XVI Red Fox Adventure Race
The Arrival
Carrick Armer / 08.06.2017
With teams arriving at basecamp, on the shores of Lake Ladoga just south of Sortavala, the Red Fox Adventure Race and AR European Championship is beginning to gather steam.
The camp area is very much a 'pitch where you can' affair, with registration in one small building, a handful of small cottages where some racers and media are staying, and a small Red Fox shop tent where teams could stock up on any last minute changes or replace forgotten kit. The rest of the site is given over to the crew camp, the team camps, and the two large transition areas for the racers. The crew camp is its own focal area, with all the food being cooked over an open fire, in a tarp-covered clearing, close to the water's edge. There seems to always be a pan of water on the boil for tea and coffee, which may come in handy as evening chills down.
The AREC proper starts tomorrow at 1pm local time, with an Opening Ceremony at 11am, but the order of the first day has been arrival, gear checks, kit sorting, map giveout and the briefings and questions (though not for Danish Team Yeti, whose flights were only booked for tomorrow morning!) The briefings have been split in two - one in English to international teams, one in Russian to the local racers. Both have generated some interesting questions.
Aside from the humdrum logistical queries, the 'where do we need this' and 'do we have to carry that for there', came some interesting clarifications on the whitewater paddling leg. The boats they're using are two-man semi-rigid/semi-inflatable sea kayak style boats. The 'semi' part in both of thise gives a possibility for damage on any whitewater, either to the metal struts or to the tubes. So there has been a 'strong recommendation' to portage some of the bigger rapids, and a 'recommendation' to maybe portage some of the smaller ones. Being as some of these rapids seem to be close together, with a road not far away, at least four international teams have concluded that means a 3km portage instead. Petri Forsman was even contemplating going back home to pick up portage trolleys...
Other than their frailty on whitewater, the boats seem to have their fans. The Estonian/Latvian team Seiklushunt were settling in to theirs, happy with the boats speed and comfort, but adding extra plates to lengthen and stiffen the rudder, and padding the cockpits with sleeping mat for extra warmth.
While the AREC teams start their race journey tomorrow, the Red Fox race teams will still be making their way to site, and if the weather stays as it has been, a beautiful day awaits them.
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