Adventure racing is typically a multidisciplinary team sport involving navigation over an unmarked wilderness course with races extending anywhere from two hours up to two weeks in length. (What Is Adventure Racing Video) Some races offer solo competition as well. The principal disciplines in adventure racing include trekking, mountain biking, and paddling although races can incorporate a multitude of other disciplines including climbing, abseiling, horse riding, skiing and white water rafting. Teams generally vary in gender mix and in size from two to five competitors, however, the premier format is considered to be mixed gender teams of four racers. There is typically no suspension of the clock during races, irrespective of length; elapsed competition time runs concurrently with real time, and competitors must choose if or when to rest.
Erik Weihenmayer is an American athlete, adventurer, author, activist and motivational speaker. He is the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on May 25, 2001. As a result of this accomplishment he was featured on the cover of Time magazine. He also completed the Seven Summits in September 2002, one of only 150 mountaineers at the time to do so, but the only climber who achieved this while blind. In 2008, he also added the Carstensz Pyramid in West Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, the tallest peak in Australasia, thus completing the alternative Seventh Summit. Weihenmayer has also made noteworthy climbs up the Nose of El Capitan in Yosemite in 1996, and ascended Losar, a 2,700-foot (820 m) vertical ice face in the Himalayas in 2008.
Chris Eatough is a British mountain bike racer who was part of the Trek Racing Cooperative team. He is a six-time 24-hour solo World Cup champion and five-time 24-hour solo National Cup champion.
Outside TV is a sports-oriented cable and satellite television network based on Outside magazine and the critically acclaimed brand. Outside TV is the only programming network dedicated to the active adventure lifestyle in the United States. The network covers running, biking, skiing, hiking, sailing, surfing, kayaking, and any other adventures involving wind, water, snow and terrain; as well as the full spectrum of the lives of those who engage in them. High-definition programs appear on the company's cable, satellite, telco and broadband providers’ sports and entertainment offerings.
Jack Osbourne: Adrenaline Junkie is a British reality television series on ITV2, series 1 focused on Jack Osbourne's globe-trekking six-month quest to get in physical and mental shape to climb the rockface of California's El Capitan mountain, the show documents Osbourne running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, following a strict exercise regimen, Muay Thai training in Thailand, and "an overall 180-degree mental make-over".
Eco-Challenge: The Expedition Race is a multi-day expedition length adventure race in which teams of four competed. It originally aired on TV from April 1995 to April 2002. Based closely on the Raid Gauloises adventure race, the broadcast of Eco-Challenge led to the popularity of the adventure racing.
The Patagonian Expedition Race is an annual endurance adventure race that takes place in the remote wilderness of Chilean Patagonia, run to help protect and raise awareness about the fragile environment in this region. Known as the 'Race to the End of the World', the 10-day event challenges co-ed international teams of four athletes in the disciplines of trekking, sea kayaking, orienteering, and mountain biking. The race takes place on a different course each year, with competitors using a map and compass to navigate through previously unknown terrain. Due to its challenging nature, it is also known as 'The Last Wild Race', and has been described as 'The World's toughest adventure race' and the ‘Dakar’ of adventure racing. The 13th edition of the race will take place from 17–30 November 2018.
Stephen Bruce Gurney is a New Zealand multisport and triathlon athlete. He has won the Coast to Coast race a record nine times.
Ellsworth Handcrafted Bicycles is a bicycle manufacturer based in San Diego, CA. Founded by Tony Ellsworth in 1991, they produced a wide range of handmade bicycles made in the U.S.A.: mountain, road, beach cruisers, BMX, and fat bikes. The brand has gone through three ownership changes since 2014, and now focus on producing high-quality mountain bikes specifically in the genres of XC, trail, and enduro. Ellsworth also produce a designer/cruiser bike known as "The Ride"
Evrard Wendenbaum is a French outdoor photographer, filmmaker, geologist and explorer.
