British team adidasTERREX/Prunesco completed a hat- trick of victories in the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race on Tuesday at the end of a dramatic event in which persistent rain forced a section of the course to be cancelled and swollen rivers saw three teams airlifted over an impassable part of the course.
The extreme multisport race, which this year involved 14 international teams, proved to be one of the toughest and most spectacular in its history as weather conditions turned from sparkling sunshine in Torres del Paine to heavy rain in the western fjords - and the British team pushed hard to complete the 10-day course with two days to spare.
British team captain Bruce Duncan said: "To have won this race once is something special, to win it three times is simply amazing. This is the ultimate race and this one was a tough one. The weather really made a difference to the course, and I am both relieved and delighted to have reached the finish."
This year's race involved a total of 248km of mountain biking, 150km of trailless trekking and 105km of river and sea kayaking in the wilderness of Chilean Patagonia, from the tourist hub of Torres del Paine to the remote Pali Aike National Park between the towns of Puerto Natales and Punta Arenas. The teams passed through complete wilderness, navigating by map and compass alone, where they encountered unnamed glaciers, trekked through spectacular Avatar-style landscapes and paddled past icebergs in high-sided fjords.
The two trekking sections proved to be the most challenging parts, and the second was shortened by 114km after rain turned the forests into treacherous slippery obstacle courses, covered rock faces with endless waterfalls and, crucially, caused rivers to rise to the point where the course became un-navigable.
By the time adidasTERREX/Prunesco completed the course, ahead of second-placed GearJunkie.com from the US, eight of the 14 teams had pulled out of the race and three had been picked up by helicopter after being stuck at a fast-flowing river. Two of those teams continued on and are expected to reach the finish tomorrow.
"In the last two years the trekking has been hard and spectacular, but even more so in both cases this year," said Duncan. "We did a lot of fighting through forests, we have a few sores, some bad feet and I had a fight with a tree early on. But the scenery we saw and experiences we had were amazing, absolutely beautiful – the best ever."
This year's field of competitors includes a mix of international pro and semi-pro racers and everyday adventurers from the US, UK, Croatia, Japan, France, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, the Czech Republic and Kasakhstan.
GearJunkie.com had taken the lead from the start at Hotel Las Torres on the opening mountain bike section, in which 100km/h winds literally blew teams off their bikes. Adidas passed them on the kayaking section before the day was out and the reigning champions never looked back, extending an ultimately unassailable lead.
The adventurous American team tried all they could to get back in the race, taking risky short- cuts by using their kayak dry suits to enable them to swim in the fjords and rivers rather than cut through the forests, but it was to no avail.
"We took kind of a different route, and swam a lot," said Gearjunkie.com's Chelsey Gribbon. "We went down the rivers, and that was super fun, but it went downhill from there. We swam across the fjord and all got hypothermic and couldn't even set up the tent because we were so cold. After that we were just happy to be alive!"
French team Vaucluse Adventure Evasions and Croatians Ad Natura Karibu are expected to finish several hours behind the top placed teams, later on Tuesday. Team East Wind, from Japan, and Perdido en el Turbal, from the USA and UK, remained on the course and are expected to fight for fifth place and finish one day after the British.
The race, which is title sponsored by Swiss Army Knife manufacturer Wenger, is delivered to the 'Leave No Trace' principles and aims to help develop sustainable tourism and protect the region's wilderness. It also supports the Wildlife Conservation Society by raising awareness of its projects in Chile.
This year, organizers hope to raise $20,000 in online donations to help save the Patagonian Huemul, the small deer that is the symbol of Chile but is currently facing extinction. All funds raised will go towards a population research survey in Peninsular Brunswick and Muñoz Gamero, which will assist in the development of a protection plan later this year.
