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Örnsköldsvik, 23 January 2006 |
| Now we are facing a new exciting adventure racing year, and the preparation for the AR World
Championship 2006, is going really good.
View website |
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ARWorld Series Dates to be Announced |
| The dates and events in the ARWorld Series 2006 will be announced on the new arworldseries.com website shortly |
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All Teams Home in 2005 Adventure Racing World Championship |
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All teams in the 2005 Adventure Racing World Championship have arrived home although some a little later than others.
Cross Sportswear crossed the finish at 6.47pm and Sierra International at 7.58pm last night.But the Kiwi team Orion Adventure did not arrive out of the bush at TA 10 until this morning at 8.15am. They missed the after party function and are all in good spirits! |
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Merrell finish |
| Merrell Wigwam have made it to Tauranga Bay in sixth place. |
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Fourth and fifth are in |
| Port Nelson has finished the race in fourth at 4.21pm 22 minutes ahead of Swedish team Halti who came in fifth. |
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| View News in Brief Archive |
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07-Sep-2010 01:47:50 |
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Merrell Switchback Boot Test |
| 24-Oct-2005 10:05:08 |
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Finally after 3 year of Southern Traverse checkouts my old pair of Merrell's have been consigned to gardening duties and I arrived in Westport with new boots for a checkout in April. Not yet put on the feet, but the Swtchbacks looked close to ideal. Of course in the old days we would have wanted about a week of walking around the house in new boot to slowly break our feet into them, but not nowdays.
The first day out was short one - expected to be home by lunch but at 0100 the next morning I'm still in my new boots (perhaps not quite so new anymore). I'm showing signs of wear but the boots are not - although we had been pounding up a steep West Coast stream bed, and then descended steeply down a water logged track.
So out the following day - a short 4 hr bike, and then time to get packed for a overnight hut stay (up high) and then a ridge long walk, and this time we are expecting a big day out.
The climb to the hut went well and a early start the next morning led us along sharp ridge tops on very abrasive rocks (I needed leather on my hands as well as on my feet)
I can't actually say yet where we were but this area is well known for it's abrasive country, and that's not only on the footwear but also the mind. We had aspirations to travel some considerable distance along the tops. By lunch we had refined that considerably - like in half, and by nightfall (when we had really expected to be tucked at at home) we had only got half that far.
By late afternoon the strap on the gators got torn apart by the rocks, the weather thank god was cloudy only and not west coast rain.
At one stage we had to cross underneath 'such and such' Peak and the edge of the boots came into their own. (I can't understand how the other guys could do it wearing their little Raid shoes)
I gave up wearing lightweight shoes some considerable time ago after suffering badly with underfoot bruising in Eco Aust, and now all the checkout people (at least that come back more than once) wear much heavier footwear.
Nightfall - a tent fly for shelter and we fell asleep to the rare sound of Kiwis in the wild.
After dawn a short descent, once we found the track bought us back to a road head and out.
We spent the best part of the next two weeks repeating the exercise in different areas as we laid out the course for the Adventure Racing World Championship.
I survived and so did the boots. What do they need now - a little Dubin is all (or such like) and another few weeks of trashing in the hills. They look like they go forever.
Geoff Hunt
Southern Traverse and ARWChampionship course checker and race director |
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