Training Log Archive: JayXC

All pics in my report courtesy of Peter Jolles.

Thoughts-

If I were to go again I think my gear bin would contain a completely different set of rain gear. Lightweight ripstop Gore-tex doesn't cut it here. I'd be sure to bring some type of thermo-rest. There is just no dry place to put up the tents the entire week. We used our Gore-tex jackets under our sleeping bags but that was only mildly successful. A bivy sack might actually be beneficial.

We should never have run out of food on any of the legs and that's inexcusable. Need to account for a larger margin or error.

A greater effort needs to be made to ensure the items which need to be dry stay dry in all instances. My small kit of $$, my lighter, knife, batteries all got wet due to the rain and the swimming.

I was happy with my sleeping bag choice. I used a 20F synthetic bag and was glad to have the additional insulation. The gear list required a minimum of a 32F bag and I saw quite a few of them at gear check in. The difference was only about 10 oz in carry weight but I'm pretty sure the warmer bag kept Melissa in the game when Christa from the Danes struggled and had to pull out.

I made a strange observation while racing.

As a person living in "trigger happy lawsuit society" where every step is taken by the governing bodies to ensure an individual won't get hurt despite himself I intially found myself thinking "there's no way they'd intend for us to go this route" considering the hazards along the way. Then I realized that the responsibility was actually in my hands to ensure I didn't get hurt and to choose a different route if necessary. The race organizers made a rope and harness mandatory gear and it was up to us to decide when to use it. It required a completely different way of thinking about a situation. I went from "why isn't there a rope set up here?" to "we should probably be using our rope here".

I don't like that I have been conditioned into expecting someone else to look out for me.

C • Great Report 12

C • Epic 1

Perdidos en el Turbal finished 6th. I don't think words can describe the beauty and harshness of Patagonia but I'll give it an attempt when I get back to the States.

C • WPER 1

More eating.

We also retrieve our gear bins, pack our bikes and hang up the wet clothes from the past 12 days to get it dry before packing for the trip home.

The next day was spent eating. We had breakfast at 9am, another at 11am, lunch at around 2pm and then around 6pm we headed into town for dinner meeting up with Adidas, the Junkies and The Dancing Pandas for what may be one of the best meals I've ever eaten.

We finish dinner and head to the Awards Banquet where each team is brought up on stage to receive their award. There's free tickets handed out for the local disco but we opt out and head to the grocery store for chocolate which we eat just before going to bed. My mom wouldn't have been happy but my exposed ribs, pelvis and abs appreciated it.

When we arrive at the horse ranch known as CP13 we're escorted to the medical tent where the doctor checks out our hands and feet. I ask him to drain the blisters I've discovered on my heals so that I can get my feet into my cycling shoes and Melissa's hands don't look good so he gives her some Cipro.

At no time did my feet hurt during the entire race and I was somewhat surprised that I had blisters as I didn't feel any while racing but that's when i discovered that I had no feeling left in my feet (and still don't). They would ache in the sleeping bag as the warmed up each night however.

We're shown the horse barn which we can sleep in. We lay the tents out and just sleep on top of them until 6 am. Based on the frost we find on the grass in the am I'm sure it was below freezing when we woke up but there's not a cloud in the sky. We assembly our bikes and eat something for breakfast and then we're off on the final leg of the race.

We're to ride out on the road we arrived on and within 2k we have to cross one of the creeks with a bridge out, soaking our feet again. So much for trying to keep my feet dry and warm. I have to laugh at the tracks through the field which were left by our 4x4 amusement park ride the night before.

The gravel road eventually dumps out onto a highway for 4k and then turned off heading east for the remainder of the ride. The terrain is completely different than what we'd seen for the last 8 days and it resembles something you'd expect to see in Texas or Oklahoma with views of 20-30 miles in every direction. The 30kph tailwind out of the west is also a welcome relief.



I had noticed on the map that there was a "town" about 30k off the highway and thought maybe we could stop for some food there. The road into town was nothing more that a cowpath and when we arrived in town it was apparent that its better days were long ago and offered no choices for food.

Hard to beleive possible but the cowpath got worse as we headed out of town and more resembled a dry creek bed than a road making towing very difficult with the large rocks and our pace was pretty slow through here.

After a few hours the road dumped out onto another road which was much improved and allowed us to pick up the pace. It was at this point that we ran into Stepan in his truck with a bed full of photographers who filmed us for 20k. The road continued to improve and we were riding between 35-40 kph through this stretch with the tailwind. Stepan left us and another truck full of cameramen took up the "babysitting". They'd travel up the road about 5 minutes, pull over and wait for us to pass then repeat the process.

