Primal Quest day 8: The finish

June 30, 2008 12:43pm

MOAT finishes Primal Quest Montana greeted by family, friends, the press and Don Mann. The team covered more than 512 miles in less than 8 days despite three injuries and the wrong sized shoe. Leslie Reuter suffered from tendinitis, Shaun Bain had a severely bruised upper thigh from hitting a rock while river boarding, and Nathan Winkelmann had Iliotibial Band Friction Syndrom, a painful knee injury that was aggravated by the motion of pedaling. All have blisters, cuts and bruises. Despite this MOAT finished 5th against some of the best teams in the world. Congratulations!


Dave Boyd is interviewed just after crossing the finish line.
Nathan Winkelmann looks on with Don Mann and friends reflected in his sunglasses. The team recounted stories from the trail to Don and the press.
MOAT poses for a team picture with JP and Sydney, the two most important members of the support crew. Leslie's children where present for the duration of the race, and I have to say were the most helpful, best behaved kids anyone could hope for. They deserve special honors, as well as the rest of the support crew: Rick Sanders, Noel Reuter and Larry Winkelmann. It took everyone to make this the success that it was.

Footnote:
I will be conducting interviews with the team over the next few days and the trip home. I'm hoping to put together an audio slide show with some of the best images from the race. Look for it in the very near future. Thanks.
-Glennon

Primal Quest day 5: The Bridger Range

06.27.08

On day 5, I intended to set out with the team to follow Team MOAT on the traverse of the Bridger Range. I'll just say that I'm an experienced backpacker with MANY miles of back country travel logged in both the US and Canada. I was as prepared as any human being could be, and this is what I came to Montana to shoot. I spent considerable time prepping my gear. I would only carry one camera, the Canon 5D, and two lenses, a 16-35mm and a 70-200mm. The rest of my pack was loaded with provisions and safety gear for a night in the wilderness, including a 15 degree bag and bivy, headlamp, food and water, etc. I did not expect to be able to keep up with the team for the duration of the trek, but rather just enough to get the photos. I was ready. There was some controversy about how I would hook back up with the RV and the support crew. I basically said don't worry about it. I'll get a ride into Boseman and rent a car for myself.

At the moment of truth, when my boots were about to hit the trail, the team vetoed my tagging along. I was not only disappointed, but heartbroken. As for the reasons, Dave explained that I could be perceived as assisting the team, which would result in a disqualification. This was a risk he could not take. I suspected that this was an excuse to not have to take responsibility if something went wrong, or to protect me from myself. Who knows? I had no choice but to honor his request.

Needlesstosay, my moral was at a low.

Primal Quest Day 4

06.26.08

The team had dropped their bikes at another unassisted TA for an extended trek through the Crazy Mountains, or the Crazy Woman Mountains, or 'The Crazies' if you are a local. Apparently it is named after a woman who went insane and lived somewhere in the mountains after her family was killed in the western settlement movement. The Crazy Woman Mountains is the English version of a Crow Indian name. It is unclear to me from the Wiki article whether the woman was a Crow Indian or a settler.

I hung around the RV most of the day. I had no way of knowing exactly where the team was going to pop out of the woods, and I was getting a little distressed at all of the waiting around. Around sunset the team rolls in with grins on their faces. Dave Boyd has a hole in his shoe. Dave's own size 14 and Nathan's size 11.5 had been placed in his pack for pickup at the unassisted TA, and he had no choice but to make it work for the extended trek through The Crazies. He had to cut a hole in tip and remove the insole so that his foot fit, and luckily it did. The shoes themselves were identical in every way, expect for the size. Looking at the shoes on Dave's feet there was an obvious difference, but when they were placed in the pack it was not so clear. It is also unclear who was responsible - it could have been any one of the three of us. Because I had been providing assistance, generally handing things to people when asked or microwaving things - all seemingly trivial tasks - I did not feel that my actions had significant consequences. This was clearly not the case. MOAT and all the other teams racing Primal Quest teams are only as good as their support. Support crews are critical, rate limiting, equally important as the racers themselves.

Dave did not seem bothered by the incident. He even said, seriously or sarcastically, that the smaller shoe was lighter and it felt good - the only harm done was ruining the shoe. Obviously this could have been a disaster. From this moment forward I did not provide any direct support and focused solely on photography. However, because of my lack of autonomy, opportunities were far and few between....frustration levels were starting to build.

........

