Wilderness news reporting on the Last Wild Race...
13.02.2011 at 02:17:13
The 'Last Wild Race' may be a big test for the competitors but it is also a huge challenge for the photographers and communications team who are sending updates from the field – and instant reporting from the wilderness is not easy!
The hub of the race is not in its belly but actually in Punta Arenas, where the official Race HQ, set up in the office of race organisers Nomadas Outdoor Services, keeps a 24-hour watch to receive and distribute communications as quickly as possible to the Twitter and Facebook feeds, the race website and the Chilean and international media.
Thanks to a network of Inmarsat satellite communications, which includes sat phones and BGAN data terminals (a mobile internet, although not nearly as quick as broadband!) the Punta Arenas HQ is linked up to every checkpoint (PC) along the course as well as a ‘Remote HQ’, which travels along the route between the most accessible checkpoints.
Checkpoint managers call in to HQ with the latest news and race positions as the racers pass by while the Remote HQ aims to catch up with the teams wherever possible and deliver quotes and fast photos back to Punta Arenas.
This year, as well as staying in some pretty remote campsites, Remote HQ has also spent several nights set up in the luxurious Remota Hotel in Puerto Natales, which has provided comfortable shelter, fast internet – and some great food and comfortable beds!
Out on the course, the photographers do all they can to capture the action in high resolution, while the official race production crew is chasing down the stories to get them on film. But getting to the heart of the action is far from easy – and sending it back as live as possible is even tougher.
Photographers can only take photos of teams that pass them, and when the whole race moves non-stop that is unpredictable.
When the course is accessible (usually the kayak and bike sections), the photographers and film camera men try to follow racers on boats or in cars and an editor obtains those photos to send back to HQ via satellite or via the Remota hotel internet.
When the racers are remote trekking, some photographers are stationed in one location to take photos of every team coming through (although some pass through at night) and others follow the racers through the course and tend to stick with those teams (so they don't get lost!) until they can't keep up, then turn around and come back or reach a checkpoint and get transported out.
Those remote photographers’ images only get back to the Race HQ in Punta Arenas, usually via a BGAN at the Remote HQ, once the photographers are 'reclaimed' from the field - so some photos could be taken on day one, but may only arrive on day five because the photographer went straight into the course and took days just to make it back to remote HQ.
Add to that the complicated logistics of transporting tonnes of food and a whole load of tents, bags, equipment and people around from location to location in the most remote wilderness on Earth, and you start to realise quite what an achievement it is that Nomadas puts on this amazing event every year...
La central oficial de comunicaciones está en Punta Arenas ubicada en la oficina Nomadas Outdoor Services, aquí el equipo se mantiene alerta las 24 horas del día para recibir y entregar la información lo más rápido posible en Twitter, Facebook, el sitio web del WPER y a la prensa chilena e internacional.
Gracias a una red de comunicación por satélite Inmersat, que incluye teléfonos satelitales y terminales de datos Bgan (Internet móvil, mucho más lento que banda ancha), la central de comunicaciones en Punta arenas está conectada con los puntos de control (PC) a lo largo de la carrera y también con el móvil en terreno que viaja a lo largo de la ruta entre los puntos de control.
Los encargados de cada punto de control llaman a la central entregando la información de último minuto y las posiciones de los corredores a medida que avanzan, mientras el móvil trata de seguirle el paso a los equipos dentro de lo posible y envía testimonios y fotografías a Punta Arenas.
Este año, el móvil ha tenido que acampar en lugares muy extremos, sin embargo también ha pasado algunas noches en el lujoso Hotel Remota en Puerto Natales, donde se les brindó hospedaje e Internet, excelente comida y cómodas camas.
En el curso de la carrera, los fotógrafos hacen lo posible para capturar la acción en alta definición, mientras el equipo oficial de producción del WPER va detrás de las historias produciendo un documental. Llegar al centro de la acción es muy difícil y es aún más difícil enviar información bajo la presión del tiempo.
Los fotógrafos sólo pueden tomar fotos de los equipos que los pasan, debido a la naturaleza impredecible de la carrera a que los competidores toman diferentes rutas para llegar a los Puntos de Control.
Cuando se pueden acercar a los competidores (generalmente las secciones de kayak y bicicleta), los fotógrafos y camarógrafos tratan de seguir a los competidores en botes o autos; estas fotos llegan a manos de los editores y las envían a la central de comunicaciones vía satelital o se envía por Internet desde el hotel Remota.