As we approached the finish Stepan joined us again and escorted us into Pali Aike Park and the volcanic crater we'd finally finish in. We passed through the finish flags and were greeted by the race staff, more photographers, Adidas, The Gear Junkies, the French, the Croatians and Team East Wind who had finished 30 minutes before us.

We sprayed champagne and took more pictures then changed into dry clothes and enjoyed the post race BBQ well into the night, happy to be the last team to cross the finish line in 6th place.

In the am we wake up to the sound of a helicopter flying over head but it doesn't land. An hour later the Navy helicopter flys in , lands, the Danes hop on and they're wisked away to the hospital in Puerto Natales. I guess you don't get a ride in the Navy 'copter without a trip to the hospital.



Along with the Japanese we close up the CP with the crew and hike down to the Lago where the ferry is waiting for us. We hop on and get our first chance to dry out in 5 days. Its on the boat that we learn the front teams had taken the same ride the day before from CP11.

The plan was to ferry us about halfway down the lake and then transport us across to a waiting shuttle using the ships Zodiak where we would be transported to CP13.



Unfortunately when we reach the the location we're supposed to transfer to land the lake is too rough to launch the Zodiak and the decision is made to ferry us down the entire length of the lake to Puerto Natales. Its a nice ride as we commandere the ships bunks below deck to catch up on sleep but we've run out of food again and we're ready to eat our shoe leather by the time we get to Puerto Natales. Fortunately we convince our shuttle driver to stop in town at a grocery store for sandwiches.

Its a 3 hour drive to CP13. We're on highway early on but then turn off onto a single lane road which is barely driveable and our Chilean shuttle driver isn't too happy. We get the shuttle stuck twice along the way and use the small 4x4's following us to pull it out. Finally we reach a "bridge" over a creek which is out and the shuttle can go no further. There are 2 4x4's and each team hops in one. Our 4x4 driver who I'll call Colin McRae loves driving off road. His one word warning to us was "brace" and we go airborne numerous times getting through the fields and creeks. Definitely an E ticket ride and we loved it, laughing the whole way.

Contacting HQ ended up being tougher than we thought. Of the 3 sat phones available none worked. 1 wasn't charged, 1 didn't have the race HQ phone number and 1 wouldn't turn on. Fortunately we had Ignaco with us, our embedded field reporter and he had his own Sat phone which we were able to get though on. HQ informed us that they would fly us all out to CP10. A few hours later the helicopter arrived, we packed up and hiked to the landing zone where we shuttled to CP10 3 at a time.



Once at CP10 we were loaded into a tent and we waited for word on what the next steps would be. Later in the afternoon we were told that we'd have to hike down to the Lago 5k away where a ferry would take us out to vans which would shuttle us to CP13. From there we'd be able to ride to the finish. This was welcome news as at this point I thought we were out of the race. We're informed here that we are the last 3 teams on the course as all others had been stopped.

During the night the rainstorm starts. We break camp in the rain, cross a creek to soak our dry feet immediately and the proceed to climb straight up using the moss on the side of the cliff as handholds. Once up on the mountain the travel is pretty good and the sun even comes out for a few minutes. We travelled the entire day with the Danes. As we progressed into the afternoon the rain picked up, the temps dropped and the bushwacking got thicker.





We were traveling so slow through the brush that it became tough to stay warm. As we approached the last climb up to CP 10 we encountered a huge waterfall and river below. While searching for a suitable crossing Tobias from the Danes convinced our team and the Japanese that it didn't make sense to climb up to CP10 in the weather we were getting so we found a reasonable dry spot to set up the tents and tried to sleep.

It was a long night and we all struggled to stay warm. Christa from the Danes didn't fair the night well and they decided to contact HQ for a ride out in the am.

The next leg to CP10 was 67k on the optimal route. We figured it would take us 48 hours to get to it. This trekking leg started out well and we made good time all day. The terrain was mostly flat but in turbal so we were wet the entire day.



We encounter 2 rivers of glacier runoff that are ripping and they're just barely crossable. The last 6 hours are across a flat plain of turbal and seem to take forever. One last river to cross on a fallen tree and we set up camp on a lakeside beach with the Danes and the Croatians. Team Eastwind decides to push on and attempts the next difficult climb at night after a long day.

