they covered that in the race briefing. Tecnu got close to X1 but didn't go there. Given that they wouldn't be planning to bail out, there may be a story there.

Here is a link for photos of the race booklet, not sure why Tecnu didn't go to X1?
http://perpetualmotionevents.zenfolio.com/p1011282...

X1 is a bail out route. They wouldn't have needed to go there unless they were taking the bail out.

But thanks for the race book since it answers the question about XX. It is a dangerous surprise strainer!

thanks, just checked out replay map and makes sense now X1 was only for bail out.

I am super impressed with GOALS AR and NYARA, they are moving forward very well, and indeed keeping ahead of mid-pack.

Here is the RD's Day 2 update. Apparently Jason Magness slid about 500'. No wonder he was shaken up!
http://expeditionak.com/2015/06/directors-update-d...

Yogaslackers, where are you?!

Thanks for the links Bash. The link to the pics yesterday was cool too.

TrishTash (Cameltoes) is now out of the race with dehydration and a swollen knee :-(

:( Here's a photo of Cameltoes.
https://www.facebook.com/expeditionalaska/photos/n...

Day 1 video. At the start, there is a short clip of Marco's rescue. Is that Yogaslackers managing the rescue rather than Vidaraid?

Yogaslackers and Mike Kloser. Those river crossings remind me of Patagonia. Why does that guy have the rope around his neck??

What could go wrong with that? ;)

So Vidaraid, the top-ranked AR team in the world, apparently didn't feel comfortable managing their own crevasse rescue after a short practice on dry land. Hmm.

Will Yogaslackers get a time credit for the rescue? And, wish the tracker gremlins would leave them alone.

I'm sure Vidaraid could have set up the Z pull as well. I'm guessing the YS'ers are much more experienced with it.

Found this on Sleepmonsters:

The team managed to arrest the fall and hold Marco in the crevasse, but the ice was too hard for them to get pickets in properly to affect a rescue. Fortunately, Mike and another member of the safety team were close by and came back to help out, hauling Marco out of the hole.

Wonder why Everest turned around and heading backwards on the course? Curious if they're lost...

Wow, eventful start with 2 of the top 4 contenders being knocked out and continuing unranked. Obviously Marco's shoulder dislocation has knocked the favourites out of the race, denying us and Tecnu a potentially epic battle. Then there was the scary asthma attack for Chelsea Luttral who had jumped in last minute to race with Equlibre, who I had thought would duke it out with the YogaSlackers for 3rd and 4th.

As things stand now, it is Tecnu's race to lose, with the Yogaslackers presumably in 2nd, having experienced yet another total failure of their tracker. This has become a regular feature of their races for some reason...bad luck, to give the benefit of the doubt. Kudos to them and Tecnu for assissting in Marco's rescue, though - that's what's important and both those teams rose to the occasion.

The leaderboard. Has anyone been able to make sense of this thing? It doesn't distinguish between full course, short course, Adventure Experience, 2-person, unranked, DNFed or anything else.

Also, changing the "point-of-view" of the leader board by clicking on the various CPs will rank the top teams to/through that CP, but the rest is apparently still just sorted by team number. WTF?

The tracking map has some sophisticated features, if you know about them and how to work them. I wish it showed a route, colour-coded by discipline, like every other tracking map ever. Same with the leaderboard - it'd be nice to know what discipline teams are engaged in along the course.

Small quibble, but I am DYING to switch from feet and miles to something normal like meters and kilometers.

A truly sophisticated feature would be the ability to switch between metric and Imperial units.

Good on Tecnu for rescue efforts...missed that...

I am having trouble getting my work done because of all these race updates and tweets that are constantly being posted

Yogaslackers are currently in 2nd place. Check their FB page :)

Tracking Map issues (good and bad):

1. clicking the "fullscreen" button gives you a fullscreen, but the map is still cropped badly and semi-randomly and is unusable on my laptop (google chrome, 1366 x 768)

2. Metric units for the rest of the world would be nice

3.Team filters on the right are non-functional...
Teams by Category has 3 categories (Team, Crew, Media, but Crew and Media are empty and useless....
Teams by Status has Active, Finished, Scratched - again the last two are empty...
Checkpojnts and Map Layers are pretty pointless...
The Legend is handy, but shouldn't that be visible by default?

4. It seems you can only track all teams or only 1 team (in a separate tab/window). Is there no way to select say the top 3 teams so you can compare their routes and tracks and calculate splits?

5. Showing tracks is also an all or none deal. When showing all team tracks, they are all the same colour so sorting them out is all but impossible, although when you mouse-over each route it gets highlighted and tells you which team it is.

