Raid the North Extreme
Surviving Raid the North Extreme
Aaron Rinn / 23.08.2011
British Columbia’s West Kootnay Mountains were the stage for the thirty 4-person teams who started the eighth edition of the Raid the North Extreme adventure race - A World Championship qualifier. A hot Sunday morning in late July found us lined up with our mountain bikes behind an inflatable starting gate. The course started straight up a 5000+ foot fire road climb which served to spread out the teams. At the top, we dropped our bikes and started a pretty alpine trek that almost immediately gave way to bushwhacking. We picked our way down a ridge and then followed a canyon upstream, trying to find the best side of the river to travel. The snowpack was 150% of normal so travel was faster when we finally got to snow.
We arrived at mandatory checkpoint 2 (CP2), which was the top of a pass, with teams Canadian Cellular and GearJunkie/YogaSlackers, We learned that Wilderness Traverse was already a half hour ahead of us. We sped down the other side of the mountains back to our bikes. Somehow our bikes had been transported from the first transition area (TA) but our helmets and bike shoes had not arrived. We had no choice but to wait. It was deep into the first night, so we went to sleep for an hour but waiting for our gear for almost two and a half hours.
After our gear finally arrived, we hopped on our bikes and climbed to 7000 feet, only to come back down to 3000. We biked through the ghost town of Cody with its mining ruins and then climbed back up to a high pass off of Idaho Peak. We caught a sweet view of Slocan Lake where we would spend the afternoon canoeing. We dropped into a goat trail to get down to the town of Silverton and headed to the lakeshore.
A short squall blew by us on our way to the end of the lake, and then the weather turned hot again. This was the last time the team would be warm for the next day. An all night rain started a couple hours into a huge 70 km trek through Valhalla Provincial Park high up into an alpine environment. Just after dark the team found a short refuge from the wet by sleeping under an overhanging rock for an hour while the rain came down hard and the upper mountains were covered in clouds.
After the short light sleep, we woke, put our Arc'Teryx rain jackets and pants on, and started what would become one of the most difficult bushwhacks we've ever encountered. It was an all night bush battle. The wet steep gullies were full of slide alder trees that grew sideways to block our path. Their branches also proved to be excellent handholds that allowed us to sometimes travel with Tarzan-like swings along the hillside. Although we kept dry with our rain gear, we had just enough warm layers with us to keep warm as long as we stayed moving. See All Event Posts
