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Benighted on the Brunner

Rob Howard / 15.11.2005

Presently (Weds) the race radio network (which works incredibly well on a mountainous course), is the only way to track the progress of the majority of the teams as they make their way over the Brunner Range during Stage 6 of the race.

Once again the trek is taking much longer than expected, though some of the terrain is more open than on the first trekking stage. It’s not surprising the pace is slower than predicted as footsore teams were walking through a second night and had taken very little sleep. Some planned to sleep on the trek, rather than rest at the previous transition area in valuable daylight time, but during the night conditions deteriorated.

The bright full moon of the late evening hours was soon obscured by cloud as a front moved in. In a similar pattern to recent days sudden heavy showers fell, and the wet and windy conditions meant racers had to keep moving to keep warm and wrap up in all the clothes inside their lightweight sleeping bags they had if they did stop to sleep. (Those who complained of having to carry a second fleece top might have changed their opinions.)

At least there was some shelter on this stage as all 3 checkpoints were at mountain huts, though there were too small to stop and sleep in. (The marshals were living there.) The first is called the Boundary Peak ‘Fridge’ and is really just a box by a radio mast, the second is the Mt. Curtis Hut and the third the Jim O’Regan hut, where marshals reported they had a fire going to warm up passing teams.

Leaders Balance Vector said they were lost during the night and so they decided to stop and sleep for 3 hours, squeezing together in their tiny mountain tent. As a result they took nearly 24 hours to reach CP14 at the end of the trek, when the prediction for the quickest team was 16 hours.

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