I was happy with the distance we'd covered during the day and felt we were on schedule to get to CP10 in 2 days.

We slept on the side of the mountain until around 4 am and then woke up and started up what we thought was the correct route but within an hour it looked like we were cliffed out. We decided to sit until daybreak and then figure it out which was a good idea. Once we could see where we were we had to down climb and then traverse over to the correct slot.



As we approached the correct slot we were joined by Team Eastwind, their film crew and The Dancing Pandas. Although I never like to see a team catch us it was refreshing to see Pete Spagnoli who was racing with the Pandas. We shared a few stories as we climbed and joked about the race so far.

We finally identified the slot to climb and we lined up in team order to get though it. It was slow going with a mix of rock and root hand/foot holds and one slip could make for a rough fall. We cleared the slot first and not long after heard some yelling from down below which I thought might have been a rock falling but afterwards I found out that Masha had taken a fall of about 20 feet.



Once at the top we worked our way down a series of ramps towards CP8. The wind and rain start up as well.



We arrive at CP8 with Team East Wind and change into our paddle gear. More importantly, we gain access to our next food cache which in our infinite wisdom contains a Jet Boil for hot food. Freeze-dried meals never tasted so good.

The next kayak stage on Fiordo de las Montanas to CP9 was spectacular with high mountains and a glacier running the entire length to our west.



We started out with a nice tail wind and that lasted for about 2 hours when the wind shifted it became a headwind and we were barely making 1k an hour into it. We shifted to the very east edge to stay out of the wind a much as possible but the going was slow and the waves were pretty big. There was plenty of incentive to keep moving as the temps dropped and we struggled to stay warm in our drysuits. Eventually we turned out of the Fiordo into a sheltered lake which we paddle to the end and into CP9 on Bahia Caribe. We set up the tents and again ate hot food as Team East Wind arrives as well. We plan to bank 5 hours of sleep.

Just remembered a funny story I wanted to add here. My alarm was the first to go off in the am after the paddle. I got dressed in the tent and as I opened the tent door zipper and poked my head out the japanese cameraman was waiting for me and had the camera right in my face asking me questions. We joked that he must have been waiting there the entire night. Similar instances to this one occured the entire week and Peter quickly became the media darling with his fancy interview voice.

The decent from CP5 was very thick and steep and it took us forever to get to some level ground but with that came more turbal. Impressed with Peter's navigating here as we nailed the small penninsula of land we were looking for in the dark passing the Junkies who were sleeping along the way but that was short-lived.

CP6 was at the end of the peninsula and another swim across Fiordo Worsley was required to get across, at least this one had a rope to pull on. Adidas later told us that they approached CP6 just as the crew was arriving via a boat and they talked the crew into letting them get shuttled across prior to the rope getting set-up. Bastards.

CP6 to CP7 dragged on for what seemed like forever. After crossing the river we continued along the edge of the lake as the map had shown. Eventually the optimal route headed up the mountain because the edge of the water ran up against a cliff. We continued up the mountain to try to cut the corner and minimize the amount of coasteering we had to do but unfortunately we encountered a terrible amount of thick vegetation to bushwack through and teetered on getting cliffed out a few times. At one point we could see the French team below making very good time which was not good for morale. It was about this time it started to rain as well. Eventually we made it over the top and down the other side to CP7 on Puente de Roca again within minutes of the cut-off and the Danes close on our heels. We were very low of food as well with a 9k trek to the next food cache.

From CP7 to CP8 was touted as a very difficult section due to a technical climbing section near the top of the pass we were told to use. There was a shorter option available but we were warned by the TA crew not to take it as it was very steep. We took their advice and chose to follow the recommended route but as we approached the corner of the pass it became difficult to see so we stopped on a dry patch and slept for a few hours. Fortunately the rain from earlier had stopped. I was pretty happy to stop as I was a fumbling mess at this point and in no shape to go up a technical climb.

Eventually our course made it up and thru a mountain pass where we could see in the distance a large opening but given the minimal amount of light we weren't sure what to make if it. It looked like a lake but it had these small white shapes in it which almost looked like clouds. I didn't think we were high enough to have clouds below us so it wasn't making sense.

Finally as dawn arrived we figured out that it was actually a lake and the the white objects were actually pieces of the glacier that had broken off, floated into the lake and then had been blown to the end of the lake we were approaching. One of the strangest things I've ever encountered as I couldn't figure out what it was for the longest time.





