Patagonian Expedition Race
Happy 10th Birthday!
Pete Clayden / 05.02.2012
It hardly seems a year since the teams last gathered in Chilean Patagonia for the 10th Anniversary of the Last Wild Race, and yet here we are with the first few teams starting to arrive in Punta Arenas.
Feedback from the teams this year, both returning teams and new ‘dark horses’ shows no-one is taking the race lightly, with some unprecedented levels of cold-waether preparation from teams from the Northern hemisphere. At the same time though, the southern hemisphere teams have been doing their best to get wet and cold, fight there way through impenetrable forests and if they have access to peat bogs, they’ve tried wading through them.
At the NIGSA offices in Punta Arenas, from where the race is organized, each week has seen an increase in pitch, as each aspect of the logistics has been checked and double checked, from cleaning out the blue storage barrels, to checking every detail on the kayaks loaned to the racers. With the teams finalized, all the equipment tags and team-specific items have been printed and heat sealed. The next logistics exercise is preparing the supplies for x-number of people for x-number of days at each checkpoint and then splitting and packing it. the complex vehicle movements are also entering the final stages of planning. NIGSA is fortunate to have as it’s Logistics Manager, Gaby Garrido, back for the second year in this role. In ‘real life’ Gaby is in her 5th year studying Marine Biology, but each year brings her expertise and drive to help deliver the race. I asked her what the key challenge has been this year ‘It’s the terrain. How to get a huge volume of equipment, not just teams equipment, but also support equipment, to some pretty remote places. People too. We only ever have an expected window of time for each checkpoint to be active, but as last year showed, that can extend by as much as three days. We have to plan for that. It’s not easy’.
The race also provides an opportunity for people from across the globe to work on the race, and following a selection process that has been running virtually since the last equipment was packed away in February 2011, this year volunteers will be joining the race from Viet Nam, the US, France, Germany, Britain, Brazil, Chile, Italy and more. Many are here for the first time, some for the second or third. As the race is during the southern summer, it provides an opportunity for some of the local young people to help out, and it can be hard job getting them to go home at the end of the day such
For now though, the great game for the crew is ‘spot the racer‘ and then hide, as inevitably, they try to pump them for information! The most frequently asked question is ‘who’s racing?‘ which along with the route, is NIGSA’s most closely guarded information, known in full to only six people. Patience teams, patience. All will be revealed!
SleepMonsters
