Vail – It has been a full decade since Billy Mattison entered his first Eco-Challenge adventure race in British Columbia. The Vail Ski Patrol foreman and whitewater raft guide began his professional sporting career at an age – 36 – when most athletes are hanging it up. Two years later, he and other members of Team Vail won the 300-mile Eco-Challenge in Morocco.
Now 47, the captain of Team GoLite Timberland announced his retirement from professional adventure racing after leading his team to a third-place finish in the 2005 Adventure Racing World Championship known as the Southern Traverse in New Zealand, one of the world’s most grueling expedition-style adventure races. Mattison shared some of the secrets, highlights and lowlights of professional adventure racing with The Denver Post.
You’ve been competing for 10 years in what a lot of people would still consider a relatively new sport. How did you manage that?
I really don’t know. I think I just kept training. I really think living in Vail, with the mountains, rivers and training facilities right in my backyard, was the key. Nothing ever seemed too overwhelming after training around here.
When did you know you had a future in adventure racing?
I don’t know if I ever knew I had a future. Every year I said it was my last year doing this. But after we won in Morocco I got a lot of offers to join teams. That was the big eye-opener.
What was the attraction to adventure racing for you?
I love the adventure of it. I was always one of those guys trying to stay out in front whenever he went riding with his buddies, or who always wanted to be the first to the top of a fourteener. So I really enjoyed the training for races. Having a goal kept me training. It gave me a reason for doing the things I really like doing.
But the two things I really like are the travel – going to places like Morocco, Borneo, Fiji, China – and the people. You develop friendships with people from all over the world and it’s fun to meet up with your friends from Finland or Spain or Argentina in different areas all over the world. You are kindred spirits.
What’s been your impression of the evolution of the sport?
The sport is still the same, but the caliber of athlete has changed dramatically since I first started. The first ones to compete in the Eco-Challenge were mountaineers, kayakers and mountain bikers. It was kind of an older person’s sport. Now competitors are getting younger and younger.
Word on the slopes is that you grew somewhat disenchanted with the sport in New Zealand, even calling it “stupid” at one point …
I think I’ve said that at some point in every race. My whole team was wondering what we were doing at one point. Everybody does. Yeah, it was miserable at times, but crossing the finish line was such an amazing feeling. It was so satisfying. Even the blisters and swelling in my feet a week later give me a kind of satisfying feeling. I’m not complaining too loud.
Where to now?
I’m looking for opportunities to work as a course director. I’d love to stay involved in the sport, maybe start some new races or work as a team manager/trainer-type thing. I have a few offers, but there’s not a ton of opportunity.
It’s feasible, but it’s not easy to be a full-time professional adventure racer. Without another career we don’t make nearly enough to support a family or buy a home, but it’s a nice supplement. I’d like to see it get to that point for sure. Someday I think it will.
Staff writer Scott Willoughbycan be reached at 303-820-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