Footnote:

Yesterday, or maybe it was the day before, while riding with Rick to the next TA I saw a little bird attacking a hawk. I watched it for a while out of window of the SUV. I turned to him and described what I saw. Without saying a word he reached over and flipped down my visor so that I was looking at myself in the mirror. This pretty much sums up our relationship. I can blame this friction on lack of sleep, but most likely even in the best of circumstances our personality types are not terribly compatible. To make matters worse there was a conflict of interest between me and the support crew. My goal was to get images of the team, especially action photos, where the crew was entirely focused on providing support. This included transporting critical gear, feeding and providing a comfortable place for the team to sleep and helping with strategy decisions. Obviously there was a hierarchy of priorities. However, I was supposed to have had access to a vehicle in order to be able to work independently and to prevent any conflicts of interest - this was not made available to me. The second vehicle instead was solely an additional support vehicle. To make a long story short without going into too much detail, I felt very limited in my abilities to follow the team.

Primal Quest Day 4: Dealing with pain.

Just before midnight the team rolled into the TA. This would have been the end of the kayak on the Yellowstone but it was canceled due to high waters full of debris. Huge trees were drifting by at surprising speed in the current. It was dangerous for anyone to be on the water. The big joke is that the race is turning into a duathlon. At this point it is pretty much just biking and trekking. But biking is good for MOAT. It plays to their strengths.

The medics at Primal Quest are top notch. AJ Johnson, an active military doctor with tour in Iraq and Afghanistan under his belt, took a look at Nathan's knee and diagnosed his injury. Wink suffered ITB Syndrome, or Iliotibial Band Friction Syndrom, for all you medical professionals out there. Any other doctor would have probably said, stop doing what is injuring you. Stop paddling, riding, trekking - racing. But this is Primal Quest and dealing with pain is definitely part of game. Almost all of the teams that I have seen have at least one member with an injury. Most are limping around.

Johnson injected the site of inflammation on Nathan's knee with lidocaine and sent him on his way. This was to relieve the pain for about three hours, enough to get him through the next twenty or so miles of biking to the trek. The repetitive motion of pedaling was particularly painful, and it is the kind of motion that can't be adjusted to relieve the pain. At least on the trek he could change his gate to relieve the stress on the IT Band. Nathan was a trooper and was the first one ready to leave the TA. Despite this injury, MOAT's biking edge did not seem to be noticeably dulled.

Primal Quest Day 3

06.25.08
We waited at the transition area on the banks of the Yellowstone River wondering how MOAT survived through a night of lighting storms and rain. Bikes and food were dropped at an unassisted TA. In the morning Rick Sanders and I drove back toward the bike drop to find MOAT so that I could get some bike photos. We were also worried about Shaun's condition because he had injured his right leg during the river boarding the day before and no one was truly aware of how serious it was. The all night trekking could have pushed their limits too far with an injured team-mate.

We made it all the way back to the bike drop and waited for a bit. We got excited when we saw who we thought was MOAT in the distance. At that point one of the TA officials said that the team would be DQ'ed if we were there when the team arrived. Why? Because we were giving them moral support. What BS! We didn't argue and left immediately.

We cruised down the road and I had Rick drop me off to snap a few photos as they made their way down the dirt road. As it turns out the team was not MOAT.


Rick got a call from Noel Reuter, Leslie's husband, letting him know that MOAT had reached the bike drop. We were somewhere near the town of Emigrant eating hamburgers. Rick wasn't comfortable with going back after the TA official's reaction, so I got no shots of MOAT on the bike until they were at the TA next to the Yellowstone.


The paddle on the Yellowstone was canceled due to high waters and it was replaced with additional mountain biking. This was good for MOAT, who are very strong on the bike.

Shaun was hurting, as we expected. But he was able to tough it out.


Noel had picked up some buffalo burgers and the team got some well deserved hot food before heading out on another long bike leg.

Primal Quest day 2 continued: It's all about the feet.

It pays to be efficient. Leslie Reuter relaxes and examines maps. She was ALWAYS the first member of Team MOAT ready to go.


It's all about the feet.
Members of Team MOAT are luck to have Dave Boyd, MD. He keeps the team's feet in race ready condition.