6. Love that they have the MyTopo option in addition to the regular and satellite maps. :)

7. The replay function is really, really cool. Play with it. :)

8. Love the zoom to teams and zoom to route buttons. :)

9. Show team points seems like a much less useful version of show team tracks.

10. The elevation-distance profile is cool: you can click and hold to drag it laft and right, and you can also zoom in and out. :)

Race Flow is a handy tool, although I have yet to figure out what the Leaders or Teams slection (bottom left) does. It maybe shows the top-10 teams when Leaders is selected, although the fact that it has unranked Equilibre leading reflects the leaderboard issues. When Teams is selected it them adds in 4 more teams...what about the other 6?

Still curious if Everest is lost...the time lapse shows them turning around and heading in the wrong direction. Doesn't even look like they're going for the bailout point.

Looks like they stopped for a 3 hour sleep after apparently bailing out on reaching CP7. Since then, their route has made little sense: neither CP7 nor CP8 nor the bailout...

Everest is the team that loast 2 of their packs in one of the rivers, so they are having to bail out. However, their rafts may have been in the lost packs, as well as much clothing and food were, so their choices may be limited by that. Word is a rescu team has been en route to their location...

Maybe Yogaslackers just wrap their tracker in foil and Mylar, then they drop it to the bottom of their pack?

Interesting LosDobos...didn't know they lost two entire packs, that must have been disheartening to say the least. Hopefully they are OK. It appears they are heading back to CP 6, but that would surprise me considering the distance back. Perhaps they're heading to a decided upon rescue point.

hey guys this is Earing Doug. For those of you who don't know who I am I am the founder and manager of Tecnu adventure racing. I used to race full time till 2008 but still manage the team out of love for the sport and our team. I have a lot of knowledge going on about the race and get real-time information so if you want to bounce stuff off of me feel free. Just to clarify couple things. Yogaslackers will get a 90 minute time credit for helping Marco of team Columbia get out of the crevasse. That having been said, despite the rumors I hear around there, yogaslackers are awoland have not come off the last packrafting trekking leg and are nowhere to be found. The race director is sending out a search and rescue crew to try to track them down but they are not anywhere near 2nd place at this point in the race. They obviously are struggling very hard with navigation on this last section and no one has seen them come off the mountain and put in for the packrafting section to the current TA on the lake they are on.

Wow, teams are getting mauled by this leg of the race. I hope Yogaslackers are found quickly and in good health. Is this normal for teams to get lost in an expedition AR? I guess it can't be helped when trackers end up not working. Who knows, they may not be lost, but it appears they were expected at a TA a long time ago and haven't shown up.

Thanks Doug.

Fresh from Yogaslackers FB feed:

Awesome news! Just heard from the assistant race director that they are nearing Whittier

trackers have never been efficient ways of being able to follow teams. Battery's running low. Teams forget to reset them every 24 hours. Deep in the slot canyon the signal is spotty. Lots of issues with trackers. There's never been a good solution for this problem. As much as we love to watch these races unfold by watching these little blips moving every 3 minutes, it makes it excruciatingly painful sometimes to be out of the loop. For example at last year's World Championships in Ecuador our teams spot tracker was out for hours and although I knew what was going on, the rest of the world didn't and it was one of the most amazing finishes in the history of adventure racing. You had literally fourth through 8th place battling for the finish line all within 30 minutes of each other and team Tecnu literally passed at that time the current world Champion team France a hundred yards from the finish line and you guys didn't get to see it because the trackers weren't working effectively. So I don't know what the answer is. But I'm glad to do yogaslackers are now out of the bush and soon to be in the transition area. I'm sure they're going to need a seriously long sleep before they head off on the kayaking section. I'm sure they will have some crazy epic story about being lost in the bush.

Looks like the mystery of where Everest is going is over. They're on the river with Orion heading for the bailout at a fast clip.

Glad to hear Yogaslackers have emerged. If they are in sight of TA2, I think they are still in 2nd place, because the teams ahead of them (#11 and maybe #5) have dropped people.

Regarding the "Leaderboard," there is now a spreadsheet on the race's homepage that shows the status of each team. Just scroll down a little bit.

I can't figure out how the race works in terms of rankings once sections have been dropped but I'm wondering if the team of well-experienced Kiwis (Traces of Nuts - #9) have selected a smart route by taking the bail-out early on. There is so much racecourse left and given how epic the land is, how much trekking/packrafting there seems to be, and how tough off-trail section are, dropping a bunch of the so-called 'Soul Crusher' section could have been a wise move. Only ~3.5 days left so we'll see. It would be so helpful if there was some sort of HQ-led play-by-play so as to make sense of the teams' progression and decision-making.

