Raid the North Extreme

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Raid The North Extreme – Back to the Future

Rob Howard / 22.07.2011

Raid the North Extreme is a race with a history, an old school ethos and a reputation for real wilderness, but from Sunday it is a race that is looking forward with a return after 4 years and once again part of the AR World Series.

The 8th Raid the North Extreme begins on July 24th in British Columbia’s West Kootenay region, with a starting line up of 30 teams featuring almost all the top US and Canadian racers and teams, who face 6 days of old school expedition racing. If the race is to live up to its history, which I’ sure it will, the teams will be travelling and navigating through wilderness, rather than racing across country, and their route will be a journey, not a series of accessibly place checkpoints.

The race is unsupported over a 500km course, and as far as I can see from the race details there are no enforced stops or unusual disciplines. Its going to be a race where the teams rely on their own resources and those who work together well and plan their tactics to play to their strengths will do well. In other words, a traditional expedition race.

That’s hardly surprising as the race is one of the oldest in the calendar, and was first held in 1999, then every year to 2004, when it hosted one of the earliest AR World Championships in Newfoundland. (This had the closest ever ARWC finish when Nike/Balance Bar ran over the line 20 seconds ahead of Swedish team Cross Sportswear. All the reports and photos are still right here on SleepMonsters – our Race Reports section goes back to 2000!)

Since then the race has taken place only once more, also in British Columbia, when it was held on Prince Rupert in 2007 and was not part of the World Series. That year the race faced record snowpack and 100 year high flood levels, so hopefully this return to BC will go a bit easier for them!

This time the race is in West Kootenay, just across the border with the US and described rather picturesquely as <i>“a pristine region of rivers, lakes, hot springs and waterfalls; alpine meadows and jagged snow-capped mountains�</i>. Its a region with several national parks, wildlife including eagle, elk and bear, and a First Nation culture and history built on paddling skills used to negotiate the areas waterways. This is a theme that has been incorporated into RTNX courses before, so expect the paddling sections of the race to be significant.See All Event Posts