Mountain Designs GeoQuest headed to South West Rocks June 2023!

South West Rocks, located on the Macleay Valley Coast, has been announced as the official start and finish location for the 2023 edition of the Mountain Designs GeoQuest 48hr Adventure Race. 

Date: 11-14 June 2023
Location: South West Rocks, NSW, Australia
Duration: 48 hour event
Entries: Enter Here
Team size: 4 person
Part of the ARWS Oceania Series

Over 400 people including competitors, support crews, family and friends from around the country will attend the Mountain Designs GeoQuest 48hr Adventure Race from 11 to 14th June 2023. 

The race is held annually on the weekend of the Queen’s Birthday in June. The location of the course is moved each year to a different area to pose exciting new challenges for competitors. 

This year’s location of choice, South West Rocks, is a 4.5hr drive from Sydney and located just 70 minutes north of Port Macquarie. 

Located just off the beaten path of the Pacific Highway, South West Rocks is known for its picturesque Norfolk pines, family-friendly atmosphere, stunning beaches and exceptional diving. The entire Macleay Valley Coast in which it sits features rugged coastlines, pristine waterways and a stunning hinterland, making it the perfect backdrop for a spectacular 48hr adventure.

Chris Dixon, Wild & Co event director says, “We’re very excited to be heading to South West Rocks for 2023, it’s a spectacular area with magnificent trails, ancient forests, rugged coastlines, and plenty of hidden hinterland secret spots can’t wait to show off.

We’ve got something different planned for the 2023 event with a course design that hasn’t been done before with GeoQuest.”

Mountain Designs GeoQuest involves 48+hrs of non-stop endurance racing in the major sporting disciplines of trekking, mountain biking and kayaking. Mixed gender, Male and Female teams of four must navigate their way through an arduous 220+km course that is only revealed to them the evening before the race. 

The Geo-Half adventure race runs simultaneously with the Mountain Designs GeoQuest. The Geo-Half covers only half the distance but teams have the full 48hrs to complete it. The legs will be challenging but with the additional time available to complete the half course, teams have a greater chance to reach the finish line before time is up. 

The window for registration closes 6 June 2023. Accommodation can be booked through the Macleay Valley Coast website at macleayvalleycoast.com.au/places-to-stay

For the latest information on the race please visit www.geoquest.com.au

The event is made possible thanks to major sponsor, Mountain Designs and additional support this year by Kempsey Shire Council. 

Wild&Co Launches Sprint Series for 2023!

Take on the challenge of an epic 6hr adventure race in the heart of the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast or Shoalhaven! Run, kayak, mountain bike and navigate your way over a 15km or 30km un-marked, off road course with 6hrs to collect all the check points and get back to the finish line.  

These team based events will be possibly the funnest day out on the trails you can have. They’re a 2 person team based challenge to work together and navigate using a map and compass around a 15 or 30km linear course, collecting check points along the way and get to the finish before the 6hrs cutoff. The winner is the first team over the line that completes the course.

There will be two course options – a full and a half course – full course teams can expect to run 5-7kms, mountain bike 10-15kms and kayak 5kms. Half course teams can expect to run 3-5kms, mountain bike 5-7kms and kayak 3-5kms. The full course is a great option for beginners with good fitness and experienced adventure races looking to sharpen their skills or introduce their mates to their favourite sport. The half course is perfect for young families or anyone that just wants to see what adventure racing is all about.

The goal of these events is to provide a fun day out in a more accessible format as an introduction to Adventure Racing for everyone. 

For More information or to register, visit:

Kangaroo Valley – 11 February 2023
Enter Here: www.wldnco.com/6hr-adventure-race-kangaroo-valley

Gold Coast – 15 April 2023
Enter Here: www.wldnco.com/6hr-adventure-race-gold-coast

Sunshine Coast – 13 May 2023
Enter Here: www.wldnco.com/6hr-adventure-race-sunshine-coast

Legend Expedition Race Update

It’s been an amazing experience exploring the high country plains, peaks, waterways and small towns along the Legend Expedition course.

When designing a course in the area there are some absolute must-include experiences – epic single track MTB trails, hiking over Mt Kosciuszko and stopping in at back-country huts. But perhaps even more beautiful than these headline experiences is travelling over the high country plains through the snow gums and then above the treeline.

Although XPD has a long history in Australia, and certainly this race has been designed to continue the legacy of a uniquely Australian owned and designed Expedition Race. The Legend Expedition Race is a new event and as we grow, will develop its own unique legacy, especially as we introduce a new generation of racers to the sport.

For those who have raced recent GeoQuest, Hells Bells and Terra Nova events, the Legend will be familiar in the way it is delivered. As an expedition race there will be a few additions such as mandatory gear and competency checks as part of race registration and a more formal course reveal and presentation dinner. We will also use the more extensive mandatory gear list as part of Adventure Racing World Series Qualifier rounds with a few additions.

This email highlights a few important points in support of the information on the Legend website.

Event Information Kit and event documents

One to two weeks before the event we will send out the event information kit via email, it will also be posted to the website and on social media. This contains all the essential information teams need to know ahead of the event including the event logistics plan so teams can prepare their gear appropriately.

On the day before race start – Saturday 25 February – registration is open from 9am to 5pm, and will include registration, competency and gear checks and briefings. These will be conducted team by team on a schedule that will be included in the information kit. On the day of the race, teams will deliver their gear to race HQ and then enter team “Lock Down” for the course map handout. The race will start at 10:30.

Race HQ and Accomodation

Race HQ as well as the start and finish of the race will be at the Adventist Alpine Centre in the town of Jindabyne. There is dormitory accomodation available at the centre that can be booked directly by contacting the team at www.alpinevillage.com.au.

There are plenty of options for accomodation and things to do in town – as always check out the local tourism website snowymountains.com.au.

Comments on the Course

The Snowy Mountains course will feature ‘about’ 10 legs covering a total distance of ‘about’ 500kms including trekking 100km, mountain biking 280km and kayaking 90km as well as other adventure disciplines. Of course teams need to be prepared for anything on the day and there is often a bit of give and take with these distances as we build the course around the local landscape. In terms of navigation, the course is a linear course where teams will need to collect check points (CPs) in order to complete each leg. There will be a couple of rogaine style legs as well with multiple route choices available.

In terms of ‘other adventure disciplines’ we are hoping very much to include a ropes based activity and an off trail gorge and river trek which will include some challenging terrain to cover.

The course will feature a very wide range of terrain including alpine lakes, high country plains, some big climbs, on and off-trail travel, single track, fire trails, country back roads, rock-scrambling and of course a climb over some of the highest points in Australia.

Kayaking – all kayaking legs on the course will be conducted on flat water using the Wild & Co Mission Surge double kayaks. They are very stable and feature attachment points for the standard kayak seats available at Anaconda: www.anacondastores.com. At this stage there are no planned portages. It is highly likely that teams will be paddling at night at some stage during the event and should be prepared for cold conditions. Paddle and PFD hire is available with details to be included in the information kit.

Alpine Trek – depending on the weather conditions on the day, teams will travel into an alpine area. The gear on the mandatory gear list is sufficient to ensure your safety in this area, but should be considered a minimum requirement. It is worth planning ahead to ensure you have a few extra layers as it will be exposed can get quite cold and windy. There is often snow in the area in late February / March. There will be a couple of strict conditions regarding travel in the area in particular around human waste – this will included in the information pack. It is recommended teams familiarise themselves with ‘leave no trace’ principles and some the issues regarding human waste: themountainjournal.com/2016/06/05/lets-talk-about-poo/

Gorge and River Trek – for many this will be a unique experience. The river trek involves following a free-flowing river along the bank, through a gorge, past and over small waterfalls, rapids, boulders and whatever else arises from nature. In order to do this you'll be walking, scrambling, jumping, sliding, wading, swimming, floating and quite possibly swearing. One thing's for certain – you're going to get wet! If you feel the cold, it’s worth packing a wetsuit or wetsuit top and pants or extra thermal top, fleece and shell layer for this leg. Water levels will be assessed the day before the event and advice will be given whether a PFD and bike helmet will be mandatory for this leg.

Logistics

Legend Expedition Race is an un-supported event (no support crew) – as such teams will need 4 x 100 litre gear boxes clearly marked with a team name. The logistics plan included in the Information Kit will tell you where these will be placed around the course. Teams will also need a Bike Boxs and Paddle Bags clearly labeled with team name. Dimensions of the bike box and paddle bag are available on the website at https://www.legendexpd.com.au/mandatory-gear-and-logistics

Mandatory Gear

Legend Expedition Race competitors are required carry mandatory items to maximise their safety during the event and need to be familiar with the event logistics for AR races.

Legend Expedition Race is an ARWS Qualifier and has adopted the Mandatory Gear Lists promulgated by the Adventure Racing World Series. The ‘Qualifier’ list found at http://arworldseries.com/resources/

On top of the ARWS list it is highly recommended teams come prepared for both heat and cold – it is very likely to be up to warm during the day and then drop below zero overnight during the race. If conditions are also wet, it could become challenging.

Team Chipesti Win the First Oceania Adventure Racing Title at Gold Coast

The first ever Oceania Adventure Racing Championship was held at Gold Coast and in the city’s hinterland hills and parks, and it delivered an innovative and tough course, world class racing, and a weekend to remember!

The weather was the wild card, as it has been at so many adventure races this year. With heavy rain and storms predicted through the weekend some sports events were called off, but adventure racers are tough, adaptable and equip themselves for the conditions, so the race went ahead.

The winners of several past series races were in the line up, racing for the title, a place at the Adventure Racing World Championship in South Africa, and a prize pool of $10,000. They would paddle, trek and mountain bike non-stop over a 178km course, which would stay open for 36 hours. There was also a shorter course of 143km which would be open for 24 hours, and both courses started near the Aquatic Centre, which served as a comfortable race HQ.

Among the favourites on the Championship course were Alpine Avengers, 3 Points of Contact, Thunderbolt AR and Team Rogue. These teams included some of the most experienced and successful Australian adventure racers of the past decade, with lots of international and expedition race experience between them. Joining the favourites were Team Chipesti from North Queensland, who have had strong races in the past couple of years and shown their potential, without yet notching up a win.

The start for the 36 hour teams was at midnight, so getting any rest before the race was challenging, especially with the excitement and uncertainty about what lay ahead. Teams set off in kayaks towards the Nerang River, making their way through the city nightscape in a very unique start.

Luke Smyth from Chipesti said, “Paddling through the skyscrapers of the city and the million dollar houses on the canals was very different to the paddling we do back home, or in any other adventure race, and was one of my favourite stages. We had a strong paddle and made a break from the pack (or so we thought).

“We cruised into the first transition and to our surprise Alpine Avengers were already there assembling their bikes! They made a strategic move to portage their boats along the city roads on a trolley for a big section of the paddle which paid off. The race was on!”

It was, and these two teams would dispute the lead for the entire race, on a course which offered navigation challenges and tactical choices, as well as demanding endurance and strong team work.

Teams were only given the checkpoints for the next stage at each transition, and Race Director Chris Dixon set teams a puzzle by giving them the choice to collect the first paddle checkpoints on leg one at the start, or on leg 9 when they paddled back the same way to the finish. It was the same format for legs 2 and 8, mountain biking on the trails of the Nerang National Park.

All of the top teams made the same choice on the paddle checkpoints, but as they rode into the night on stage two, teams took many different options. Team 3 Points of Contact opted to collect all of the checkpoints, leaving none for stage 8, while the other lead teams left some for later. It was a bold move, which left 3 Points of contact behind the other lead teams, but with more checkpoints in hand, and would only play out towards the end of the race.

Legs 2 and 3 (trekking in the Nerang Conservation area), also allowed teams to collect the checkpoints in any order they chose, and it was the same on a paddle from Hinze Dam around the south western arm of Advancetown Lake, and on a later hill trek in Numinbah. There would be no rest for the navigators and most teams would have to make smart choices based on their speed and endurance, deciding how much of the course they could tackle in the deteriorating conditions.

For the leaders, it was simpler; they would do the whole course as fast as possible!

Alpine Avengers and Chipesti swapped the lead, twice taking completely different routes on free navigation stages, but these choices didn’t separate them by much. Thunderbolt AR stayed in a consistent third, just behind the leaders, while 3 Points of Contact gradually slipped further back, and in the end didn’t stay close enough to the leaders for their early tactical choice to get them on the podium.

Smythe picks up the story for Chipesti. “It was a game of cat and mouse, constantly swapping positions with Alpine Avengers. We had lost some time looking for two checkpoints on Leg 7 (18km trek) so we knew we had some work to do going into Transition 4.

“Leaving the transition we started a 60km MTB leg with over 2000m of climbing! We pushed hard to catch the Avengers and make the most of the remaining hours of daylight. The last 10kms of the bike leg went through the Nerang MTB Park, with multiple checkpoints. We knew the race could be lost in the bike park, being so close to the finish and as it was the last challenging navigation in the race. With some extra serves of caffeine we worked our way through picking up the checkpoints.

