Expedition Alaska
Drama on ice
Pyro / 29.06.2015
The first 24hrs of the race has been action packed and, unfortunately, incident filled.
The river crossing after the glacier gear pickup became the first focal point. With the recent warm spells and intermittent rain releasing more glacier meltwater, the river was a touch more swollen than expected. Jason Magness of the Yogaslackers team lost his footing and got swept several metres downstream spluttering his way back to the bank after a scary and unintended swim. Brian Leitten from the race film crew is also sporting a two inch lump on his shin after a very similar incident.
The two Personal Adventure Challenge teams reached the river crossing and decided upon a tactical retreat. They are on a fully supported, guided adventure challenge and some of the team members were already hesitant about the scale of the glacier trek, never mind being daunted by the rushing grey-brown river in front of them. They returned to the start area and were transferred by the race crew to a safe location, given a chance to warm up and change clothes, then transported to the Eagle River Campground, where they started an alternative trekking route, 23 miles up and over the Eagle River watershed into Crow Creek and down to Alyeska.
Up high on the ice, the lead teams were moving close together at a fantastic pace with Tecnu, Columbia Vidaraid, Yogaslackers, North Zealand Outdoors and Equilibre all moving in line over a single mile for much of the early going. All of the lead teams stopped to warm up after a particularly nasty rain shower at Rosie's Roost hut, which turned out to be a major point of interest for much of the day.
Late in the night, a slip and a spill into a crevasse put paid to Columbia Vidaraid's hopes of a win, Marco Anselem being retrieved by his teammates and the closest other teams, unfortunately suffering a separated shoulder in the process. Garret Bean of Tecnu had helped him reset it, but the team decided to return to the hut and await rescue, which eventually arrived in the form of a helicopter evacuation. Once his airlift had taken place, his teammates continued on the course, the latest news that we have is that his shoulder has been dealt with, and he is on his way to TA1 to meet the team when they arrive.
Tecnu began to open a gap after that, and were the first into TA1 with a lead of over an hour. Conditions for them on the glacier had been good, occasional rain and snow shower, but good visibility and no crevasse issues other than a few knee-depth post-hole moments. Unfortunately, the race crew had been somewhat caught short at their speed across the section and missed meeting them at CP4, on a gravel road near the Crow Creek mine, where they could drop off their glacier crossing gear and swap into trail shoes. Three of the team trekked into TA1 in their mountain boots, Kyle Peter hobbling along the tarmac in his bare feet.
Yogaslackers and North Zealand Outdoors were next into the transition, both in good spirits although Sanne Hansen of NZO has been suffering with sore feet after the dampness of the ice. The two Australian teams, Team Rogue and Traces of Nuts followed behind, arriving at CP4 together after several hours of bushwhacking through head-high scrub alder to get from the foot of the glacier to the road. Traces of Nuts left the gear drop first and jogged down the gravel road, before following the historic Iditarod trail through the woods to a hand tram crossing over Glacier Creek. The cart on the hand tram is rated for two people at a time, but both Aussie teams crossed with all four loaded in at once to save time, although it made the final pull up to the far 'station' a little harder. The only alternative is to drop lower into the river valley and use a one-at-a-time cable tyrolean.
Meanwhile, Team Soteria/Moose Whisperers are also having their own interesting times at Rosie's Roost. The three-man team seem to have underestimated either the severity or the length of the section, have run out of supplies, and have decided to batten down and call for backup. Luckily, the race crew have a friendly contact with a helicopter, to whom several favours are probably now owed, and the last news we had was that he would try and pick them up from hut and drop them at an airstrip not far from the Alyeska transition.
The first stage of the race seems to have been eventful enough, but the departing teams heading out from TA1 are in for more hardship on stage 2 which Dave Adlard has referred to as 'the Soul Crusher', a long trek and packraft stage over 2 watersheds from Alyeska to Whittier. There is a bail-out option in the middle which drops them out to Portage, but as the rankings are based first on the team that completes the most full sections, any team wanting to take top honours needs to go the whole way.
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