Cuando los competidores se encuentran en una sección de trekking de muy difícil acceso, algunos fotógrafos se mantienen ubicados en un punto específico para tomar fotos de los equipos que pasen por ese punto (aunque algunos equipos pasan por la noche) y otros siguen a los competidores durante el trayecto y se mantienen cerca de esos equipos (para no perderse) hasta que ya no los puedan seguir desde donde se devuelven o llegan a un punto de control y son evacuados en algún medio de transporte.
Estas imágenes extremas sólo llegan a la central de comunicaciones en Punta Arenas (generalmente por medio de un BGAN en el móvil) cuando los fotógrafos son evacuados de terreno. Por eso, algunas fotografías que fueron tomadas el día 1, puede que lleguen recién el día 5.
Además, es muy complejo transportar toneladas de comida, carpas, mochilas, equipamiento y personas desde un punto a otro en el lugar más austral de la tierra. Nómadas ha desplegado muchos recursos para lograr hacer realidad este increíble evento cada año…
Day Six: AdidasTERREX leads, while other teams head for PC10
Ad Natura – Karibu team-mates Elvir Sulic and Stiven Vunic, from Croatia, share some food during a break on the 2011 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race. (Valentino Saldivar, Chile)
13.02.2011 at 15:35:12
Seven teams still remain in the 2011 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race, with AdidasTERREX/Prunesco from the UK still holding the lead in what is one of the most extreme and wild races ever undertaken in Chile’s Patagonian region.
This morning, the British racers, who yesterday appeared to be battling mental fatigue, were the first team to check in at PC10, Mirador Fiordos. It took the team almost two days to complete the 67 kilometre trekking leg from PC. After pushing hard in the first stages of the race, the team appears to have slowed its pace with racer Fi Spotswood reportably suffering some feet problems.
AdidasTERREX/Prunesco arrived at PC10 at 10.12am and were encouraged to continue trekking to PC11, with other teams not too far behind.
In news just in from the field, the team checked in to PC11 at 15.41, covering the 10km from PC10 in roughly 5 hours.
GearJunkie.com (US), Vaucluse Adventure Evasions (France) and Ad Natura – Karibu (Croatia) were sighted earlier this morning by a WPER photographer located at a beach in the north-east section of the fjord between PC9 and PC10. Japanese racers, East Wind were believed to be not too far behind the Croatian team.
Teams Perdido en el Turbal (US, UK) and RoadRunners (Denmark) have not been sighted since the evening of Friday 11 February when they passed through PC9.
No further reports are available on the location of these teams in time for this update.
The trekking leg between PC9 and PC10 was expected to be one of the most challenging sections of this year’s Patagonian Expedition Race, described as the world’s ‘last wild race’. It was the first section in a massive 191 kilometre trek – the longest single treeking stage in the history of Patagonian Expedition Race.
Race Director, Stjepan Pavicic said yesterday that there were several opportunities for teams to consider short cut routes and at best, racers were estimated to take between two and a half to three days to complete this final trekking leg which ends at PC13.
Race Interview – Four Continents
13.02.2011 at 18:54:17
Race Interview – Four Continents
After coming together for the first time at ‘the end of the world’ in Punta Arenas just days before the race, the Four Continents team of Tasman Lawrie, Pavel Paloncy, Andre Vogel and Paulette Kirby were beaten by the Patagonian wilderness after three days.
Pavel Paloncy, Four Continents (AUS, Czech, USA) – Remota, Puerto Natales
Paulette Kirby, Four Continents (AUS, Czech, USA) – Remota, Puerto Natales
"We still have lots of energy and I would rather have gone further and been able to finish with everybody and maybe part of the course cut out because it wasn’t that we don’t have energy left. We would have still loved to kayak and bike and maybe got cut out of the trekking section. It’s disappointing to be out and to be missing all the rain and the lakes and the water and the wilderness."
Andre Vogel, Four Continents (AUS, Czech, USA) – Remota, Puerto Natales
"We would definitely rather be out there. We’d rather be still going and even still going if we were in a bit of a pain. We struggled to make the next checkpoints but that’s part of it. It’s hard to be here knowing there’s still five days of racing going on. It’s a big challenge. The decision to stop wasn’t made by us, that’s why it’s disappointing. The problem was our times were too slow for the cut-off times, so we weren’t making the checkpoints. We made it to checkpoint six. We were travelling quite slowly but we were safe. The navigation wasn’t a problem, but the terrain was slowing us down significantly."