I think I saw that ranking will be determined by when they divert from the full course based on sections, ie. teams who complete the first three sections before opting for a short course will be ranked ahead of teams who diverted after the first two sections.

if you want to send out trail mail to respective teams like Tecnu heres the link. They're doing a good job of delivering these messages to the teams in the transition areas so go ahead and send a shout out of encouragement. The teams love it.
http://expeditionak.com/trail-mail/

earringdoug: How is the team feeling so far: mentally beat up from the course or feeling good with their comfy lead at this point? Looks like they got a little sleep in Whittier? Thanks.

the team got 2 hours sleep after the first glacier trekking leg and they banked 3 hours sleep at Whittier after the sea kayak. The team looked good after the kayak. Rob looked a little bit more tired than the rest but that's to be expected from the lead navigator and the immense amount of concentration he has been expanding in serious backcountry trying to get the team from point to point. 3 hours sleep did them good and they were moving strongly and laughing and joking heading out on the current leg that they are on. team doesn't seem to have any serious issues and they were glad to be off their feet for a while on the sea kayaking leg and then to put their feet up for 3 hours while they slept. they are not fully aware of how big their lead is as the race officials are not telling them exactly nor do they have accurate information of exactly how far the teams are behind them as trackers have not been working effectively. The team does know that they are in the lead by at least a few hours and will continue to modify the race strategy based on that and their sleep strategy. The lead is substantially more than that though. Lots of racing left at this point though. Even with a commanding lead, I've seen the wheels come off on teams in races before because they don't manage the variables well. Tecnu has four very smart people working in unison and I'm proud of the race they have been running.

watching from afar.....man all the action. this seems intense, hope folks go home in one piece!

thx doug

Nice to see Yogaslackers tracking again on the ocean paddle section after TA2. They are behind unranked Equilibre but they are 2nd of the ranked teams.

Based on the topo map, it looks like Tecnu missed the fork in the river to take the shorter route to CP17 but in the satellite photo, the southern channel looks silted up so they're probably better off. Pretty soon they should start seeing teams who took the bail out from the previous trek. It looks like they will all be trekking along the Seward Highway for quite awhile.

Almost surreal to be this far into a race like this and no cycling yet.

They'll get their bikes shortly after TA4, according to the race book.
http://perpetualmotionevents.zenfolio.com/p1011282...

Some photos of the beautiful landscape near TA2, mostly with Tecnu and Yogaslackers.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10217537...

Feel sorry for SORB. They ended up choosing the bottom valley route through the Soul Crusher and it seems a lot slower than the northern valley/ridge route. Been watching them for hours and just seems like snail's pace through that terrain! Looks like they're finally heading towards the uphill of the last hump though, wish they luck getting to the TA for some rest!

GOALS ARA's track dipped close to CP20 along the Seward Highway more than 5 hours ago and they continued on, but it looks like they didn't find it since they have turned around and are about 1 km away from CP20 now. Ouch!

I don't get why the teams aren't traveling more on the highway, seems like they're off the highway in the bush running parallel to it for much of their journey to CP 19/20/21. Is it a rule they can't use the highway?

Bash - I think GOAL AR found CP 20, the GPS just wasn't pinpoint at the spot during update periods.

From the race book for segment 4: "You may not cross or walk along any roads until after the whitewater rafting! This will result in a 'Failure to complete segment' plus 6 hour penalty" Just don't do it!"

In general, I am wondering about time credits. I think I read somewhere on FB (can't find it now) that there was a 90 time credit "rule" that was intended to include time spent and perceived exertion on the team. I looked through the book, and didn't see a reference to this rule. While rescues are *not* what anyone hopes for, I do wonder how this works in most longer if anyone wants to take a gander at explaining practice/commonly accepted rule.

i wonder how Tecnu attacked CP17 when they discovered they'd paddled up a parallel river

@Zooml, if you look at GOALS ARA's track, you'll see that they dipped close to CP20 when they were travelling on the east side of the highway. Given GPS uncertainty, I would have assumed they had visited it, however, they turned back a couple hours later and returned to CP20 on the west side of the highway, hitting it about 5.5 hours after the first time they passed by.

I don't understand the reason for the trek to CPs 19-21. Seems like a contrived section to put more time on everyone's feet. Compounding it, you can't use the road. Traffic too busy at rush hour?

JayXC... I had the same thought(s)

Me too. I think *this* section should be the one called the Soul Crusher! The rules say that teams can trek or float between CPs 20 and 21 although the floating doesn't look very appealing unless someone's feet are really trashed.

