After last year’s race in Moab, a six-day, nonstop, torturous test that many athletes called the most demanding adventure race in history, the 6-year-old Primal Quest Expedition Adventure Race is “on hold.”
The expedition-length, multisport race series debuted in Telluride in 2002, and moved to California’s Sierra Nevada range the next year and Washington’s Cascade Mountains in 2004. The series went without a race in 2005, and last summer’s race in Moab – where temperatures stayed well above 100 degrees – floated hope the race series would revive adventure racing.
In a very brief news release issued last week, race organizers said they “have been diligently trying to make arrangements to enable the race to take place in 2007 and beyond.”
Unless organizers can secure financing, partnerships and sponsorship, Primal Quest will follow the Eco Challenge and Raid Gauloises into the adventure racing dustbin. The demise of Primal Quest would leave the sport of multiday adventure racing without a high-profile race and likely deal a near-fatal blow to the nascent sport.
FREESKIING: Estrada earns third U.S. title
With a cast on his hand from a break last week, 29-year-old Aaron Estrada orchestrated his comeback last weekend in Crested Butte. His high-speed skiing and aggressive airs down Crested Butte’s gnarliest terrain not only destroyed his skis but led to his crowning as the first man to win the 16-year-old U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Championship three times.
It has been six years since Estrada, a former Aspen resident now living in California, won the pioneering event. In 2003 he mangled his hand in an ugly crash in the contest. He broke the same hand last week in Aspen.
Defending champion Griffin Post, a University of Denver student, finished second to Estrada in this year’s contest. Vail’s Tyson Bolduc, a 24-year-old first-time competitor in the U.S. Extremes, took third.
Among the women, part-time Crested Buttian Laura Ogden earned her second title in four years, eking past Gunnison’s Hannah Whitney. Crested Butte’s Carrie Jo Chernoff took third for the second year in a row.
Crested Butte Academy’s 15-year-old Francesca Pavillard-Cain – one of the smoothest and strongest skiers in the entire junior field – defended her junior girls title while Washington’s Tyler Ceccanti dominated the junior boys.
HALFPIPE: Dumont soars at Snowmass
Maine’s Simon Dumont continued his quest to be the best halfpipe skier in the world Saturday, winning his second title at the third stop of The Honda Ski Tour. Dumont threw his trademark monster airs on his first hits in the Snowmass pipe, soaring nearly 20 feet above the lip. With Dumont’s main rival Tanner Hall choosing to plunder powder in British Columbia over another spin down the competitive pipe, it was Dumont’s show. On his second and final run Saturday, with his win already secured, Dumont nailed what many are calling the best halfpipe run ever. In addition to his flying-like-a-bird first hit, the 20-year-old threw a one-of-a-kind 1260 he debuted this season and ended his run with the first alley-oop 1080 – a flipping three rotations – thrown in halfpipe competition. His run harvested a 97.50 from the judges, the highest score for a halfpipe routine, matched only once before by jib legend C.R. Johnson.
Canadian Mike Riddle finished second with his own trickery that included a super-styled first hit. New Hampshire up-and-comer Colby West soared from last place to third on his final run with a smooth switch 540 into a big 1080.
