Raid the North:
Sun Peaks - August 4-6, 2006

RACE UPDATES

23 teams started at midnight Friday and they are now 6 hours into the race. The race started with a trek and the majority of the teams (17 total) still remain on the trek. Team 15 Banff Lodging Co dot com is in the lead and well into the bike leg. They are being followed by Team 18 Dartnuun (both through CP 4). Other teams on the bike (past CP 3 only at this point) are 25 Outdoor Pursuits, 20 Fast Trax / Salomon and 35 Wild Rose. After the bike leg teams transition to a short trek to the rappel and then rappel down to Adams Lake where they start a 37 km paddle.

The course started out by North Barrier Lake with a trek. Teams had to bushwhack and coast steer (or in this case lake steer) to CP1. Then it is uphill in the bush to CP2. From CP2 teams trek downhill over to CP3/TA1. Here they switch to bikes and begin the ride down to Adams Lake. CP 4 is part way through the bike and CP5/TA2 is the end of the bike. From CP5/TA2 they have a short trek (mainly roads) to the rappel (CP6). They then rappel down to the lake where they get in their canoes and begin a 37 km paddle. CP7/TA3 is the end of the paddle and teams switch back to biking. They now bike over towards Sun Peaks.

At CP 8 teams have a choice to take the advanced course which is more biking or regular course where they would switch to a trek. Advanced course continues bike and has unmanned CPs 8a and 8b to CP8c/TA5 where they switch to trek. From their they go up Mt Morrisey to CP9 and trek to CP10 which is only a short distance away from the finish line. For regular course they have a TA at CP8 and switch to the trek heading over to CP9 as listed previously.

Current update: Team 15 Banff Lodging Co dot com has now left CP5/TA2
and is trekking towards the rappel (as of 6:29am). Teams 18 Dartnuun
(CP4 at 5:44), 20 Fast Trax/ Salomon (CP 4 at 6:14) and 35 Wildrose (CP 4 at 6:23) are close behind. Team 25 Outdoor pursuit has also started the bike leg leaving CP3/TA1 at 5:34 am.

Team 27 Rocket Sturgeons is just approaching CP1 in the trek now (as of 6:43am) all other teams have cleared CP1.

All but 2 teams have now made it to the bike section. The lead teams are now on the paddle with team 15 Banff Lodging Co dot com still in first place. Following are teams 18 DARTnuun and 35 Wild Rose.

The teams still on the trek are team 27 Rocket Sturgeons who have now
cleared CP1 but still have not made CP2 and team 30 Stadium Dogs who
have passed CP2 and are expected into CP3/TA1 at anytime.

Raid the North Sun Peaks Race Update Saturday 11:45 am

We are now almost 12 hours into the 36 hour Raid the North race at Sun
Peaks BC and all of the 23 entered teams still remain on course. The top teams have been setting a fast pace with team #15 Banff Lodging Co dot com still leading the pack and team #18 DARTnuun close behind. Currently nine teams have passed through CP6 which is the rappel to the canoes and are somewhere on the 37 km paddle down Adams Lake. All of the teams have now completed the first trekking section which started at North Barriere Lake and was approximately 17 km (both off road and on road combined). The rest of the teams are spread-out on the first bike section climbing from East Barriere Lake up to CP4 at South Barriere Lake and then heading down to CP5/TA2 at Adams Lake or trekking from CP5/TA2 to the rappel at CP6.

Following the paddle teams will head-out on the bike again and at CP 8 teams will have to make the decision on taking the advanced option and continuing with more biking followed by a trek or selecting the regular course and completing the race with a trek. It is expected that the lead teams will opt for the advanced course and top finishing times could be close to 24 hours.

The team from farthest away, team #28 SART from Singapore is racing mid pack and is now on the over half way through the bike section. At the back of the pack is team #27 Rocket Sturgeons who had some route finding difficulties to CP1 but are now moving at a good pace.

I just heard over the radio that the top teams are finishing up the
paddle which is a good 3 hours before our time estimates! That means
that we might see some teams finishing in under 24 hours if the current pace holds. I'll keep you posted as I get more information from CP7/TA3 which is the end of the canoe paddle.