The race book says that they start rafting at CP21 but it sure doesn't look possible on the map, and that's not what Team 9 did. The teams' bikes are "hidden" shortly after TA4, which is just beyond the end of the rafting so I guess organizers figured they couldn't transport the bikes quickly enough if teams biked the highway to the rafting put-in.

@W4J, I saw that Yogaslackers were going to be given 90 minutes time credit to compensate for time and exertion but I only saw it in that specific context, not as a general rule. Time credits are usually situation-specific so they're hard to embed in a rule. Sometimes they reflect waiting time, e.g. a queue to get on a zipline or the late arrival of a gear bin. Other times, they reflect time spent on an unexpected situation like helping another team. I don't remember if I've done a race where specific time credit values were in the rules. I do remember race rules specifying that time credits would be given for helping other teams in trouble.

Traces of Nuts is moving impressively through this leg.

I'm having trouble deciphering the trackers zooming up/down/around the highway on the "play" function

Looking more closely at the satellite map, a rafting trip from CP21 to just past CP22 does look possible. That's a big "creek"! For some reason, Team 9 only tracked on the highway until right around the raft take-out but the creek is never that far away. The race book says there are just 3 rafting trips a day from CP21 with the first trip at 5 a.m and the last one at 7 p.m. Teams that have to wait will be taken off the race clock. Thus once the rafting is done, it will be difficult to figure out who is ahead of whom unless spectators are given a way to track those time credits. Also, there will be a nice advantage for teams who get a long sleep there off the clock. It might not be a terrible idea to arrive at 5: 01 a.m. although there may be time cut-offs later on that make it less advantageous. I haven't read that far ahead!

@MHtralivet, Traces of Nuts are moving so quickly that I'm wondering what is going on. There are two points 9 minutes apart where they appear to have gone about 2 miles as the crow flies. (Stupid non-metric map scale!) Both points are on the highway and have other points around them in a similar timeframe so neither one is a single bad data point. That seems more like biking speed than rafting speed.

Thanks Bash for the clarification. Onward to watching the race...

Anybody know if Rogue completed the paddling leg? They are neck-and-neck with Yogaslackers, and had a big stretch of missing data from their track between CP 8 & 15.

... like hitch-hiking speed :-)

Dang - SORB is still trying to get through Soul Crusher and must have camped out on top of Whittier mountain overnight. I shiver when I think of how that must have sucked.

Traces of Nuts is averaging over 5 mph in their current valley bottom (~4hrs): fast shuffle? Strong upstream paddle?

Must be shuffling on Resurrection Pass Trail trail or sandy river margin? There are a few tracker points which look to be off the trail near the river.

This is the trail through that valley, explains the improved ground speed.

http://www.northeastcycling.com/Alaskan_Trip_06_fi...

Anybody know why Tecnu sat at the rafting put-in through what should have been a opportunity for them to start?

to sleep. They slept for 6h..I am just wondering if the clock was off for the 6h since they decided not to start

OK, someone please help me out. My quick arithmetic isn't so hot but if it's taken Team Traces of Nuts (#9) ~17 hours to get to between CP 28 and CP 29 from the end of the raft (moving well due to a full night's sleep before the raft), it doesn't seem to me like the whole racecourse is possible. Perhaps that was already a given?

Then, how does the ranking work if a team makes a strategic decision early on, given the rafting set up and the amount of racecourse afterward, clears the course thereafter and yet another team clears the racecourse up to a point and then has to bail to the 'finish line'?

Is it as simple as 'stay on the course until further notice'? If so, then why would Team #9 bail when they were seemingly doing so well? It's tough to follow when there's no play-by-play from HQ.

I think you roll the dice on what to drop and when (if) you get lucky (make it the finish) you quickly and cleverly explain (decide on) how your meticulous planning facilitated the terrific result!! :-)

Somewhere I got the impression that teams who bailed earlier would be ranked behind teams who bailed later.

Oh, and I just saw the FB post about Tecnu sleeping. Thanks.

I read that too... earlier vs later. Don't understand it? Does that mean you try and stay on full course until you've made the podium (only 3 teams have made it that far) and then cut as much as you can to make the finish line cut-off?
That would make for an interesting post race discussion.

This is getting painful just to watch. NYARA has taken 24 hrs + to get 8k down the valley from CP18 to CP20.

NYARA's GPS hasn't checked in for over 9 hours, so they're probably a lot further along, unless you saw a status update from them recently?

I was just going by their time stamps.

News just in on SM: http://www.sleepmonsters.com/v2_races.php?article_...

re: the SM article...Goals ARA and NYARA fighting for spots in the WW rafting queue, as if these teams don't compete enough against each other, here they are head to head again!

