Bergson Throw Out a Winter Challenge

Rob Howard / 19.01.2006

The Bergson Winter Challenge is back with its own brand of winter expedition racing for the first World Series race of 2006, and for those who don’t want to go the full distance there is a shorter course for pairs. There is also mini Bergson Winter Challenge this coming weekend too, just to get local teams up to speed for the full race in 6 weeks time.

The Masters race starting February 27th is the main event and the qualifier for the World Championship in Sweden in August. The race is 5 days, non-stop over 400km for mixed teams of 4 – the classic expedition race format, but with lots of snow and ice! It takes place in the mountainous Karkonosze region of South West of Poland, where the highest peak is 1602m, and the organisers promise a course with 10,000m of ascent.

Last year Stan Van Jaarsveld, the editor of the Dutch SleepMonsters site described the race as follows;

" ... winter of South West Poland… frost and wind gives a wind chill temperature of minus 28… literally everything freezes… all food and drink… in stiff frozen jackets with patches of ice on the inside ...

... the majority of the race course is covered by over a metre of snow… walking even wearing snowshoes is exhausting… heavy trekking section… mountainbiking in the freezing cold ahead… pushing the bikes is the worst ...

... teams face a dozen special tasks, like rope ascends, descents and rope bridges, but also have to negotiate several underground tunnels and fortress labyrinths… to cross two rope bridges across a frozen waterfall, in the dark, taking their bikes too ...