Yeti Adventure Challenge Silkeborg
Dawn Raid on the Climbing Tower
Rob Howard / 17.08.2018
With the start at Viborg being at 18.00 teams on the Masters course only had a few hours daylight before moving into the first night of the race. (The race is timed to bring teams into the finish during Saturday at Silkeborg, when the Challenge and Fighter courses are taking place as well.)
The teams would be inline skating and kayaking through the hours of darkness, which came quickly as dense dark clouds brought dusk early, though luckily with almost no rain to make the roads slick. All of the teams just about made it through the swim which was on the inline stage before night fall – the last of them finishing just as darkness fell.
These were the 3 person team ,MMI – Copenhagen Adventure Sport, who just said it was cold and hard work, and Team40+, who said they were at the back because “we are hopeless at inlines”. They had thought ahead and brought inflatable mattresses for the crossing, which may have been heavy to carry, but made the difficult swim that much easier as they could lie down and paddle across with their hands. (Some other teams had flippers to help.)
The inline stage took teams to TA1 along quiet country roads, with the teams all wearing their bright reflective bibs and front and rear lights for safety. Sadly there was one mishap when Henrik Wichmann of Summit Seekers fell and injured his arm, forcing the team to pull out. The team was entering the TA with the skating all but complete when a momentary loss of concentration ended their race.
The night kayaking was challenging as the lakes were shallow close to shore and navigation was tricky in the darkness. First off the water just before sunrise were Team Yeti and Torbjorn Gasbjerg said, “It was nicer than I expected to be honest. The navigation was really tricky so it kept me concentrating all the time and awake. We had to decide how far out to go to avoid the shallows.”
They had a 50 minute lead over the chasing pack of teams and were just preparing to leave on the next cycle stage when their pursuers arrived.
The teams paddled upstream on a small river surrounded by reed beds to reach the outdoor centre where the TA was set up, and had to carry the kayaks a few hundred metres through the long grasses to reach it. There was plenty of space in an open field to spread out, access to a nearly toilet block, and once the sun rose it was pleasantly warm.
The 40m man-made climbing tower the teams used to reach the checkpoint flag, which was hung at the top, proved testing. It was slippery early on and quite a few of the climbers were stuck for a while or needed a pull up on the rope from their belaying team mates. Only two of the team had to make the climb but it took a while and there some teams who had to wait. (I’m told they will get a time credit.)
The second challenge was a short zip line over a small lake in the woods about a kilometre away from the TA and this was a lot less challenging. It was a bit of fun for the teams before they started the first long bike stage of the race.
You can follow the live tracking for the race at www.yacs.dk
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