Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race 2010
Destination Darwin
Will Gray / 13.02.2010
It’s day four of the race and we have trekked here from checkpoint eight, through a short section of the notorious peat bog turba (fortunately dry, stiff and spongy not soaking wet, soft and sinking), along a convenient marked trail that climbed high into the hills then down to the river through knee-high thorny bushes and past the cracked dead silver trees that make up much of this virgin region of Chilean Tierra del Fuego.
But we went the easy way.
The route the competitors take to get here from checkpoint eight - where over the last two days teams have been transitioning from the 178km mountain bike ride into a 114km trek – heads straight up a steep trail-less hill to traverse a spectacular lake-filled plateau before a rope descent back down into a dark canyon then on through the Darwin foothills to the river.
That’s just the start. From there, the real tough stuff begins, with four checkpoints along an unmarked route that cuts straight through the Darwin range until the shores of the Beagle Channel at checkpoint 15. Top adventure racer Mike Kloser, who is here filming for the TV show of the race that is due to air later this year, believes the terrain rather than the navigation in the Darwin will be the challenge. “When you’re talking about the big amount of racing that’s left, there is all to play for,� he told me at 4:30am the other morning as he prepared to head into the mountains with the leading team. “It’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out because so many things can go on out there…�
And so they have.
As I write, I know this. The three leading teams – Spain, Switzerland, and Helly Hansen-Prunesco – arrived at checkpoint six, the final one on the first trek, within eight minutes of each other, but Brits Helly Hansen-Prunesco were fast in the changeover and left the checkpoint in first place then blitzed the mountain bike run to stretch out a significant lead.
We had finally escaped PC3 at around 6pm on day two and chased the teams down in our pick-up and one of the race logistics vans (called El Penguino after the large penguin it has on the side in deference to its usual job as a tourist bus for the penguin colony in Punta Arenas). An exceptional drive on dirt roads had taken us through the barren rolling hills, past a flamingo lake and into the Karukinka Reserve, a Wildlife Conservation Society reserve that the race supports. That’s where, with the mobile antenna still refusing to function, I was able to find the fixed-base satellite internet station to send my last report.
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