Primal Quest Utah 2006

It is impossible to fit a 7-day race into one page so here a few tales from PQ 2006. Primal Quest turned out to be everything we thought it would be before hand, long, hot and sandy.

The opening ceremony highlighted how much Americans like to clap and it was comical to see many teams with little chance of finishing hooping and hollering like mad when course director Don Mann was talking about how many teams weren’t going to finish. Must have been looking forward to pulling out I guess.

Just after midnight, we were crammed onto buses, which marked the start of a week of madness and as the sun came up the next morning, we were off. Horses bolting, riders flying off in all directions and then Gordon atop the largest slowest horse you’ve ever seen wandering off in pursuit of the leaders with the rest of us jogging along side.

With the temperatures soaring over 100 we past the 4 hour mark just over ½ way through the trek, a little disconcerting as the whole trek was due to take that long we were glad to have taken almost 6 litres of fluid each. We had gone into the trek 1 ¾ hours behind the leaders but as we closed on the end of the section we suddenly passed all of the leading teams bar Nike. Most of them had run out of water and many were throwing up as the heat took its toll. We gave a couple of teams some water as we passed, and as we walked into the TA we found ourselves in 2nd just 15 minutes behind Nike.

A few hours of paddling on the next section took us to the start of our first canyoneering section and the first time we would see our food boxes. A group of 6 teams arrived at the first rappel together giving us an enforced rest on top of a massive cliff – baking in the 100 + temps again. We entered a huge Canyon with walls over 100m high on either side. The sun and the heat still penetrated right to the bottom and we received little respite from the heat of the day.

Day 3 and as we headed into Mineral Canyon, we were right were we needed to be, within an hour of the lead and feeling good.

An hour later though and our team was starting to feel the effects of the previous sections and the scorching heat. Sari’s feet started to develop some nasty blisters and our progress waned until barely above a crawl.

Later in the night we passed through a Canyon named Hell Roaring Canyon, supposedly spectacular we couldn’t see much as we rappelled over 120 metres into it. A shame to miss it but an hour later it was completely lit up in an incredible display of lightning that lasted an hour and also brought a refreshing burst of rain.

Another scorching day and within 10 km, disaster threatened to finish our race. Martin’s free wheel on his bike had chosen today as the day to stop working.

Sitting on the side of the road with no shade in close to 40 degrees, we found a bit of movement in the cluster and discovered if we kept it pushed in, it would engage as normal. The plan rapidly took place that we would try to build a spacer to push off the frame and hold it in place – hopefully resulting in normal operation. So, what do you build a spacer out of in the desert with a knife as a tool, some compulsory AR gear and no shops for 60 km? Finally as we about to tow Martin back to the TA to see if the bike boxes held any better options we spied the top ring on the neck of one of our two litre coke bottles, which we’d been using as extra capacity for fluid. It looked about the right thickness, had the right sized hole and would be durable we thought. After 20 minutes of cutting and then whittling and sanding with some rocks, we inserted the spacer and after a little lube, Martin hit the road for a first test run. None of could have believed it would be such a good fit and off we went with a new confidence that we could over come any obstacle.

Morning found us at the transition to the Mountaineering leg. We were now getting to see that the remaining 4 legs were going to take about 4 days.

A bit of navigation to the first point and then onto a compulsory route, which in a sleep deprived state, was incredibly hard to understand. I felt like my brain had turned into scrambled eggs. Things were progressing very slowly as sore feet keep the tempo low and then a miss-plotted checkpoint cost us half an hour. And that’s where the section got interesting. For all who thought everyone was lost on the GPS – this was the orienteering section.

By now Sari’s feet were deteriorating badly and so we stopped to patch them up, not a short stop by any means as Doctors Martin and Gordon showed their prowess with a needle, some duct tape and some antiseptic.

The second to last section was a fun ride down Onion creek, which included a short section on the famous Kokopeli trail and down to the final TA.

The finale was a group of towers on top of a tall spine. Castleton, the Rectory and the Pope. It was over 400 metres from the valley floor to the top of the spine and then each tower was over 100 meters high. Just as we were finally getting set for the first ascent the sky started lighting up around us and the guides scrambled to get everyone down off the towers as lightning storm hit the area. We spent the next 9 hours huddled under a ledge trying to stay dry and warm until morning came and the lightning moved out of the area. As we ascended Castleton, the views were amazing as was the exposure. Back down the other side then another ascent up the Rectory. A short walk across the top and then a hair raising Tyrolean across to the Pope and an abseil to finish.

During the night, team Halti had been able to continue walking towards the ropes site and as we embarked on the ropes, they joined us. For us a bitter pill to swallow as we had been in 10th, the last place for prize money, and fairly secure with about 7-8 hours lead. Now only a few hours from the finish we had been caught and had no certainty that we would be credited any time for the hold up due to the lightening. The final couple of hours trekking saw a definite edge in the team dynamics as each member played out different scenarios for themselves. A final 2-mile kayak to the finish and after 7 days the finish line was just a few short minutes away. As we walked down the finish chute, the team collectively broke into huge smiles as the announcers confirmed that we had snuck into the top 10 and into the money. After just over 7 days racing, less than 20 hours sleep and 450 miles of racing it was time to relax, enjoy a beer and take in the experience.