“To our relief we rolled into the final transition still in the lead! We quickly packed our bikes and jumped into the boats. The remaining legs to the finish were an 11km paddle and 7km beach run. We knew the teams behind us were all seasoned athletes and not going to let us get away easily, so we knuckled down and emptied the tanks, leaving nothing to chance to cross the finish line and take the win!”

Their winning time to take the title of the first Adventure Racing World Series Oceania Champions was 24 hours 36 minutes 55 seconds, and after the win the team posted on Facebook; “Feels so good to finally pull off a win in the adventure racing scene! Bring on South Africa!”

Only the top 4 mixed teams and the male pair, Team RUSH, completed the full 36 hour course, getting all of the checkpoints.

The Vortex Divas were the only all female team to cross the finish line and Liz Woodgate summed up their experience.

“We planned our route working on the slower times, knowing the weather would be a factor in making the cut-offs. Our priority was to cover as much of the course as possible, collect as many CP’S as we could and finish every stage.

“We were happy with our navigation and it's great to have a team with 4 navigators. Angela did have to hand over the map when she lost her glasses in the big hike, but unbelievably the other female team, Wild Women, found them and handed them in!

“The big (last) MTB stage had us pushing our bikes for what seemed like hours up steep rocky trails that even the local teams said they never ride. The sting in the tail was there were many descents that were also too steep and rocky for us to ride down! It poured with rain, turning the trails into little rivers!

“We had a strong tailwind and torrential rain for our final trek along Surfers Paradise Beach, more famous for bikinis and skyscrapers than thermals and waterproof pants!

“We always knew the Oceania Champs would be a hard race, and it delivered, but at no point did we think of quitting. That's just not in our nature and I’m super proud of this tough, resilient, thoughtful and upbeat group of women we call Divas.”

The 24 hour race experienced the worst of the weather, and all of the teams had to miss some checkpoints.

Six male pairs managed to finish the 24 hour course, lead by team Pair of Kooks, and the Premier Mixed class winners were team Crazed Curlews Kooky Kiwi, even though they crossed the finish line last, after more than 23 hours of racing in torrential rain.

They put their success down to good navigation (by Mitchell Krome), strong team work, and being able to make changes to their plan on the fly. Tara Hassan commented. “I think we managed to pick just the right amount of course to do to still make it to the finish inside the cut-offs and on the (mostly) intended route.”

The team are all part of the Tri Adventure (Noosa) training group and benefitted from the experience gained there. The group founders, Jan Leverton and Kim Beckinsale were racing too, and putting into practice the combination of self-awareness, critical judgement and determination they coach, to be the only female pair to reach the finish.

Beckinsale said; “Jan and I raced as Mountain Designs Vintage Wild Women and we had all the gear we needed, plus more, and we either put it on straight away or carried it just in case. I think that made a huge difference.

“The most challenging part was riding in Nerang on flooded trails when it got dark as the rain was so heavy you could not see much, which was hard enough without trying to navigate!

“We got to TA5 for the paddle back just on daylight and it was still pouring with rain and a slog with rain and tide against us. Finally, when we arrived at TA 6 it had stopped raining, but we kept on all of our wet weather gear as it was so windy!

“We headed to the beach. Wow! The ocean was a crazy washing machine and there was no one on the beach at all. Usually Sunday morning at Surfers it would be packed with bikini clad tourists, but not that morning!

“What got us through? Persistence, a positive outlook, having and carrying the right gear, and the navigation skills to find the checkpoints I guess.”

You can find the full results and information about other Wild and Co. races at https://www.wldnco.com

Race photographs and reports can be found on the Wild&Co Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wldnco

For a full calendar for the 2023 ARWS Oceania Series see; https://www.wldnco.com/arws-oceania-series . The next ARWS Oceania Championship is scheduled for 27-29th October 2023.

The next race in the series is the Alpine Quest 48 hour race, starting on November 10th and organised by https://adventurejunkie.com.au

Mountain Designs GeoQuest NZ 2023 Update

It’s been a real privilege to spend time in the Hawke’s bay region, meet some amazing people and explore the incredible landscapes in the surrounding area.

Date: 20-23th of January 2023
Location: Napier, NSW
Duration: 48 hour event
Entries:  ENTER HERE
Team size: 4 person, Supported + Un-Supported Options
Part of the ARWS Oceania Series

Although GeoQuest has a long history in Australia, the Hawke’s Bay event is the first edition in New Zealand and will be a new experience for many racers. For those familiar with GeoQuest Australia, the New Zealand event will be organised in exactly the same way using the same program, logistics and systems. The main exceptions will be a little bit of extra mandatory gear and for 2023, the use of Pack Rafts in the full course (something we are exploring for Australia in 2023).

All the competitor information on the GeoQuest website is relevant to both NZ and Australia events. For those new to GeoQuest, this article highlights a few important points in support of the information on the GeoQuest website.

EVENT INFORMATION KIT AND EVENT DOCUMENTS

One to two weeks before the event we will send out the event information kit via email, it will also be posted to the website and on social media. This contains all the essential information teams need to know ahead of the event including the event logistics plan so teams can prepare their gear appropriately.

On the day before race start – Friday 20 January – registration is open from 9am to 12pm, at 3pm the course is revealed at the race briefing. Teams will receive a course guide and two sets of race maps. This will contain all the information teams will need to complete the course. A PDF Document for support crews will also be made available with details of how to get to each transition area and what is available at each.

You can see an example of the 2022 Australian Info Kit, course maps, course guide, support crew notes and control cards in the Geo Docs folder here: 2023 Race Docs

RACE HQ

Race HQ for the event will be the at the Napier War Memorial Centre along the foreshore. This is where teams will register, receive the course and is the location of the finish line and presentations.

Address: 48 Marine Parade, Private Bag 6010, Napier 4140, New Zealand

COMMENTS ON THE COURSE

The Hawke’s Bay course will be a typical GeoQuest course, this means about 10 legs including approximately 120kms of mountain biking, 50kms of kayaking or water based travel, and 50kms of foot based travel. The half course is approximately half this distance with a bit of extra on the bike. Of course teams need to be prepared for anything on the day and there is often a bit of give and take with these distances as we build the course around the local landscape. In terms of navigation, the course is a linear course where teams will need to collect check points (CPs) in order to complete each leg. There will be a couple of orienteering or rogaine style legs as well with multiple route choices available.

The course will feature a very wide range of terrain including remote rivers, forestry roads, tramping trails, overgrown tracks, bike ways, an alpine crossing, and a canyoneering leg down a gorge. Some sections of the course will be steep and slow and some very fast and flat – it’s going to be a real adventure.

Kayaking – the kayaking legs on the full course will require pack rafts (teams to provide) with teams expected to trek and paddle with their gear so it’s worth being prepared for this. Half course teams do not need pack rafts and will use inflatable rafts which will be provided. Paddles, PFDs and white water helmets will be available for all teams but these need to be pre-booked for a small cost ($5 per item) to ensure we have enough at the event – booking information will be included in the information kit. The kayaking for both courses is along grade 2 waterways with some fun and challenging sections. Both the full and half course teams will need white water helmets.

If you’re interested in pack rafts and would like to explore purchasing one please contact www.blueduckpackrafting.co.nz

Alpine Crossing – depending on the weather conditions on the day, teams will travel into an alpine area. The gear on the mandatory gear list is sufficient to ensure your safety in this area, but should be considered a minimum requirement. It is worth planning ahead to ensure you have a few extra layers as it will be exposed can get quite cold and windy. There has been snow in the area in January.

Canyoneering – for many this will be a unique experience and one of the highlights of the full course. Canyoneering involves following a free-flowing river through gorges, waterfalls, rapids, canyons and whatever else arises from nature. In order to do this you'll be walking, scrambling, jumping, sliding, swimming, floating and possibly swearing. One thing's for certain – you're going to get wet! If you feel the cold, it’s worth packing a wetsuit or wetsuit top and pants or extra thermal top, fleece and shell layer for this leg. PFD and white water helmet will be mandatory for this leg.

LOGISTICS

Un-supported Teams (teams that do not have support crews) will need 2 x 100 litre gear boxes clearly marked with a team name and Box A and Box B. The logistics plan included in the Information Kit will tell you where these will be placed around the course. Both full and half un-supported teams will need a Bike Box clearly labeled with team name. Dimensions of the bike box are available on the website at https://www.geoquest.com.au/mandatory-gear

The GeoQuest logistics team will move gear around the course for unsupported teams.

Support Crew Cars – For teams with support crews all areas will be accessible with a normal car, 4x4 vehicles are not necessary. There will be travel on shingle / gravel roads so an SUV, AWD or 4x4 is highly recommended.

MANDATORY GEAR

GeoQuest competitors are required carry mandatory items to maximise their safety during the event and need to be familiar with the event logistics for AR races.

Mountain Designs GeoQuest is an ARWS Regional Round and has adopted the Mandatory Gear Lists promulgated by the Adventure Racing World Series. GeoQuest uses the ‘Regional Rounds’ list found at http://arworldseries.com/resources/

On top of the ARWS list, there are also a few additional items that are necessary for the GeoQuest NZ event. These are:

• White Water Helmet, cycle helmet is not acceptable (these will be available for hire)

• Fleece Top, synthetic, minimum 100 weight

• Rain Pants / Shell Layer Bottom, to the same specifications as the Shell Layer Top on the mandatory gear list

• Thermal Gloves

Also recommended:

• Wetsuit or extra warm gear for getting wet on the canyoneering leg

Gold Coast gets ready to host the first Adventure Racing World Series Oceania Championships

The first Adventure Racing World Series Oceania Championship race takes place in Gold Coast and its hinterland hills and rivers between October 21st and 23rd.

The best Adventure Racers in Australia will arrive in the city for 36 and 24 hour races, combining river paddling, trekking, coasteering, beach running, and mountain biking.  They will race non-stop, navigating by map and compass, and must find all the checkpoints and finish as a team if they want to claim the Oceania title.  The podium teams will share a $10,000 prize pool, and the winners claim a free place at the Adventure Racing World Championship in South Africa next year!

Welcoming the event the Gold Coast Mayor, Tom Tate, said, “The Gold Coast's varied natural landscape is the perfect location to host this tough international competition and will provide the ultimate challenge for Oceania's top adventure racers.

“Securing this pinnacle international event reinforces our reputation as an appealing sports and events destination and helps diversify our city’s event calendar.”

The race is the culmination of the 2022 series, and for race organisers Wild and Co. is third time lucky.  Event Director Chris Dixon said; “It’s been exciting to see the ARWS Regional Series developing around the world with over 50 races now part of the global movement.  In Oceania it’s taken time to get the ball rolling but in 2022 we’ve had three great races: Terra Nova 24, GeoQuest and Hells Bells.

“After attempts in 2020 and 2021 to run a championship event, we will finally stage the first ARWS Oceania Championship race and it’s going to be awesome!  We have 40 teams competing, including the top four teams in the Oceania rankings.

“It’s been a challenge and privilege to design and develop a course on the Gold Coast in Queensland.  There are plenty of interesting and challenging nature corridors and waterways that give access to some fantastic trails and bushland. We’ll include spectacular coastal and hinterland sections with a big hill (or three) and some great paddling and world class mountain biking connecting it all together.  As with every race this year, there will be some hike-a-bike, but the views will be worth the effort, and of course it wouldn’t be a Gold Coast race without a beach run!”

For an extra challenge the 36 hours teams will start at midnight on Friday, with the 24 hour teams starting their course 12 hours later at midday on Saturday. The Gold Coast Aquatic Centre will be the HQ and start/finish.  The races are unsupported and open to teams of 4 and pairs, and it is the 36 hour premier mixed category teams of 4 who will be racing for the ARWS Oceania title and the big prizes.

Looking at the contenders Dixon said; “Thunderbolt AR and 3 Points of Contact have been the most active in 2022 and both have wins under their belts from races this year.  Alpine Avengers and Rogue are both very strong and there is the talented Queensland team, Chipesti, who are hungry for a win.  It’s safe to say the race for the win is wide open.  Will local knowledge play a factor?  It’s going to be very fun to watch.”

The team with the most local knowledge are 3 Points of Contact, led by Gary Sutherland, and they think they have guessed where the course will take them, but will only find out if they are right when the maps and route book are handed out at 14.00 on Friday.  For this race their regular team are joined by Mark Murray, and they will be hoping to repeat their win from Hells Bells earlier in the year.

Thunderbolt AR lead the ARWS Oceania rankings and team captain Hugh Stodart said, “Most of us have been to the Gold Coast before but not explored or raced in the area. We expect the locals will have a significant advantage! We are just looking forward to racing again. As always we will not be the fastest but will do our own thing and see how it goes.”

Chipesti are the jokers in the pack (in more ways than one), not having raced against the other teams in the Oceania series this year.  A 36 hour race is ‘short’ for this team, who have years of ultra endurance experience in mountain biking and ultra running behind them.  (Sarah White has won the international 7 day MTB stage race, Crododile Trophy in the past.)

Luke Smyth said, “As a team we've only raced the longer expedition length races, so we're excited to see if we have the pace required to race at the front on a 36hr course.  We are also really excited to see what the Gold Coast region has to offer, as we’ve not done much racing in that area before.”

