The small lakeside resort of Tekapo has transformed into the bustling community of post-race Southern Traverse.
Competitors and their dedicated support crew, race officials and media are all hyped after an adrenaline filled week. The cafes and restaurants are crowded, everyone with a tale to tell and happy to give their opinion on the race that has consumed their lives for the last week.
What better person to speak to than Bill Godsall of 4th place Team Cromwell, one of the few people competing in every one of the 10 Southern Traverse events to date. One of the most rugged, classic "Kiwi blokes" you could ever meet, he described this year's event as "the hardest most brutal event you could
imagine. Every mountain we went over was howling a gale, freezing cold and even snowing. In lots of the terrain we traversed, if you
stopped up there — simply you could die!"
Every team we have met have raved about the mountaineering leg way back on day two, 47km and at least 20-30 hours up into the high alpine of Boulder and Jagged Col. Many didn't get further than this, but everyone will be talking about it for a long time.
| Many seasoned adventure racers suffered out on the course. Mark Foster of Team Oobe is no stranger to pain and suffering... |
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Godsall recalls his teams experience: "We found ourselves on a very steep, exposed snowy ridge, it was the late afternoon so quite easy to plug foot steps in the snow with no crampons. Then all of a sudden as the sun set the temperature plummeted and the snow around us froze to solid ice in an instant. Impossible to move, we clung there like flies, terrified, thinking of what would happen if we slipped. Lucky for us Jim (Cotter) is super experienced in this environment, he was able to hack out a small ledge in the ice with his axe and perched there we could tie crampons to our boots."
Team Cromwell's experience is opposed to the Propeller-heads claiming it didn't needed to use crampons on the entire course. Possibly more good luck than skill, Propeller-heads passed over each of the high alpine sections at a time when the snow and ice was softened by the sun.
Godsall was unsure if he would do the event again, and he was not alone. Many seasoned adventure racers suffered out on the course. Mark Foster of Team Oobe is no stranger to pain and suffering; he carries the experience of four Eco-Challenges, seven Southern Traverses, and an impressive 11 New Zealand Coast to Coast events with him, but yesterday he looked like a broken man.
Foster's team missed the cut-off up at Fox Peak yesterday morning and was forced on the alternative mountain biking route to finish unranked.
Foster commented, "I don't now why I put myself through this...enough is enough." Guaranteed, though a few days from now the topic of next year's race will come up and many will have forgotten all that pain and suffering.
| ...it is everyone who even lines up at the start that is a
legend. |
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Eleven teams of the 57 that started the event have completed the full course a number Geoff Hunt describes as "less than expected. A lot of people were knocked around out there and, of course, the weather took its toll on the last day...people are saying it was probably the world's toughest race."
When asked if that's how he would like the event to be remembered he commented: "We may not be the biggest, flashiest adventure race in the world, but the Southern Traverse has a soul...I think we have created legends out there. Because guaranteed, years from now people will be able to say they finished the 2000 Southern Traverse — what an achievement!"
But really, it is everyone who even lines up at the start that is a
legend. Team Seagate (USA), a bunch of corporate types on its first adventure race, was pulled off the course on day two:
"We have learnt so much and had absolutely no idea what we had gotten ourselves in to." Already, Team Seagate says it will be back, "not for next year's event, but in 2002, with at least a year off to master the skills of survival for this race."
Yet another poor bunch of souls addicted to this crazy sport.
– Chris Vile, MountainZone.com Correspondent
