Discussion: Expedition Africa

For those of us who enjoy watching major adventure races with our AP friends (and sometimes racing in them), it's only a few weeks until we can indulge in another ARWS event. Expedition Africa will take place from May 3-12.

Some members of Team Tecnu Extreme just did a 4-day training weekend in California as part of their preparation. There are at least two APers on their XPD Africa team - Tico and Getawaystix. (Maybe more...?) This short video includes some amazing pics from their training.

Is Beantown going to Africa? He is another APer on Technu.

Will be following the race for sure, these guys are going to give a great show over there.

Tecnu will be:

Kyle Peter (Tico)
Bob Miller (Getawaystix)
Garret Bean (who might be the anonymous Beantown but also on AP as Bush Hunter)
Karen Lundgren (longtime racer on Team SOLE)

Also mkoo from AP is going, with Team 11, Omjakon.

Garret has most recently been logging under Beantown, but he has gone undercover the last couple weeks and is not the most consistent logger.

Can't let other teams see your training and taper ;)

Article about Team Tecnu in Breathe Magazine online.
http://www.breathemag.ca/news/expedition-racing/ex...

New video from the team's recent training weekend.
http://vimeo.com/64040115#

Some of the other top contenders (from the Breathe article):

"As Expedition Africa has gained popularity, it has begun to attract the ever-feared Swede teams and some tough local teams who hold precious local knowledge. Team Haglöfs Silva, a Swedish team is on the roaster. Consistency is their strength; they have been on the podium at the AR World Championships five times (2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). No doubt they will be looking for their first world title in Costa Rica, come December. Also from Sweden is Team Sweco Adventure (AR World Ranking = 21). From France the 4th place team from the 2012 World Champs Raidlight – France will be toeing the line (AR World Ranking = 11). From South Africa, the very competitive team Merrell Adventure Addicts and team Cyanosis will elevate the field."

Merrell Adventure Addicts have been training too.

can't wait to follow along!

Some APers on the South African teams:

nmulder (Team Cyanosis)
briangardner (Team Red Ants)
nthompson (Team Red Ants)
Rob1280 (Team Rusty)
Stijn (Team Charnas)

There was a decent snow dump over the Drakensberg this past weekend, but with the current clear weather will likely have melted before race day.

Can't wait :)

Thanks for letting us know Stijn! Would you be able to give those following along from home a general overview of the terrain in the area? Best of luck in the race!

Have a great race, Stijn, and please drop in here when you can.

Here's where the leaderboard will be.

http://www.kineticgear.org/leaderboard/

Sleepmosters just leaked the host hotel. Mont-Aux-Sources hotel in Bergville

http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?race_i...

I am hoping we get to ascend these ladders up Tugela Falls (2nd highest falls in the world)!!

https://www.google.com/search?q=tugela+falls+ladde...

Everybody's favorite AR photog Andreas Strand will be following team Tecnu along with the 2 Swede teams so expect some great shots during the race.

Thanks guys! OK, for an overview of the area, here goes...

The Drakensberg is defined by the escarpment - a continuous wall of basalt cliffs (500m-1000m in height) stretching for 200km along the Eastern border of Lesotho with the Kwazulu-Natal province of South Africa. It's a pretty unique mountain range in that once you reach the top of these cliffs via one of the many passes, there is no "other side of the mountain". You end up in the Lesotho highlands, which are a series of rolling hills and ridges at an altitude of 2800m - 3450m. With barely any vegetation up there, the going is relatively easy despite there being hardly any paths other than a few donkey tracks.

The challenge of the Drakensbeg lies in its passes which allow access to the upper plateau. They usually gain about 1000m in 2-4km, sometimes have paths, but often require boulder-hopping up a river bed to access a steep grassy gully at the higher altitudes.

All the way along the escarpment cliffs is a corridor of protected wilderness area, about 10-15km wide and covering altitudes down to 1400m. Further East and below that the landscape is lush, thorny bushveld with many rural villages joined by a network of cattle tracks, footpaths and gravel roads. These lower-lying areas also contain a few large dams, on which much of the paddling will probably be. There are only a few rivers close to the mountains which would offer good paddling opportunities, although some white-water is promised so we'll have to wait and see :)

Sounds and looks pretty epic Stijn, thanks for the overview! Sounds really flat! ;) Look forward to following along once the race gets going! Best of luck to you and your team.

Nice overview Stijn...

Thanks for setting the stage, Stijn and Tico!

Explorecompetelive.com did a Q&A with Tecnu going about their upcoming season.

http://explorecompetelive.com/qa-with-tecnu-advent...

Rob Howard has done a review of top competitors on Sleepmonsters.

http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?page_a...

If you're on Facebook, you can like the organizers' page to get more updates.

https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear

As mentioned before, the race website is here. 4 days till the start!

http://www.kineticgear.co.za/AdventuresRaces/Exped...

EndorphinMag has set up this interactive site to cover the event.

http://www.endorphinmag.fr/evenement/expeditionafr...

More options:

Follow the hashtag #expafrica on Twitter.

And follow tweets from organizers (who aren't using the hastag so far).
https://twitter.com/kineticgear

Send messages to your team at expafricaar@gmail.com

http://www.AR.co.za - South Africa’s adventure racing website will carry reports and photos by owner/editor/racer Lisa de Speville.

SleepMonsters Reports
http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?race_i...

And LosDobos is going to do his usual excellent job of following all available info and GPS tracks but he is only going to post that info on his own blog. URL TBA.

With all these options, it's no wonder that a bunch of us just hang out here on AP and share key info with one another!