So did Southern Exposure and Everyday Adventure skip a bunch of CPs? Seems they rocketed ahead. Which brings me to Everyday Adventure, they have a kid on their team that is like 14 y/o. Not sure if it was smart for such a race, but I give props for how far that family has gotten. Pretty badass, despite the dangers.

Those are the Personal Adventure Challenge teams - people who signed up to do selected highlights of the race with full support and some extra benefits.
http://expeditionak.com/nitty-gritty/expedition-ak...

The boy on Everyday Adventure is 14 years old, racing with his Mom, stepfather and one of their female friends. The two women have a ton of AR and other racing experience. The Dad has an outdoor and military background with some kayak, obstacle and running races. For the modified race experience they've signed up for, they should be fine - probably more qualified than some other teams!

Plus they bailed out of the first river crossing on day 1.

Roger, thanks Bash. Pretty cool regardless.

I also give props to SORB. Those guys are hanging in there.

It *is* pretty cool.

Btw FB's son Willderness (Attackpoint name) completed two expedition races in Africa before he was old enough to drink legally!

US legal or Aus legal?

Ontario, Canada legal (19).
http://www.ccsa.ca/Eng/topics/alcohol/Pages/Legal-...

However, the legal age in South Africa and Swaziland is 18 so whatever may have happened in Africa, stays in Africa. (Especially since he was racing with his Dad!)

The race book only gave teams instructions as far as TA6, the end of the Kenai Lake paddle. From there, it says there are several different routes depending on the team's pace and remaining time until the Dark Zone. It appears that most of those CPs are on our tracking map so we can get some idea about the end of the race.

Time Cut-Offs:
(Note that Segment 5 is the first mountain bike leg.)

The first time cutoff will be after Segment 5. Further time cutoffs will be in force after each of the remaining 8 segments. The main and absolute goal is to make it to the DarkZone camp no later than Saturday morning at 6:30 am latest. (You can arrive there as early as Friday night – your time will stop once you arrive, so you won’t lose time to your competitors.)

There will be no "unranked" teams. Read the "Basic Format" and "Ranking" tabs.

http://expeditionak.com/course

so what happens if Yogaslackers don't make the cut off for the WW? If they fall off the full course does anyone know if they are still eligible for the spot at worlds (for second place)? I read somewhere that those spots only go to full course team..am I right? And does it means that other short course teams can finish in fornt of them?

never mind I just read the link Bash posted...so basically a lot of team are still potential second..such a hard race to follow it's frustrating!!!

Yogaslackers spent over an hour near (but not at) CP20. Then 16 minutes later (and 10K as the crow flies), there is a tracking point at CP21, the start of the rafting. That's their last tracking point, more than 11 hours ago. (Lots of teams disappeared at CP21 for awhile as they slept and then rafted.) Their FB page posted this news late Wednesday night and hasn't posted anything since:

Update- Apparently Dan is in rough shape. A fungal infection on his foot and severe IT band pain. They are currently on a long paddle and will most likely not make the cutoff to paddle the rapids at 6 mile. That said, they are still in second place without taking the bailout and are still racing as an intact team.

so did they make the cutoff? I thought the cut off at the WW was 7pm?

Although the Yogaslackers' FB status mentions a cut-off, there are no cut-off times mentioned in the race book. According to the main website, the first time cut-off was supposed to be at the start of the Kenai Lake paddle but maybe organizers implemented an additional one. The one true cut-off is getting to the Dark Zone Camp (wherever it is) by 6:30 a.m. tomorrow. It is 4 hours earlier than Ontario time.

The last rafting trip of the day is 7 p.m. so I guess that was a cut-off of sorts last night - but only if they aren't offering the 5 a.m. trip today. Hopefully, the Yogaslackers got a good sleep. They were at CP21 before 7 p.m. but it looks like they arrived by vehicle.
:(

sorry true it wasn't a cut off as such but i thought there were only 3 departures for the rafting and the last one being at 7pm...I suppose they keep on hiking to their bikes if they miss it...just saw your last post that they arrived by vehicule :/

Meanwhile, according to FB, Tecnu slept 2 hours at the end of the bike and are now preparing to start the 32 mile paddle on Kenai Lake, estimated to take 7-8 hours. Earring Doug says there is still a chance they can complete the entire course.

It's inspiring to see Yogaslackers continuing on as best they can. The pain Dan must have pushed through with that foot fungus makes me cringe. I think it was Addidas/TERREX who dropped out of Worlds because of foot fungus... then it cleared up within a few hours of putting some antifungal cream on it. Hopefully, YS got some antifungal cream. Of course Dan is also dealing with ITB pain, and it's no walk in the park to get to Lake Kenai.

