Moab – Since the original Eco-Challenge adventure race held in Utah in 1995, participants in the multidiscipline endurance sport have taken an almost perverse pride in its “show you what you’re made of” constitution.
With coed teams of four combining the various outdoor disciplines of mountain biking, trekking, paddling and rock climbing into a weeklong wilderness chase, adventure racing became an overnight sensation defined by human struggle. But as the traditional adventure-racing season gets underway in 2007, it’s the sport itself that’s finding its resolve tested.
That’s not to say that adventure racing is dead on the vine, or even past its prime. Far from it, say local race producers and competitors. According to estimates from the Austin, Texas-based U.S. Adventure Racing Association, more than 250,000 people have participated in adventure races during the past five years and the annual figures continue to rise.
Still, as if at one of the sport’s trademarked transition points, change is undeniably in the air.
The vast majority of adventure racers have never tackled a 300-to-500-mile expedition-length event such as the Eco-Challenge. And given the current trend in the sport, they likely never will.
The Eco-Challenge called it quits after eight years when creator Mark Burnett moved on to greater success producing the “Survivor” television series. Its closest descendant, Primal Quest, took up the torch as America’s preeminent expedition event with a 2002 debut in Telluride, almost immediately joining the French-produced Raid Gauloises (eventually renamed the Raid World Championships) as the premier events on the adventure-racing calendar with prize purses of $250,000 and $90,000, respectively, last year.
But even the big bankroll of a Nissan sponsorship and a television contract with ABC and ESPN for the 2006 race in Moab weren’t enough to keep Primal Quest alive another year, and the announcement that the event would be placed on indefinite hold last winter has many adventure-racing insiders believing it, too, is gone for good.
While not entirely gone, the seven-day Raid World Championships have morphed into a new five-day stage event now known as the Mountain X Race in Mont Blanc, France, exchanging the nonstop expedition race format for daily head-to-head contests in the traditional adventure-race disciplines. Even the Colorado-born Teva Mountain Games has scrapped its popular adventure race in favor of a similar two-day stage or relay race comprised of trail running, whitewater paddling, mountain biking and a road-bike hill climb it’s calling the Ultimate Mountain Challenge.
Shorter is better
Fans of the original adventure-racing format find the evolution unsettling.
“I know almost everyone in the United States who ever did an Eco-Challenge,” said Barry Siff of Boulder, a former professional racer and author of “Adventure Racing: The Ultimate Guide.”
“That’s a small group of people, but it fostered an entire sport. Now what’s happening to the sport?”
The short answer is, well, exactly that. The growth in the sport, say Will and Jenny Newcomer, owners of Durango-based Gravity Play Sports, remains centered on shorter sprint and middle-distance races that can be run in as little as three hours or as many as 48.
“I never set out to create an expedition-length race like the Eco- Challenge,” said Will Newcomer, whose 12-race Adventure Xstream series in Colorado and Utah qualifies Gravity Play as the largest adventure-race producer in the state. “It’s the grassroots events that I think will continue to feed and sustain the sport.”
Newcomer, who was raised in Boulder, began his adventure-race series seven years ago with three 12-hour races and fewer than 100 total competitors and has been watching it grow steadily ever since. More than 1,000 racers (the vast majority from Colorado’s Front Range) signed on to compete in Adventure Xstream events last year, and more than 350 competitors quickly maxed out the field in the season-opening event in Moab last month. With the addition of two new races in Buena Vista on May 12, Newcomer is anticipating a 30- to 40-percent increase in competitors this summer.
The appeal of Newcomer’s events, he believes, lies in the relative attainability of races that range from 10 to 100 miles and can be done in a day, much like an off-road triathlon, although with a few surprises thrown in.
“Off-road triathlons are very popular and are a good entrance into our sprint races,” he said. “But once you get up to 12 hours, the athletes need something a little different.”
Still an adventure
That’s where the “adventure” element comes into play, with the addition of nocturnal travel, navigation skills and ropes work (rappels and Tyrolean traverses) adding considerations such as food, sleep, inclement weather, endurance and wilderness survival over the course of races up to 48 hours. Slower athletes with good wilderness and navigational skills will often do better in these middle-distance races than in a sprint, the Newcomers say, so they can be a better place to begin.
“I just enjoy the challenge,” said Douglas Gerhardt, a budding adventure racer from Saratoga, N.Y., who attended Gravity Play’s three-day Camp Xstream adventure training camp at the Red Cliffs Lodge just outside of Moab last week. “I play a ton of competitive sports, but being able to overcome natural elements, adapt and train yourself in multiple disciplines, is far more challenging than any golf course, tennis court or even marathon race. And the battle scars are way more cool.”
Mass appeal
Unlike the big-name epics, Gravity Play has figured out a formula for bringing the sport to the masses by offering multiple events at the same venues and concentrating its races in and around Colorado, where trail running, mountain biking, climbing and kayaking are popular pastimes. Adventure Xstream events boast a 99 percent completion rate.
A few years ago, the Newcomers added a three-day, 300-mile Xstream Expedition race in Moab as a goal for season-long series participants, but they will be the first to admit they still miss the original event that got them and so many others started in the sport they’ve since built their lives around.
“The Eco-Challenge is where it all started and that’s what adventure racing still needs,” Jenny Newcomer said. “Our events do pretty well, but we need that Super Bowl event to really give the sport exposure and get people excited.”
“That’s what got me into it,” said Larry Farrell, a 60-year-old Camp Xstream attendee from Long Island. “I watched it all on TV, and I was hooked.”
Choose your own adventure race
From a one-day event to multiple days of exertion, there are three basic types of adventure races:
Sprint: Lasts from a few hours up to eight, typically an off-road triathlon type of event (run, bike, paddle). A good intro to racing. Since they’re short, competitors are less likely to find themselves in a risky situation due to a lack of wilderness-survival preparation. Up to 35 miles in length.
Adventure: Eight-to-48 hours (additional disciplines such as ropes, whitewater swimming or inline skating may be added; courses lengthened). Typically involves some nocturnal travel and navigation skills, so elements such as food, sleep, inclement weather, endurance and potential injury come into play. Slower athletes with good wilderness and navigational skills (and endurance) will do better in these races than in a sprint, so this is sometimes a better place to start. Fifty to 60 miles for 12-hour events; 90 to 110 miles for 24-plus hours.
Expedition: Lasts multiple days and takes place in some of the most formidable mountain or jungle areas in the world. Strictly for the experienced adventure racer. Famous races such as the Eco-Challenge, Raid Gauloises and Primal Quest range in length from 250 to 500 miles.
Adventure race schedule
SPRINT RACES (3-5 hours)
(Event Date)
Buena Vista Sprint May 12
Breckenridge Sprint July 22
Vail Sprint Sept. 8
12-HOUR RACES (6-14 hours)
Buena Vista 12hr May 12
Durango 12hr June 16
Breckenridge 12hr July 21
Vail 12hr Sept. 8
24-HOUR RACES (17-24+ hours)
Durango 24hr June 16
Breckenridge 24hr July 21
The Xstream Expedition Moab, Sept. 27-30
ALSO
Ultimate Adventure Challenge, Vail, June 2-3
More info online:
www.gravityplay.com and
www.tevamountaingames.com.
Staff writer Scott Willoughby can be reached at 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