I will help Bash train by watching as she does the heavy lifting on race analysis.

Oh, I'm counting on lots of help! That's why I'm sharing all the resources now. I'm guessing that Double_Downon11 will provide his usual insights, and Beez did a great job for Tierra Viva, along with others.

Given how many APers are racing at Expedition Africa, I'm hoping that supporters of particular teams will keep us updated on their news. It's a big job to watch multiple teams so I'll mostly be tracking my friends on Tecnu - and the leaders too, in the unlikely event that it should happen to be a different team. ;))

howzit all (that's hello in south african speak)!

I've followed discussions here before, but have finally joined to contribute. I'm a SA AR racer who is going to have serious FOMO issues this next week, as I'll be following it from here. I've done the first two Expedition Africa editions, so will hopefully have a bit of good insight into how the courses will pan out once they get going.

The big news for us local racers really is the quality and quantity of overseas teams this year. The race was a 'late' addition to the ARWS last year so it makes a bit more sense that more teams could get it on their schedules for 2013. Locally our two strongest teams have been Merrel Adventure Addicts and Cyanosis - both got top 10 at ARWS tasmania in 2011. They've always been the yardstick as overseas campaigners, but it's a real treat to have top teams coming to our shores.

This race is going to hinge on the trek sections. Don't expect too much in the way of options/moves on the paddling(possibly a dark zone if river section later in race) and bike sections but the hiking is going to be hard and possibly have some risky options for the brave. I do hope that the tracking and coverage will do it justice, but there are going to be some very isolated sections and the trackers are on GSM systems so signal might be hard to find.

The photos are going to blow you away. Guaranteed!
steve burnett

Awesome - looking forward to reading a 300+ post thread when I get back! :)

That's awesome Steve! The more the merrier. Can't wait to start following on Monday!

Hola APes!
As Bash mentioned, I will be doing my best to unravel what is going on out there in the Drekenburg mountains next week. Instead of posting the same things all over the place, I've decided to set up a blog:
http://www.bits-of-life.com/
This is where all my updates will be going, so wander over and have a look. Some stuff is already up, with more in the works.
GO BOB!

The race hasn't started yet, but there's still plenty to talk about - I'm up to 17 fascinatingly interesting posts at
http://www.bits-of-life.com/
GO BOB!

75km trek
34km MTB
75km kayak
89km MTB
------ midcamp
56km trek (rope)
163km MTB
24km kayak
29km trek

= 545km

Dark zone in the first kayak leg...fast teams might get a nap at the end of the first night, slower teams will have to race it coming into the 2nd night.

Big decisions, race time: http://www.ar.co.za/2013/05/expafrica-lets-look-at...

And they're off at 6:30 a.m. local time! Live tracking has started. This 3-minute video conveys the pre-race atmosphere nicely. Getawaystix appears at the 50-second mark. Any other APers?

Heh, nice vid! mkoo from AP & team Omjakon is sitting there in the car at 2:10 :) Their gps was weird for a while but now in pretty good position. Go Finland!!

very quick thoughts from me here:

first leg is the feature of the race. it is a killer section, i would think that some teams will burn more matches here that they'll need in their boxes for later. the terrain is good hiking routes mostly but it's high altitude and steep. the dark zone cut-off will be a crucial target for the mid to rear teams, but i'm not sure if it is worth racing it if you fall behind.

the second hiking leg is also going to be very dramatic, giants castle is another popular hiking area with lots of trails.

the cycle legs are a bit straightforward. the 8day joberg2c stage race was completed over the weekend, but it looks like a lot of the feature singletrack areas of this route are bypassed.

tracking is going to be very sketchy on the first stage, but i'm sure they will have marshalls on the route, especially at the sentinel car park so we'll get an accurate leaderboard at least.

@ Los Dobos: anyway you can add a feature to http://www.bits-of-life.com/ so we get notified when you post new stuff?

Top 10 teams are already creating a gap, looks like it's gonna be a tight race!

Huh, some of the local teams seems to have taken the Ifidi pass route. After some Googling it really didn't seem to be a very easy route but they are moving quite fast.. some advantage of being local I guess! If they continue that fast they will be far in the lead soon.

jackson5 - not sure how I would go about pushing notifications onto a forum discussion. The easiest way is to subscribe to the blog - I've added a subscribe widget thingy onto the Home page just below the !Live! Update excerpts.

South African teams Merrell Adventure Addicts, Cyanosis and Red Ants are 1-2-3 after taking a shorter, more technical mountain pass route in the latter part of the trek. Raidlight and Haglofs Silva arrived at TA1 shortly after the local teams. The top 5 teams are in transition now, all having arrived within a 30-minute period. Tecnu's last GPS track is old but they were last seen close behind Raidlight/Silva on the other route so they should be updated on the leaderboard soon.

Cyanosis just left TA1 in the lead with Raidlight only 4 minutes behind!

@Bash - welcome back. Being techno-geeky, do you have any suggestions regarding @jackson5's question above?

Sorry, no. I've subscribed to your e-mail updates. So far there is a wealth of information coming out of this race, which is excellent although it will be hard to keep up with.