UPDATE! The teams visiting all TAs (full course) are yellow. The purple teams opted for the bail out before Whittier.

It doesn't seem quite as simple as that. Equilibre is purple too. I haven't reviewed them all.

No sign of the Yogaslackers' tracker for almost 17 hours and nothing on their FB page since Wednesday night.

Note that yellow teams are those visiting all Transition Areas, not necessarily all CP's.

I'm anxious for a Yogaslacker update, too. Due to the lack of tracking since they got to CP21, I'm guessing they are doing the rafting. Most teams have had no tracker during that section. It seems like they will not have time to complete the paddling on Kenai Lake before 6:30am.

It also looks like they may have gone from CP20 to CP21 by vehicle unless there was a weird tracker anomaly. I hope someone will explain everything soon!

Yogaslackers tracker appeared again at CP28 about an hour ago! If they got all the CP's up to that point, they still have a chance of clearing the course. The weather forecast shows the wind easing a bit after 10pm, so the paddling might be a bit easier than it was during the day today. There is a tent symbol at CP 21, so I'm assuming they slept there last night, and hopefully were able to raft down the river right at 5am.

My screen is showing green, not purple, for short course teams (despite the symbol in the legend being purple).

Does anyone have any news about Orion? Their tracker keeps moving, and that's good, but I haven't seen them in more than a couple of photos from day one.

Orion are on the short course, currently paddling Kenai Lake near several other teams, and they're in 11th place. And... that's all the info I can find - which I'm sure you already had.

Heck, I'm not even sure what teams are doing after they finish paddling Kenai Lake, now that our photos of the race book have run out. It looks like Tecnu biked to CP35, which is described as an O Course on the leaderboard, so maybe they dropped their bikes and went out on foot? The speeds look about right. They seem to be headed from CP35 to CP34. After that, maybe they'll go 33, 39, 38, 37 on foot? Any other guesses? Sleepmonsters...? Expedition AK Facebook page...? Where are you?

Although it could be fun to mess with tRicky's mind, I'm seeing little green teams now too. ;)

You'll need to do better than that. Tash dropped out of the race three days ago... aaaand that's all I know about that. Haven't heard a word since. Not overly concerned with what colours the trackers are or aren't meant to be.

Well, that sucks. I'm surprised dropped racers aren't given a satellite phone to make one call. :(

I guess if she were feeling unwell enough to return to the lodge or check into a hospital, you would have received news. If you've heard nothing for 3 days, she must be feeling well enough to stay out in the boonies. Still, it stinks not having real info.

You might try asking some of the teams who have Facebook pages since some of them seem more responsive than the race FB page and/or they seem to have connections on the ground. Maybe Rogue Adventure? Tecnu?

Some nuggets from Facebook about two teams who are still listed as being on the full course:

- SORB did not visit TA4 but were taken directly to TA 5 (missing the white water section and the bike).

- Rogue Adventure made it onto the water for the ocean kayak (Leg 3), but were pulled off the water again after the first checkpoint due to dangerous weather conditions. From the tracker it looks like they then did the trek out of Whittier (leg 4) before being transferred to the start of the white water section. This decision was made to allow the team to complete this section before the final cut-off for this stage later today.

- The system for the race is that there are rolling (flexible) cut-offs in which the race organisers will move teams forward to ensure that the teams get to the White water raft within the designated time.

I haven't found anything to indicate whether Yogaslackers missed anything or were transported ahead.

OK, I guessed totally wrong about Tecnu. They went north from CP35 for awhile to do an orienteering course, probably. Then they came back, picked up their bikes or boats or whatever (their return track is shown on the water) and visited CP36 before rolling into TA7. There are supposed to be "12 phases" in the race and there are still 9 unvisited CPs on the tracking map, plus the finish. Suspense!

Short course team Traces of Nuts are ahead, and they also appeared to bike to CP35 and return on the water. Maybe it's frozen so they can bike on it? After TA7, they (apparently) biked back north toward CP37. CPs 38 and 39 are on the Lost Lake Trail, which looks like some tough, hilly biking. Then my guesses run out.

Sleepmonsters posted something!

- After a number of hurried evacuations and bus trips, only SORB, Orion and Cameltoes missed the whitewater rafting. They were bussed up to a campground up Palmer Creek, outside of Hope, to see their bikes for the first time since they boxed them up at McKinley Lodge five days ago.

- From the end of the lake [TA6], just outside of Seward, the teams are routed onto one of the 5 possible options; one trek, three bike stages and a packraft, with a possible extra coasteering section if any team looks like completing all of the other five, though that's unlikely.

