Salomon X-Adventure
Snowmass Village (Aspen), Colorado
July 22-23, 2000
report by Aaron Luffman 7/28/2000

The short version:

Had a great time. Finished 29th out of 48 teams. Best Mt. biking I've ever seen. We are all definitely doing this again!

The extremely extended version:

The format for the Salomon race was a bit different than most adventure races. Teams were made up of 3 racers, one alternate and one support person. Teams had to be mixed but not all legs of the race had to be ran as mixed (each team could complete a section as non-mixed 3 times). The alternate could switch with any one of the 3 racers at any of the 14 assistance points, so there was always someone getting to rest during a section. There were 16 sections made up of the standard AR disciplines of mountain biking, trekking, horseback riding, white and flat water paddling, climbing/rappelling and roller blading (alright there was that one that's not exactly a standard).

Casey, Jill and I rented a van and drove from KC to Ft. Collins after work on Wednesday. We picked up Dave, did a little last minute shopping and drove to Glenwood Springs on Thursday afternoon to try to get acclimated as quickly as possible. Friday at 2:00 was the mandatory gear and skills check in Snowmass Village, which turned out to be extremely flexible (we didn't have our mandatory gloves with us and one of our rain coats was under the weight limit of 500g). At 6:00 was a 15-minute meeting in which we received our detailed maps and "Road Books" (rules and descriptions of the sections).

At that point we begin to fully understand the format of the race. Each section had a departure window which if missed meant that that section would have to be skipped by the team and the team would be assessed the longest time for that section plus one hour. The team could also choose to voluntarily skip sections as they saw fit. This meant that in order to complete the race a team would only have to complete the first and last sections of the race, though our time would be something like 300 hours!

We drove back to Glenwood Springs to try to finish getting organized, now that we had some details about the race, and to get some sleep. At midnight we decided that we had done enough talking and were as packed and sorted as we were going to be so it was time for a short sleep. There was a prerace meeting at 5:30AM on Saturday so we got up at 3:45 and drove the 45 minutes back to Snowmass. The first leg was a 32K Mt. bike, which Jill chose to sit out. It started with a 30-minute climb to Government Trail were the technical single track started. I would compare that section to the expert sections of Landahl in difficulty but much longer in length. We started in 19th position and finished the leg in 24th or 25th.

The next leg was a short Roller Blade of 3.5K. It was a nice change of pace from sitting on the bike. Dave sat that one out.

Next was a 10.5K trekking section that took us above 12,000ft. Chad chose to sit this one out. After the first climb I was racked with a severe altitude headache. That was coupled with a river missing from the map and as a result we ended up missing the departure time for the next section, which was a rappel. We chose to skip a 36.5K Mt. bike in favor of hitting the departure time for the white water paddling in our inflatable canoe.

I chose to sit out the 19K canoe as I was still suffering from altitude sickness and the weakest paddler.

After the canoe was a short 13.5K Mt. bike all on paved trails. Dave chose to sit that one out.

At 8:40PM Dave, Jill and Chad started the 24K trekking section, which was estimated at 4-7 hours. The cutoff departure time for the next and last section of the day was 4AM, 7 hours and 20 mins from the time they started. Casey and I had time for a trip to Arby's and Dominos to grab them some warm tasty food for when they strolled into the transition area to prepare for the next event. I curled up in the van to grab some sleep before preparing the bikes for the next leg. At 4:20AM Casey and I started to get a bit worried and started bugging the checkpoint crew to see if they had any info about our team.

At 7AM Team Quest strolled into the CP looking like they couldn't move another 10 ft. We made a decision to skip the next two sections, a flat water paddle which had a last departure time of 6 AM and another orienteering which ended right were we where. Jill, Chad and Dave tried to grab a couple of hours of sleep and eat some food to prepare for the 24.5K Mt. bike that we would begin at 10:40.

We began day two in 40th pace because of all of our skipped sections (5 total).

Jill chose to sit out while Dave, Chad and I climbed for an hour in our granny gear then screamed (40mph on gravel at one point) our way down the Mt. into Aspen. The route was a nice mix of technical single track and low maintenance roads.

Next was a 3K roller blade that Chad chose to sit out. We arrived at the CP before our support did due to the route being more direct via roller blade - so we lost some time before the start of the climbing/rappelling.

The climbing event was an interesting setup. Only one member of each team had to climb a designated route (quite an easy one) if they didn't reach the top in 2 min the team took a 30 min penalty. Dave climbed it in about 1 min and Jill and I finished the rappel shortly after.

Next was a 9.5K Mt. bike mostly on paved paths and roads. Jill chose to rest during that one.

At about 4:00PM Sunday Jill, Chad and I began the last leg of the race, which was a 6K horseback ride/run/drag. Jill rode the horse while Chad and I tried to run down the trail in front of it. After being past by 3 teams using a rope setup we decided to try one of our own. We took a 30ft. piece of rope and looped it around the saddle horn. Chad and I tried to hang on while Jill trotted the horse down the trail. One twisted ankle and 40 minutes later we were sprinting across the finish line just after passing team Vail (former Eco-Challenge champs!). Team Vail finished 9th in the overall standings and about 20 hours ahead of us in race time but it sure felt good to cross the finish line ahead of them.

We made a ton of rookie errors and learned a lot but we're all ready to do another one soon!

Total distance covered by our team: 115.2 miles, 31369 feet of elevation change. Click here for the detailed results spreadsheet (693KB).

Pictured from left to right, Team Quest was Chad Rudow, Jill Leistikow, Casey Caughron (aka Support Guru!), Dave Garner and Aaron Luffman.

Click here to post a comment or question about this race.