Raid Ukatak

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Course Shortened for all but Swedes

Fredrik Olmqvist / 21.01.2003

SleepMonsters.com reporter Fredrik Olmqvist has sent this brief news of latest developments, which have affected his friends on the Swedish team.

After a 10 hour suspension of racing and with 55 knot winds blowing across the highest part of the course in – 30 C temperatures (making a wind chill factor of – 45C) Race Director Martin Nieto has been forced to cut the race route short. His first step was to eliminate PC 6 and PC 7 on Mont Jeremie and Mont Elie summits, which was very “Bad luck� for the Swedes of Team High Coast 600. As the leaders they were the only team that had passed the two checkpoints on the desolate mountaintops in the Charlevoix area of the Hautes-Gorges-de-la Riviere-Malbaie park.

The remaining teams have been redirected to PC 8 without passing PC 6 and PC 7. How this will effect the race is hard to say, but according to Martin Nieto, the race will continue as if PC 6 and PC 7 never existed. “The conditions in the mountains are crazy,� he said, “and the staff at checkpoint 7 said it was getting extremely dangerous.�

The incident with the lost team and the rescue operation which involved the Quebec provincial police and military rescue teams caused quite a media stir. Approximately 50 media outlets from Canada & US have been in contact with the media crew at the besieged race HQ since the news broke. See All Event Posts