The Race Route is Announced

Team Cyanosis / 13.02.2012

The final race route for the Patagonia Expedition Race has been announced and we are now waiting to start the race!  At race briefing last night, a 565km long course divided into 6 sections was announced.

The race will start at 2:30am on Tuesday morning in Puenta Arenas, with a short 75km cycle down the coast to be south-west, arriving at a transition where we will pick up sea kayaks for the first time. The 85km of paddling will involve crossing the Magellan Strait and a portage over the narrows of an island, eventually ending up on the island to Tierra Del Fuego. Then we start the first long leg, a trekking section with peat bog, dense forest and rivers. We expect to take over 24 hours to cover 76km.

The second half of the race will see the teams on an extended 140km cycle across the island on easy gravel roads. This will be followed by the 2nd hike, a 142km monster mountain trek through pampas grasslands, the southern most forests of the world, wet peat bogs, over snowy mountains passes and in full sight of glaciers. We are expecting this to take 2-3 days to complete, with extremely heavy backpacks, including rope section equipment. This leg will take the teams down to the Beagle Channel for the final stage, a 47km paddle in the channel, finishing at the spectacular Pia Glacier, a real finish in the middle of nowhere.

Cyanosis fancy their chances of a strong result, but so do quite a few other teams. Tough competition is expected from defending champs Adidas from the UK, as well as Red Fox from Russia. Other challengers include Vaucluze from France, Lontra from Brasil and Gear Junkies and Dancing Pandas from the USA.

Cyanosis are looking forward to the coming challenge. The team arrived all well two days ago, and a missing bag only a short while later. Since then we've been trying to adjust to the cold temperatures and the strong winds. The poor weather and climate are going to be the biggest challenge in this race. 

All the best from the southern tip of South America!

Team Cyanosis

[The race map has now been published and can be seen here.]

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