Frontier Adventure Sports and Training (FAST) is the most establishedneeds citation adventure race organizer in Canada, in operation since 1997. Frontier Adventure Sports has established an international reputation for solid logistics and challenging racecourses. FAST hosts events under several banners: the Frontier Adventure Challenge, Raid the North and Raid the North Extreme. These non-stop races range in length from 8 hours to six days and require coed teams of three or four to hike, mountain bike, paddle and negotiate fixed ropes, while navigating an unmarked racecourse through the wilderness.
Monique Merrill is an American world champion adventure racer, ski mountaineer and marathon mountain biker. She studied at the University of Virginia.
Frank Wolf is a Canadian adventurer, writer, filmmaker, and environmentalist. He is known for books, feature magazine articles, online columns, and films that document wilderness expeditions around the world, with a focus on the Canadian North. His expeditions include being the first to canoe across Canada in one season and cycling 2,000 km in winter on the Yukon River from Dawson to Nome. In 2012 he was named one of Canada's Top Ten Adventurers by Explore Magazine, and in 2015 he was named One of Canada's Top 100 Explorers by Canadian Geographic Magazine. His first book of adventures Lines on a Map, was released in October 2018 by RMB. His films include Wild Ones, The Hand of Franklin, Kitturiaq, On the Line, Mammalian, and Borealis, all of which broadcast on CBC's Documentary Channel in Canada. He is currently sponsored by Mustang Survival, a Canadian Outdoor company, among others.
The Adventure Racing World Series (ARWS) is an endurance racing season where adventure racing teams compete in a range of disciplines including, for example, navigation, trekking, mountain biking, paddling and climbing.
Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) is a sport in which a competitor, traveling on foot, must overcome various physical challenges in the form of obstacles. Races vary from mostly obstacles such as Ninja Warrior "Ninja Races", to track races, to urban and cross country events. In cross country events, mud and trail runs are often combined and the races are designed to result in mental and physical collapse. Obstacles may include climbing over walls, carrying heavy objects, traversing bodies of water, crawling under barbed wire, and jumping through fire. Many obstacles are similar to those used in military training, while others are unique to obstacle racing and are employed throughout the course to test endurance, strength, speed, and dexterity.
Ian Adamson is a former competitive adventure racer, television professional and president of World OCR, the Fédération Internationale de Sports d’Obstacles (FISO).
Kathleen "Kathy" Lynch is a retired competitive cyclist from New Zealand who competed both on and off the road. With a talent for multiple sports disciplines, she won the canoeing events New Zealand White Water Downriver and Slalom Championships in 1987 and represented her country at the 1988 Canoe Slalom World Cup. Around the same time, she was also a successful triathlete, but did not continue with that sport. She bought her first mountain bike in 1988 at the age of 31 in order to compete in an adventure sport event, and within a year she had become the New Zealand national cross country champion. Around the same time, she also took up road cycling. She was included in the New Zealand team for the 1990 Commonwealth Games and was assigned as domestique for the top New Zealand road rider, Madonna Harris. Harris and Lynch finished in fourth and ninth places respectively. In September 1990, Lynch competed at the inaugural UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and finished tenth. In November 1990, she became a household name in New Zealand by winning a 22-day multi-sport race the length of the country that had prime time TV coverage every night.
Rebecca Rusch is an American ultra endurance pro athlete, 7x world champion, author, entrepreneur, Emmy Award winner, and motivational speaker whose career has spanned numerous adventure sports including rock climbing, expedition racing, whitewater rafting, cross-country skiing and mountain biking. Rusch was nominated to the international Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2019, owns seven World Championship titles in multiple disciplines and was a member of the US National Whitewater Rafting Team as well as several international adventure racing teams, participating in the Eco Challenge (1997–2002), Primal Quest (2002–2006) and Raid Gauloises series.
GODZone is an expedition adventure race that has been called one of the most difficult athletic events in the world. Teams of four trail run, mountain bike, kayak, and climb, all while navigating all under their own power. The race has been in existence since 2012. Each race lasts up to ten days, with winning teams completing the course in approximately four to six days. It is common for only 30% of the competing teams to finish an event. Each team is required to carry a GPS monitoring device which allows race organizers and spectators to track each team in real-time. The event is part of the Adventure Racing World Series.