Over the coming weekend teams will find out exactly what the area has to offer and Dixon says, “With its majestic sub-tropical rainforest, spectacular waterfalls, pristine beaches and iconic skyline, the Gold Coast is the perfect backdrop for an epic Oceania Adventure Racing Championship event.”

He added, “There will be several legs with multiple route choices and the race winners will need to make good decisions look for any advantage they can get, and still be the fastest on the day.”

Fans, friends, sponsors and family will be able to follow those decisions and see how the race develops by watching the live race tracking at https://live.trackmelive.com.au/Oceania22/ and there will regular news, photos and video on the Wild and Co. Facebook page throughout the race. https://www.facebook.com/wldnco

For more information see;

https://www.arworldseriesoceania.com/

https://www.wldnco.com/

https://arworldseries.com/

Taking on the Terra Nova 24 at Kangaroo Valley

Nature threw some extra challenges into the mix for this year’s Terra Nova 24 hour adventure race, held in Kangaroo Valley, NSW.

The race took place over the weekend of September 3/4th and teams of 2 and 4 arrived in the valley to take on courses of 120km and 80km in 24 hours of non-stop trekking, paddling and biking in the surrounding rivers, State Forests and National Parks.  The terrain makes the race challenging enough, but the weather always plays a part, and this year non-stop rain, mud and cold conditions ensured the racers needed all of their endurance and determination to reach the finish line. 

Race HQ was at the showground in the town of Kangaroo Valley, and soon after the start the race route took teams to the historic Hampden Bridge, but not in the way most visitors see it!  After scrambling down a steep bank from the showground carrying an assortment of colourful inflatables, the racers launched themselves into the river, paddling over small rapids and floating under the bridge to reach the first checkpoint.

Adventure racing can include almost any kind of outdoor challenge or skill (it was axe throwing in the last Wild & Co race) and never takes itself too seriously!  

After a run along a narrow and slippery riverside trail carrying the inflatables the racers collected their bikes for the first big stage of the race, a 30km ride into the Morton National Park. They were wet from their time in the river and would not dry out again for the rest of the race as the rain kept falling. 

The ride took them along McPhail’s Trail, pushing for some of it, towards the spectacular Fitzroy Falls and then along the Redhills Fire Trail, which was easier going on top of the gorge, with stops at checkpoints which give stunning views of the falls, on a clear day anyway! 

A varied course continued with trekking and navigation stages in the Meryla State Forest, before a return to the valley and one of the toughest stages on Beehive-Griffins Flats.  It was described as a bike/trek, which meant there would be some unrideable terrain and plenty of ‘hike-a-bike’, which is a mountain biking challenge specific to adventure racing!

Race Director Chris Dixon said in the racer notes to expect “rough terrain and technical riding”, and that “some sections of the Beehive Walking Track were extremely overgrown”. He explained the route here was affected by landslide damage from the flooding in April, which is when the race was originally scheduled to take place.  (The Half Course teams had a much shorter route on this stage.)

Teams had free choice of route to find the checkpoints here and were navigating in the darkness by this stage.  It was difficult even for race leaders Thunderbolt AR, one of the world’s top adventure racing teams.  “We had a pretty good race but lost some time on that bike/trek stage, mainly due to poor selection of approaches to the checkpoints and trouble finding a couple of the them.” Said Hugh Stodart. 

He added, “It was wet and quite cold so that made it a bit slower and harder than we were expecting and forced Chris to shorten the last paddle and take out the final foot/navigation leg to allow more teams to finish.

“We managed to pull away again on the final legs kayaking and on the bike and it was great to come away with the win.  Wild and Co. should be congratulated on another excellent race with the logistics all working well, in spite of the inclement conditions.”

When they crossed the finish line at 12 minutes past midnight in the pouring rain, Thunderbolt AR’s winning time was 15 hours 39 mins 15 seconds. They will score maximum points in the Adventure Racing World Series Oceania rankings, and go into next month’s ARWS Oceania Championship race at Gold Coast on a high.  (A win there would secure their place at the AR World Championship in South Africa next year.)

Race Director Chris Dixon, took the decision to shorten the courses in the poor weather conditions.  All of the teams needed to reach the finish before the 24 hour cut-off and while a few had retired due to the cold and bike damage, most were still racing.  (Some teams wore out their brake pads completely!)

The course is also designed to allow teams to make their own choices, so newcomers and elite racers can take part together. Slower teams can drop checkpoints (or stages) if they need to move more quickly around the course, and all of the teams were back in Kangaroo Valley in good time.

The final stages were a paddle on the Kangaroo River and then a ride back into town, with a last checkpoint at the Hampden Bridge, this time on top of it!

The top pair on the full course were Resultz Racing (16.14.35) and the only all-female team, Vortex Divas, crossed the finish line with a time of 26.06.06 (with a penalty time added after opting out of some checkpoints).  Only one team retired from the full course, due to cold and fatigue.

In the shorter Half Course race the JTM Kings pair was quickest in 11.46.27, while the first premier mixed team of 4 were The Kooks of Hazard (15.50.28). 

With all of the teams meeting each other around the course and at transition areas, where race staff could encourage them, there was a high finish rate despite the weather, and the novice adventure racers in the field were not daunted.

Trent Maxwell, of Team Tickles and Tumbles,said after finishing.  “My first 24hr adventure race is done and dusted!  It was a great event with lots of challenges. It was cold, wet, muddy and long, but we continued through the night with a smile and determination to finish (with my mate Piers Craig.) We ended up finishing in 6th place and I’m now hooked and can’t wait for the next adventure and challenge!”

There were two unranked teams on the Half Course, including the ‘Landloping Lassies’.  This novice team had to retire due mechanical problems with their bikes, but still relished the experience.  Simi Chee said, “The race was a fantastic challenge, and being in environments that I would not usually visit, was extremely special.

“The experience was a roller-coaster of emotion, with an unequalled sense of achievement; gruelling, inspiring, and with a wonderful sense of camaraderie amongst the competitors.  It was an event that against all your better judgement you want to do again!”

At the prize presentation Dixon congratulated all the teams and thanked the businesses and residents of Kangaroo Valley and Shoalhaven City Council for their help and support, and he now moves on to planning the ARWS Oceania Championship race over the weekend of October 21-23 at Gold Coast. (Entry is still available for this.)

For more information about adventure races from Wild and Co. see www.wldnco.com

For more on the ARWS Oceania Championship race see - https://www.arworldseriesoceania.com

2023 Series dates and entries now live!

We hope you're itching for adventure as much as we are, because entries were up for our 2022 events and we're pumped about the line up and locations for 2023!

MOUNTAIN DESIGNS GEOQUEST NZ

ENTRIES OPEN: www.geoquest.com.au
DATES: 20-23 January 2023
LOCATION: Hawks Bay, New Zealand
DISTANCE: 48hrs / 220km & 120km (full and half course)

LEGEND EXPEDITION RACE

ENTRIES OPEN: www.legendexp.com.au
DATES: March 2023
LOCATION: High Country NSW, Australia
DISTANCE: 6days / 500km & 250km (full and half course)

TERRA NOVA AR

ENTRIES OPEN: www.terranova24.com.au
DATES: 1-2 April 2023
LOCATION: Shoalhaven NSW, Australia – 2 Hrs South of Sydney
DISTANCE: 24hrs / 120km & 80km (full and half course)

MOUNTAIN DESIGNS GEOQUEST

ENTRIES OPEN: www.geoquest.com.au
DATES: 9-12 June 2023
LOCATION: Mid-north Coast NSW, Australia
DISTANCE: 48hrs / 220km & 120km (full and half course)

HELLS BELLS AR

ENTRIES OPEN: www.hellsbells.com.au
DATES: 5-6 August 2023
LOCATION: South East Queensland QLD, Australia
DISTANCE: 24hrs / 120km & 80km (full and half course)

ARWS OCEANIA CHAMPIONSHIP

WEBSITE: www.arworldseriesoceania.com
DATES: 27-29 Oct 2023
LOCATION: TBA, Australia
DISTANCE: 36hrs / 180km & 120km (full and 24hr course)

Kangaroo Valley gets ready to Host the Terra Nova 24 Hour Adventure Race

The Terra Nova 24 hour Adventure Race will return to the Shoalhaven region on the weekend of September 3/4th , and this time the race will move into the hinterland, with a base in Kangaroo Valley and courses spreading into the surrounding hills, rivers and lakes.

The combination of easy access from both Canberra and Sydney, and the variety of landscapes in Shoalhaven, make it an ideal location for adventure racing, and in the past the area has staged the Adventure Racing World Championships.

The two previous Terra Nova races have had courses on the bays and inlets of the Pacific coast, but for the third Terra Nova it’s time to move inland and Race Director Chris Dixon of Wild and Co. is excited to give teams the chance to explore the region around Kangaroo Valley.

“It’s a really beautiful area!”  He said. “The patchwork farmland of the valley has the Kanagroo River flowing through it and there’s rain forest on the surrounding escarpments.  The Buderoo National Park and Fitzroy Falls are to the North, the Cambewarra Range Nature Reserve is to the South and the Tallowa Dam is to the West.  We’ll be putting checkpoints in some fantastic locations for teams to reach by bike, on foot and in kayaks.”

Teams will have up to 24 hours to find all their checkpoints in order, on either the Full course (120km) or the Half course (70km) routes.   The winners are expected to take around 12 hours and the courses are designed to allow novice teams the time to complete their course, while sharing the same race experience as the world class racers in elite teams.  They will line up at the start together and can swap race stories at the finish line.

The race is open to mixed, male and female teams of two or four, making it easy to get a team together.  This year there are 56 teams in total, with 23 racing the full course, and 33 the Half course.

The race is part of the Adventure Racing World Series Oceania calendar and the four person teams taking part on the Full Course will all score ARWS Oceania ranking points.  There is $1500 worth of prizes for teams who make the podium, and for the winners there is the added prize of a free place at the 36 hour ARWS Oceania Regional Championship, which will be held at Gold Coast in October.  (And the team winning that race gets a free place at next year’s AR World Championship race.) 

For those who just want a challenging and fun weekend in the great outdoors the reward is the chance to explore new places and the satisfaction that comes from finding the checkpoints and getting to the finish line. 

That experience will be delivered by Geocentric Outdoors and Wild and Co., who have combined to put on the race.   Geocentric have been staging adventure races and other outdoor events in Australia and around the world for 20 years, and Wild and Co. for the past 4 years under the leadership of Chris Dixon. 

There is advice on preparing for the race on the Terra Nova website from Craig Bycroft of Geocentric, who knows 24 hours of racing is a tough challenge, but that good strategy and team work make it possible for competitors to push their limits and succeed.

“Not all teams will race for 24 hours straight without sleep. Some teams may decide to catch a power nap when they need it most, or spend more time in the transitions. Whatever the strategy you choose, the successful teams will know their strengths and weaknesses, and plan their race accordingly.”

He added, “What makes adventure racing so different from any other form of multisport is teamwork. Without it your team may fall apart at the first sign of stress. It is THE major element in successful teams.”

The race finish will be set up in the scenic and historic Kangaroo Valley village, which is a great place for family and friends to stop over for the weekend, and cheer the teams across the line.

The race is supported by Shoalhaven City Council and Mayor Amanda Findley said, “We are extremely proud to be hosting Terra Nova 2022 and warmly welcome all competitors, officials and supporters to our beautiful region. “  The racers will certainly get to explore more of the region in a day than most visitors!

The race begins on Saturday morning with teams dropping their bikes off and registering, then, following a race briefing, everyone will be transferred to the start line before the race begins at 11.30am.  For those watching from a distance there will be live web coverage and tracking which you can find at https://www.terranova24.com.au/live and on the Wild & Co. Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wldnco

To find out more about the race visit: https://www.terranova24.com.au/

An Epic Mountain Designs Hells Bells 2022 at Kenilworth

This year the annual Mountain Designs Hells Bells 24 hour adventure race was the biggest in its 19 year history, and one of the toughest too.

Ninety teams arrived at the race HQ, set up on the Kenilworth Show Ground by race organisers Wild and Co. and they were preparing to race either the full ‘Hells Bells’ course, or the shorter ‘Fairy Bells’ course.

Both have a 24 hour time limit, and include runs/treks, paddling and mountain biking to checkpoints in back country and wilderness areas.  Finding these requires good map and compass navigation and there are always a few surprises and twists in the course.

All of the teams set off from the Show Ground at 11am, shortly after the course maps had been handed out.

Everyone got wet feet at the start as they had to run across the Mary River to get the first checkpoint; an opening gift from Race Director Chris Dixon!  Then both courses headed towards Kenilworth Bluff, where a summit checkpoint required a lung-busting climb and a rapid descent.

The Hells Bells racers paddled down the Mary River for 13km, and this carried more water than usual, so it was a faster paddle than might have been expected, and there were a few capsizes in the small rapids to add to the fun.

The defending champions in the premier category (for mixed teams of 4), Team 3 Points of Contact, lead after a short bike ride took them to the Bluff, where many of the Fairy Bells teams were already at the top.

