Adventure Beat

The Teva Mountain Games concluded on Sunday, June 4, capping five days of climbing, kayaking, freestyle and cross-country mountain biking, adventure racing and running. Lindsay Yaw wraps it up.

VAIL, Colo. — It's 4 a.m. here at the Teva Mountain Games, time for the GNC Adventure Sprint Championship to begin. The race combines mountaineering, mountain biking, rappelling, kayaking, in-line skating and trail running, making it a great way to see the Rockies if you've got the lungs for it.

Most adventure races send athletes on practically impossible courses through jungles, down rivers and over seemingly unnavigable land. The typical race lasts several sleepless days. But  this race is more of a sprint, with three-person coed teams cranking up the volume to the max over a shorter course.

Starting before dawn, competitors raced up the north side of the valley to the top of Bald Mountain and back to town before mountain biking up a steep dirt fire road to the summit of Vail's ski mountain. From there, racers navigated through the muddy and snowy back country using maps and compasses, then rappelled 160 feet down into the town of Minturn, where they hopped into hard-shell or inflatable kayaks ("duckies") to float down a two mile stretch of the Eagle River. The last leg was a 7.5-mile in-line skate back to Vail.

"This length of course is really tough because it's long enough where you have to pace yourself and pay close attention to fueling, but short enough where you know you can push way harder than in other races," said Adam Chase, veteran adventure racer and captain of Team Teva.

Race organizers were anticipating the top teams to roll into town in roughly eight hours, but the course proved unexpectedly demanding. The defending champions from Team Nike, Mike Kloser and teammates Sari Anderson and Richard Ussher, finished with a winning time of 10. "We were 30 minutes off the leaders early on, but gained back most of that time on the mountain bike leg," said Mike. Teams GoLite/Timberland II and I, respectively, filled out the winners' podium.

Mountain biking dirtfest

Mud, blood, and dirt were the name of the game for both the Cross Country and Freeride Big Air mountain bike competitions. Cross Country riders jump started the rugged sweatathon under scorching skies with two miles straight up a Vail Mountain fire road.

"The road separated the strong from the weak right off the bat," said Brian Fuentes, a 29-year-old professional cyclist from Boulder, Colo., who moonlights as an ultra-green straw bale architect. Between lung-clearing coughs at the finish, he points to a bloody network of open wounds on his left thigh. "The fire road turned to rutty, rooty singletrack where I tried to pass someone. I hit a camouflaged log and it took me down hard and sent me sliding down the ski hill, head first on my back," said the ninth-place finisher.

He wasn't the only one. As riders came through the finish line, looks of despair swept across their dust-caked faces. Not only was the course technically grueling, but the competition was even more punishing. "This race attracted some of the most serious racers in the country," said fifth-place finisher Judy Freeman, who rides out of Boulder, Colo., for the Cannondale team.

Judy's teammate, Becca Blay, of Basalt, Colo., agreed. "That was brutal," she said with a shake of her head.

Cross Country's rebellious brethren, the Big Air freeriders, gave spectators something to marvel at later in the afternoon as they soared sky high doing tricks, spins and flips. Using steep wooden ramps for a launching pad, pro riders like 21-year old Dylan Korba sprinted down a 100-foot long dirt runway then blasted up almost thirty feet in the air in an impressive display of skill and daring. "You have to plan out your tricks before you go," said Dylan. "It's all calculated risk, but if you get off balance, you have to use your cat-like reflexes or you'll go down pretty hard."

The Big Air competition was emblematic of what the Teva Mountain Games stand for, Dylan said. "It's like one big jam session for us instead of straight competition, which gets us pumped to do things we usually never do on the bike. This sport is so accessible, and this event really gets people fired up to get outside and give it a try."

Fuel for the fire within

Dylan's sentiment was shared by most of the athletes and spectators I bumped into during the five sun-drenched days at the games. Over the past five years, these events in Vail have become a breeding ground for outdoor adventurers of every stripe — climbers, mountain bikers, trail runners, river runners and many more. And as I witnessed first hand this week, the Games' ability to plant the seeds for future generations to pioneer the world outside is truly remarkable.

This year, the Games set the benchmark high as the world's best athletes came together to feed the fire of camaraderie, exploration, and inspiration. It's what gets me out of bed each morning, what fuels my days and my urge to experience more outside, and I can't wait to come back next year to feel the energy once again.

If you missed anything from our coverage of the Teva Mountain Games, you'll find an index page here, or view all Adventure Beat articles here. Let us know what you think of this sort of coverage by adding a comment below, and be sure to keep up with our monthly expeditions on Richard Bangs Adventures.

Next: Daily updates: Expedition Australia

Previous: Day 4: Power of the pull on rock, ramp and river

• Email Story
• Printable View

RECOMMEND THIS STORY

Recommend It:

Not at All Somewhat Moderately Highly Very Highly

Average (Not Rated)

» Recommended Stories