Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race 2010
To The Finish
Will Gray / 16.02.2010
It’s day seven of this amazing race (I think!) and we have travelled for miles following its twists and turns through the Patagonian wilderness in Chile. It’s been exciting. It has been challenging. And at times it’s been completely baffling. I feel exhausted, thirsty, sleep deprived and I’m now slowly burning. But I’m happy. In Patagonia, it’s hard not to be.
The race has almost run its course, and Helly Hansen-Prunesco did indeed get in to complete their emphatic victory on day six, but not until the early morning after a really challenging final kayak and hike.
Back at checkpoint 15 in Yendegaia, we had got up before then and as the British team hobbled into camp were waiting by the kayak site for teams to gather and hear whether they would be taking to the water. “I don’t want to go,� one German competitor had told me the previous night. She has never kayaked before. Never. And now she’s taking on the Beagle Channel.
Team Nord Water were not all going. They were forced to officially pull out because Toumas Sovijarvi had a suspected fracture after falling in a valley just after PC9. Miraculously, he completed the trek but could not carry on into the finish. The rest of the team would complete the course, just for the experience, but their time would end at PC15.
Despite hearing wind howling outside when I woke up – I mean, really rattling anything that was out there – the conditions had calmed and by 9am it was OK to go. The teams set off from the beach with a spectacular backdrop of mountains. They would be crossing the channel in a group, then begin racing when they got to the other side of the channel.
I was one of the lucky ones and had been given the chance to follow the kayakers on a zodiac boat, giving me the chance to get close to them as they pushed through the rolling waves and sporadic rain showers. But by the time we reached the start point I was questioning the interpretation of lucky, having suffered extreme cold, water splashes and persistent but changeable winds. It was not as bad as the previous day, when a photographer and one of the checkpoint managers had almost hit hypothermic levels of cold as they followed Helly Hansen-Prunesco through the rough seas, but it was tough enough for me!
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