Explore Sweden
Wet and windy the order of the day
Susan McKenzie / 14.05.2005
The wind made its presence known a scant hour after the race began. Gale force winds forced the cancellation of two checkpoints (7 and 8), reducing the triptych circuit of a peaks to a solo summit.The teams got their first taste of bluster on the way up to the Via Ferrata. With snowy mountains and a frozen lake as a backdrop, they had to climb up to the ropes. With winds blowing a constant sixty to seventy kilometres an hour (never mind the gusts), racers were sometimes bent over double to stay on the rocks. An open Gore-Tex would have easily given anyone enough air to take flight. Conversation was virtually impossible, as the wind carried the word off the rocks and down into the valley.
The hail began to pelt down as Lundhags arrived at the Via Ferrata in first place. “We took a different route, I think,� said Bjorn Rydvall.
Route choices didn’t seem to make that much of a difference at this stage, because just minutes behind the Swedes came a rush of teams. Soon there was a backlog at the ropes, as GoLite/Timberland, Nike ACG/Balance Bar, Salomon Suisse, Montrail and SOLE Custom Footbeds all awaited their turn.
With the cancellation of the two checkpoints, teams were running ahead of schedule and so arrived back at the Hotel Kittelfjall (pronounced Shittel-fee-all, in case you’ve been wondering) a scant three hours or so after leaving it at the start. Salomon Suisse had taken the lead, and they were quick to change into their wetsuits, pick up their kayaks to begin the wheel-assisted portage to the first kayak leg, a twenty-two kilometre stretch of water where paddling would only take them so far.
“Be careful here in this section,� race director Mikael Nordstrom warned the racers. “You do not want to tip here, or you will be very, very cold. That’s why you must wear ice clothes in the kayak section.�
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