They had ridden there directly, and one of the attractions of the race is that racers on both courses meet up throughout the race.  The Fairy Bells racers shared many stages with the Hells Bells racers, and any teams who were falling behind could opt out of some stages. The end result was that all but 7 teams finished the course in 24 hours, having completed as much as they could.

Almost all the rest of the course was set in the Imbil State Forest with teams riding out via dirt roads and trails to find checkpoints on the way to Transition 3 near the junction of Imbil Forest Road and Derrier Road. 

This was race central for a while, and as night fell teams set off on foot orienteering courses to pick up checkpoints in any order.  The Hells Bells teams also had a 20km mountain bike orienteering stage here, so the surrounding forest was full of bobbing headlights going in every direction.

Jan Leverton of Tri Adventure Women

Axe Throwers in the Night

To head back towards Kenilworth both courses had to follow a 25km mountain bike route ‘over Mount Borumba’, taking the infamous Pitsaw Road.  It wasn’t a straightforward ride!

On the way they stopped at checkpoint 10 for a ‘mystery discipline’ and in a first for adventure racing it was ... axe throwing!  The challenge was devised and run by Craig Bycroft and his son, Sam, both dressed in lumberjack shirts of course! 

“It was at the top of big hill, so everyone arrived exhausted and it was a welcome break,” Craig explained. “We could hear the racers’ excitement as they came up the hill and heard the big, Bang! Bang! Bang! as the axes hit the wooden target.  It was the middle of nowhere and there was a lot of speculation on what it might be, but few guessed what it was!”

“Team #23, WMP, were the only team that blitzed it, hitting the bullseyes on all  of their throws straight off, which was incredible.  Everyone else took a little while and some got frustrated, while others just took it as a bit of fun.  There was a fire there and some teams hung around.  We didn’t lose any axes and no one got hurt!”

He added, “The ride was tough and there were quite a few questions about how much further it was and were there any more big hills?”

Majestic Trees in the Imbil State Forest

Pitsaw Punishment

There were, and the ride along Pitsaw Road will be the most memorable stage for most.  The weather didn’t help as rain on Saturday morning turned the trails into a red, muddy quagmire, clogging up the bikes, and forcing teams to push.  There were many weary comments at the finish about it being unrideable.

Jan Leverton, of the Tri Adventure Ladies Team, who were the 3rd team to finish the Fairy Bells course, said, “It was relentless hike-a-bike for quite a few hours and the slippery mud meant many hikes downhill as well.  It was like a pitsaw;  up -down, up-down, up-down, until the final down, which was very steep and slippery. I was glad I didn’t wear my bike shoes!”

After the ride there was a short trek and a final paddle down the Mary River for the Fairy Bells teams to the finish back in Kenilworth. The first team to finish Fairy Bells were ‘Amazing Rejects’ (Stephen Maskiell and Dave Blunden) in 13.16.56.  Tri Adventure Ladies (Jan Leverton and Hayley Kellner) were the first female finishers.  Team Hoodwinked (all male) were the first team of 4 and Team Wwac were the only all female team of 4  to finish the course.

The Hells Bells teams had the same finish but with a tricky extra checkpoint on the paddle stage.  To get CP16 they had to go upstream and were not allowed to carry their kayaks along the bank!

Team Brandon and Gullo + Chatter at Dawn

Repeat Winners

Team ‘Three Points of Contact’ (Gary Sutherland, Clint Falla, Sara Barratt and Russell Stringer), defended their title in 16.45.09, and claimed a place in the ARWS Oceania Championship final at Gold Coast in October.

Sutherland commented on how difficult the navigation was. “We led from the start and kept expecting teams to catch us as the maps were largely inaccurate.  We took extra time and careful route planning once we realised this, but still had more than one go at many checkpoints.”

He added, “The terrain was reasonably physical with 3700m of vert and the quirky axe throwing was a good laugh.  The logistics crew and personnel were spot on and we couldn’t have asked for a better weekend getaway.”

Leverton agreed, “It was a brutal course but stunning at the same time. From riparian land to rainforest and back again!  The event management was faultless and my personal goal now is to upskill on axe-throwing, which was the funniest mystery discipline I have ever done.  It was great to see it happen in our cotton-wool wrapped world!”

Kelsey Harvey & Nathan Munson

Everyone a Winner

All the Tri Adventure teams had a good race.  Team ‘Tri Adventure x Trente AR’ (Oskar Booth and Nick Baker) were quickest on the Hells Bells course, finishing in 16.31.37 and just staying ahead of ‘3 Points of Contact’.   The youth team ‘Tri Adventure Youngies’ (Kelsey Harvey & Nathan Munson) were the 7th mixed team to finish Hells Bells in 21.22.25.

Nathan’s mum, Amie, was racing on the Mountain Designs Wild Women’s team and there was some family rivalry there.  It was close, but the Youngies finished ahead by just 11 minutes!  The Wild Women were the first female team of 4 to finish and the other female team racing, ‘The Dancing Queens’, got to the finish line 3 minutes before the 11am course close time!

Another team pushing the 24 hour deadline were ‘Death and Taxes’, Sandy and Robert Scott.  They were on the winning mixed Fairy Bells team last year, Sandy has been on the reality show SAS Australia, and now the couple wanted to step up to the Hells Bells course for an “extreme date night”.  It was definitely extreme.

“We expected a step up in distance,” said Rob, “but this was a major increase in difficulty compared to last year. This was serious adventure racing!”

The pair took swims on both the paddle stages, and one of their highlights was “the gorgeous forest on the climb to Kenilworth Bluff, and the spectacular view over the valley, and above the clouds”.

Rob summed up their race.  “We shuffled over the finish line at 23 hours and 29 minutes, totally exhausted and overwhelmed. What a mission!

“If adventure racing is the ‘special forces’ of endurance sports, this year’s Hells Bells took no prisoners!  Thank you so much to the volunteers at the TA’s who reassured us, fed us and gave advice in the middle of the night, to the other competitors who gave us a spare torch when one of ours died, and to Chris and the Wild & Co. team for an incredible event.  While the bikes might be in the shed a few days after that, we will definitely be back next year!”

You can find the full results and review the tracking at https://www.hellsbells.com.au/

The next adventure race from Wild & Co is the Terra Nova 24 hour race in Shoalhaven NSW over the weekend of Sept 3/4th. 

https://www.terranova24.com.au/

Hells Bells and Terra Nova are part of the Adventure Racing World Series Oceania calendar and Wild and Co. will organise the ARWS Oceania Championship at Gold Coast from Oct. 22-24th. The race has a $10,000 prize pool and the winners will receive a free place in the Adventure Racing World Championship in South Africa in 2023.

Hells Bells! It’s the biggest 24 Hour Adventure Race yet!

The Mountain Designs Hells Bells adventure race returns this weekend (August 6/7th), and it will be the biggest 24 hour adventure race ever held in Australia.

A total of 90 teams (240 racers) will arrive at Kenilworth Show Grounds, ready to take on 24 hours of trekking, mountain biking, paddling and navigation on the trails and rivers of the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

The course details will remain secret until teams are given their instructions shortly before the start by Race Director Chris Dixon of outdoor events company Wild & Co, but racers know they are in for a hell of a challenge, whichever category they race.

Those on the ‘Hells Bells’ course can expect to race around 120km, and the teams racing the ‘Fairy Bells’ course 80km.  Both teams have 24 hours to finish the course, which is a linear route, finishing back at Race HQ at Kenilworth.

It’s not all about the distance, whether racing as a pair or in teams of 3 or 4, good teamwork is needed as everyone has to stay together and finish together.   All the teams will be navigating in the dark, the slower teams for much longer than the elite racers, and there are the climbs and the weather to cope with.

This year Dixon has promised a slightly shorter course to “make up for the extra elevation” and that will be no surprise to teams who know the area.  The racers have been given a plan of the stages and expected timings, so not everything will come as a surprise. The Hells Bells racers know they will start with a 13km paddle stage ...  they just don’t know where the start is!

Last year’s Hells Bells winners, Team 3 Points of Contact, are back to defend their title.  They race in the premier category, which is for mixed teams of 4, and these teams score points towards the Adventure Racing World Series Oceania rankings.

Last year they finished in 16.06.19 and only the all-male Team ‘Out all Night’ were close to them.  ‘Out all Night’ will be back to challenge them again, but the title holders will also expect a strong challenge from ‘Team Rogue’.  They are one of the country’s top teams, with many expedition races and race wins on their record.

Team Captain Liam St. Pierre said, “We are expecting a tough little race at Hells Bells this year.  There is no flat terrain around the venue, so I am sure there will be some big climbs and a few hike-a-bikes.  Judging by the route planner, there will be a lot of short, sharp stages, so efficient transitions will be the key to a good race.”

It is a race he knows well. “Hells Bells was my first long adventure race, back in 2007, and this will be the 13th edition I’ve raced.” 

Like all good sportsmen he is playing down his team’s chances of another win before the race.  “We are just keeping it pretty casual with our competitive aspirations and focussing on completing the course, minimising mistakes and having a fun time together.”

In the All-Female category last year’s winners, Mountain Designs Wild Women, are also back and will be racing one other all-female team - ‘The Dancing Queens’.

Dixon thinks the racing in the Fairy Bells race will be wide open, and of course, for most teams it will all be about achieving a finish.  A full course finish is the goal for most, but how many will achieve that this year?

Last year the top mixed team of 4 on the Fairy Bells course were ‘Buckleys and None’.  Two of the team, Gary Fahey and Sandy Scott have taken part in the reality TV show, SAS Australia, and strengthened by that experience Scott is back again this year with her husband Rob, this time to race the Hells Bells course.

“We are back for the full course as a team of two and as my husband Rob is a doctor and I’m an accountant, our team name had to be Death and Taxes!”  She said, adding, “We even a team logo this year.” 

“Last year I was lucky enough to be a recruit on the TV show SAS Australia. I was looking for challenges that pushed me mentality as well as physically.  Adventure Racing prepared me to endure the days of low calories, lack of sleep and maintain focus on achieving the goal of making it to the finish.  On SAS Australia within days you feel bonded to people you've only just met through that shared adversity. The same can be said for Adventure Racing.

“I highly recommend AR to anyone wanting to try something new or step out of their comfort zone.  You will find all of the teams willing to support and encourage you.  It's a great community and we are lucky to be a part of it.”

She added, “My husband and I see Hells Bells as an extreme date night!”

You can follow Death and Taxes, and all of the teams, and see where the courses take them, by following the live satellite tracking at https://www.hellsbells.com.au/live-tracking

The races start at 11.00am Saturday and there will be news and commentary on the Wild and Co. Facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/wldnco

Hells Bells is the second race in this year’s Adventure Racing World Series Oceania calendar. 

An Epic Mountain Designs Hells Bells 2022 at Kenilworth

This year the annual Mountain Designs Hells Bells 24 hour adventure race was the biggest in its 19 year history, and one of the toughest too.

Ninety teams arrived at the race HQ, set up on the Kenilworth Show Ground by race organisers Wild and Co. and they were preparing to race either the full ‘Hells Bells’ course, or the shorter ‘Fairy Bells’ course.

Both have a 24 hour time limit, and include runs/treks, paddling and mountain biking to checkpoints in back country and wilderness areas.  Finding these requires good map and compass navigation and there are always a few surprises and twists in the course.

All of the teams set off from the Show Ground at 11am, shortly after the course maps had been handed out.

Everyone got wet feet at the start as they had to run across the Mary River to get the first checkpoint; an opening gift from Race Director Chris Dixon!  Then both courses headed towards Kenilworth Bluff, where a summit checkpoint required a lung-busting climb and a rapid descent.

The Hells Bells racers paddled down the Mary River for 13km, and this carried more water than usual, so it was a faster paddle than might have been expected, and there were a few capsizes in the small rapids to add to the fun.

The defending champions in the premier category (for mixed teams of 4), Team 3 Points of Contact, lead after a short bike ride took them to the Bluff, where many of the Fairy Bells teams were already at the top.

They had ridden there directly, and one of the attractions of the race is that racers on both courses meet up throughout the race.  The Fairy Bells racers shared many stages with the Hells Bells racers, and any teams who were falling behind could opt out of some stages. The end result was that all but 7 teams finished the course in 24 hours, having completed as much as they could.

Almost all the rest of the course was set in the Imbil State Forest with teams riding out via dirt roads and trails to find checkpoints on the way to Transition 3 near the junction of Imbil Forest Road and Derrier Road. 

This was race central for a while, and as night fell teams set off on foot orienteering courses to pick up checkpoints in any order.  The Hells Bells teams also had a 20km mountain bike orienteering stage here, so the surrounding forest was full of bobbing headlights going in every direction.

Jan Leverton of Tri Adventure Women

Axe Throwers in the Night

To head back towards Kenilworth both courses had to follow a 25km mountain bike route ‘over Mount Borumba’, taking the infamous Pitsaw Road.  It wasn’t a straightforward ride!

On the way they stopped at checkpoint 10 for a ‘mystery discipline’ and in a first for adventure racing it was ... axe throwing!  The challenge was devised and run by Craig Bycroft and his son, Sam, both dressed in lumberjack shirts of course! 

