Huairasinchi Closes its Tenth Edition

Natalia Greene / 23.02.2012

49 teams merged with nature during 4 days filled with mountains, lakes, snow, forests and rivers.  The elite teams completed 409 km starting from the highlands of Ecuador, the Andes, crossing through the snow-capped Ilinizas and descending various climate levels to reach a rope system in a mighty hidden waterfall.

Teams then had to mount back in a cold and long 90km bike ride to Quilotoa Lake where they did a spectacular trekking around this inactive volcano. From these legs that pushed the teams to their limit because of the altitude, everything else was a brutal descent down to the tropical cloud forest of Ecuador through a 47km trek down an imposing canyon.  They advanced a big section of the race with a long 140km bike leg to reach a rope system to traverse the Caoni River to then finish up with a fast kayak leg down this same river, with a tricky counterflow CP.

At the finish line at Piedra de Vapor, all the support crews, family, community members and other teams that had to abandon the race in earlier stages where waiting to congratulate the winning teams that with so much effort made it through an extraordinary race that reached the 4800m and finished at 120m. Nothing better to prove the biodiversity and the rapid climate zones, weather and people's diversity Ecuador has to offer.

Team Ecuador achieved an outstanding victory with a perfect race after 63 hours of race. The second place was for team Tecnu from the United States who, with 71 hours of race fought through the race with the effects of the altitude and proved that they are a strong team that will quest for a stellar role in France.

Third was Lafuma Vibram from France with a very good race that reached the 82 hours of effort, in spite of the long trekking leg where they lost the second place while navigating at night.

Huairasinchi, now more than ever, is consolidated as a world race event showing a lot of potential ahead, with a lot more to discover and explore in the amazing landscapes and geography that Ecuador has to offer.

The route represented an exceptional challenge for the locals and the foreigners who starting from now need to start planning their strategy to acclimatize before the 11^th edition of Huairasinchi, coming up next Carnival 2013.

Event website www.huairasinchi.com

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