Extreme Indeed

Its been pretty much a day since we crossed the finish line yesterday and I am plum tuckered! This race was the toughest I've ever done and was beyond any of my imaginations. I still can't believe the stuff we went through just to finish...but we did. We were categorized as unranked because we had to be rescued by the Canadian Coast Guard after we got turned around, ran out of food, were running out of water, and were high up in the snow-topped mountains with socked-in conditions. Thankfully, Geoff let us a several teams go on, unranked, to finish the course.

I don't think I have the time or energy to do a full race report right now, but I want to lay out the course so that I will remember later on:

Sunday, Prologue: Rode bikes to Ferry and ferried to Haida Gwai Islands (Queen Charlotte Islands). Set up multiple gear bins, attended Haida Gwai welcome ceremony, prepared for race.

Monday, Race Start: Paddle to Trek Transition
CP1 to CP2: Trek up to mountain peak (3500ft)
CP2 to CP3: Trek to Bike Transition

Tuesday, STOPPED: Rescue by Coast Guard and returned to Haida Gwaii Center

Wednesday, CP11 to CP12: Restart. Paddle to Trek Transition
CP12 to CP13: Trek to Peak of Mt. Moresby (3820 ft)
CP13 to CP14: Trek to Bike Transition
CP14 to CP18: Bike/Hike a Bike to CP

Thursday, CP18 to CP17: Bike to CP
CP17 to CP19: Bike to CP
CP19 to CP16: Bike/Bikewhack to CP
CP16 to CP15: Bike/Bikewhack to CP. Not found
CP15 to CP20: Bike to Paddle Transition
CP20 to CP21: Paddle to End of Haida Gwaii Stage

Friday, CP22 to CP23: Start Prince Rupert Stage. Trek to Paddle Transition
CP23 to CP24: Paddle/Portage/Boatwhack/Paddle to Bike Transition (carried 60lb boat on back)

Saturday, CP24 to CP25: Bike to Paddle Transition
CP25 to CP26: Paddle/Portage to Trek Transition
CP26 to CP27: Trek to Peak of Mt. Hayes (2100ft)
CP27 to Finish: Trek to Finish

That's the outline. You'll have to wait for the final draft!

ADDITION: you can do a search on "RTNX" in this blog to find all entries related to the race, including my multi-part race report.


*special thanks go out in advance to all the RTNX photographers. No credits are provided on the RTNX website, so I can't thank them all individually. You can see all the originals using the Gallery link.