“It was at the top of big hill, so everyone arrived exhausted and it was a welcome break,” Craig explained. “We could hear the racers’ excitement as they came up the hill and heard the big, Bang! Bang! Bang! as the axes hit the wooden target.  It was the middle of nowhere and there was a lot of speculation on what it might be, but few guessed what it was!”

“Team #23, WMP, were the only team that blitzed it, hitting the bullseyes on all  of their throws straight off, which was incredible.  Everyone else took a little while and some got frustrated, while others just took it as a bit of fun.  There was a fire there and some teams hung around.  We didn’t lose any axes and no one got hurt!”

He added, “The ride was tough and there were quite a few questions about how much further it was and were there any more big hills?”

Majestic Trees in the Imbil State Forest

Pitsaw Punishment

There were, and the ride along Pitsaw Road will be the most memorable stage for most.  The weather didn’t help as rain on Saturday morning turned the trails into a red, muddy quagmire, clogging up the bikes, and forcing teams to push.  There were many weary comments at the finish about it being unrideable.

Jan Leverton, of the Tri Adventure Ladies Team, who were the 3rd team to finish the Fairy Bells course, said, “It was relentless hike-a-bike for quite a few hours and the slippery mud meant many hikes downhill as well.  It was like a pitsaw;  up -down, up-down, up-down, until the final down, which was very steep and slippery. I was glad I didn’t wear my bike shoes!”

After the ride there was a short trek and a final paddle down the Mary River for the Fairy Bells teams to the finish back in Kenilworth. The first team to finish Fairy Bells were ‘Amazing Rejects’ (Stephen Maskiell and Dave Blunden) in 13.16.56.  Tri Adventure Ladies (Jan Leverton and Hayley Kellner) were the first female finishers.  Team Hoodwinked (all male) were the first team of 4 and Team Wwac were the only all female team of 4  to finish the course.

The Hells Bells teams had the same finish but with a tricky extra checkpoint on the paddle stage.  To get CP16 they had to go upstream and were not allowed to carry their kayaks along the bank!

Team Brandon and Gullo + Chatter at Dawn

Repeat Winners

Team ‘Three Points of Contact’ (Gary Sutherland, Clint Falla, Sara Barratt and Russell Stringer), defended their title in 16.45.09, and claimed a place in the ARWS Oceania Championship final at Gold Coast in October.

Sutherland commented on how difficult the navigation was. “We led from the start and kept expecting teams to catch us as the maps were largely inaccurate.  We took extra time and careful route planning once we realised this, but still had more than one go at many checkpoints.”

He added, “The terrain was reasonably physical with 3700m of vert and the quirky axe throwing was a good laugh.  The logistics crew and personnel were spot on and we couldn’t have asked for a better weekend getaway.”

Leverton agreed, “It was a brutal course but stunning at the same time. From riparian land to rainforest and back again!  The event management was faultless and my personal goal now is to upskill on axe-throwing, which was the funniest mystery discipline I have ever done.  It was great to see it happen in our cotton-wool wrapped world!”

Kelsey Harvey & Nathan Munson

Everyone a Winner

All the Tri Adventure teams had a good race.  Team ‘Tri Adventure x Trente AR’ (Oskar Booth and Nick Baker) were quickest on the Hells Bells course, finishing in 16.31.37 and just staying ahead of ‘3 Points of Contact’.   The youth team ‘Tri Adventure Youngies’ (Kelsey Harvey & Nathan Munson) were the 7th mixed team to finish Hells Bells in 21.22.25.

Nathan’s mum, Amie, was racing on the Mountain Designs Wild Women’s team and there was some family rivalry there.  It was close, but the Youngies finished ahead by just 11 minutes!  The Wild Women were the first female team of 4 to finish and the other female team racing, ‘The Dancing Queens’, got to the finish line 3 minutes before the 11am course close time!

Another team pushing the 24 hour deadline were ‘Death and Taxes’, Sandy and Robert Scott.  They were on the winning mixed Fairy Bells team last year, Sandy has been on the reality show SAS Australia, and now the couple wanted to step up to the Hells Bells course for an “extreme date night”.  It was definitely extreme.

“We expected a step up in distance,” said Rob, “but this was a major increase in difficulty compared to last year. This was serious adventure racing!”

The pair took swims on both the paddle stages, and one of their highlights was “the gorgeous forest on the climb to Kenilworth Bluff, and the spectacular view over the valley, and above the clouds”.

Rob summed up their race.  “We shuffled over the finish line at 23 hours and 29 minutes, totally exhausted and overwhelmed. What a mission!

“If adventure racing is the ‘special forces’ of endurance sports, this year’s Hells Bells took no prisoners!  Thank you so much to the volunteers at the TA’s who reassured us, fed us and gave advice in the middle of the night, to the other competitors who gave us a spare torch when one of ours died, and to Chris and the Wild & Co. team for an incredible event.  While the bikes might be in the shed a few days after that, we will definitely be back next year!”

You can find the full results and review the tracking at https://www.hellsbells.com.au/

The next adventure race from Wild & Co is the Terra Nova 24 hour race in Shoalhaven NSW over the weekend of Sept 3/4th. 

https://www.terranova24.com.au/

Hells Bells and Terra Nova are part of the Adventure Racing World Series Oceania calendar and Wild and Co. will organise the ARWS Oceania Championship at Gold Coast from Oct. 22-24th. The race has a $10,000 prize pool and the winners will receive a free place in the Adventure Racing World Championship in South Africa in 2023.

Hells Bells! It’s the biggest 24 Hour Adventure Race yet!

The Mountain Designs Hells Bells adventure race returns this weekend (August 6/7th), and it will be the biggest 24 hour adventure race ever held in Australia.

A total of 90 teams (240 racers) will arrive at Kenilworth Show Grounds, ready to take on 24 hours of trekking, mountain biking, paddling and navigation on the trails and rivers of the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

The course details will remain secret until teams are given their instructions shortly before the start by Race Director Chris Dixon of outdoor events company Wild & Co, but racers know they are in for a hell of a challenge, whichever category they race.

Those on the ‘Hells Bells’ course can expect to race around 120km, and the teams racing the ‘Fairy Bells’ course 80km.  Both teams have 24 hours to finish the course, which is a linear route, finishing back at Race HQ at Kenilworth.

It’s not all about the distance, whether racing as a pair or in teams of 3 or 4, good teamwork is needed as everyone has to stay together and finish together.   All the teams will be navigating in the dark, the slower teams for much longer than the elite racers, and there are the climbs and the weather to cope with.

This year Dixon has promised a slightly shorter course to “make up for the extra elevation” and that will be no surprise to teams who know the area.  The racers have been given a plan of the stages and expected timings, so not everything will come as a surprise. The Hells Bells racers know they will start with a 13km paddle stage ...  they just don’t know where the start is!

Last year’s Hells Bells winners, Team 3 Points of Contact, are back to defend their title.  They race in the premier category, which is for mixed teams of 4, and these teams score points towards the Adventure Racing World Series Oceania rankings.

Last year they finished in 16.06.19 and only the all-male Team ‘Out all Night’ were close to them.  ‘Out all Night’ will be back to challenge them again, but the title holders will also expect a strong challenge from ‘Team Rogue’.  They are one of the country’s top teams, with many expedition races and race wins on their record.

Team Captain Liam St. Pierre said, “We are expecting a tough little race at Hells Bells this year.  There is no flat terrain around the venue, so I am sure there will be some big climbs and a few hike-a-bikes.  Judging by the route planner, there will be a lot of short, sharp stages, so efficient transitions will be the key to a good race.”

It is a race he knows well. “Hells Bells was my first long adventure race, back in 2007, and this will be the 13th edition I’ve raced.” 

Like all good sportsmen he is playing down his team’s chances of another win before the race.  “We are just keeping it pretty casual with our competitive aspirations and focussing on completing the course, minimising mistakes and having a fun time together.”

In the All-Female category last year’s winners, Mountain Designs Wild Women, are also back and will be racing one other all-female team - ‘The Dancing Queens’.

Dixon thinks the racing in the Fairy Bells race will be wide open, and of course, for most teams it will all be about achieving a finish.  A full course finish is the goal for most, but how many will achieve that this year?

Last year the top mixed team of 4 on the Fairy Bells course were ‘Buckleys and None’.  Two of the team, Gary Fahey and Sandy Scott have taken part in the reality TV show, SAS Australia, and strengthened by that experience Scott is back again this year with her husband Rob, this time to race the Hells Bells course.

“We are back for the full course as a team of two and as my husband Rob is a doctor and I’m an accountant, our team name had to be Death and Taxes!”  She said, adding, “We even a team logo this year.” 

“Last year I was lucky enough to be a recruit on the TV show SAS Australia. I was looking for challenges that pushed me mentality as well as physically.  Adventure Racing prepared me to endure the days of low calories, lack of sleep and maintain focus on achieving the goal of making it to the finish.  On SAS Australia within days you feel bonded to people you've only just met through that shared adversity. The same can be said for Adventure Racing.

“I highly recommend AR to anyone wanting to try something new or step out of their comfort zone.  You will find all of the teams willing to support and encourage you.  It's a great community and we are lucky to be a part of it.”

She added, “My husband and I see Hells Bells as an extreme date night!”

You can follow Death and Taxes, and all of the teams, and see where the courses take them, by following the live satellite tracking at https://www.hellsbells.com.au/live-tracking

The races start at 11.00am Saturday and there will be news and commentary on the Wild and Co. Facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/wldnco

Hells Bells is the second race in this year’s Adventure Racing World Series Oceania calendar. 

Teamwork Tops Tough Conditions at The Mountain Designs Geoquest Adventure Race

A LOT CAN HAPPEN IN 48 HOURS, JUST ASK THE TEAMS WHO CROSSED THE FINISH LINE OF THIS YEAR’S MOUNTAIN DESIGNS GEOQUEST ADVENTURE RACE.

Racing in teams of 4, they had paddled, navigated, mountain biked and trekked through cold weather, high winds, choppy seas, flooded trails, and surf swept beaches, on a course up of to 223km. They raced without sleep through 2 days and nights, the outside world totally forgotten, living for the moment and racing only to achieve their own goals, and for their team mates.

This year was the 20th anniversary Geoquest race.  It’s Australia’s original and premier adventure race, and one of the toughest sporting challenges in the country.  The race has a new venue and course on the NSW coast each year, with a unique, and very addictive, mix of coastal and inland adventure racing.

Shoal Bay was a new venue for the 20th race and 39 teams of 4 set off from there to kayak across to Hawks Nest on the first stage.  They included both novice and elite teams, and they would race the same courses, either the full distance, or a half course route, both with 48 hours to get to the finish.

With a severe weather warning in place for high winds, it wasn’t an easy start.  The start point for the opening kayak was moved away from the mouth of Nelson Bay due to the wind and surf and Ange Tokley of the all-female ‘Team All Talk’ described it like this.

“White caps on the water everywhere. After a quick briefing from the Race Director we were told we now must start the kayak leg about 1.5km north towards Nelson Bay to allow for the hazardous conditions (so that we don’t get ‘sucked out to sea’ were his exact words!).

Adventure Racing often takes athletes out of their comfort zone, but not usually from the start line!  Liz Woodgate, one of Australia’s most experienced racers, was leading the ‘Vortex Diva’s’ team with two inexperienced racers, Kate and Fiona, and said, “I think they were terrified, wondering if they could go the distance, survive the cold and stay awake.  It was all quite overwhelming.” 

As trail runners and inexperienced paddlers, they worried about the kayaking the most, and the 32km stage up the Myall River and across Bombah Broadwater was challenging, even for experienced paddlers. “It was dark, cold and choppy and we had our heads down, just getting through it” said Woodgate. “I was aiming for a green channel marker and we had to keep going. There was no plan B.”

The courses made a circuit back to Shoal Bay, heading inland and gaining height through Nerong and Myall River State Forests, before turning south to Karuah, with the full course teams having another long paddle down the Karuah River.  There were foot navigation stages on the way through the Wallaroo State Forest and then long cycle stages south to rejoin the coast at Fisherman’s Bay, before a final coast and beach trek back to Shoal Bay to finish.

No stage was easy and Ange Tokley described the mountain bike on the Goring Ting Trail as “one of the hardest mountain bikes I have EVER done. We passed through swamplands (so much icy cold muddy water as the trails had been decimated by rain) to ascend to the high point at 517m. The best way to describe these hills is that they literally looked like walls upon walls. They were relentless.”

Laura Newton with the ‘Three Points of Contact’ team described the final coastal stage.  “We were hoping to rock and beach hop along the coast, but a very high tide and 4m waves put a stop to this pretty quick.  Instead we had to walk on sand dunes and push our way through some very dense coastal scrub. The size of the ocean and the pure force of the waves was insane! We were unable to safely walk along the beach due to the surging mad sea and some waves were breeching the top of the sand dunes!”

Her team finished in third place, have disputed the lead with the eventual winners, Thunderbolt AR, for much of the race.  A difficult Rogaine stage split the teams and Thunderbolt went on to win and retain their Mountain Designs Geoquest title in a time of 35:52:19, the second longest winning time in the history of the race. ‘Team AlpineQuest.com.au’ were second and ‘3 Points of Contact’ third.