We walked the length of the Lago Balmaceda to CP3 running into a film crew along the way.

From CP3 to CP4 it was mostly downhill thru a valley on the side of the mountain, following the path of a river. The tricky part here was knowing when to take the next ramp down to the next level below before you got cliffed out at the end of the ramp you were on. We had mixed results with our guessing and the map provided very little help with the 1:50000 scale. We eventually made it into CP4 at the mouth of the river connecting Lago Azul and the Fiordo Ultima Esperanza but not before a few of us had run out of food. We travelled in this section with the french team and the Danes who were now out for 24 hours without food.

Loaded up on food at CP4 we used a kayak shuttle to get across a very cold river and then along ther coast of Lago xxxx where we encountered another glacier run-off river. The river was too wide to find a tree to cross on and it was running way to fast to attempt to walk across. Our only choice was to follow it to the outlet into the lake where we were excited to find a kayak on the other side. Unfortunately we were not permitted to use it according a race staffer standing near by. Our decision and that of the French team was that we had to swim across. We stripped down to just our shorts, packed everything into our dry bags and jumped in. The female on the frnch team really struggled and was washed out into the lake. Fortunately one of her teammates realized the seriousness of the situation and jumped in the kayak to rescue her. It was also helpful that the sun was still out and we were quickly dry. It kind of amazes me that they made us paddle in drysuits but forced us to swim in the same temperature water later on with zero protection.

Once we had our wits we proceeded to climb up to CP5 for the next 7 hours. The initial part of the trek was virtually straight up and the only thing which allowed this was the thick moss growing on the cliff.



Once out of the vegetation the remaining part of the climb was pretty open as we were travelling up a moraine to the top. Once at the top we traversed across and then decended slightly to a saddle where the point was supposed to be. There were many small re-entrants in the saddle that we had to traverse over which were not on the map and it kind of felt like being in a mouse maze as we wandered around looking for the CP.

Finally after what seemed like forever we spotted the CP just as dusk approached (and the cut-off) and we had to run to the CP to make it in time. We decided to take our first nap (2 hours) here as the ground was relatively dry although I don't think I slept much.

Event: Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race
 

Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race-

Racing as Perdidos en el Turbal with Melissa Griffiths, Tim Kuenster and Peter Jolles.

We wake up early anticipating that we need to tear down the tents, pack, eat and assemble our bikes before the 8am start. Silly us, we're on Chilean time. The bikes aren't even here yet. They arrive around 9am and we put them together followed by more hurry up and wait. Fortunately its a beautiful morning with not a cloud in the sky.

With some encouraging words Stepan yells "Go" and we're off with a cowboy escort. We did a good job of staying together right from the start and as we head thru the campground we settle into 3rd place behind Adidas and Gear Junkie. Given the head wind we chose to bridge up and draft off Adidas who seem happy to sit on Gear Junkie.



I kept telling myself the last thing we wanted to do was lead this race. An aggressive 3rd was fine with me. We quickly turn off the road we arrived on and the road begins to climb as does the wind. We worked well here with the tow systems and kept the Junkies in our sights as Adidas fell off due to a mechanical on Bruce's bike. This is where the winds really started to pick up and at a few hill crests the wind is so strong it blows us off our bikes and the only thing which keeps the bikes from blowing away it a death grip on the handlebars as the back wheels are blown off the ground and the bikes blow in the breeze like a towel on a clothes line, unreal.

Not long after this episode Melissa's seat loosens and we have to jump off the paceline to fix it. We ride the next 30k solo until I begin to get a flat (wtf?) and we stop to put air in it 2x. The team from Denmark catches us here and we arrive with them at the paddle TA where we're told the Navy has delayed to paddle start due to the conditions.

After sitting around for about 1.5 hours waiting for the winds to die down the Navy gives the ok we're informed that we're going to start the paddle down the Grey and Serrano Rivers.

We take off in order of the bike finish on 30 second intervals with the river current at around 15 kph. Its a fast ride early on, especially with a tail wind. Its mandatory to paddle in drysuits as the rivers are glacier runoff at around 35 F and we bake in the sun while paddling in them. Given that the ozone layer in this part of Chile is very thin and I'm forgetful of that fact I sunburn my nose, ears and neck along the way.



The wind isn't an issue until our route begins to head west at which point it whips up some impressive waves which the kayaks handle very well. There's one mandatory portage around a 15' waterfall and the rest of the paddle goes smoothly.