Dave Boyd chows down

Primal Quest day 2: An epic day on the water

The next TA was a beautiful site along the Gallatin River. The transition area was a dark zone, meaning racers could not embark on the paddle after dark. This was for safety reasons. It is hard enough to see in the dark, let alone rescue a drowning paddler. It was near midnight when Team Nike arrived, and they were instantly swarmed by the press and fans. The other teams straggled in throughout the night. No teams were able to leave on the paddle on day 1. The river was open again at ~5am, and teams that arrived earlier got more sleep than their slower counterparts, meaning they were better prepared for battling the swollen Gallatin.

5:15 am. MOAT is already in dry suits topping off their 'rubber duckies.'

Leslie Reuter and Shaun Bain pilot their ducky through class 4 rapids. What you are not seeing is MOAT's other half, Nathan Winkelmann and Dave Boyd, capsize just out of frame.

Dave had burped most of the air out of his dry suit right before getting underway to make it more comfortable, and this gave him dangerously poor buoyancy in the raging water.

Nathan clings to the boat with Dave somewhere behind.



The two managed to get back in the ducky and stay in the fight. At the next TA MOAT transitioned to river boards for the white water swim.
All agreed that this portion of the race was more like an adventure vacation. Don't believe me, just look at Nathan's face!
Leslie Reuter catches air.

A photographer captures an image of Leslie Reuter as she exits from river boarding.
Leslie and Nathan walk down the road to get ready for a long leg of mountain trekking.

Primal Quest day 1

Day 1:

The start of the race. A thick fog covered Lone Mountain at 9am, obscuring Lone Peak from view. At 11,166 feet, it is the tallest peak in the panorama, and on top are the first checkpoints of Primal Quest Montana. My Texas legs and lungs were not quite ready for the climb. There are more than 3500 feet between the start at Big Sky Mountain Village (~7500 feet) and the summit. My goal was to station myself just below the first check point, and well above the snowline, to get shots of the racers ascending. I hiked directly up the head walls of a ski slope along the Swift Current lift. When my legs started post-holing in the snow I donned snowshoes and continued up the mountain. Nothing about what I was doing was graceful. It was only the second time ever wearing snowshoes plus I was sucking wind bad. I kept reminding myself, I’m a photographer not a racer, but no one was going to delay the start so that I could get into position. I pressed on.

At a little past 10 AM the race started with a blast, literally. 25lbs of explosives wear detonated near the top of the mountain close to my position. It felt and sounded like it was right on top of me. That was my cue to station myself and wait. I focused down the mountain anticipating a herd of racers in blue jerseys to come charging up the slope to me. The fog was burning off and a coyote scampered across a nearby ridge line. Forty-five minutes after the start of Primal Quest Montana, I was alone. I call down to the support crew and question my route– they should have been here by now. I walk about 25 yards farther up the slope, up to where it is so steep that it is more climbing than walking, and there is an endless stream of racers as far as I can see just on the other side of a snow bank that looks impossible to cross. They came up behind where I was positioned…MOAT was just slightly above me.



Dave Boyd called out to me and I captured a couple photos before they powered on up and entered a field of talus.



I noticed that none of them had on their snow shoes, but I did, and they were acting like greased up skis on the steep slope. Any slip and I would have unintentionally glissaded all the way down the mountain, eating a few trees on the way down. It was very difficult to stay in position let alone make forward progress, especially with cameras dangling around my neck. I crawled, no swam, through the snow to the trail the racers were on, but by that time MOAT was out of sight.

I did get a few shots of another Texas team, the Werewolves of Austin (and Houston), with Ashley Edwards leading the way.

I also got a couple shots of Team HART.

I hiked back down and caught up with MOAT at the transition area.

The transition was fast, one of the fastest of the race, and I tried to keep up with them to get a few more shots before MOAT disappeared into the wilderness. JP, Leslie's son, ran along with me. My tank was empty long before his was and it was all I could do to keep him from following them...

Primal Quest photos

I've been trying to upload images for several days with no luck...I'm spoiled with a fast internet connection back in Austin. Here are the photos that I have been able to throw into an album. When I return to Texas I'll upload the rest with captions. For now, enjoy these...

Plotting points

Sunday 06.22.08

The race is tomorrow. Today, all the Primal Quest teams met and Don Mann described what they all got themselves into. A Google map flyover of the entire course was shown while dramatic music played. The room cheered when the course would find its way onto the summit of some ominous distant mountain peak or snake its way along a ridgeline. Team captains picked up their maps and booklet of check points and guidelines and were sent off to plot the locations of the check points.