These elite teams completed the full course and in the conditions only 7 teams were able to do this, including the winning All Female team, Mountain Designs Wild Women (who also finished 5th overall).  The quickest Half Course team were the all-male team, ‘Time Wounds all Heels’ in 22:58:57, and the majority of teams chose to miss some checkpoints to enable them to finish within 48 hours.

The ‘Vortex Diva’s’  team were among the last few teams to reach the finish line and Woodgate said, “I think the achievement took a while to sink in with the team.  Half way around Kate said adventure racing wasn’t for her and she was pulling out.  We pushed on, determined she was going to finish, and she did.  

“All the interaction we had with other teams around the course kept us involved and engaged, and there were a lot of female racers this year.  We never really felt we were struggling alone.  At the finish Kate was already making plans for the next race! ”

For the majority of teams finishing the course is their aim, and despite the conditions all but 6 teams managed to get across the finish line.  Some teams were racing for a cause and had an even bigger incentive to complete the course.

Kylie Royal was racing with the team ‘Every Mila-Meter Counts’ and explained the team name and objectives.  “Mila, my 6 year old niece, has been diagnosed with stage 3 mid-brain stem Glioma and I wanted to tackle something extreme to raise funds and awareness towards brain cancer. 

“GeoQuest was our team’s first ever Adventure Race.  None of us had done anything like it before.  The race was definitely tough and we all had our weak moments along the way, but knowing we had a purpose and sooo much support kept us pushing. At each transition area we went live to pull in as many donations as we could.  $10K was our target and we hit that right as the very moment we crossed the finish line.  It was an unbelievable moment and we want to thank everyone for their support for Mila and The Mark Hughes Foundation.”

There were also three teams racing from the Melbourne based Kaiarahi Cultural Collective, aiming to raise awareness of male suicide and mental health issues in the Maori community. (Kaiarahi means ‘guide’ in Maori.)

The teams were organised by Jeremy Nikora and he explained; “I was inspired by watching the “World’s Toughest Race” with the kiwi team led by Nathan Fa’avae.

“When my brother in law was struggling with depression, I came up with the idea of us attempting Geoquest. He is 67, and not very fit, so he wasn’t confident, but decided he wanted to try and use it as a platform to talk about depression and suicide. That was in December 2021.

“I put a call out to our community and all of a sudden we had people, putting their hands up to do the event or support us. We entered 3 full teams and had a support crew of 10 family and friends.  

“We went into it as completely naïve novices, but we met up once a week to train, trying to focus on paddling and biking and doing our best to understand how AR works (transitions, logistics etc).

“We also fundraised as hard as we could, approaching organizations and our community. No one had any idea what “Adventure Racing” was, so this was a first for all our community and obviously as we were all first timers, we needed to buy appropriate gear etc.

“In the end we had 2 fathers and sons competing, 3 women, and 4 under 25 year olds, with our youngest racers being 20 and 21.”

“We finished with a belief in ourselves, that we could overcome the challenges that many wouldn’t have thought possible previously. We also inspired many others from our community to try to push their boundaries and want to enter next year and helped to raise important awareness for suicide prevention and mental health.

“I think the other teams loved the sense of family and culture that we brought to GeoQuest. We were such a big group, but we moved as one, and we were open and positive to everyone who came across us.  We felt so much inspiration as well and hope left a great mark with all the other competitors, especially those who were there at the finish line to witness the Haka performed by our family.

“We learnt a lot about preparation and what it takes to be competitive, but it will not change the family approach that we have to adventure racing.  It just means we will start training sooner and be more organized for the next race!”

More information and the full results of the 2022 Mountain Designs Geoquest are available at https://www.geoquest.com.au/

Geoquest is organised by Wild and Co. who run adventure sports competitions throughout the year (https://www.wldnco.com/) and is part of the ARWS Oceania series (https://arworldseries.com/arws-oceania/).

The first Mountains Designs Geoquest in New Zealand will take place at Hawkes Bay from Jan 20-23rd 2023.

Teamwork Tops Tough Conditions at The Mountain Designs Geoquest Adventure Race

A LOT CAN HAPPEN IN 48 HOURS, JUST ASK THE TEAMS WHO CROSSED THE FINISH LINE OF THIS YEAR’S MOUNTAIN DESIGNS GEOQUEST ADVENTURE RACE.

Racing in teams of 4, they had paddled, navigated, mountain biked and trekked through cold weather, high winds, choppy seas, flooded trails, and surf swept beaches, on a course up of to 223km. They raced without sleep through 2 days and nights, the outside world totally forgotten, living for the moment and racing only to achieve their own goals, and for their team mates.

This year was the 20th anniversary Geoquest race.  It’s Australia’s original and premier adventure race, and one of the toughest sporting challenges in the country.  The race has a new venue and course on the NSW coast each year, with a unique, and very addictive, mix of coastal and inland adventure racing.

Shoal Bay was a new venue for the 20th race and 39 teams of 4 set off from there to kayak across to Hawks Nest on the first stage.  They included both novice and elite teams, and they would race the same courses, either the full distance, or a half course route, both with 48 hours to get to the finish.

With a severe weather warning in place for high winds, it wasn’t an easy start.  The start point for the opening kayak was moved away from the mouth of Nelson Bay due to the wind and surf and Ange Tokley of the all-female ‘Team All Talk’ described it like this.

“White caps on the water everywhere. After a quick briefing from the Race Director we were told we now must start the kayak leg about 1.5km north towards Nelson Bay to allow for the hazardous conditions (so that we don’t get ‘sucked out to sea’ were his exact words!).

Adventure Racing often takes athletes out of their comfort zone, but not usually from the start line!  Liz Woodgate, one of Australia’s most experienced racers, was leading the ‘Vortex Diva’s’ team with two inexperienced racers, Kate and Fiona, and said, “I think they were terrified, wondering if they could go the distance, survive the cold and stay awake.  It was all quite overwhelming.” 

As trail runners and inexperienced paddlers, they worried about the kayaking the most, and the 32km stage up the Myall River and across Bombah Broadwater was challenging, even for experienced paddlers. “It was dark, cold and choppy and we had our heads down, just getting through it” said Woodgate. “I was aiming for a green channel marker and we had to keep going. There was no plan B.”

The courses made a circuit back to Shoal Bay, heading inland and gaining height through Nerong and Myall River State Forests, before turning south to Karuah, with the full course teams having another long paddle down the Karuah River.  There were foot navigation stages on the way through the Wallaroo State Forest and then long cycle stages south to rejoin the coast at Fisherman’s Bay, before a final coast and beach trek back to Shoal Bay to finish.

No stage was easy and Ange Tokley described the mountain bike on the Goring Ting Trail as “one of the hardest mountain bikes I have EVER done. We passed through swamplands (so much icy cold muddy water as the trails had been decimated by rain) to ascend to the high point at 517m. The best way to describe these hills is that they literally looked like walls upon walls. They were relentless.”

Laura Newton with the ‘Three Points of Contact’ team described the final coastal stage.  “We were hoping to rock and beach hop along the coast, but a very high tide and 4m waves put a stop to this pretty quick.  Instead we had to walk on sand dunes and push our way through some very dense coastal scrub. The size of the ocean and the pure force of the waves was insane! We were unable to safely walk along the beach due to the surging mad sea and some waves were breeching the top of the sand dunes!”

Her team finished in third place, have disputed the lead with the eventual winners, Thunderbolt AR, for much of the race.  A difficult Rogaine stage split the teams and Thunderbolt went on to win and retain their Mountain Designs Geoquest title in a time of 35:52:19, the second longest winning time in the history of the race. ‘Team AlpineQuest.com.au’ were second and ‘3 Points of Contact’ third.

These elite teams completed the full course and in the conditions only 7 teams were able to do this, including the winning All Female team, Mountain Designs Wild Women (who also finished 5th overall).  The quickest Half Course team were the all-male team, ‘Time Wounds all Heels’ in 22:58:57, and the majority of teams chose to miss some checkpoints to enable them to finish within 48 hours.

The ‘Vortex Diva’s’  team were among the last few teams to reach the finish line and Woodgate said, “I think the achievement took a while to sink in with the team.  Half way around Kate said adventure racing wasn’t for her and she was pulling out.  We pushed on, determined she was going to finish, and she did.  

“All the interaction we had with other teams around the course kept us involved and engaged, and there were a lot of female racers this year.  We never really felt we were struggling alone.  At the finish Kate was already making plans for the next race! ”

For the majority of teams finishing the course is their aim, and despite the conditions all but 6 teams managed to get across the finish line.  Some teams were racing for a cause and had an even bigger incentive to complete the course.

Kylie Royal was racing with the team ‘Every Mila-Meter Counts’ and explained the team name and objectives.  “Mila, my 6 year old niece, has been diagnosed with stage 3 mid-brain stem Glioma and I wanted to tackle something extreme to raise funds and awareness towards brain cancer. 

“GeoQuest was our team’s first ever Adventure Race.  None of us had done anything like it before.  The race was definitely tough and we all had our weak moments along the way, but knowing we had a purpose and sooo much support kept us pushing. At each transition area we went live to pull in as many donations as we could.  $10K was our target and we hit that right as the very moment we crossed the finish line.  It was an unbelievable moment and we want to thank everyone for their support for Mila and The Mark Hughes Foundation.”

There were also three teams racing from the Melbourne based Kaiarahi Cultural Collective, aiming to raise awareness of male suicide and mental health issues in the Maori community. (Kaiarahi means ‘guide’ in Maori.)

The teams were organised by Jeremy Nikora and he explained; “I was inspired by watching the “World’s Toughest Race” with the kiwi team led by Nathan Fa’avae.

“When my brother in law was struggling with depression, I came up with the idea of us attempting Geoquest. He is 67, and not very fit, so he wasn’t confident, but decided he wanted to try and use it as a platform to talk about depression and suicide. That was in December 2021.

“I put a call out to our community and all of a sudden we had people, putting their hands up to do the event or support us. We entered 3 full teams and had a support crew of 10 family and friends.  

“We went into it as completely naïve novices, but we met up once a week to train, trying to focus on paddling and biking and doing our best to understand how AR works (transitions, logistics etc).

“We also fundraised as hard as we could, approaching organizations and our community. No one had any idea what “Adventure Racing” was, so this was a first for all our community and obviously as we were all first timers, we needed to buy appropriate gear etc.

“In the end we had 2 fathers and sons competing, 3 women, and 4 under 25 year olds, with our youngest racers being 20 and 21.”

“We finished with a belief in ourselves, that we could overcome the challenges that many wouldn’t have thought possible previously. We also inspired many others from our community to try to push their boundaries and want to enter next year and helped to raise important awareness for suicide prevention and mental health.

“I think the other teams loved the sense of family and culture that we brought to GeoQuest. We were such a big group, but we moved as one, and we were open and positive to everyone who came across us.  We felt so much inspiration as well and hope left a great mark with all the other competitors, especially those who were there at the finish line to witness the Haka performed by our family.

“We learnt a lot about preparation and what it takes to be competitive, but it will not change the family approach that we have to adventure racing.  It just means we will start training sooner and be more organized for the next race!”

More information and the full results of the 2022 Mountain Designs Geoquest are available at https://www.geoquest.com.au/

Geoquest is organised by Wild and Co. who run adventure sports competitions throughout the year (https://www.wldnco.com/) and is part of the ARWS Oceania series (https://arworldseries.com/arws-oceania/).

The first Mountains Designs Geoquest in New Zealand will take place at Hawkes Bay from Jan 20-23rd 2023.

The Iconic Mountain Designs Geoquest Adventure Race 20th Edition Event is at Shoal Bay this Weekend

THE 20TH MOUNTAIN DESIGNS GEOQUEST ADVENTURE RACE WILL TAKE PLACE THIS WEEKEND WITH ITS HEADQUARTERS IN THE COASTAL HAMLET OF SHOAL BAY, NSW.  TEAMS OF 4 WILL RACE FOR UP TO 48 HOURS; TREKKING, MOUNTAIN BIKING AND PADDLING ON RIVERS AND THE OCEAN, AS THEY TACKLE AUSTRALIA’S OLDEST, TOUGHEST AND PREMIER ADVENTURE RACE.

The event is Australia’s original adventure race and the keystone date in the country’s adventure racing calendar, with regular teams regarding it as an annual get together.  Teams new to adventure racing are welcome too, as the race has ‘full’ and ‘half’ distances, both allowing teams a full 48 hours to complete their course.  The leaders will finish in much quicker times, and the aim is to allow enough time for every team to have the best chance to cross the finish line.

The race always takes place somewhere on the NSW coast, and Shoal Bay is a new venue, though a few competitors from years gone by may recognise some of the locations on the course.   Shoal Bay Mayor Ryan Palmer, welcomes the race, and said, “Port Stephens is the perfect location for the GeoQuest Adventure Race – with spectacular waterways, stunning sand dunes, coastal walks and national parks - our environment will provide a race course that’s tough, but a real adventure.

“We love hosting events like GeoQuest – it’s not only great for our community, it’s great for our economy. By just being here, competitors and their families are supporting our local businesses.”