The french team and Adidas catch us along the way and we all enter the TA together. Unfortunately our paddle gear bins have not made it to the take out yet...

Given that we were told the paddle gear bin would be at the take out we only brought enough food to last the length of the paddle leg and not the entire amount of food required to cover the next 28 hour trekking section nor did we bring our trekking shoes.

Imagine our surprise when the paddle gear bin was a no-show. After some heated spanglish exchanges with the TA crew we were told that the gear was on its way via a boat, estimate of arrival was 10 minutes. Camera crews everywhere, gear everywhere, people yelling, etc. We transitioned as far as we could and then just as we were considering trekking 28 hours in our paddling shoes with no food the boat showed up. The Danes chose to take off without their food, at least they had shoes.

We quickly finished changing and took off. It was about 800m before I met my first turbal section. Splash! I stepped on what I thought was a tuft of grass and it sank under my foot about 8-10" into water. So much for dry feet. We found a decent herd trail early but eventually decided to just blaze our own course. Our course switched between long sections of turbal separated by short dense "jungle" type vegetation sections in the re-entrants. Everything was covered in moss and it looked like something out of the Return of the Jedi. I expected to see some Ewoks along the way. None of the terrain was very easy to progress through. None of it was dry.

Early morning and we deliver the gear bins to the race organization wondering if we've got everything placed in the correct bin given how quickly we needed to do it.

Later in the afternoon we all gather at the park square in town for a send-off dance by the locals and then onto the buses for the transfer to the start. Its a 3+ hour drive to Torre del Paine through the flat plains. As we get closer to the park we can see the signature 3 Pillars and there is about a months worth of rain backed up behind them. After transferring to vans for the final ride into the park we're escorted to the race reception by local cowboys waving the Patagonian regions' flags and yelling and screaming. Quite a show.



We're treated to a cookout of lamb, potatoes, salad and local Chilean red wine, all fantastic. All the while I'm thinking to myself, man its kind of cold out.



At dusk (10:30 pm) we head off to a local campsite for the night sleeping in our mandatory tents and sleeping bags under the stars and with the mountains in the background.

Kind of a lazy day with nothing planned until the Opening Ceremony and the map handout in the evening when it would get extremely hectic, as usual.

At the Opening Ceremony I begin to realize the scope of whats going on. The teams are each introduced in Spanish and English. There is press everywhere from multiple countries and a film crew from Japan who intend to follow Team East Wind through the entire course. A video is presented to add drama I suppose and then Stepan reveals the specifics of the course. 105 km paddling 248 km biking and 265 km of trekking. Ouch.

While watching the race coverage last year and seeing how easy it seemed Adidas ran through the course I joked that there was no way I'd want to be in the race in 2011 because I figured the organizers would want to challenge them. Fast forward to the course reveal and the joke isn't funny anymore.

The maps are handed out and we head back to the Hostel to begin working on the specifics. We're alotted 5 drop bags which we need to fill with the correct gear items, batteries and the proper amount of food between each cache. Using an estimate of 6k per hr on the paddles, 10k per hr on the bike and 2k per hr trekking we come up with our plan which indicates it will take us over 7 days to complete the course without including sleep in the mix. As it turns out this is a little optimistic.

Upon arriving we had our race-appointed escort take us directly to the gear check where we assembled our bikes and applied stickers and patches to our gear. 8am gear check went relatively smooth and we proceeded on to the kayak skills check where Peter and I had to perform a wet exit and paddle float rescue which we complete in 1:45 seconds.
The rest of the afternoon is filled with a grocery store trip to buy $150 worth of food for the race and then dividing it up into 3000 calorie bags.

Toronto-JFK-Lima, Peru-Santiago, Chile-

Everything went well until Santiago starting with the landing where just before putting the wheels on the ground the pilot decided he wanted another try and we made another lap.

With only 1 hour to collect our bags, clear customs, pay the $140 reciprocation fee for entering Chile, re-check the bags and get to the gate we ended up missing our connection. We were then put on stand-by where you can only get boarding passes starting 50 minutes before the next flight leaves. Considering it takes the agents 25 minutes to process each ticket that leaves very little time for error. After 5x through the stand-by process we finally figured it out and left that miserable airport 12 hours after arriving on a 1am flight to Punta Arenas.

Drive to Toronto for 30 hr trip to Punta Arenas, Chile on LAN Airlines. Managed to only pay a $60 oversize fee for my bike box and gear bin. This of course required me carrying 2 backpacks on the plane with all of my clothing in them.