Expedition Alaska
Crushed souls and sore feet
Pyro / 01.07.2015
The second night of the race has been no less eventful than the first. As the lead teams pushed through on the 'Soul Crusher", the later teams arrived into Alyeska with their own collection of injuries and stories.
Out beyond the ski resort, team North Zealand Outdoors, who had spent much of the first night in the top 5, called in to report an at least partial withdrawal from the race. Sanne Hansen was suffering badly with deep blisters from her mountain boots, and had pushed on through the trek but eventually conceded defeat. She exited the stage along the 'bail out' sorry course route with teammate Nils and were collected by their team reporter from near Portage Pass, while the other two team members continued on the full route.
Later on, in the area of lakes and marshland the forming the centre of this trek stage, team NYARA activated the SOS function on their Spot tracker. This seemed unusual (as if an SOS call isn't unusual enough) as the teams are all carrying satellite phones and the stated emergency procedure had been to message or call using that in the first instance, then to use the Spot's assistance function (which is linked to the organisation's phone numbers) before the SOS. As none of the earlier options had been used, there was a query around whether it had been an accidental activation, but an SOS call is an SOS call, so a safety team were dispatched to respond, with extra helicopter options on standby. We're awaiting confirmation, but as their Spot trace was showing them still moving forward on route, the signs are favourable.
The Swedish team Everest also weren't having the best of luck out in the wilderness. A report came back from the course that they had taken a spill during a river crossing, just a few hundred metres from the put in point to start packrafting and lost two of their rucksacks. With both packs, containing clothes, kit, food and possibly packrafts as well as their satellite phone and Spot, washed downstream or sunk, the team were in a precarious position. Again, we're awaiting an update on their condition, but the ssafety team were heading to their last known location to try and assist.
Of the later teams arriving at Alyeska, there were a few tales of woe. Rob Kinsley of Team Gung Ho had suffered his way off the glacier, having spent 26hrs with regular bouts of nausea and vomiting. He'd been unable to take in any food or water for over a day, and was fighting the calorie deficit, but was overjoyed to get handed a portion of ramen noodles and be able to keep them down. Tash Sparg of Team Cameltoes was also in a sorry state, borderline incoherent with dehydration and unable to bear any weight on a badly swollen knee. She was supported into the TA by her team, and while they departed onwards on the course, she spent several hours sat within the 'kitchen' tent pushing down fluids.
Wandering Nannut seem to have had the worst scare of the teams, though. On a long descent section, the team were sliding down, using their ice axes to control the speed of the descent, when Jeni McNeal lost her grip on her axe and began to slide out of control. Her teammates were alerted by her screaming, but were unable to assist as she slid 100yds down the ice, finally managing to use her crampon points to dig in and brake her descent. Once safely down to transition, she had recovered but was obviously shaken retelling the story.
As a complete flip side, the Personal Adventure Challenge teams had both enjoyed their alternate trek, up from the Eagle River CampgroundTourist teams loved the alternate hike, everything from a wide but gentle river crossing, pine forest, open meadow, and both black bear and moose sightings, of which they happily produced video evidence. They arrived at Alyeska and were immediately whisked off to their own support truck for hot food, clean clothes and drinks. The other teams still in transition looked faintly jealous.
Over in Whittier at the end of the 'full course' route, so far only Team Tecnu have arrived, with a fairly commanding lead at this point, and are out on the 32 mile kayak orienteering stage. Teams Yogaslackers, Equilibre and Rogue are all descending the river packrafting, headed onto the flatwater paddle to the Whittier transition, though Yogaslackers GPS tracker seems to have failed so we're unsure of their exact location. The rain is now coming down in Whittier, so the teams headed this way are in for a rough time, though over the far side of Portage pass it could quite easily be fine and sunny. Since the dual-duty, single direction (changing every half hour) road and rail tunnel through here is now closed to cars for the night, we'll have to wait until morning to drive through and find out. For tonight, we're sitting it out here at the end of the road.
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