Raid the North Extreme
When the lights go out in the city
Susan McKenzie / 16.08.2003
When the lights went out across Ontario, New York and a big chunk of the eastern United States and Canada, it also threw a rather large wrench in the travel plans of all but a few of the teams competing in this year’s Raid the North Extreme, in northwestern Ontario.
The power stayed on in Atikokan, the small town that has been preparing for the Extreme for many months. The problem was getting there. The major hub for most racers was Toronto, and when the airport went dark, many racers were left out in the cold.
The power faded just after 4pm on Thursday. I was sitting in the terminal waiting for my flight up north when it happened. At first we thought it was local, then as the news spread, so too did the realization that this was no summer brown-out, this was, well, pretty damn big. The airport was shut, and thousands of passengers had to scramble for luggage, for food, for a bed for a night, a car, an alternate flight. No one was going anywhere anytime soon.
Team Spirit’s Dave Hitchon and Mike Popik were among those who were stranded at Pearson Thursday night. (Teammates Chris Koch and Elsa Dahlie drive from Winnipeg to Atikokan) Twelve hours later their 8:15am flight was cancelled at 8:05am on Friday (all flights cancelled until noon, was the announcement). Hitchon’s mother Joan and son William had seats on the next plane, but were told they could not give them up for the racers (nor could the parents of one of the race organizers, Stuart Torr). When Hitchon and Popik were told there were no seats on any other planes until Saturday morning, the pair prepared to hit the road.
“We were ready to drive,� Hitchon said a few hours later. “It would have taken about seventeen hours, but it still would have gotten us there earlier than waiting for the next morning.
“But then the airline told us that we could not get our gear back, even though the flight was cancelled,� added Popik. “It said the gear would have to fly to Thunder Bay and then be flown back to Toronto before we cold claim it.�
Instead, the two elected to go for standby on another flight. As luck would have it, many passengers booked on the flight either never made their connections or thought the plane had been cancelled. Not only did Popik and Hitchon get on, but so did all four members of Team Persistence, who boarded the plane looking like they just crossed the finish line. Call it extreme travel for an extreme race. Their gear, however, did not. It came in on a much later (and much bigger) plane.
Team Taiga got out of Ottawa Friday morning by air, and arrived only an hour before friends, who had driven all the way from Canada’s capital city.
One of the few teams unaffected was the race only European entry, France’s EADS.
“We arrived Wednesday,� says Bruno Rey. “To give us time to adjust to the time and check the area. We are very lucky, I guess.�
Race organizers did have several contingency plans ready to go should a team or two not arrive in time for the Sunday morning start.
“We could have delayed the start by twelve hours without affecting the course at all,� said Frontier Adventure Racing President Geoff Langford. “We were also prepared to delay the start one full day, and then finish a day later. We know that, as racers, we’d rather do the whole race and finish a day later than have the race shortened because of this.�
In the end, the only switch was a delay in the handing out of the maps, which was moved from Friday night to Saturday morning.
“We wanted to make it fair for all the teams,� saying race manager Dave Zietsma. “If some teams had received theirs Friday night it would have given them a big advantage over teams that might only arrive Saturday afternoon.�
Fair - albeit a little frustrating - for teams that had counted on an overnight study of the maps before the race briefing. Still, this is adventure racing, whoever said it was supposed to be easy?
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