The 2007 Adventure Race World Championship
The Race of the Year!
Rob Howard / 21.05.2007
Teams are now arriving in Fort William, Scotland, for the 2007 Adventure Racing World Championship (ARWC) which starts on Saturday. There are 49 teams on the start list and Race Director Phil Humphreys is sure it’s the strongest race line-up ever, with 20 countries represented and all of the World’s top teams vying for the title. This is currently held by Team Nike of the USA, who won in Sweden/Norway last year and are defending their title, but without long-time team captain Ian Adamson.
The race is hosted this year by the Wilderness ARC, the UK’s only non-stop expedition length race, which is based in Fort William, the west coast Scottish town that sits directly beneath Ben Nevis, the highest peak in Great Britain. The Atlantic weather ensures most visitors to the town never get to see it’s snow capped summit, but ‘The Ben’ is just one of the highlights of the wild coastal and mountain terrain of the Lochaber area.
Nearby is Glen Coe, the scene of an infamous massacre and acknowledged as the most dramatic glen in Scotland. Previous Wilderness ARC’s have visited this area for canyoning, climbing and to take teams along narrow ridges which require a careful step and steady nerves.
The peninsula of Knoydart is, for the most part, uninhabited and Scottish walkers regard the hills within its ‘rough bounds’ as the wildest and most difficult to traverse in Scotland. The first WARC visited Arnamuchan Point, the westernmost point on mainland Britain, and nearby Loch Morar has the deepest inland waters, though its Loch Ness that attracts the tourists, and this is only short journey up The Great Glen from Fort William.
Off the coast there are hundreds of islands, the best known being the Isle of Skye, where the Cullin Mountains form the most difficult ridge walk/climb in the UK. The island can now be reached by bridge, but the waters surrounding the islands of the inner Hebrides are notorious for their complex and fierce tidal flows.See All Event Posts
