A decade old, but showing no signs of calming down, Australia’s premier adventure race, The Mountain Designs GeoQuest 48hr marches on…
While the current Antarctic-style weather that’s battering Australia has many a sleet-strafed commuter consoling themselves with thoughts of epic skiing conditions when the season opens on 10 June, others – people who prefer their adventures to be properly off-piste – are looking forward to the Queen’s Birthday weekend for an entirely different reason.
Far from the madding crowds in the Southern Alps, the weekend of 10–13 June will see teams of adventure athletes battling each other as they take on a 48-hour non-stop adventure race – trekking, mountain biking and kayaking their way around a course set in the gorgeous wilds of northern NSW’s Nambucca Heads and Bellingen districts.
The Mountain Designs GeoQuest 48hr is the highlight of the Australian AR calendar, and an event that anyone who describes themselves as an adventure racer must experience. It challenges four-person teams to pit their wits against everything the wilderness can throw at them during two days of relentless racing.
This is no sprint event, it’s adventure racing in its purest form, and teams will have to dig deep as endurance, fitness, strategy and mental strength are all put to the test, as well as basic fitness.
Teams can be all male, all female or mixed, but there’s one golden rule: no one gets left behind. You must finish the race with the same team members you start it with. Each teams also needs a fifth non-racing member to act as support crew.
The names of former Mountain Designs GeoQuest winners reads like a roll call of Australian adventure racing royalty, including John Jacoby, Matt Dalziel, Tom Landon-Smith, Nigel Aylott and Alina McMaster.
This year marks the race’s tenth birthday, and a suitably killer line up of top all-terrain talent has signed up to take part. The 2011 field includes Australian’s elite AR outfits, such as double XPD winners Team Blackheart (and two time winners of the MDs GeoQuest, 2002 & 2010), team Mountain Designs (winners 2006) and Team CBD Cycles, who have Ironman and multi-sport legend Guy Andrews (in winning team 2007) in their ranks. There is also a rumour that top AR athlete Jarad Kohlar will be again chasing his elusive first win of this race – can he finally stand on the podium?
These are all serious outdoor athletes, who are at the absolute peak of preparedness as they go into the Mountain Designs GeoQuest knowing that this is the last proper adventure race to take place on Australian soil before the Adventure Racing World Championships come to Tasmania in October–November.
But the field will also include gaggles of mates, have-a-go heroes, adventure racing virgins and weekend warriors. It might be a baptism of fire for some of these people, but it’s a weekend none of them will ever forget either. And if the full course simply looks too hair-rasing, then there’s a shorter option: the Geo-Half Adventure Race, which is run at the same time as the Mountain Designs GeoQuest and retains the 48-hour cut off, but covers half the distance.
Reckon you could go the distance?
Then put your body where your mouth is. For entry information and more details, visit GeoQuest. Supporters and armchair adventures can follow teams’ progress throughout the race via the live tracking facility on the website.
