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Dr. Ron Eaglin of Team Blue Writes About the Race

Dr. Ron Eaglin of Team Blue / 15.07.2008

The simple description of Primal Quest is that it is an extreme test of human endurance in the form of an expedition adventure race. The race acts like a huge hammer; each leg of the race is a smashing stroke against the willpower and bodies of the individual racers. Every single leg of this race, most as long as a full adventure race themselves– can and will exhaust your strength, break down your body, and test your resolve.

The Team

My journey to PQ was a strange one, one day I got the call from Julie Ardoin asking whether I wanted to join a team that she had been invited to join, Team Blue. Our team was an unlikely band of adventure racers, but somehow I knew we would be a good combination. We were not the hawk faced, chiseled figure, triathletes in matching uniforms. Kent Ryhorchuck was the soul of the team. Kent is a quiet (but opinionated) man with long brown hair and a full beard. He wears a quiet sly grin at all times. He also has an incredible knowledge of what to do in everything dealing with mountains and snow and brought this experience to the entire team. Dom Drouin was the engine and captain of the team. Dom is a huge man with a huge smile and an infectious laugh. He has a French Canadian accent and a talent of producing jokes when needed by the team. Then there is Julie Ardoin. Julie is endowed with some kind of inner strength that allows her to keep going beyond all normal human limits. She is quiet and soft spoken, though in this quiet voice of resolve she was the force that moved the team on when everything else was forcing us to stop.

The Race Start

We’ll skip all the logistics that it takes to get a team to this race. Between certifications, gear, travel, logistics, crew, and skills test – just getting to the start line is an ordeal. But around 10 AM as the fog lifted over the mountain we heard a big boom and the teams were off and on their way to the top of Lone Mountain. Lone Mountain is an imposing feature rising over 11,000 feet above Big Sky Resort – it was also my first true alpine climb through snow and scree along a thin ridge to an incredible summit. Once reaching the top, the real fun began with nearly 1000 feet of but-numbing glissade down the back side of the mountain and a short trek back to the resort and the Transition Area (TA). Our morale was high as we quickly prepared for the next leg of the race, an incredibly long mountain trek past some of the most beautiful terrain I have ever seen.

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