It's so nice to have locals on this forum to give us the inside scoop! Even though there are lots of places to read about the race, what I like about AP is that a bunch of us from around the world can have a conversation. Nice. :)

ok, guys, so I suppose you want to know all about this team WCAD who were leading for quite a section of the first leg? We set it up after the first edition 2 years ago to put on some much needed races in the cape town area after the local club folded a few years back, and have now developed quite a good following. the team have their sites on costa rica this year, so this is a good challenge - they pulled a similar stunt at quantum Leap last year with a bit of free climbing that missed a seriously overgrown gorge.

read more here - www.wcad.co.za, if nothing else we do kickass race videos!
ps. i'm the 4th guy, race with rustproof normally but fatherhood got in the way this year.

http://youtu.be/JxiECBwF4C8

testing.testing

I'm thinking energy will make the dark zone cut-off, not sure about rusty and indabushe though

a word on the boats being used. plastic sit on tops, ideal for AR events because you can use them on dams, rivers and even the sea (although both ocean paddles at EA11 and EA12 got called off). They are ideal for race organisers, but suck to race on.

They have a top speed of about 6km/h on flatwater. you can then go to warp speed which is about 7km/h, but this requires double the energy. they're also damn heavy, so portages are hard work. they are hard to paddle in slip as a team of four, and it's not easy balancing them right with bags on as well.
my team got hold of some seats that you lean back against, also handy.

The organisers have a big fleet of them and use them through the year for races. You can use supplied paddles – but they are the flat paddle type and not great. Definitely worth getting hold of carbon wing paddles if possible, which is another hurdle for overseas teams.
http://kayak-sa.co.za/kayak-models/synergy-kayak/

but, they're all in the same boat here!

They look similar to the plastic sit-on-top kayaks we had at Tierra Viva, and I agree - they're pigs! Also, they can hasten hypothermia in cool weather because you usually sit in a little puddle of water. I guess they're affordable, multi-purpose and difficult to damage so I can understand why they're so popular with organizers.

Shebeen, thanks for sharing the info on WCAD. Interesting to get their take on the course in the pre-race video. What a beautiful area!

LosDobos/Bash : all fine with the widget LosDobos added to his blog, that's what I was looking for, thx.

Race is heating up, seems that Tecnu is catching back a bit after Merrell Adventure Addicts mistake on a bike section - missed CP, had to backtrack for 20km from what I read...

merrel advaddicts have gone wrong again on this bike leg. no timestamps on the tracks but it looks like their tracker died an hour ago...whilst they were going 35km/h in the wrong direction!

RedAnts turned back...

Honest text.. I just wondered the same... http://www.ar.co.za/2013/05/expafrica-moving-at-sn...

Could Merrell have missed CP 16 and are going back to get it?

Is there any news on Raidlight's real location? They started the MTB 80 minutes ahead of Tecnu in 4th place but their tracker hasn't worked for a long time. I assume they're still in 4th?

What Day 1 looked like for the lead teams. Spoiler alert: "very scenic".

Stunning video! No lions, either; that's good. My wife vetoed this race for the Untamed Adv team because of perceived danger of that area (the bad rep for Joburg, I think). Looks unfounded :)

Apparently, they saw giraffes and zebras on today's bike leg. The course setter saw a rhino but so far there aren't any rhino reports from the race. (Phew!)

If you know some of the racers, there's a good chance you'll see one of them in this video near the top of the Tugela Falls ladder climb.

If anyone is wondering why there isn't as much discussion in this forum as there has been for some other races, it's because there are so many sources of information! It has been about as easy to "watch" as an expedition adventure race can be. Congrats to the APers who are doing so well!

Now it is a bit hard to follow where the lead teams go.. Raidlight and Merrell without trackers to T5 and Silva's tracker is not updating. Omjakon leaving 10.35 from T4 together with Sweco (so they were able to catch them during the night!).

Okay,I thought I had "mostly" retired from expedition AR, but following along all these videos and write ups makes me want to get back to it again. It's like hotel California - you can never leave!

Thanks for all the updates. I'm pretty excited to see Bob Miller and Tecnu move up in positions and of course I also have a soft heart for the Swedes.

Yes all the write-ups, especially on bits-of-life.com is great. Tecnu is definitely closing the gap. Have reduced their gap with 2nd place Raidlight from 1.7 hrs entering T4 to 1.3 hrs at CP26, and they have also closed the gap with 3rd place Merrell from 30 mins entering T4 to 17 mins at CP26. Silva had a really fast bike from T3 to T4 and increased their lead considerably during this leg.

Hey all, I have not read the entirety of this post but thought it might be a good place to ask that if anyone knows Scott Pleban in any capacity to join our community of supporting him in recovering from a coma that he is in while commuting home from work over a week ago and being hit by a car. He is exactly what these racers in Africa are, determined, adventurous, and down right wonderful. If anyone knows him or has had an experience with him please join our online community to show support for his family and for him.....it will make all of the difference in the world.

Any words or stories are appreciated,,,

https://www.lotsahelpinghands.com/c/704269/

Let me know if the link doesn't work.
Go Tecnu!

Thanks, Lee. I've added your info to the thread about Scott on the orienteering side of Attackpoint.

We're more than 2.5 days into the race, and organizers had originally predicted the first finishers on Thursday morning. Silva has executed an impressive race so far and currently holds a 4 hour lead over the rest of the field. They are about to embark on a bike section that was supposed to be a monster but has now been shortened and simplified navigationally because of stolen CPs and longer-than-predicted race times. This is unfortunate since it changes the course that racers were planning on and pacing themselves for, and it doesn't offer as many opportunities for the teams behind to challenge the leaders. However, it's still a long race and anything can happen.

Meanwhile, the battle for 2nd to 4th place remains very exciting. Raidlight, Merrell and Tecnu are within an hour of each other, travelling in that order. In an expedition race, that time difference is nothing so we still have lots of nail biting ahead. Go Bob! :)

Do we know if Raidlight and Merrrell's tracking device is accurate and working? I'm guessing not but with a wealth of information I'm having trouble finding a consensus and yes - GO BOB!

