Patagonia Expedition Race

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Patagonian winter strikes fear in international racers

Jacqueline Windh / 17.06.2006

I’m leaving the long days of northern summer for a six-day race taking place in the depths of Patagonian winter... and looking ahead to what’s in store!

Before starting on my long journey to the other end of the globe, I had a chance to conduct an email interview with Patagonia Expedition Race director Stjepan Pavicic. Stjepan has now organized three summer editions of the race that is considered by many to be the toughest race on the planet (mainly because of the completely wild and savage landscape, most of it completely untouched by any roads or even trails). Teams must have ace navigational skills, sometimes not passing by any sort of checkpoint for two to three days at a time.

But Patagonian winter is another story! For one thing, the long daylight hours of these high latitudes in summer are reduced in winter. On the first day of the race, winter solstice, the sun will not even rise until 9:00 am, and will remain low in the sky until sunset at 4:30. That’s seven and a half hours of feeble slanted light.

Assuming that the weather and the few daylight hours would change the format of this race significantly, I had more than a few questions for Stjepan.

Q. How will this winter edition differ from your summer races?
A. We have modified the format of the race, in order to face the winter conditions here with high safety standards. Therefore, we will only be racing during the day, and during the long nights (16 hours) we can get together to share the experiences of the day. It will be a staged race, but each stage will always be set in the most astounding natural environment. The other big difference is the make-up of the teams – they will be in pairs, mixed or male, and in the summer edition we always have mixed teams of four.

Q. What are the disciplines?
A. We will still have the same disciplines as usual, trekking, mountain biking and kayaking, but we will also be using snowshoes for the trekking sections, and studded tires for the biking. In this race, the navigation will be pretty straight-forward.

Q. Give me an idea of what a typical day in this race will be. How many hours do you expect racers to be on course? Will they start racing before sunrise?
A. The route has been designed in a way that allows a lot of flexibility, in order to deal with the diversity of weather conditions that we might encounter. In particular, I am referring to how much snow there is. In one day, we might have only kayaking, and in another we could have all of biking, kayaking and trekking. The idea is to start each day at first light (around 9:00 am) and to make sure that we have everyone back in camp by sunset (around 4:30 pm). The first three days of the race will be in the countryside around Torres del Paine, and then we will move to the south part of the island of Tierra del Fuego, where we will race for three more days.

Q. What will the camps be like?
A. In general, they will be located close to tourist facilities, but at times we will also be in some much more isolated places. In that respect, we will have a few surprises, which people will find about as the race progresses.

Q. How many teams do you have registered, and from what countries?
A. In this first winter edition of the race, a curious thing has happened. On one side, this race has generated more inquiries and interest from international teams than our summer race has, but it seems that few have actually wanted to take part in this first winter edition. I have noted a sense of fear about the Patagonian winter, and it seems that a lot of racers want to see how this first race goes before they come down here to live the experience for themselves. Because of that, we are making a great effort so that people can follow this race day by day, because we want to show that winter is a magical season to come and enjoy all that Patagonia has to offer. We have ten teams registered, and unlike our previous summer race editions, most of the racers are Chilean, with a few foreigners who are coming from Uruguay, Spain and Argentina.See All Event Posts