Teams know the outline of the race, but they won’t know where they are going until they get their maps at the race briefing.  There are plenty of options in the surrounding National Parks, with Myall Bay to the North, Hunter Wetlands to the South, and Wallaroo and Karuah inland.  There’s the magnificent 32 km long Stockton Beach as well, with some of the largest, moving, coastal dunes in the Southern Hemisphere. 

The Port Stephens region will provide an inspiring and testing adventure playground for a weekend of adventure racing, and Race Director Chris Dixon of Wild and Co. has hinted at choosing tyres for beach riding, and maybe having an underwater checkpoint.

He says, “The temperatures look like being cold for the time of year, so the 3 paddle legs are going to be the big challenge in temperatures of 5-15 degrees and with a cold 18 knot westerly wind.

“There will be beautiful coastal sections, a huge hill in the hinterland, and some muddy, wet off-trail sections following recent rains.”

All the teams will use map and compass navigation to find the checkpoints, and have been given a plan of the course.  For the Full course, that’s a total of 4 run/trek stages, 3 paddles, including ocean paddling, and 3 mountain bike stages.  The race finishes with a long run to the finish which will take teams 3.5 to 6 hours.  The half course has 3 paddles, 4 runs and two bike rides, but with no ocean paddling.

The teams can race with or without a support crew to back them up, and there is a good mix of male, female and mixed teams in the entry of 22 Full Course teams and 15 Half Course teams. 

Many of the racers have been attending for years, and the race history goes back to the first Australian adventure race in 2002.  The winners list is a who’s who of world class Australian adventure racers, and many have since established their own events around Australia as the sport has grown. 

For the elite teams, it is a race title which matters, and long time race sponsors Mountain Designs offer an extensive range of prizes from their outdoor equipment range.  This year there is even more at stake as the race is the opening event in the Adventure Racing World Series Oceania Series. 

The winners will get a place in the 2022 Oceania Regional Championships at Gold Coast in October, and the winners there will claim a free place at the Adventure Racing World Championship in South Africa next year.  A strong performance in NSW this weekend could take teams a very long way!

Last year’s winners, Thunderbolt AR, are returning.  Last year they combined with the Alpine Avengers team after Covid travel restrictions affected who could travel to the race, but this year they are returning with most of their original squad.  They also won in 2017 and are ranked 16 in the Adventure Racing World Series global rankings, so will carry the favourites tag.

Speaking before the race Bern Dornom said, “We can't wait to race Geoquest again. It's an annual pilgrimage and a chance to catch up with fellow adventure racers and swap stories both pre and post race. I’m looking forward to racing with team Thunderbolt as it's been a couple of years and a baby since I've raced with the team. And there is nothing better than getting lost in the bush with your mates!

Hugh (Stodart), Josh (street) and I are original Thunderbolt members and Myall Quint (my partner) stepped into the team when he got me pregnant.  Some would say that was a strategic move!   We are definitely expecting to have a lot of laughs out on course and hopefully bring back some of the Thunderbolt magic efficiency.”

One of the teams most likely to challenge Thunderbolt is ‘3 Points of Contact’ lead by one of the country’s most experienced racers, Gary Sutherland.  “Geo is the race that started AR in Australia and it’s always a great ocean/beach/hinterland adventure.”  He said.  “Our team is relatively new.  I did Clint’s (Falla) first race with him 3 years ago, Laura (Newton) is an obstacle course racer who has been doing adventure racing for a couple of years and Etienne (Gautier) is a young guy who is constantly improving and wanted to join us for the experience of racing slower and smarter.  We are looking to enjoy what Chris has planned for us this time.”

The Alpine Quest team is also racing again, this time with founder Serge Kurov bringing all his experience to the team.   He said, “I’ve not been racing for 3 years and we have a team coming together from all around the country, so we are super excited.”  He has raced for almost 20 years, including many AR World Championships, and offered teams an instructional video on Facebook before the race with a breakdown of how to pack and prepare ahead of the race.  He too was highlighting the cold overnight kayak and long final run as the stages teams will need to prepare for.  

Another team to watch, who have youth on their side, and the experience of racing Geoquest before, are Capital AR. They entered Geoquest as a youth team in 2021 and finished as the top male team, with only two mixed premier teams ahead of them.    

This time they are racing in the Mixed Premier category (for AR World Series qualification) and Charlie Henshall said, “We’re a group of friends who got into AR at university in Canberra and have been training through the chilly winter to make sure we are underprepared for the big race.  This will be our second Geoquest and after having a ripper time last year, and doing pretty well, we thought we would come back.  It’s a home town race for Brad ‘Loaf’ Vallette, and a good excuse to avoid exam study!  Our expectations are to get through the full course and get weird out there.”

For all those taking part it promises to be a memorable weekend of incomparable experiences with their team mates. Friends and family will be able to follow their progress as the race has live satellite tracking, and there will news updates and photos on the Wild and Co. Facebook page.

You can find out all about the race and see the link for the live tracking at; https://www.geoquest.com.au/ and  https://www.facebook.com/wldnco

The race is organised by Wild and Co. who run adventure sports competitions throughout the year (https://www.wldnco.com/) and is part of the ARWS Oceania series (https://arworldseries.com/arws-oceania/).

The Iconic Mountain Designs Geoquest Adventure Race 20th Edition Event is at Shoal Bay this Weekend

The 20th Mountain Designs GeoQuest adventure race will take place this weekend with its headquarters in the coastal hamlet of Shoal Bay, NSW.  Teams of 4 will race for up to 48 hours; trekking, mountain biking and paddling on rivers and the ocean, as they tackle Australia’s oldest, toughest and premier Adventure Race.

The event is Australia’s original adventure race and the keystone date in the country’s adventure racing calendar, with regular teams regarding it as an annual get together.  Teams new to adventure racing are welcome too, as the race has ‘full’ and ‘half’ distances, both allowing teams a full 48 hours to complete their course.  The leaders will finish in much quicker times, and the aim is to allow enough time for every team to have the best chance to cross the finish line.

The race always takes place somewhere on the NSW coast, and Shoal Bay is a new venue, though a few competitors from years gone by may recognise some of the locations on the course.   Shoal Bay Mayor Ryan Palmer, welcomes the race, and said, “Port Stephens is the perfect location for the GeoQuest Adventure Race – with spectacular waterways, stunning sand dunes, coastal walks and national parks - our environment will provide a race course that’s tough, but a real adventure.

“We love hosting events like GeoQuest – it’s not only great for our community, it’s great for our economy. By just being here, competitors and their families are supporting our local businesses.”

Teams know the outline of the race, but they won’t know where they are going until they get their maps at the race briefing.  There are plenty of options in the surrounding National Parks, with Myall Bay to the North, Hunter Wetlands to the South, and Wallaroo and Karuah inland.  There’s the magnificent 32 km long Stockton Beach as well, with some of the largest, moving, coastal dunes in the Southern Hemisphere. 

The Port Stephens region will provide an inspiring and testing adventure playground for a weekend of adventure racing, and Race Director Chris Dixon of Wild and Co. has hinted at choosing tyres for beach riding, and maybe having an underwater checkpoint.

He says, “The temperatures look like being cold for the time of year, so the 3 paddle legs are going to be the big challenge in temperatures of 5-15 degrees and with a cold 18 knot westerly wind.

“There will be beautiful coastal sections, a huge hill in the hinterland, and some muddy, wet off-trail sections following recent rains.”

All the teams will use map and compass navigation to find the checkpoints, and have been given a plan of the course.  For the Full course, that’s a total of 4 run/trek stages, 3 paddles, including ocean paddling, and 3 mountain bike stages.  The race finishes with a long run to the finish which will take teams 3.5 to 6 hours.  The half course has 3 paddles, 4 runs and two bike rides, but with no ocean paddling.

The teams can race with or without a support crew to back them up, and there is a good mix of male, female and mixed teams in the entry of 22 Full Course teams and 15 Half Course teams. 

Many of the racers have been attending for years, and the race history goes back to the first Australian adventure race in 2002.  The winners list is a who’s who of world class Australian adventure racers, and many have since established their own events around Australia as the sport has grown. 

For the elite teams, it is a race title which matters, and long time race sponsors Mountain Designs offer an extensive range of prizes from their outdoor equipment range.  This year there is even more at stake as the race is the opening event in the Adventure Racing World Series Oceania Series. 

The winners will get a place in the 2022 Oceania Regional Championships at Gold Coast in October, and the winners there will claim a free place at the Adventure Racing World Championship in South Africa next year.  A strong performance in NSW this weekend could take teams a very long way!

Last year’s winners, Thunderbolt AR, are returning.  Last year they combined with the Alpine Avengers team after Covid travel restrictions affected who could travel to the race, but this year they are returning with most of their original squad.  They also won in 2017 and are ranked 16 in the Adventure Racing World Series global rankings, so will carry the favourites tag.

Speaking before the race Bern Dornom said, “We can't wait to race Geoquest again. It's an annual pilgrimage and a chance to catch up with fellow adventure racers and swap stories both pre and post race. I’m looking forward to racing with team Thunderbolt as it's been a couple of years and a baby since I've raced with the team. And there is nothing better than getting lost in the bush with your mates!

Hugh (Stodart), Josh (street) and I are original Thunderbolt members and Myall Quint (my partner) stepped into the team when he got me pregnant.  Some would say that was a strategic move!   We are definitely expecting to have a lot of laughs out on course and hopefully bring back some of the Thunderbolt magic efficiency.”

One of the teams most likely to challenge Thunderbolt is ‘3 Points of Contact’ lead by one of the country’s most experienced racers, Gary Sutherland.  “Geo is the race that started AR in Australia and it’s always a great ocean/beach/hinterland adventure.”  He said.  “Our team is relatively new.  I did Clint’s (Falla) first race with him 3 years ago, Laura (Newton) is an obstacle course racer who has been doing adventure racing for a couple of years and Etienne (Gautier) is a young guy who is constantly improving and wanted to join us for the experience of racing slower and smarter.  We are looking to enjoy what Chris has planned for us this time.”

The Alpine Quest team is also racing again, this time with founder Serge Kurov bringing all his experience to the team.   He said, “I’ve not been racing for 3 years and we have a team coming together from all around the country, so we are super excited.”  He has raced for almost 20 years, including many AR World Championships, and offered teams an instructional video on Facebook before the race with a breakdown of how to pack and prepare ahead of the race.  He too was highlighting the cold overnight kayak and long final run as the stages teams will need to prepare for.  

Another team to watch, who have youth on their side, and the experience of racing Geoquest before, are Capital AR. They entered Geoquest as a youth team in 2021 and finished as the top male team, with only two mixed premier teams ahead of them.    

This time they are racing in the Mixed Premier category (for AR World Series qualification) and Charlie Henshall said, “We’re a group of friends who got into AR at university in Canberra and have been training through the chilly winter to make sure we are underprepared for the big race.  This will be our second Geoquest and after having a ripper time last year, and doing pretty well, we thought we would come back.  It’s a home town race for Brad ‘Loaf’ Vallette, and a good excuse to avoid exam study!  Our expectations are to get through the full course and get weird out there.”

For all those taking part it promises to be a memorable weekend of incomparable experiences with their team mates. Friends and family will be able to follow their progress as the race has live satellite tracking, and there will news updates and photos on the Wild and Co. Facebook page.

You can find out all about the race and see the link for the live tracking at; https://www.geoquest.com.au/ and  https://www.facebook.com/wldnco

The race is organised by Wild and Co. who run adventure sports competitions throughout the year (https://www.wldnco.com/) and is part of the ARWS Oceania series (https://arworldseries.com/arws-oceania/).

Adventure Racing World Series Oceania Champs Set for the Gold Coast and Alpine Quest Join the Series

The venue for the Oceania Championship final of the Adventure Racing World Series has been announced today as the Gold Coast, and the race will now be part of a 5 race series, following the news that Alpine Quest has joined the premier adventure racing series in the region.

The ARWS Oceania Championship final will take place in the Gold Coast from 21-23rdOctober, when adventure racing teams will mountain bike, paddle, trek and navigate their way around 180km (full) or 100km (half), non-stop courses.  

The ARWS Championship category is open to teams of 4 which must be mixed sex, and the elite teams will be chasing the Oceania title, ARWS ranking points, and the ultimate prize of a paid-for place in the 2023 Adventure Racing World Championships.  There is also a cash prize pool of AUD$10,000.

The race isn’t just for the elite teams, however. The course will be designed to be achievable and accessible to all abilities, remaining open for 36 hours, and allowing teams some choices to provide short-cuts should they need them.  (2 person teams and all-male and all-female teams can also enter, but won’t be included in the ARWS championship category.)  The sport of Adventure Racing is unique in allowing the world’s best and novice teams to compete together on the same terms. 

The weekend of racing also includes the shorter (half) course, which has less distance and a shorter time limit, but many of the same amazing challenges and locations.

The event will be staged by specialist race Management Company Wild&Co and Event Director Chris Dixon is excited about the partnership with the Gold Coast and the opportunities it offers to racers. 

