The Hebridean Challenge is Back
Rob Howard / 10.12.2012
An event with a racing pedigree going back to 1994 is making a comeback in the 2013 calendar.
No, it’s not Eco-Challenge – that didn’t take place until 1995 and it was pre-dated by ‘The Western Isles Challenge’. This ground breaking race took place during the late 1990’s and 2000, and later morphed into the ‘Hebridean Challenge’, which ran on and off for the next 10 years. Next year a third decade of racing through the Hebridean Isles off the North-West coast of Scotland will begin with a re-launched and revised version of the ‘Hebridean Challenge’.
The new version of this classic event will take place from Sept. 5-7th, beginning from the ferry port of Oban, and taking teams of 3 and solo racers out into the Hebridean island chain for a 3 day race through stunning scenery, with stops each night hosted by local communities. Information can be found at www.theheb.org, though there are still many details to arrange. ‘The Heb’ has been welcomed back by UK racing community, and especially those who have raced it in the past and thought it had passed into racing folklore after the last event in 2010.
It’s a race which has always been much loved and the islands have made a lasting impression on all who have raced there, but it’s had an up and down history, with many different organisers/planners working on it, and the format changing over the years.
The first Western Isles Challenge in 1994 took racers through the whole length of the island chain, starting by the iconic castle on Barra and finishing at the lighthouse at the Butt of Lewis, perched high on the cliffs over the North Atlantic. This ‘route’ has been both the making and the breaking of the event – it takes racers across barren mountain landscapes, vast bogs, endless beaches, deep sea lochs and perilous sea crossings between the islands. It is a setting that is perfect for adventure racing, with varied and difficult terrain, testing navigation, changeable and sometimes severe weather, all in a location which is remote and has its own unique culture and history.
The first Western Isles Challenge was a totally new (and never repeated) concept, with teams competing in relay and allowed to visit checkpoints by whatever route and human powered means they chose. It was an adventure free-for-all, with competitors taking wildly different routes and tactics. Some even carried parapentes up hills and flew off, and at times windsurfers and toppers were competing again kayakers.
