ARWC 2015 Brazil - Pantanal
Packing and Pack Rafts
Rob Howard / 12.11.2015
Pack size and weight is a preoccupation of expedition adventure race teams, every extra gram of weight they have to carry counts, and they have to carry a lot. The mandatory gear, often including tents and of course the obligatory tracker, all their personal kit for all the disciplines, lights, paddles, bike tools, all the food they will need for the stage ... and that can be a lot. The list goes on and it all has to go on their backs (or into the boats). The technical knowledge and experience that goes into a ‘team pack’ is considerable, and it’s part of the experienced racers armoury.
For this race there are a few extra things to consider and to carry. The mandatory kit is a bit more exotic for a start. They need a machete, and to trek with a strobe light to scare off the jaguars. They all need a strong 100 litre bag to dive into in case of a bee swarm attack, plus trekking poles are mandatory to disturb the stingrays on the river bottom to try and avoid stepping on them. Then there are the pack rafts which are needed for the trek/raft stages where no one can be sure how wet or dry the land will be at the start of the rainy season.
It all adds to the load to be carried (or paddled) around the course, and there are other considerations which increase the carried weight for this race too. With 11 hours of darkness it is vital to have enough battery power and lights, and teams will perhaps be taking more food than they usually do, knowing there will be no chance of resupply when they pass through towns or come across village stores ... there aren’t any.
This race is taking them into a true, virtually uninhabited, wilderness, and when you are venturing into the unknown its natural to pack that bit more to prepare for all eventualities. It will be harder for teams to judge how long they will take on stages and how much food they will need, especially as the navigation is expected to be so challenging and they could get lost for a while. It will be a brave team that goes light on food.
One such is Team Silva of Sweden who told me they are taking the usual amount of food, even though they also said they’ve checked their flights can be changed should they ‘get lost for a few days’. Aaron Prince just said they ‘had a fishing line’ and Josefina Wikberg added, “Anyway Robert is a hunter – he hunts all sorts of things.” Sounds like they are prepared to go back to nature if needs be.
They are not quite going so far as copying the indigenous tribes who don’t bother with clothes, but for this race in the sweltering tropical climate there is certainly no need for any heavy or warm clothing which reduces the load, nor for tents or sleeping bags.
“We will carry a lot in the early stages,” said Prince, “as we have the pack rafts and paddles etc.” There are a couple of early trek come packraft’ stages and I was talking to the team as they had a practice on the fast flowing River Paraguay. They have opted for 4 lightweight single rafts that look a bit like children’s inflatable kayaks, and were testing whether they could double up on them if needed.
“We might spend a lot of time inflating and deflating,” Wikberg said, “and for short distances it will be much easier if we can use just two rafts. Plus it means we can have 2 spares if they get ripped or damaged, which might happen.” Some other teams have opted for two doubles and will struggle if one of their rafts is damaged in the shallows or caught on vegetation, but no one really knows yet whether that is likely. There are a few inflatable air beds around too so it will be fascinating to see how the pack raft stage tactics work out.
One other thing which lightens the load too is that they will not need to carry any water .... there will be plenty of that all around them!
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