The hotel room is a well oiled machine. While the team works at plotting and strategizing, the support crew is also busy. If it were not for them, the race would not be possible. Leslie’s husband Noel sews patches onto MOAT’s Primal Quest jerseys while their kids played quietly on the computer. Rick Sanders takes notes to prepare for the road ahead – getting the RV and critical gear to each transition area. I take pictures and blog, but otherwise try to stay out of the way. I’ve also been responsible for sending out e-mails and updating forums…Hopefully a lot of folks are following MOAT’s adventure!

As for photography, Primal Quest is officially NOT helping the press outside of Will Ramos’s photography team and the TV crew. This is for liability reasons. They can’t send me off to where the ‘good shots’ are because they could be sending me to my death. That means that I can get directions to the transition areas only, and I will not be given transportation. So if I want to get to the summit of a mountain, I’ll have to snowshoe up there while the official photogs will get a snow mobile ride. I’ll do my best and we’ll see what happens.

The unfortunate side-effect of being in the field is that internet access will be sporadic at best. Posts may be shorter, but I’ll try to keep the pictures coming.

The big show starts tomorrow at 10am, so wish us all luck!

Team MOAT hard at work plotting points.
The Primal Quest race course consists of 33 checkpoints spanning 500+ miles and over 100, 000 ft of elevation gain.
Noel Reuter sews the team and sponsor's patches on their jerseys.

Rick Sanders takes notes as the team discusses routes. He will be responsible for transporting critical equipment to transition areas requiring hundreds of miles of driving.

Skills tests and Moose Drool

Saturday 6.21.08

Life in an RV is kind of like living on a submarine: cramped, stinky and full of dudes. No one took a shower until arrival at the Big Sky Resort . It was nice to get all cleaned up and to finally get a good night sleep after all of the driving.

Everyone woke up refreshed and the mission for the team was to get the various skills tests out of the way. The first of which was a swim using body boards and fins. The water tests were performed in a small lake by the hotel that is fed from snow melt. The water was COLD. MOAT donned dry suits for all of the water activities, struggling to put on unfamiliar gear for the first time. After a lot of grunts and groans, MOAT headed down to the water. They were made to swim across the lake and back, and then float in the water for a few minutes. The swim was followed by paddle tests in both high-side (white water boats) and Necky kayaks. They had to turn the boat 360 degrees left then right, then flip the boat in the cold water and re-enter. In the Necky Kayak they had to perform both a self and t-rescue.

Lines were starting to form for the other skills tests including: climbing, mountain biking and gear checks, plus a medical check. The team broke off to get these knocked out, and I went to the airport in Bozeman to pick up Noel Reuter, Leslie’s husband. Noel Reuter and Rick Sanders are providing support for MOAT during the race.

The highlight of the day was a bike trip to Half Moon Saloon for dinner. This was intended to be a relaxing fun ride, not a training ride by any means. I hit many firsts on the way down the mountain to the Restaurant. I have never been winded on a downhill before. I have never maxed out my gears, never understood what drafting feels like, and I have never hit 50 miles an hour on a mountain bike. Ok, it was actually 47.8mph (77kph), but that’s damn fast! I pedaled my True Fabrications 29’er as hard as I could to keep up with MOAT, who didn’t even seem to be pedaling. As soon as I fell off of Leslie’s wheel, a major gap formed that I had a hard time closing. Dave was telling me later that it was all about the tires – my big knobbies were no match for their low rolling resistance treads on the descent. As soon as the ground leveled, they pulled away. Nathan dropped back and towed me up with a bungee attached to my stem. He pulled me with such force and acceleration that it was like I had just added an invisible motor to my bike. I caught back up and we hit some sweet and way too short single-track while it lasted.

Dinner was ok – the view was just terrible, sitting out on this patio deck with the raging Gallatin River in the foreground, mountains in the background – just awful!. Everyone was carb loading ordering pasta with chicken on top, and a few of us had ‘Moose Drool’, a dark beer a bit lighter than a Guinness. Very tasty.

After Dinner Dave, Nathan and I rode off in search of more single-track, but discovered that it ended shortly after we picked it up on the way down. Noel had driven the van to meet us, and he shuttled us all back up the mountain (Thankfully – I don’t think I had that climb in me!).

On the way up we had been passed by several exotic cars with “bullrun.com” on the back. Bull Run is a rally race from Calgary to Arizona, and there was a check point at our hotel. Apparently a female team had been arrested going 130mph, and we did see a cop parked on the side of the mountain. It was entertaining, and we heard loud engines racing up the mountain late into the night. Hopefully everyone slept well.