Primal Quest 2008; sleep is optional

June 23, 2008 7:04 PM

The hardest race you've never heard of:Primal Quest 2008 kicked off today in SW Montana. Using only a map and compass, teams of 4 have up to 10 days to run, kayak, mountain-bike, riverboard and climb over 500 miles of wilderness. Sleeping is not required by the rules.

Primal Quest is the World Cup of Adventure Racing, and arguably the hardest race out there.

It's not a relay; teams are required to stay within 100 meters of each other at all times, in order to be in the running for prize money teams must have at least one woman, and while there are sometimes stringent rules, if the rules don't say you can't do it, go for it.

Team dynamics are crucial, and a slow, solid team can beat a fast, squabbling team. Personality conflicts become magnified by sleep-deprivation, and it was these conflicts that led Mark Burnett to stop producing EcoChallenge and create Survivor: all the drama without the boring sweaty stuff in between fights.

Follow it live on the map or just read the blog, and take your time, they're going to be going for 10 days after all.

(Full disclosure: I'm an adventure racer and half my friends are out there right now. I'm pretty envious.

posted by dolface (18 comments total)

Darn it, I forgot to mention that total elevation gain will be over 100,000 feet (30,480m) and less than half the 56 teams who started are expected to finish the full course.
posted by dolface at 7:12 PM on June 23, 2008

I'm pretty sure I couldn't build a kayak and mountain-bike out of a map and a compass.
posted by BrotherCaine at 7:23 PM on June 23, 2008 [2 favorites]

Always enjoyed watching the EcoChallenge (Survivor is not a replacement, thank you very much) but what is this requirement to stick together? There's nothing like a bunch of teams heading off into the desert at night... only to find that the lead team has disappeared by morning.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:23 PM on June 23, 2008

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this kind of stuff. Always watched EcoChallenge. Of course I enjoy watching these hell-acious endurance races from the comfort of my armchair, remote in hand, box of double stuff oreos on one side and ice cold diet coke on the other. I wouldn't know the ass end of a kayak or a compass if my life depended on it.

I sure hope it never does!!
posted by pearlybob at 7:30 PM on June 23, 2008

Durn Bronzefist, that was a typo; team-mates are required to stay within 100m of each other.
posted by dolface at 7:31 PM on June 23, 2008

Map, compass, kayak and mountain bike? Why back in my day,
posted by jayCampbell at 7:35 PM on June 23, 2008

Never heard of, indeed. I live in Montana and this is the first I've heard of it. Thanks!
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 8:12 PM on June 23, 2008

total elevation gain will be over 100,000 feet [in 10 days]

That is not a test of endurance, it is unsound.
posted by stbalbach at 8:28 PM on June 23, 2008

I was just reading an article about two guys who were informally competing to see who could round-trip (yo-yo) the Continental Divide Trail first. This is 3100 miles each way, from the Canadian to Mexico border. It normally takes 6 months, though these guys go about double that pace, 33 miles a day. The Onion vs the other guy.

So... that's the hardest race you've never heard of.
posted by smackfu at 8:49 PM on June 23, 2008

That is not a test of endurance, it is unsound a kickass adventure.

Adventure racing is awesome. I did a one-day race last year, as a last minute replacement when a friend had to pull out of her team. I should do another one, thanks for the inspiration!
posted by jacalata at 8:53 PM on June 23, 2008

Actually The Alaska Wilderness Challenge is the hardest race you've never heard of. No route, no kayaks, no bikes, no riverboards. Last year with added wildfire!
posted by fshgrl at 9:08 PM on June 23, 2008

Ah, that makes more sense. Thanks, dolface.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 9:21 PM on June 23, 2008

Actually we heard about it in 2006. ;-)

I am glued to the tracking map and to the hundred other websites. I'm raceblogging for Team Racing With Giants on their website and I can't wait to see how they fair over the next 10 days. SO EXCITED about this event.
---
BTW, hi Galen, it's me, Randy! Nice to see you here on the blue.
posted by rlef98 at 10:53 PM on June 23, 2008

total elevation gain will be over 100,000 feet [in 10 days]

That is not a test of endurance, it is unsound.

I assume that this is the total cumulative vertical distance, if it was the net between lowest and highest point then they'd be up to four times higher than Everest.
(I'm assuming that the unsound is a reference to altitude sickness)
posted by atrazine at 3:00 AM on June 24, 2008

I'm assuming that the unsound is a reference to altitude sickness

Actually it's an oblique reference to Apocalypse Now and Kurtz who went insane in the wilderness. But it works for altitude sickness (I assumed it was total gain and not sheer drop, Everest is only 29-some thousand from the Indian Ocean). I used to hike a 1,000 foot trail in 1 mile on occasion to stay in shape and it usually kicked me pretty hard.
posted by stbalbach at 5:44 AM on June 24, 2008

Man, that's in my old stomping grounds. If they're riverboarding down the Gallatin at the base of Lone Mt, well, it isn't the roughest water in the world, but given the narrow width of the stream the rapids have a pretty high rating. I rafted them once, had a blast - but would not have wanted to do it on a board.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:07 AM on June 24, 2008

Information on previous Primal Quest races here.
posted by thinman at 8:18 AM on June 24, 2008

Those leeches that dropped from the trees and got into everyone's clothes and shoes NO MATTER WHAT YOU DID TO TRY TO KEEP THEM OUT in that one year of EcoChallenge kind of wigged me out. And I loves me some creepy-crawlies. But those goddamn blood suckers hell were really special.

Man I miss EcoChallenge. And I had no idea Primal Quest existed. Thanks!
posted by Tehanu at 9:31 AM on June 24, 2008