“With its majestic sub-tropical rainforest, spectacular waterfalls and cascades, pristine beaches and iconic skyline, the Gold Coast is the perfect backdrop for the inaugural ARWS Oceania Championship,” he said.  

He added. “The Gold Coast also offers visiting teams an abundance of accommodation and services for a great trip and is very accessible, by road from many population centres, or via the international airport.  It’s a great location for our Championship race.”

Gold Coast Mayor, Tom Tate, commented.  “Diversifying our city’s major events calendar is critical as we navigate our way out of the global health pandemic and this high-energy, international, event fits that bill perfectly. 

“The Gold Coast's varied natural landscape is the perfect location to host this tough competition and will provide the ultimate challenge for Oceania's top adventure racers. Securing this pinnacle international event reinforces our reputation as an appealing sports and events destination.”

Alpine Quest Strengthens the ARWS Oceania Series

The 2022 ARWS Oceania Series has now expanded, with the inclusion of the Alpine Quest race, which offers teams a very different location and challenge in the wilderness Alpine terrain of Victoria.  

The inclusion of the race also brings into the series the experience and expertise of Serge Kurov and Maria Plyashechko, who have organised over 30 adventure and outdoor events over the last decade.  The pair have a passion for adventure racing, and they have competed internationally all over the world; including in Patagonia, Abu Dhabi and China.

Maria commented. “We feel that the ARWS is the right community of experienced Race Directors in which we can run high quality races for our participants to enjoy. We will be a part of an established and transparent structure, with a clear vision and goals on all levels. The advantages the ARWS provides to Race Directors are well-defined and for the participants of the Alpine Quest the ARWS referee will offer an additional point of communication. 

“Participants will also have a chance to gain Oceania points to participate in the ARWS regional series ranking, and to compete for the chance to be ARWS Oceania Champions in 2023.”

She added, “It’s been tough couple of years due to Covid restrictions, but we are looking forward to a new chapter with the ARWS community of Race Directors and racers.”

Alpine Quest will take place on Nov. 11-12th and you can find full details at https://alpinequest.com.au

The ARWS Oceania Calendar

The first race in the 2022 Oceania ARWS Series will be the Terra Nova Adventure Race on April 2/3rd in Shoalhaven, NSW, with 120 and 70km courses, and a maximum 24 hour time limit for the full course.

This will be followed by the Mountain Designs Geoquest, which is the oldest 48 hour race in Australia (going back to 2002), and where the list of winning teams is a who’s who of world class of Australian adventure racers.  The venue will be Shoal Bay, NSW, and the course distances 220 and 120km.

The action then moves to S.E. Queensland, where the 24 hour Hells Bells Adventure Racewill take place over the weekend of August 6/7th. 

Entries are now open for all 2022 events in the ARWS Oceania Series, and you can find out more information about the races and the Adventure Racing World Series at; https://arworldseries.com/oceania. 

Interviews with the Race Directors and participating teams, plus details of media opportunities and participation, are available on request from Chris Dixon @arws address?.  

Photos with captions – available from arworldseriesoceania.com

About The Adventure Racing World Series

The Adventure Racing World Series is an association of 48 races across 5 continents and 23 countries. The series supports world-class, international, expedition races, which are the pinnacle of the world’s toughest sport, and the development of professionally organised racing at a national level through the ARWS Regional series. 

Each Regional Series has its own ranking and championship final, and the ranking points feed through into the global ARWS ranking.  The winners of the annual Regional Championship receive a paid-for place at the next Adventure Racing World Championships.

Adventure Racing World Series Oceania Champs Set for the Gold Coast and Alpine Quest Join the Series

The venue for the Oceania Championship final of the Adventure Racing World Series has been announced today as the Gold Coast, and the race will now be part of a 5 race series, following the news that Alpine Quest has joined the premier adventure racing series in the region.

The ARWS Oceania Championship final will take place in the Gold Coast from 21-23rdOctober, when adventure racing teams will mountain bike, paddle, trek and navigate their way around 180km (full) or 100km (half), non-stop courses.  

The ARWS Championship category is open to teams of 4 which must be mixed sex, and the elite teams will be chasing the Oceania title, ARWS ranking points, and the ultimate prize of a paid-for place in the 2023 Adventure Racing World Championships.  There is also a cash prize pool of AUD$10,000.

The race isn’t just for the elite teams, however. The course will be designed to be achievable and accessible to all abilities, remaining open for 36 hours, and allowing teams some choices to provide short-cuts should they need them.  (2 person teams and all-male and all-female teams can also enter, but won’t be included in the ARWS championship category.)  The sport of Adventure Racing is unique in allowing the world’s best and novice teams to compete together on the same terms. 

The weekend of racing also includes the shorter (half) course, which has less distance and a shorter time limit, but many of the same amazing challenges and locations.

The event will be staged by specialist race Management Company Wild&Co and Event Director Chris Dixon is excited about the partnership with the Gold Coast and the opportunities it offers to racers. 

“With its majestic sub-tropical rainforest, spectacular waterfalls and cascades, pristine beaches and iconic skyline, the Gold Coast is the perfect backdrop for the inaugural ARWS Oceania Championship,” he said.  

He added. “The Gold Coast also offers visiting teams an abundance of accommodation and services for a great trip and is very accessible, by road from many population centres, or via the international airport.  It’s a great location for our Championship race.”

Gold Coast Mayor, Tom Tate, commented.  “Diversifying our city’s major events calendar is critical as we navigate our way out of the global health pandemic and this high-energy, international, event fits that bill perfectly. 

“The Gold Coast's varied natural landscape is the perfect location to host this tough competition and will provide the ultimate challenge for Oceania's top adventure racers. Securing this pinnacle international event reinforces our reputation as an appealing sports and events destination.”

Alpine Quest Strengthens the ARWS Oceania Series

The 2022 ARWS Oceania Series has now expanded, with the inclusion of the Alpine Quest race, which offers teams a very different location and challenge in the wilderness Alpine terrain of Victoria.  

The inclusion of the race also brings into the series the experience and expertise of Serge Kurov and Maria Plyashechko, who have organised over 30 adventure and outdoor events over the last decade.  The pair have a passion for adventure racing, and they have competed internationally all over the world; including in Patagonia, Abu Dhabi and China.

Maria commented. “We feel that the ARWS is the right community of experienced Race Directors in which we can run high quality races for our participants to enjoy. We will be a part of an established and transparent structure, with a clear vision and goals on all levels. The advantages the ARWS provides to Race Directors are well-defined and for the participants of the Alpine Quest the ARWS referee will offer an additional point of communication. 

“Participants will also have a chance to gain Oceania points to participate in the ARWS regional series ranking, and to compete for the chance to be ARWS Oceania Champions in 2023.”

She added, “It’s been tough couple of years due to Covid restrictions, but we are looking forward to a new chapter with the ARWS community of Race Directors and racers.”

Alpine Quest will take place on Nov. 11-12th and you can find full details at https://alpinequest.com.au

The ARWS Oceania Calendar

The first race in the 2022 Oceania ARWS Series will be the Terra Nova Adventure Race on April 2/3rd in Shoalhaven, NSW, with 120 and 70km courses, and a maximum 24 hour time limit for the full course.

This will be followed by the Mountain Designs Geoquest, which is the oldest 48 hour race in Australia (going back to 2002), and where the list of winning teams is a who’s who of world class of Australian adventure racers.  The venue will be Shoal Bay, NSW, and the course distances 220 and 120km.

The action then moves to S.E. Queensland, where the 24 hour Hells Bells Adventure Racewill take place over the weekend of August 6/7th. 

Entries are now open for all 2022 events in the ARWS Oceania Series, and you can find out more information about the races and the Adventure Racing World Series at; https://arworldseries.com/oceania. 

Interviews with the Race Directors and participating teams, plus details of media opportunities and participation, are available on request from Chris Dixon @arws address?.  

Photos with captions – available from arworldseriesoceania.com

About The Adventure Racing World Series

The Adventure Racing World Series is an association of 48 races across 5 continents and 23 countries. The series supports world-class, international, expedition races, which are the pinnacle of the world’s toughest sport, and the development of professionally organised racing at a national level through the ARWS Regional series. 

Each Regional Series has its own ranking and championship final, and the ranking points feed through into the global ARWS ranking.  The winners of the annual Regional Championship receive a paid-for place at the next Adventure Racing World Championships.

Adventure Racing World Series Oceania Champs Set for the Gold Coast and Alpine Quest Join the Series

The venue for the Oceania Championship final of the Adventure Racing World Series has been announced today as the Gold Coast, and the race will now be part of a 5 race series, following the news that Alpine Quest has joined the premier adventure racing series in the region.

The ARWS Oceania Championship final will take place in the Gold Coast from 21-23rdOctober, when adventure racing teams will mountain bike, paddle, trek and navigate their way around 180km (full) or 100km (half), non-stop courses.  

The ARWS Championship category is open to teams of 4 which must be mixed sex, and the elite teams will be chasing the Oceania title, ARWS ranking points, and the ultimate prize of a paid-for place in the 2023 Adventure Racing World Championships.  There is also a cash prize pool of AUD$10,000.

The race isn’t just for the elite teams, however. The course will be designed to be achievable and accessible to all abilities, remaining open for 36 hours, and allowing teams some choices to provide short-cuts should they need them.  (2 person teams and all-male and all-female teams can also enter, but won’t be included in the ARWS championship category.)  The sport of Adventure Racing is unique in allowing the world’s best and novice teams to compete together on the same terms. 

The weekend of racing also includes the shorter (half) course, which has less distance and a shorter time limit, but many of the same amazing challenges and locations.

The event will be staged by specialist race Management Company Wild&Co and Event Director Chris Dixon is excited about the partnership with the Gold Coast and the opportunities it offers to racers. 

“With its majestic sub-tropical rainforest, spectacular waterfalls and cascades, pristine beaches and iconic skyline, the Gold Coast is the perfect backdrop for the inaugural ARWS Oceania Championship,” he said.  

He added. “The Gold Coast also offers visiting teams an abundance of accommodation and services for a great trip and is very accessible, by road from many population centres, or via the international airport.  It’s a great location for our Championship race.”

Gold Coast Mayor, Tom Tate, commented.  “Diversifying our city’s major events calendar is critical as we navigate our way out of the global health pandemic and this high-energy, international, event fits that bill perfectly. 

“The Gold Coast's varied natural landscape is the perfect location to host this tough competition and will provide the ultimate challenge for Oceania's top adventure racers. Securing this pinnacle international event reinforces our reputation as an appealing sports and events destination.”

ALPINE QUEST STRENGTHENS THE ARWS OCEANIA SERIES

The 2022 ARWS Oceania Series has now expanded, with the inclusion of the Alpine Quest race, which offers teams a very different location and challenge in the wilderness Alpine terrain of Victoria.  

The inclusion of the race also brings into the series the experience and expertise of Serge Kurov and Maria Plyashechko, who have organised over 30 adventure and outdoor events over the last decade.  The pair have a passion for adventure racing, and they have competed internationally all over the world; including in Patagonia, Abu Dhabi and China.

Maria commented. “We feel that the ARWS is the right community of experienced Race Directors in which we can run high quality races for our participants to enjoy. We will be a part of an established and transparent structure, with a clear vision and goals on all levels. The advantages the ARWS provides to Race Directors are well-defined and for the participants of the Alpine Quest the ARWS referee will offer an additional point of communication. 

“Participants will also have a chance to gain Oceania points to participate in the ARWS regional series ranking, and to compete for the chance to be ARWS Oceania Champions in 2023.”

She added, “It’s been tough couple of years due to Covid restrictions, but we are looking forward to a new chapter with the ARWS community of Race Directors and racers.”

Alpine Quest will take place on Nov. 11-12th and you can find full details at https://alpinequest.com.au

THE ARWS OCEANIA CALENDAR

The first race in the 2022 Oceania ARWS Series will be the Terra Nova Adventure Race on April 2/3rd in Shoalhaven, NSW, with 120 and 70km courses, and a maximum 24 hour time limit for the full course.

This will be followed by the Mountain Designs Geoquest, which is the oldest 48 hour race in Australia (going back to 2002), and where the list of winning teams is a who’s who of world class of Australian adventure racers.  The venue will be Shoal Bay, NSW, and the course distances 220 and 120km.

The action then moves to S.E. Queensland, where the 24 hour Hells Bells Adventure Racewill take place over the weekend of August 6/7th. 

Entries are now open for all 2022 events in the ARWS Oceania Series, and you can find out more information about the races and the Adventure Racing World Series at; https://arworldseries.com/oceania. 

Interviews with the Race Directors and participating teams, plus details of media opportunities and participation, are available on request from Chris Dixon @arws address?.  

Photos with captions – available from arworldseriesoceania.com

ABOUT THE ADVENTURE RACING WORLD SERIES

The Adventure Racing World Series is an association of 48 races across 5 continents and 23 countries. The series supports world-class, international, expedition races, which are the pinnacle of the world’s toughest sport, and the development of professionally organised racing at a national level through the ARWS Regional series. 

Each Regional Series has its own ranking and championship final, and the ranking points feed through into the global ARWS ranking.  The winners of the annual Regional Championship receive a paid-for place at the next Adventure Racing World Championships.