Ford Ranger get a great 3rd at Ukatak

Rob Howard / 28.02.2002

The world’s hardest winter adventure race is over, and half British team, ‘Ford Ranger’ have survived to take 3rd place. It’s a great result for Pete James and ‘Ski’ Sharp, who don’t get much skiing and snow shoeing practice. (Ski lives in Gibraltar.)

With team mates Torielle Perreur-Lloyd and Doug Cousineau they kept moving in “unseasonally warm conditions” (not much below –20C!) to reach the finish line in 5 days 13 hours 30 minutes. They were running 4th for much of the race, but towards the end Team CIMA Quebec, who were just ahead of them, dropped out due to an injury.

In the warm conditions there was lots of fresh snow, and Iiro Kakko of winning team Lapin Kulta from Finland said, “It was very much a foot race. In adventure racing, usually you can spend time on your feet, then some time cycling, then some time paddling. So you can rest your feet. But this race, when we cycled we often had to carry our bikes, and when we ice canoed we had to run across the ice, and then we skied and snowshoed. So we were always on our feet, the whole time.”

Lots of walking suited Ford Ranger though, who were described by race reporter Susan McKenzie as turtles! “They go slowly, but they keep going”. She said they couldn’t ski either! Despite that, and with a multi-national team put together at the last minute, they were one of only 4 teams to complete the tough course, and were ahead of experienced French team Novadry Colas. Reflecting on the race Pete James said, “It was a good team to race with, wild scenery, and plenty of adventure! I thought the ice canoeing was great and didn’t mind going in up to my waist at one point.”

You can see all the race reports on www.ukatak.com and use the GPS tracking to see their route.