Mountain -X Race
Settling In
Rob Howard / 02.07.2007
As always the technical checks by race staff from Saga d’Aventures have been very thorough. Waterproofs have to be of a certain weight and are put on a digital scale to be accepted or rejected, boots and crampons are checked, ropes measured and all teams had to try out with their abseil and climbing kit.
A few found their kit was not up to specification. The team which had travelled all the way from New Caledonia had quite heavy mountain boots but their crampon attachments were not right (they don’t have to use them much in New Caledonia), and some of the US racers had boots which were a little too flexible and lightweight. The decision on whether to allow them will depend if the highest part of the course is included on Wednesday or not. If the glacier crossing is taken out due to bad weather they will be allowed to use them.
The British Saab Salomon team had a different problem, they had cut their rope shorter than the required 20m, and had to go off an buy another! They were also asking if they needed their bikes any other day than tomorrow, as they planned to off load them to create more space in their van. The team found the ropes refresher course helpful, particularly Ben Bardsley who commented; “I’ve not used a descender like this for a couple of years.�
He confirmed with the marshal that there was no jumaring in this event adding wryly, “We practiced for a morning on a bridge before we noticed the kit list didn’t include anything for jumaring!�
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