The Raid World Championship 2005
Hanging Tough
Rob Howard / 16.09.2005
During the night more teams were stopped during the hours of darkness at the via ferrata above the town, and in the morning Tshcherning of Denmark, Adventure Team Tirol of Austria and Tietoenator Adventure of Sweden were all restarted there.
And there were teams much further back, still struggling to reach the via ferrata in time to complete it before the course closes at 18.00 tonight, which is when the presentation party begins.
The 3 back markers, Chasing Daylight of the USA (a very good name for this race!), Salomon Asia Pacific Adventure of Hong Kong, and UKA-X Team Lleida of Spain all passed through the last cut-off, at 06.00 at transition 18 where the last trek begins. However, they still have to reach the via ferrata in time to complete it and reach the finish line.
It takes at least 90 minutes to complete the route on the cliff face of the peak of La Rubli and mid morning FJS of Sweden and Russia 1 were both on the peak. They approached past the cabin where teams and guides have been sleeping, which is near the top station of the Rougemont cable car (with a café for those who carried money and wanted to stop).
Ahead of them was an intimidating view of the peak, and the sheer cliff face they were about to climb. The route, which was in shadow in the morning, began with a short ladder climb then ascended a cleft in a spur off the main face, before traversing across and beginning a direct ascent to the top.
SleepMonsters