We know for sure that their tracking devices are not working. In fact, I read somewhere that they had been sent somewhere to be serviced and should be returned to them after the trek. Let's hope so! All we have right now are leaderboard times for CP26 and reported times from the abseil, not yet posted on the leaderboard.

Awesome, thanks Bash. It looks as though the paddle in stage 7 could be shortened if the winds don't cooperate. Ahhhhh! So much to watch for.

Tecnu just arrived at the end of the trek 17 minutes behind 2nd place. More nail biting to come!

Wow! Go Tecnu!

Bob's gotta be sleepy if he's dropping fbombs.

Just finished a fresh pot of coffee as things get interesting!

This is ridiculously captivating...such tense times, I wish Merrell / Raidlight had working trackers. Ah CP39 is right there Tecnu...just go south a little!...hoping them all the best.

Hermes, you're right 'bout that. They're tired but they're going for it. 2nd place - nice! (And they're past 39 now.)

some real interesting tussles here - really good to have a nice decent sized field (think we only had 14 last year).

race for 2nd place is on.

big pack going for 9th - wcad, olympus, castle lite, black diamond are all solid local teams - some big charactaers there. actually time for a good plug. Adrian Saffy from castle lite is the man behind wartrail 3day race and the skyrun. both amazing events on the western side of lesotho. http://www.pureadventures.co.za/

and then there's the guys who were around paddle darkzone cut-off. they've merged. indabushe seem to be rocking this so far on the trek. uge from energy is known as one of the nav gurus. ev from indabushe is a more than worthy understudy, but is showing padawan which way to go.

there will be a new winner of EA, team merrell have pulled out. San mari had serious issues with blisters, and Don's knee wound is getting worse. don't think they took it lightly.

what's happened to the bits-of-life coverage..gone quiet, was really excellent analysis. tecnu looking good, if only we knew where raidlight were!

Bits-of-life got some sleep. :)
Back at it now.

FYI: I have emailed the organizers of the remaining arws races and asked if they would like me to do this type of off-site live-ish coverage. The Aussies got back to me and seem enthused about the idea, promising me phone and email and skype contact with their ta and cp staff. Cool!
If I'm lucky they'll actually pay me a bit for this, which would be nice as I'm trying to make a living out of writing. Feel free to put in a good word for me with any or all of the races. Thanks.
Now, back to the coffee...

LosDobos, sleep is no excuse. This is an expedition race, doncha know!

It's a shame to lose strong competitors like Merrell. A quote from the TA where they withdrew: “A lot tougher than other Exp Africas. Similar level to Aussie XPDs.”

P.S. Hey, that is great news about the race coverage!

Tecnu is at the bike/paddle TA in 2nd place, 3:10 behind Silva. Silva is nearly finished the shortened paddle. It's too bad the final bike and paddle were dumbed down so much since this race for the finish would have been much more exciting. Still, the final 29 km trek is tough and has only one CP, and it will be dark soon. Both teams have great navigators but everyone is tired and sore so the race is not over yet. Not that any expedition race is *ever* over until you cross the finish line.

A 2.5 minute summary of what Day 2 looked like for the lead teams - including giraffes and zebras!

Great news for AR fans - unless you were hoping to get work done today. Raidlight finally has a working tracker so we should be able to watch them battle it out with Tecnu. The teams rode together on the final bike leg with Tecnu arriving a few minutes ahead. Raidlight is on the water. Tecnu hasn't broadcast for the last half hour. That's not encouraging since the trackers usually work well on the water unless they're stuck in a dry bag or something, which would mean we wouldn't get any news until the next TA. Fingers crossed that their current position appears soon.

Oh, there they are. Tecnu is still on shore. Raidlight is more than 1 km into the paddle. So Tecnu may be napping or eating. This is a better place to stop than the end of the kayak section since they should be relatively dry and warm now, which may not be the case after paddling for 2 hours and finishing in the early evening. There are no nav challenges on the paddle, and the wind may die down near sunset, which would speed them up. Both teams will be trekking in the dark regardless so there's no point rushing for that reason. An observer at the TA thought that Tecnu looked a little better than Raidlight so I doubt they're having trouble. Silva was reported as being in rough shape - but it hasn't slowed them down much!

Correction: Raidlight's tracker went on an imaginary journey. Endorphin Mag is reporting that both Raidlight and Tecnu are waiting onshore for their kayak gear. Seriously? The teams fighting it out for 2nd place have to wait for gear they haven't used for two days while the final hours of daylight fade away? At least they'll get to nap off the clock.

they're waiting for their pfds and paddles basically?..what did silva use? can't they just borrow others

this is probably a knock on of the first paddle TA having to stay open longer than expected, BUT this was totally avoidable. Normally a very tight ship run here - if you look at the course you can see it's designed around logistics that make sense.

hope it doesn't affect the outcome...good thing they arrived together.

Just a word on mtb3, the big one. It’s actually in a hotspot for local trails, but they seem to be bypassing some of it. Either way it really does take them back to the escarpment…quite a ride. Last years single speed world champs was held at winterton, spioenkop dam more specifically – it was a lot of fun. The actual race course is very close to CP44..some amazing trails!
Here’s the video from it.
http://www.sinamatella.com/makingfilm/kunye/

Silva is expected to finish at 22:00 local time. The other teams were still waiting for their gear half an hour ago, and Endorphin Mag said they would post an update as soon as the teams left. The sun has just set. One of the problems with situations like this is that you can't get a good nap because you don't know how much time you have.

and they're off for the final push!!! Tecnu just ahead of Raidlight.

