HUAIRASINCHI
Terra Aventura Win Huairasinich - A Dream Come True
Joaquin Lopez / 31.05.2017
The weather was terrible the whole month before the race. People said we were going through the worst winter in more than 30 years. Definitely, not the best news knowing the race was coming close and that we will be over 2500 meters above sea level for more than 60 hours However, that’s what adventure racing is all about and we have to adapt to the conditions.
We packed a lot of clothes, we decided this was one of those races comfort was more important than weight, and the extra jacket, gloves, socks, plus a good sleeping bag were key for finishing the course.
After Tierra Viva 2015, and XPD World Champs 2016 we arrived at Huairasinchi with more experience than we’d had at the Huairasinchi World Champs in 2014. We didn’t had a great race back then and for all of us this Huairasinchi was a new opportunity to prove ourselves that we can do better.
We were very excited to see 23 teams on the Elite Category with 10 international teams. Knowing we had such a strong field for us a top 5 finish was more than a dream come true. We were really hoping to do as better but being realistic having Yogaslackers, Team Agde, Fenix, Movistar, and Urtzi with San Juan Aventura, we didn’t expect to do any better than 5th.
The Race: Stage 1: 62km Trek
The course was a tough one, just by seeing the maps we knew it was going to be one of the most epic Huairasinchi races of all times.
We started at 7:00am in Zuleta, a small village North of Quito. We started with the longest and most strenuous trek of the race: 62km, lots of elevation, hard navigation and many tough muddy trails. For the first time in our lives, the first stage could be the game changer, and it was. 10 teams dropped out on this stage. As we walked up into the mountains we were already with a huge smile as we were walking next to Urtzi, Nick Gracie, Paul Galode, Jason Magness and their amazing teammates, something we had never imagined before.
Felipe was very concentrated and accurate with the navigation and hours passed by and we kept on the lead pack going through some very wet and technical terrain sometimes with mud up to our knees, breaking our way through the deep bushes or sinking in swamps waist deep. Night arrived and temperature dropped a lot, as we were getting to the most exposed ridge at high altitude, things started to get real! We were glad we had so many clothes with us, even though the weather was terrible as we walked we were not extremely cold and we were able to stop to eat, drink water and navigate well.
We took a right path after checkpoint #7, Team Movistar, and Life Adventure that were with us stayed for longer on the exposed ridge and we were able to gain some precious time over them. We were feeling good and had energy to increase the pace so we decided we should move faster to lose them and get out of sight. We got to the TA after 21 hours and as we went out of the TA after 45 minutes, we saw no signs of the other teams. Is this really happening? Are we in the lead of Huairasinchi? We knew we didn’t had much time before getting caught again, so instead of getting crazy we just decided to keep doing our race and don’t worry about the reality.
Stage 2: 21km bike
We were making great progress until we got to a section where the maps were very hard to understand and there was several prohibited roads so we had to be extra careful not make a mistake and end up on one of those. After looking all over, we decided to just go with the bearing and fight against anything in our way to our destination. This meant coming through some exposed almost vertical terrain that we had to work as a team to get the bikes and us safely down, but we made it! Probably not the best route, but we got safely to the TA. Still first.
Stage 3: 28km Trek
3 hours on the bikes was not enough before we were back on our feet walking, ouch!! This hike had the particularity that from the beginning we had to climb more than 1200 vertical meters to the highlands. Again, ouch! It was good we got going very early in the morning because we knew that the navigation could be tricky up in the mountain at night, even more with the crazy cold weather.
Awesome navigation again as we fought through the bushes breaking our way. It was our first time leading a race and let us take the credit for opening those dense bushes. Every race before when we got to bushwhacking sections, the path had been already walked by so it is easier to move and less energy consuming.
As we gained altitude, we started to get into more walkable trails in the “páramo” but now the problem was even worst, actually so bad we were just ready to open the radio. Gonzalo had always suffered from altitude, he has been diagnosed Edema twice in his life and suffers badly with altitude. He started feeling extremely bad, no strength at all, coughing all the time, pale, nauseous, just a complete disaster. We walked 5 minutes and stopped, he was more of a zombie than a human. We started to get scared about Edema but as we were very close to the summit and about to drop in elevation the best was just to get through that high pass as fast as possible.
We helped Gonzalo with his pack, pulled the towline out pushed hard to try to get out of here. We took this decision as I was already trying to find the radio in my backpack, the race for us was not even considered, his health was our main issue at the moment. Credit to him for putting up such a strong fight while feeling like crap and keeping moving with such severe attitude sickness.
As soon as we dropped down, he started to feel better and better, very weak but at least not coughing and nauseous any more. We were impressed no team had caught us yet, but we saw them coming closer on the ridge. We got to the TA after about 10 hours absolutely stoked to still be first!
