Montane Adventure Race
The Dutchables in Denmark at the Montane Adventure Race
Press Release / 04.08.2021
Last Saturday a little part of the Dutchables AR teams started in the Masters category of the Montane Adventure Race in Denmark: Marijn and Paula formed a mixed team of 2.
After a good night sleep in our tents at the venue at Faksinge Skov, we were welcomed by Lars and his team. After a briefing in Danish (we got our private translator) we were sent off on a short orienteering prologue, quickly followed by a biking stage. This took us to the start of the kayak stage. Originally this would have been 32 km kayaking, first to an island where we would have to do an orienteering part and then some more kayaking on open water. However, the winds were quite strong, so this stage was shortened to one photo CP and a short (but in the end way too long, because those kayaks are HEAVY) transfer overland.
At first I was a bit sad that we had to skip the orienteering part, but after some wrestling (looooooong wrestling) with my kayak in the heavy side winds I was glad it wasn't any longer. I even had to change kayaks with Marijn, because my right arm was too tired to steer the stupid thing in the right direction. Very happy that my knight in waterproof armor came to my rescue!
After that ordea,l I was done for. At least for the coming hours... so Marijn, chivalrous as he is, took over the navigation of the orienteering stage that was next. I think we got to see all corners of that little peninsula, it was beautiful!
Still within the deadlines, we hopped on our bikes again for another short biking stage. This one led us to an old limestone factory. The adjacent quarry was still in use, the factory not any more. So we could walk through it, up the ramp where the conveyor belt had been to the top of the silo. And what is the fastest way down (apart from jumping)? Yes, rappelling! How cool is that?!
The following orienteering was in the limestone quarry, the only place in Denmark where you can find steep ascents. Marijn and I had some difficulty finding obvious things like... stones (in the middle of a thick bush), but we managed to find all CPs. We had to! Another team was also looking for that one CP, but decided to skip it. We met them at the next CP and explained where to look for it. They went back, but had an unfortunate fall, one of their team members cutting their hand quite badly. I have to say, the red blood on the white limestone looked pretty, but that guy was very unlucky! He had to go to the hospital to get stitches.
We on the other hand were still in one piece (on Monday I found additional pieces I apparently took home with me that used to belong to those nasty prickly shrubs) and were off on our last biking stage. The long one ...
Thinking of Denmark, you don't imagine a lot of hills. There aren't a lot of hills, but the rolling landscape is amazing! In the first part of this stage we found ourselves on a mandatory part which went through the forest. It was like flying!
Then came the part that was dubbed Adventure Bike (Bike what you can, push the rest). We had no idea what to expect... and maybe if you weren't there it doesn't seem too hard to find yourself in a thick bush. Well, let's say biking there was a challenge.
Next we followed some mountain bike tracks to something we should also introduce in the Netherlands: fixed orienteering poles! There is a vast network of orienteering poles (with clippers) in Denmark, which you can use to make your own orienteering adventure! Lars used part of this network in this stage. The challenge for me was to get the holes (from the clippers) in the right box.
Since we were still within all deadlines, we were allowed to ride through Stenskoven, then we only had to do a few more fixed poles and back to the venue (a school) where we had started that morning.
Marijn had the brilliant idea to pick up a bag of "wokkels" at the tent, which we took with us to the last stage: vertical orienteering. Mandatory equipment: climbing gear... and proof that you knew what you were doing. So while Marijn was hoisting himself to a tree branch 15 m in the air, I did the slackline CP (I'm quite the ballerina, hahahaha). After the proof we were sent off into the same woods from the prologue.
We had to do CPs in 3 categories: no rope, with rope and ascending. First, I got to climb a giant ladder (no rope) to our first CP. Then we found that the first CP with rope was a tree where the first few meters had to be conquered by climbing a rope. Time to use my Survival Run skills! Marijn was helping a lot by pulling the safety rope very tight. In no time I was up in the tree clipping the CP!
The bext one was ascending, which is the (new found) speciality of Marijn. He's pretty handy in pulling, pushing, pulling again... I'm glad he did those, it's HARD!
Since I apparently love climbing trees I did the next one with rope too, and also the one next to it without rope. It's just cool to climb trees, it brings back the kid inside you!
Then came a challenging one: a rope ladder, hanging from a branch. That's not very stable, but Marijn had the good tip to put one leg on the back of the ladder, to keep it from tipping over. That worked so I climbed to the CP at (I think) about 20m high. Down is always easier...
The last one without rope was funny, Marijns subconsciousness navigated us directly towards it!
Then there was only one left: an ascending one. This one was even harder, the rope was a tad too big for the grigri, so Marijn had to pull extra hard. But he made it to the CP at 20m high!
Back at the finish line we had smiles as wide as our faces and handed over the "klippekort" to Lars. We had an awesome day out in the Danish countryside, topped off with that brilliant last stage. Full course finish in 16,5 hours!
So if you ever wonder if it's worth to drive to Denmark for this race, I can assure you: YES!
And as for the next Dutchables adventure... that might be something a bit more to the south of Europe... We'll keep you posted!
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