Tense! Go Tecnu!

Looks like Bob had some blisters treated at TA 6. Thankfully they are onto a paddle for a bit but this could make for a long 29km trek.

Not to mention that he'll probably make me carry his pack when we go Wilderness Traverse course testing in a couple of weeks! ;)

they're waiting for their pfds and paddles basically?..what did silva use? can't they just borrow others

Shebeen, they probably could have but Bob borrowed my comfy kayak seat for this race so he probably insisted that they wait for it. :)
http://www.mec.ca/product/5024-675/feelfree-deluxe...

It is strange that Silva's gear and food were there, especially when you consider that Raidlight finished the last kayak section just 72 minutes behind Silva.

Tecnu finished the paddle 9 minutes faster than Silva even though Silva had daylight. Raidlight is not far behind. The teams have plotted different routes for the final trek. The race is ON.

Tecnu is running..probably to get out of sight. 29km sprint to the finish? Yikes.

About 3 to 4 km separates Tecnu and Raidlight on the final trek...what a nail-biter

Looks like just over 1 km now. I wonder if they can see each other's lights. !!!

ahhhhh...

Damn it, guys - I'm not supposed to be glued to my computer today! :)

Shades of Primal Quest 06.

Wow, looks like they are travelling together now. Too bad they can't 'draft' off of each other and catch the Silva breakaway. FFS it is hard to work today!

Did you just see that? Raidlight just pounced on Tecnu. Unless it's a tracker malfunction...

lt looks like they are only ~2h behind Silva as well. Not a lot of race course yet, but crazier things have happened.

Likely Tecnu stopped for a nap - it was a narrow point in the route and they figurd Raidlight would wake them when they caught up. Now that they have, Tecnu's moving again.

Yikes, this is going to be tight all around. Certainly more exciting than someone many hours ahead.
Other fantastic AR finishes at big races? I was at the finish as a tourist in Nfld. in 2004 when Nike beat Swedish team Cross for the RtNX win on bikes by less twenty seconds. And that was before any tracking, so we didn't know who was going to come around the corner. I remember seeing video of a close 4th or 5th place sprint on bikes in Tasmania the other year on the track. Any others?

Bob Miller's Supplier Pipeline losing out to Robyn Benincasa's Earthlink by 2 minuets for 3rd place at Primal Quest 2006.

Yeah, he'd hate to be famous for that twice...

God help me if one of their trackers goes awol...knock on wood.

LosDobos has raised a brilliant point in his latest Bits of Life post. (Of course, they're all brilliant but this one is especially so!)

Tecnu and Raidlight each have a time credit related to their paddle gear arriving late at TA6. Raidlight arrived at the TA five minutes after Tecnu so their time credit may be five minutes less. If Tecnu and Raidlight finish together, Tecnu is probably ranked ahead.

We'd heard that the teams had planned different routes but so far they're sticking together. If this is the situation, it is probably good strategy for Tecnu to keep Raidlight in sight rather than taking a different route that may or may not turn out to be faster.

Interesting...

This tracker outage is killing me. I've swapped the coffee for booze...

I know! I was just about to say that Bob had proven my speculation wrong but I need one more tracker position from them before it's certain. Arggh.

In the meantime, congratulations to Silva as they travel the final kilometers to the finish.

And wow, what a race for 4th place too!

I blame Escondido..he jinxed it. Time to grab a beer and watch things unfold for 2nd. Great coverage LosDobos, Bash and others, thanks!

i know, damit...but i knocked on my head, which usually does the trick.

Congrats to the Swedes! Great race! Bra gjort!

Raidlight's tracker has just reappeared. They've been to CP50 and they're running south. Tecnu, speak to us!

Here's some more explanation of what happened at TA6. The paddling gear was there; the bike boxes weren't, and they were needed.

http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?page_a...

Don't congratulate the Swedes until they figure out how to get down off that ridge...

anyone else just clicking back and forth between facebook/attackpoint/bitsoflife until the tracker chimes in?

Anyone else continuing to drink while this unfolds? :)

It's like in Apollo 13 when there's radio silence until they come through reentry...
How far away is sunrise? Will Silva wait until they can see their way down?

Even the "green line" doesn't look like a good place to come down from that ridge.

Good point wilberto. I didn't realize until just now that Silva was still on the ridge....but oh, so close.

I'm heading out to drink now. Someone text me the results. So I know when to order the Champagne.

and here comes the fog/rain et al.

Looks like Silva tried coming down the wrong spur and recognized it was heading too far north. The correct spur looks pretty subtle.
ATP (S. Pleban) won the App Extreme in '04 and EMS (D. Lamb) won it in '05 when the lead team had nav issues on the last trekking legs. Anything is possible still.

Raidlight continues to make good time trekking south..where is Tecnu??

Sweco Adventure just finished the final paddle and are on the final trek behind Cyanosis who's currently in 4th.

...topping up my glass of wine...

There will be a lot of drunk APers tonight! ;)
Thanks everyone for posting and keeping us up to date

Special thanks to Los Dobos. When the racers are done and want to get the minute-by-minute commentary that is often found here, they should check out Bits of Life.
http://www.bits-of-life.com/live/

Btw I just confirmed with organizers that CP50 is not manned so we will not get any info on Tecnu until their tracker reappears or someone sees them. Gaaahh!

Man, Silva is stuck on the ridge trying to find a way down! How much time will they loose? Yikes! This is too exciting!

It's stressful for us but it could be worse. Imagine being the Mom of a member of Team Silva right now as they keep moving toward the edge of the cliff, then backing off and trying a different place. Now add in the darkness, cold and rain, and the win hanging in the balance. Yikes!