- As far as rankings go, we know Tecnu are leading. We believe Yogaslackers and Equilibre [3-man] are second and third. We know that teams finishing as three-man will still be ranked, but will rank below any managing to finish as full 4-man.

http://www.sleepmonsters.com/v2_races.php?article_...

According to the Yogaslacker FB page...
"Yahoo! The team has made it to TA 5 and is great spirits. Dan is a CHAMP and completed the mountain bike section with a broken spoke, using one leg on sections and dealing with the pain of some weird foot fungus. Thank you for all your love and support! We are charging up their iPods for a sweet all night dance party paddle!"

Poor Dan! They are still on the water shortly after 7 a.m., although they're within a few kms of TA6. The website says "The main and absolute goal is to make it to the Dark Zone camp no later than Saturday morning at 6:30 am latest." We weren't told where the Dark Zone camp is but since TA6 is where teams have started doing a selection of short segments, that is probably the place. Given Yogaslackers' time credit, I assume they will be considered to have made the time cut-off.

Huh. Another place on the website says there is a Dark Zone cut-off at 20:00 today at Seward, which is TA7.

After 16 hours, Tecnu is back at TA6, which is also CP40. It's impossible to know how many extra segments they have completed but they've been to half the CPs marked on the tracking map. The Tecnu FB page says the course has been changed and hints that CPs 33 and 34 may not be on the course anymore.

Looking at the other podium teams (to this point), Rogue finished the Kenai Lake paddle a few hours ago, and Yogaslackers will arrive soon. Thus they haven't started any of the final race segments. The Tecnu FB page says Tecnu is the only team to complete the entire course to this point. That info isn't available from the leaderboard or tracking map so they would have to obtain it from someone on the ground, if its accurate.

So Tecnu has already won the race and they just need to make their way to the finish line from here. (Is it Seward?) It looks like there are more race segments to increase their winning margin and associated bragging rights but an ill-timed bike mechanical or broken bone could snatch the win away. CPs 41-43 look relatively safe and are pretty much on the way to Seward so maybe they'll do that and call it a day. If CPs 33-34 really are out, that only leaves CP52 on a mountain top near Seward. Not worth it.

Does anyone know the finish cut-off? The only info I can find is "July 4" and "6.5 day race".

Looks like GOALS ARA is heading over to the O section at CP35, making good use of the final hours of the race. I read that Abiperk took the brunt of a wasp nest - yikes!!

The race finish is the Seward Mountain Marathon. It stared at 9am their time. The race is supposed their own wave.

I'd forgotten that twist! Maybe that happens shortly after tonight's 20:00 cut-off at Seward? That's probably what CP52 represents then.

Teams are spread out all over the place at the moment (11 a.m. their time). Tecnu is back on the move, probably heading to CPs 41-43 on their way to Seward.

Teams are all gathering at CP43, ready for the Seward Mount Marathon. Race is almost done!

In the absence of news from the race we're trying to follow, here's a story about the mysterious disappearance of a runner in the Seward Mount Marathon in 2012.
http://www.adn.com/article/20141015/lemaitre-mount...

Holy smokes I thought it was a marathon, reprise MarkVT in WT 2013. 3.1m 1000ishm of climb

In other news Yogaslackers are solidly in 2nd waiting for the race start.

What a week for all the racers. Can't wait to hear their perspective. And I appreciate the excitement while I have been nursing my bum ankle.

According to the Yogaslackers' FB page, teams will do the race course at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

The public race was held today and was won by newcomer Kilian Jornet Burgada in 41:48.

The top woman was Emelie Forsberg in 47:48.

The Mount Marathon is an informal finish leg that won't change the result:

1) Tecnu
2) Yogaslackers
3) Rogue

Congratulations!!

Kilian crossing the Mount Marathon finish line today in course record time.
https://www.facebook.com/iRunFar/photos/a.10259337...

Congrats to all
And just in time. The confusion was overwhelming me!!!!
:-)

Yeah the 'marathon' is done after the finish dinner. Weird.

Also I got an email from Tash saying she rejoined her team for some of the packrafting and kayak stages but can't do any MTB or trekking so no Mt Marathon finish for her.

Glad you heard from Tash! The media should be careful to avoid worrying families and friends with words like "incoherent" unless they can say in the same paragraph, "She's just fine now and is rejoining her teammates for some paddling." Before Wilderness Traverse, I send a detailed message to volunteers and media to warn them to avoid mentioning injuries and illness in a worrisome way on social media or in news articles.

There is an awards luncheon on the EA schedule today too, then the bus leaves for Anchorage at 5 p.m. It looks like they were asked to return their trackers already since they should be on Mount Marathon right now if they started at 10 a.m. Alaska time. Only Rogue's tracker is on the mountain, and they are most of the way down now.

