Southern Traverse
One For the Books .. and the Weather Forecasters
Susan McKenzie / 24.11.2004
Legendary Kiwi racer Kathy Lynch, whose partner Pete provided support for GoLite Timberland, best summarised the weather when she told GoLite Timberland’s Aaron Prince that “Geoff Hunt could organise a race in the Sahara and it would still f-ing snow.� And snow it did. It also rained and hailed. Never mind “four seasons in one day� – sometimes it was four seasons in four hours.
This year’s Southern Traverse was seen by some as a pre-amble to next year’s Adventure Racing World Championships, a reconnaissance mission, if you will. The ARWC will take place here on the West Coast of the Southern Alps Even those who were unable to finish this year’s race will come into the ARWC with a much better handle on what to expect in 2005.
“Next year, we will know to bring our winter clothes for the World Championships,� says Mikael Andersson of Sweden’s Lundhags Adventure. He was flown by helicopter off the Alexander Range in a stretcher after falling in a creek on Day 4 and suffering hypothermia. “We know how to race in the cold, but we did not expect it to be this cold.�
“We figured out pretty quickly to carry more gear than we thought we’d need,� says Billy Mattison of GoLite/Timberland, which finished second behind the Kiwi quartet Kathmandu. “Plus I think we have a better sense of what kind of terrain to expect.�
The closing ceremony for the race was held in Shantytown, a replica of an 1865 gold town on the outskirts of Hokitika. The walls of the hall were decorated with 26 brightly coloured posters, one per team, designed and drawn by local elementary school students. At the end of the evening, teams were asked to sign the posters, which were then sent back to the students.
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