Getting cliffed out can get pretty scary. Hopefully they are not sleepbonking too badly and can get out of trouble.

Raidlight looks to be trying to get over the N/S ridge before getting to the plateau Silva is on. Much safer route, in the meantime Silva appears to have found the correct spur down finally.

.. and now it appears Silva turned back, maybe the spur was too steep. They may have to backtrack pretty far north unless there's a safe way down elsewhere. This does not look good for them...

Wow, after actually making it down Silva's tracker shows them heading back up???

maybe a scout went ahead to check it out and is now getting the rest of the team from up above

or not? they backtracked again....or yes, they just re=backtraked. This is nuts.

I only ever saw the track go to the edge, not actually down. I think it's sheer cliffs everywhere (except a few k north)?

Whoa, now they look down?

Looks that way to me too.

I agree, they found a way finally. Once they hit that trail 500m to the north it's over. Raidlight seems to be struggling now.

In switching between the terrain and satellite views, it looks like a real gauntlet of cliffs -- depending on the caliber of maps and how the instructions read, is that luck or skill to negotiate your way through such terrain?

Tecnu's spot back up. By the dam just coming to the final CP I believe. Looks like they had a roadside nap.

:(

They'll have first light within an hour. Unless it's super foggy, teams should start moving more quickly then.

Tecnu has made an interesting route choice and is heading around the other side of the dam it appears!

Interesting indeed!

Is Silva still cliffed out?!

Maybe a team scout wearing the tracker who checked the route?

Silva sitting still cliffed out, Raidlight's tracker silent for last 45 minutes, Tecnu moving along the route I had highlighted

Not sure if this was posted already but where are Sweco and Omjakon headed??

Tecnu is either walking on water or found some packrafts?!

Double Downon I was wondering the same.. probably picking up the road where they can move faster? Pretty tight race for the places 5. and 6. too.. and is the CP39 dropped out?

LosDobos wrote about that.
http://www.bits-of-life.com/live/vikings-heading-f...

Re: Sweco and Omjakon - They are moving pretty fast considering how late it is in race. Maybe they had a shortcourse bike option off the paddle?

Oh, and then LosDobos wrote about it again just now. Oops.
http://www.bits-of-life.com/live/the-vikings-road-...

The race for the podium remains exciting and uncertain! The longtime race leaders Silva spent hours trying to get safely off the mountain just 8 kilometers from the finish, then they stopped to wait for daylight. They're on the move now but still up on the mountain.

Raidlight had a similar experience in a different place on the mountain although they appeared to do less exploring before they hunkered down. Their tracker has been off for an hour but now that it's daylight, I'd assume they're moving again.

Tecnu had dropped back several kilometers to 3rd place at CP50, and we're not sure how they got there since their tracker wasn't working for quite awhile. Then they chose a different route out of the CP, and they will be descending the mountain in a completely different area. Once they get down, it will be a road run to the finish. The question is whether they've chosen a spot where it will be easier to get down the mountain or whether they'll also need to do some exploring. They're approaching their high point now so we'll find out shortly. They have daylight although we don't know if the fog is gone.

There are also time credits for Tecnu and Raidlight, which make things even tighter than they look. LosDobos made a good point. The top three teams currently think they've blown any chance to win - but one of them almost definitely will! So keep that in mind the next time you think there's no hope in a race.

Tecnu is heading back down the way they came after looking around on the ridge. It must be too steep to get down the east side.

I don't get what's going on now...Silva seems to be making headway towards the finish, Raidlight is suddenly way off to the West, Tecnu seems to have re-traced their steps to the lake, and Cyanosis is overtaking Tecnu? Are the trackers working? This race is going gonzo!!!

Hope Tecnu is doing ok...don't like that massive of a retrek. I bet all top 3 teams feel like they've blown it right now...hope they're not giving up.

Well, I sincerely hope that Omjakon & Sweco have spotted this alternative from their maps, http://goo.gl/maps/EgjDK - then following the road/path until it is time turn from it to south, directly to finish line.

silva are in. think they've got enough of a gap for time credits not to overhaul them

wow, big congrats to silva for sticking in there and getting through those tough conditions, must have been a terrible night on the mountain.

tecnu is 400 meters from the finish line, for what i think will be 2nd place! Just wow and wow.

So close for Tecnu. Now, will Cyanosis get in 30 minutes before Raidlight? The drama continues.

And the site is down. Now? Seriously? Oh nail biter.

Woohoo! 2nd place Tecnu has arrived.

Fabulous race - congrats Tecnu!!

Incredible race finish - and more to come. Congratulations to Silva and Tecnu.

congrats to all top 4 teams. crazy how, after 15 hours on last trek with all the terrible conditions and different route choices, it still came down to minutes to determine 2nd through 4th.

Awesome race! Great coverage folks! Tried not to spend tooo much time following but it was hard to stay away. All your efforts likely saved my job :-)

Unbelievable!!!! Congrats to Tecnu! Congrats to all the teams that have finished so far and good luck to the ones that are still on the course.

What an amazing and unbelievable last section! Way to go Tecnu and congrats to all podium teams for hanging in there. It must have been very frustrating up on that ridge.

Way to go Tecnu, what an exciting finish! And way to go Silva for not letting up. I can only imagine what mental torture it must have been to be in the lead and constantly wondering if you've just given it all away during such a loooong time stuck on the ridge. Frankly, I guess every team would go through that regardless of position: thinking that you've worked so hard to come this far, and then possibly have other teams passing you while you think you are the only one struggling as much as you are with this last challenge.