Final Sleepmonsters article describing today's run/trek.
http://www.sleepmonsters.com/v2_races.php?article_...

The rankings will be finalized later and updated on the leaderboard but Tecnu, Yogaslackers and Rogue will remain 123.

Thanks tRicky for news of Tash. Glad she could resume some of the adventure.

She says she probably won't do our state MTBO champs when she gets back this weekend :-( She was initially concerned about the lack of competition and winning without any opponents; now there are others signed up but she can't ride!

Final standings have been published on the race home page if you scroll down. Congrats to all the Attackpointers (and everyone else!) who raced so well in a tough environment.
http://expeditionak.com/

That was fun. Does anyone know where I can find the trail mail messages? 5 hour layover in Seattle.

Hey, huge congratulations Kyle!! I'm not sure the trail mail is online. If it is, I haven't seen it and can't find it now. Event organizers focused on their participants and race course, not on the spectators. The GPS tracking was better than average but we had very little text news. Sometimes I was looking at your dots and trying to figure out what discipline you were doing! Safe travels home.

Well done Kyle. Amazing effort.

Good job.

5hrs... enough time to write a race report! :-)

I think the trail mail was only available to the participants, if you could believe the organiser's claims of getting it to them at all the TA's! I never found it online.

Fun to read all of you guys. I really whish we stayed fully ranked... Expedition Alaska was a hard race and it suited us very well. Chasing ARWS podium is tough, next time I guess.

Great job Alex!!!

Awesome job, Alex! Tough luck but you kept on racing and had a fantastic result.

Kyle will be on this weeks podcast talking about the race

what's that podcast?

It's called TA1. Can't wait to hear it

Kyle, hope you have a few words for how you feel going straight into cowboy tough!

My bad. http://adventureraceworld.podomatic.com/?try=1

Looking forward to the race reports! As an outsider, it appeared that the event was very well organized with excellent support. There are different views on whether the glacier leg was appropriately safe for AR but there's no argument that the race course was spectacular, varied and wild. It made me want to go to Alaska tomorrow!

As spectators, we enjoyed great GPS tracking but the race desperately needed better communications to provide race course descriptions and timely news to spectators.

If APers write race reports, could you please post links here for us? Thanks!

Lots of fun to read all the commentary post-race. Working on a report for Team GOALS ARA.

Here Kyle Peter on the TA1 Podcast talking about the race.
http://adventureraceworld.podomatic.com/entry/2015...

Great work Kyle, Alex, everyone!

Anyone know of a guy called Mike Closure (sp?) Apparently he 'borrowed' Tash's map board and drink bottle holder from her bike without permission (went through her bike box) because she wasn't racing, then her team needed a backup map board and it wasn't there!

Oh, the trail mail wasn't being received on course either as I suspected so glad I didn't send much!

Mike Kloser? Never heard of him.

Ahh yes I recognise the correct spelling now. It was just the way Tash said it.

Since my hands a just now becoming less swollen and feel like they are covered with wax paper I am behind in writing anything up:
What I posted to FB:
Here's my race report: 5am in a cold parking lot full of racers and gear next to a glacier fed river, Mudflap yells out in his best late 80s glam rock voice "Let's go Raftin......I love my Liiiife!!!!"
That pretty much sums up the bazaar craziness that is expedition racing. I Love my LIFE!!!!!!!

Better write up from teammate. It was her first big race, so she was in for an experience: http://charlottebrekkan.com/2015/07/09/home-from-a...

Comments based on thread that I came up with:
Trail mail: I got it three different TAs and talk to the very upset volunteer who couldn't find it at another because someone moved it on her.

course: Was assume. David told everyone before hand it would be rugged and epic. Your team was your best source of safety. It was what racing used to be like and what I hope it will be like in the future.

Safety: I never felt unsafe, but there were times you have to focus on what you were doing because the risk was high if you messed up.

RD and crew: A little rough and free wheeling, but the racers always came first. A few last minute decisions/changes that could have gone smoother. Once race started there were no issues and everything ran smoothly until last TA. Likely my state of mind made the directions way more complicated then they really were.

Over all: If there is another Expedition AK, I'll be there and recommend it to everyone who wants a expedition more then just a extra long fast/trail dominated course.

Two reports from Team GOALS ARA --

A highlights reel from me: http://havedentalflosswilltravel.wordpress.com/201...

A detailed play-by-play from Brent: http://brentfreedland.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-las...

A bit slow to get this link up but here is Tecnu's race report
http://issuu.com/robpreston0/docs/expedition_alask...

Thanks NSW Stinger and everyone for a great report. It must have been amazing.