Tasman Lawrie, Four Continents (AUS, Czech, USA) – Remota, Puerto Natales
"The bike and the kayak legs were perfect. We had some injuries on the bikes because of the wind gusts, but the trekking killed us a bit because we started just on dark and all the teams had navigation troubles in the trekking leg. Even Dancing Pandas, who were two hours ahead of us, they backtracked and we met up with them. There were six teams trying to get through. We were down on a river, we couldn’t get up a gorge, we couldn’t get across the hills then at 4:30am we just went to sleep because we were just going around in circles. As soon as we woke up two hours later we found a way through and just took off. It was very difficult at night, extremely difficult."
Andre Vogel, Four Continents (AUS, Czech, USA) – Remota, Puerto Natales
"Three days is a short time. We only had that time to develop ourselves. We had trouble with two river crossings, we had to use the rope and that slowed us up. We were trying to find a better way to cross because it was really strong. Then we had the big river crossing, where we had kayak assistance. A team before us capsized their kayak and were swept out to sea. Andre is a good kayaker and he swam across with no clothes then picked us up in a kayak and we did it in 30 minutes."
Andre Vogel, Four Continents (AUS, Czech, USA) – Remota, Puerto Natales
"It’s the best race I’ve ever seen, the toughest race I’ve ever seen. The last wild race. I’ll be back. I’m not sure which team we’ll have but hopefully we’ll be back next year or hopefully the following year but we’re starting to plan for it. We have to try and finish this!"
Pavel Paloncy, Four Continents (AUS, Czech, USA) – Puerto Natales – Remota, Puerto Natales
"Even though I was here for just three days of racing, I’m glad to be here. Hopefully I will be here again next year, some other year, I don’t know what year but some other year."
Course Comments PC10 - PC12 Mirador Fiordos to Rio Blanco
With teams including adidasTERREX/Prunesco, Vaucluse Adventure Evasions and Ad Natura Kailash arriving at PC10, race director Stjepan Pavicic reveals what they will be facing as they head across the mountains towards PC12…”
From PC10 down it is very easy. After they go down into the valley they have to climb up and there are three openings, like doors, but they are for two valleys, and only one is the correct one – that is the north valley.
If you go up the other one, that is a bad valley and you have much cliff and forest. You can go through, you can always go forward, but it’s not easy.If you get the right valley it’s quite easy but even then you can easily end up getting back in the wrong valley. Out of here, it is general forest, not thick. There is a small lake and you can take the shoreline.
After the lake, the PC is not on the line of the route because to go directly there you get to a very steep cliff and cannot get down. Carry on a bit and you get to Paseo de Indio, named because the native people used to cross from one sea to the other with these passes. This brings you to PC11.
The racers will have food here, and will probably rest, but once they leave they will find they have problems from the start, because it is very dense forest. I prefer not to go down the treeline, I prefer to go up over the treeline and on the mountain section, you can run. Here we went very fast, 4-5km/hr, but you have one problem. When you needto get down, all the way down is cliff, cliff, cliff.
It is complicated. When we went down, we chose the route we recommended, so we know it is quite easy – but it took a while to find. Once you are back in the trees after this, some parts are open. We searched for open parts but often you want to go one direction and the forest goes the other direction, so you take the easy way thensearch for the other way.
Eventually, you reach a beach and there are many huemul trails on the beach. We followed the huemul trails, and they are very good. We used them to cross to the next lake, and this follows quite open forest. After the lake, it is a great view of the sea and the lake, and Seno Skyring.
You cannot go straight up after the lake, it is steep, but the suggested route is shallower. After that, up high on the mountain, we went up steeply rather than low climb. All here is grass, so it is really very quick, and it is also a home for huemuls, we saw many droppings and footprints. They like eating the vegetation here.
I think that when you arrive in this area, the mountain area, you have really finished. It is really fast, just go, go, go. There is a small part of forest, and it is a complicated forest, you have to go up one tree, across another, over a small river, and you cannot see the sky, ever, but it is only two hours or so.
The area after this is very different to what we have had before. It has lots of dwarf cypress plants, which are just like grass, and you can really smell it. You can walk over this for kilometre after kilometre after kilometre.
On the way through this section we found bones of a huemul, and we think it was eaten by a puma. In Patagonia we have a lot of pumas, relatively, and in my life I think I have seen three in this area. I have only seen three huemuls here too, though, which shows how rare and endangered they are and why we are trying to help save them throughour race fundraising campaign.
This section seems like it is a very long way, and like it will never finish. When you turn north you have lots and lots and lots of small lakes and some problems with forests and it is not so fast, but once you get up onto the plateau it is really, really fast.
You have to take a very winding path around all the tiny lakes but you can easily travel at five and a half or six kilometres, even running a little bit if you still have energy. This long fast section will then take the racers right into PC12
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