Craziest finish ever. The Swedes dropping rocks into the fog and seeing how long they took to hit something in order to find their route...unbelievable.
And here come the Vikings.

It continues to be exciting! Great job, Raidlight and Merrell, and now we have another close race to watch for the next finishers. It's a good reminder that every minute of racing counts.

Some of the best racers in the world were in the lead pack, and they were right at the edge, literally and figuratively. I wonder how other racers managed in the fog. Better go find out...

Great line from Raidlight: ...navigator and captain Sebastian Raichon was more succinct in his summary of the night and its challenges, simply saying, “It was the night of the apocalypse.”

Btw Untamed asks a good question about luck or skill for this final trek. I'll add a third one, which is the willingness to take dangerous risks, which I've seen more often in people with less mountain experience who may not appreciate the risks as much, perhaps because they're not as familiar with the consequences.

In AR, we like to reward skill and we don't want to put teams into situations where dangerous risks are likely or required. It's even stickier because different teammates evaluate risks in different ways and have different risk tolerance and skills so people can be forced well out of their comfort zones for the sake of the competition, and not always in a good way.

I'm not saying that necessarily happened here. I have no idea whether this final trek was an appropriate test based on the map provided and just became treacherous due to weather, or whether it was an unsuitable final leg for an event involving sleepy teams with a wide range of experience who might pass in daylight or darkness. Maybe a few safe descent options could have been marked on the map, at least to help less experienced teams? And for that matter, to reduce the element of luck for the top teams? It will be interesting to hear what the racers think. A number of them have been involved in designing courses themselves. Any locals have thoughts on this area? Was it just bad luck with the weather?

A good write-up on Tecnu and the navigation/terrain issues all teams faced last night: http://www.sleepmonsters.com/v2_races.php?article_...

And there are still teams out there on those cliffs, Sweco, Omjakon and Red Ants looking for a way down.

Yes, and those are still top teams. The race is far from over and it's still exciting!

I love the opening paragraph of that Sleepmonsters article!

There are a few things you do not expect to hear on finish line interviews, like Bob Miller saying, “I did a complete 180 and took us back in the wrong direction” and Nicholas Mulder saying with a perplexed look on his face, “For the first time in my life I had no idea where we were, and could not relocate.” To put that into perspective it’s like Usain Bolt saying, “I tripped over my own feet” or Roger Federer being unable to hit a tennis ball.

Makes you wanna go to South Africa and check out that Drakenberg region doesn't it? Maybe someone will take a close-up picture of these cliffs and some of the routes down.

I love that they put a section like that in the race. That's why TEAM is such a critical aspect of AR. Collective experience and decision making... and respect for each other abilities and insights.

Bash spoke to it as an important issue/concern above... and it absolutely is, but it's what I love most about the sport. I've taken routes with one team that we would never consider with another team. Love it!!

It's probably pretty safe to say their routes down were/are something you'd never consider taking while hiking. I'm with FB on this however.

Agreed. My question related more to the detail on the maps for that area, as per Grant's comment. Was there enough info to choose a route appropriate to your team's abilities if visibility hadn't been so low in the fog? If not, then (a) luck plays a big factor, and (b) teams may end up being forced into taking risks they wouldn't have chosen. Risk is part of AR but if the risk is significant, and teams don't have enough info to avoid it, that's a concern. Once again, I'm not saying that happened but I'm curious to hear how the maps depict the terrain. Remember that yesterday organizers were predicting 5 hours for Silva on the trek. (They took 18.) Maybe that would have happened in daylight and clear weather? So far Cyanosis had the fastest trek but the leaderboard doesn't have their start time. Maybe 10-11 hours-ish.

Btw note that Grant and I are undoubtedly biased. I'm thinking about this as an organizer, not as a racer.

The Vikings are coming! The Vikings are coming! Woot!

LosDobos' Ode to the Vikings is a must read.

I had to read it aloud to 'Bent! :)

Nice one LosDobos! Skål!

Thanks everyone for the fun week checking in here for the latest! Really, great community!

I can't help but look at a race course & assess the logistics, rationales, rescue scenarios etc. 10 yrs of race planning taking its toll :)

With very incomplete knowledge of the event, it's impossible to judge ... but I'm reminded of a famous Ian Adamson anecdote when the best adventure racer in the world decided that qualified him as the best AR course designer in the world. He had drawn up a kayak leg "epic" on paper but disastrous in practice: straight through one of the busiest shipping channels, no bailouts, no foul weather recourse, many teams would hit it at night. Event management had to scrap it, & other sections for the same reasons, but no question had it gone ok without injuries or problems most would have praised the design. Of course, if it wouldn't have gone well there would have been lawsuits and "prudent man" arguments deafening to the ears. This is the delicate balance in AR and insurance/permits in the US colour my perception.

Incidentally, Switzerland is * a bit * more sensible, and in Latin America it's a free for all (for better or worse).

I'm curious to see what route CapestormWCAD takes down from the cliffs. They may know a short cut down just like they knew a short cut up.

Ode to the Vikings. :) That was funny.
Tough times at the cliffs for every team.

Love the Ode to the Vikings. Who do we talk to to get more of this great coverage?

Carbon's Offset - thanks. You talk to me and, more importantly, race directors. XPD in Australia has offered to give me direct phone/skype/text access to their on-course staff to help me cover their race which should be sweet. Bimbache in Spain has also expressed interest...I think. Google translate leaves much to be desired.
I may also approach Sleepmonsters, as I think the kind of live and almost real-time updates I do complement what Rob Howard does with his daily reports.