Stage 4: 12km Bike
A ride with no major issues just a way to connect the TA with San Pablo Lake. About 5km to reach the lake as we turned on our headlamps it started to rain, but it was not a casual rain, it was pouring! Not the best scenery to do a transition and to get in the water, but we were determined to keep moving, motivated to get the kayaking done before getting some good sleep. This transition was chaotic! Teams from the adventure category where arriving and the floor of the basketball field, where our transition boxes were located, was flooded. We just didn’t felt comfortable and manage to do a fast transition taking way longer than necessary.
Stage 5: 15km Kayak
Difficult to say this but after paddling more than 200km at the Worlds in Australia we were kind of happy to get in the water. As Ecuadorians we suck at paddling, we don’t have anywhere to train and without kidding we barely know the correct paddling technique or how to avoid going in zigzags in the water.
However, what is 15km if we managed more than ten times that on the Shoalhaven River at the World’s in Australia. We did a great job, superb navigation to find all the CP’s and in less than 3 hours we were out of the water. As we approached the shore, we saw 2 teams starting their way to CP #1. We were worried about our French friends on Team Agde who we knew would crush our paddling time and had already slept. Again, we were checkmated in the TA with so much water around and also as we were shivering cold!
In the TA there was also the Czech Team and other Ecuadorean Teams, the race was coming close! Here we got the news that the next trekking leg was canceled due to terrible weather conditions so we should only do a crazy long bike stage of more than 160km and 5000 meters of elevation gain. Ouch! We saw the maps and realized we had to cross a touristy town in less than 10km, and as there was nowhere to sleep in the TA, crazy noise and it was raining we decided to make it to Otavalo to get some sleep.
Stage 6 - 175km Bike:
We started as the rain was banishing somewhere around mid-night. The way to the touristic town Otavalo was a total disaster, we were falling asleep, the maps didn’t make much sense or probably to be realistic we were all just too tired and nothing made sense to anyone. Moreover, we were grumpy as we got two flat tires and we were not making much progress. As we got to Otavalo and we discovered a phantom town at 2:00am a game changer emerged unexpectedly, a 24 hour hostel just next to the checkpoint. It really was like seeing an oasis in a middle of the Sahara desert! For $25 we got the best 1h 20minutes sleep of our lives. When we woke up we didn’t know what was going on and where we were.
As we came out covered in layers to embrace the cold dawn we ran into our French friends of team Agde! We met before the race with them as I helped them with the acclimatization the previous week traveling around the Ecuadorean Mountains, so even though we were bummed to get caught, we were happy to meet them in the race, it was a real honor for us and we were feeling lucky to have that chance.
We biked together for several hours until we got to the real deal. An uphill without any rests (and by any I’m not lying) that took us more than 5 hours to reach the summit. In here as we got back again to the altitude and with our golden sleep, we were able to leave behind Agde. We got to the summit pass destroyed but happy, we knew all the teams were going to suffer up that hill and we were glad it was over.
Our joy didn’t last long, as we were enjoying our way down the mountains, stopping again to fix another flat tyre, Felipe warned us he saw on the map a hill probably more intense than the one we had just climbed. I still remember him telling us and not believing him, my mind just didn’t wanted to listen, that couldn’t be real. Well it was! We started all again, from down under to the highlands. Ouch, ouch, ouch!
Once more pouring rain! There is no more I can say about that climb. It might be the toughest of our lives for sure. When we asked the locals how much time to the top they laughed and said that it can only be made my car, motorcycle or horse, not by bikes, and that there was no way we could make it to the other side. We didn’t have an option, so just put our heads down and kept going.
We got to the top with an amazing sunset that claimed our victory to the hill. We turned head-lamps to full power and now it was time to go down to pretty much the same elevation we’d been up to. We all felt like our French friends were right on our heels so we just kept seeing back in search for lights, but saw nothing.
We decided that instead of rushing our way to the finish it was better to take care of ourselves as we were starting to feel sleepy and there was a lot of downhill riding. After several hills and totally crashed by our effort we got to the finish line of Huairasinchi ARWS after 62h 26min without believing what was going on. Is this really happening? I still believe it was a dream and the alarm didn’t go off at the Otavalo Hostel.
We have no words to describe what this race meant to us, it has really been a crazy and unbelievable journey with friends. That’s the real secret, enjoy your time with your fellow teammates, push hard and good things will happened.
We want to thank our families and friends that for their amazing support. In 10 years of racing together they have been key to this long process.
Thanks also to our sponsors that believe in these skinny and rather short group of friends and make this possible:
Finalin / Blue Card / Tatoo Adventure Gear / Energy Nutricion Deportiva / Adidas Sport Eyewear / Inti Charqui
What’s Next? Xtrail China in tourism/ traveling mode. Still too tired to even try to be competitive and with such strong teams, but definitely very motivated to have the opportunity to race in such a remote and beautiful part of the world.
Team: Terra Aventura – Finalin
Members: Joaquín Lopez (24 years old), Victoria Calisto (26 years old), Felipe Munchmeyer (26 years old), Gonzalo Espinosa (28 years old)
Distance: 380km
Time: 62h 26min
Elevation Gain: 12,000+ meters
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