12:45 update: Two teams have just completed the paddle - team 15 started the bike (cleared CP7/TA3) at 12:15 and were followed closely by team 18 at 12:30. Teams might cross the finish line as early as 9-10 pm!!

14:00 update: Top teams are burning up the course at the 36 hour Raid the North at Sun Peaks, BC. As of 1:45 pm the top two teams had completed the paddle section and were out on the second bike section of the course. Team #15 Banff Lodging Co dot com are still in the lead having left CP7/TA3 at 12:15 pm but team #18 DARTnuun has been gaining time on them and was only 15 minutes behind. In third place at the start of the paddle was team #35 Wild Rose however they have not yet completed the paddle. Teams #20 Fast Trax/Salomon, #22 Helly Hansen, #26 Pure, #32 The Big Fish and #34 Whitelight Adventures all started the paddle within 30 minutes of each other but over an hour back of #35 Wildrose and should be arriving at CP7/TA3 in the next few hours.

Team #27 Rocket Sturgeons moved from the back of pack when they passed
team #33 Unsanctioned on the first bike section. Currently all but three teams have completed the first bike section and the majority of teams are out on Adams Lake enjoying scenic views and great paddling weather. With the current times organizers expect top teams to cross the finish line around 9-10 pm this evening and hope to see many of the teams make it through by the Sunday noon cut-off time.

15:00 update: Two teams are currently on the ropes. Three teams still have to finish the first bike. I do not have a rope time for team 25 but we do believe that they are through the ropes and on the paddle. Three teams are now off the water.

17:20 update: Lots of teams off the paddle and starting the nice 21 km uphill on the bike to CP8. Team 27 has still not reached CP5/TA2 but did radio in and they are ok just slightly navigationally challenged. They estimate their time to CP5 another 2 hours or so. Team 30 is on the rappel right now and team 33 is trekking over to the rappel. The top 2 teams have still not hit our next manned CP (CP8C/TA5). We expect an early finish based on the progress of the top 2 teams.

Wow! Raid the North winners Banff Lodging Co dot com and second place
finishers DARTnuun had an amazing race. Flying off from the start
both teams made it difficult for the race organizers to keep up with
the teams.  Throughout the race, these two teams maintained an
amazing pace. Course designer Pat Chan, arrived almost exactly at the same time as Banff Lodging Co dot com, at one checkpoint waving them into the proper place.

Team 35 wildrose just passed through TA CP8C/TA5 and is heading onto
the last trek section

Team 27 just started the rappel and teams 30 and 33 are out on the
paddle. All other teams are off the paddle and either at CP7/TA3 are
biking towards CP8.  There are 4 teams on the advanced course now (3
biking and 1 onto the trek).

21:06 update: Wild rose team 35 just called in on the radio that they passed a bear and a cub on the way to CP9. They have not yet reached CP9 but will be their shortly. That means that they should be crossing the finish line in an hour or less.

2:00 update: The top 5 teams have now crossed the finish lineMany of the teams coming into CP8/TA4 are opting for the regular course so their next CP is CP9 (they don't hit CP8C). Team 33 had a team mate experiencing hypothermia so they pulled off the paddle and went to a residence to warm their team mate up. At 1:20 am they decided to get back into the boats and complete the paddle. So all 23 teams are still in the race.

3:00 update: Team 27 is still on the paddle and needs
to hit CP7 by 0400 to continue on the course. A bunch of teams are on
their way down the mtn to the finish line.

5:11 update: I just heard on the radio that team 17 CORE has withdrawn from the course at CP8. Team 27 did not complete the paddle before 0400 and will end their race at CP7.

8:45 update: Only 4 teams left on the course. Two are expected in within the hour. Team 33 just left CP8 on the trek so it is questionable on if they will be able to finish by the noon cut-off.

Welcome to Frontier Adventure Racing's 9th season of staging Canada's most exciting wilderness adventure races!

Raid the North: Sun Peaks - August 4-6, 2006

Raid the North:
Sun Peaks - August 4-6, 2006