So point them at my blog and ask them to pay me heaps of money to make their race more accessible and enjoyable online. :) - Thanks

Going to bed now and then not gonna look at a computer screen for a month.

Pete I can connect you up for ARWC -- depending on a few things. Email me grant@untamedadventure.com

will do - thanks Grant. :)

LosDobos, sorry to say, but some of your guesses were wrong :D

We at Omjakon had still enough food. And Sweco was eating Snickers when we found them. Earlier legs taught that there's usually a surprise after the halfway to TA, so I had 24h pack of food with... Btw, burgers and beer at Witzieshoek Lodge were awesome, they had the only crispy fries during my two week stay in SA.

Running down was against the cold, and that was also a good place to have a downhill training on foot as our team comes from flatlands.

Anyways, all the race and racing with/against Sweco was epic. After some races of "don't leave the path because you may hurt yourself or get lost"-racing Stephan Muller showed me what Adventure means.

Just to echo mkoo's comments - this one was a real adventure! A true expedition race with long legs, huge route choices for the navigators and some pretty extreme conditions too.

Looking forward to meeting the rest of the AP armchair racers in South Africa for next year's installment!

I've updated my log if you want the perspective from closer to the back of the pack :-)

Here's a link to the map for the last trek:

http://wildernesstraverse.com/files/Exp-Africa-Map...

If the visibility hadn't been so poor I don't think any of the teams would have struggled through that area in the dark. I don't think it was unsafe. It was just so foggy, cold, wet and windy that it became difficult to confidently attempt many of the options you'd otherwise have no problem with. Funny circumstances that lead to an exciting finish for sure!

Our race actually went haywire a few k before CP50. It turns out our tracker stopped working at exactly the same time I made a brutal nav. error costing us hours (I'm chuckling this never made it online, since it was a sleep-deprived duzy!) We'd been traveling with Raidlight up the ridge towards CP50 (they caught us after we stopped for a 20min. power-nap, since I couldn't shake a bout of Sleepmonsters that was having me switch between dreaming and trying to keep us on course (I think we may have pushed the sleep deprivation a bit far on the last bike ride, but we figured it was our only shot at still vying for the win)). Anyway, with Raidlight now with us again ascending the ridge towards CP50 (them on one side of the ridge, us on the other.:)) I was very alert, but not enough to not make a 180 degree error when taking a bearing to descend off the ridge and into the valley leading to CP50 (I'd opted for the off-trail river route, vs. the trail/road route that was a few k longer (both are highlighted on the linked map above). It was so foggy that when I started following my new, incorrect bearing almost back the exact way we'd just came I didn't realize and neither did any of my team-mates. Funny enough, the Raidlight navigator noticed and after the race asked what we were doing then.:) Any way, after going northeast instead of southwest for 10-15 minutes and finding none of the valleys were making sense I realized the error. If that wasn't bad enough, once we dropped back into the proper valley system (further east than originally intended) I had trouble relocating our exact position and started making parallel feature errors on the 3 streams before the stream that led to CP50. This must've cost us 2-3 hours!

We ended up choosing the pass we did over the ridge since it was the only one that had a name (Sungubalapas) so we figured there should be some trails/tracks through there down to Sungubala? Looking at the GPS track, it appears we'd navigated to the the proper spot at that pass on our first attempt up the ridge after CP50, but when we arrived it was hard to tell if we were in the right spot as we could only see the prominent bulge/hill on our right and not Sungubala peak on our left (only by looking at the GPS track did I realize we were in the right spot initially). On our 2nd attempt I was confident we were in the right spot, but it still didn't "look" right, however, after sidling south for a bit things started to take shape and make sense.

Beantown should have our race report posted soon for the full low-down.

Thanks for following along and all the encouragement/support. At one point on that last trek I was saying damn, I bet those following along online are having a field-day watching, or yelling at our tracker.:)

Thanks, Getawaystix! Looking at the map, I'm surprised that more of the top teams didn't try your route. Too bad the boundaries of the reserve obscure some of the key contours on the southern part of the map - especially hard to read on a wet night after 5 days with little sleep!

Getawaystix, was it foggy when you left last TA? Because of fog and darkness we decided to take the long road around and weren't able to get rid of Sweco. How were the mountains at that area, was it big cliffs etc..?

I think we tried also down from Sungubalapass, but did not find the way. There was kind of huge nose and valleys on both sides of it, but no way down. You obviously found the way down from a little bit more south.

lots of race reports on the ar.co.za website...
http://www.ar.co.za/2013/05/expafrica-black-diamon...

An awesome race video made by Team WCAD Capestorm. Great in-site into the race! Check it out:
http://www.ar.co.za/2013/05/expafrica-video-capest...

Hey mkoo, it wasn't foggy when we left the last TA, the rain and fog began as we started to ascend the ridge we took towards CP50, maybe an hour or two after we left the kayaks.

The route through Sungubalapass ended up being quite easy once we were 100% sure we'd located it. There weren't cliffs, or anything, just steep grassy slopes. We were on deer tracks much of the time then eventually came onto a proper hiking trail at about 1600m in elevation. This was made much easier when daylight struck. As our GPS track indicated we struggled to find the way in the dark since we couldn't make out any prominent features and couldn't be 100% sure of our location on the ridge. We were being cautious at this point not wanting to descend into cliff bands in the dark. Probably should have had more confidence in our location on our first attempt up to the ridge, but that's easy to say in hindsight.

Hindsight, nothing! All of us watching your GPS at home were saying that when you got up there the first time. "Keep going forward, Bob! You got this! " I lost a lot of sleep before my *own* race because of you... ;)