Indonesian Digital News Archive

The Red Bull 400 is only 400 meters in length, and yet it just might be the toughest race of that distance in the world. Competitors race up the side of a mountain in Plancia, Slovenia in a grueling test of speed, strength and endurance. But just telling you about it really doesn't do the race justice. You'll need to watch the video below to see what I'm really talking about.

My legs hurt just watching it. Brutal!

The more things change in the world of adventure racing, the more they stay the same. A decade ago a team called Seagate, led by Kiwi captain Nathan Fa'avae, dominated the sport, earning multiple world championships. With a premature retirement behind Fa'avae and a new Team Seagate are back at the top of the rankings, winning the 2012 AR World Championship at the Raid in France last week.

Fa'avae was joined by teammates Chris Forne, Sophie Hart and Trevor Voyce in claiming victory on a course that featured some of the most rugged and beautiful backcountry in all of Europe. The course featured high altitude treks, plenty of climbing, challenging mountain biking and good paddling sections. It all made for a fantastic experience for the new champs and the other teams involved.

Seagate managed to complete the course in a total time of 125 hours, 40 minutes. For those new to the sport of adventure racing, that means the competed for more than five days straight, taking only brief rests here and their. They managed to outlast defending champs Thule Adventure Team, who claimed second place with a time of 129 hours, 17 minutes. Team Silva claimed third place with a total time of 130 hours, 8 minutes. Many of the other teams were still coming across the finish line over the weekend, several days behind the winners.

That'll wrap up another great season for the AR World Series. There are still a few good races to come this year, but already teams are starting to look forward to competing in 2013, when the world championship will be held in Costa Rica.

Congratulations to the new champs and to everyone who competed in this great event.

A couple of weeks back I posted a story about Ueli Steck's latest adventure in which he climbed three peaks in the Alps and paraglided off of them in the same day. On August 18, the Swiss climber first went up the Jungfrau, glided over to the Monch, summited and the flew to the Eiger. After a quick ascent of that classic peak, he then descended by paraglader and was home for dinner later that day. The whole expedition took in the neighborhood of 14 hours to complete, which sounds like quite the epic day.

Now, our friends over at EpicTV have posted an interview with Ueli in which he goes into detail about this little project. Steck talks about the conditions necessary for this type of endeavor, saying the weather needs to not only be good for climbing but flying as well, which adds another dimension to this challenge.

Listening to Ueli is always interesting, in part he comes across like he doesn't even know that he is Superman. He's quite nonchalant about his accomplishments and that is no different here. I also happen to love his "just do it" attitude and creativity in the mountains.

Another great interview from EpicTV. Keep up the great work guys!

Ueli Steck 3 Peaks from EpicTVAdventure on Vimeo.

Well heeled travelers looking for an amazing adventure next year need look no further than the new whitewater rafting excursion from Mountain Travel Sobek. Their new Six Continent Whitewater Adventure, which was announced yesterday, promises to take travelers to the ends of the Earth to quench their thirst for adrenaline.

The 25-day, round-the-world expedition runs from May 9 through June 2 of 2013 and begins in California. The 8-12 participants on the trip will get their feet wet, literally and figuratively, with three days of rafting in the Sierra Mountains. From there they'll jet off to Ecuador for two days of rafting before proceed on to Spain to take on the Noguera Pallaresa in the high Pyrenees. Nairobi, Kenya is the next stop on the journey for three days of rafting on the Athi River, which mixes in great wildlife viewing along with Class II and III whitewater. The Tons River in India is the next stop as the lucky travelers take to the water in the Himalaya, not far from the spectacular peak Nanda Devi. Finally, the trip will wrap up on North Johnston river in Australia, one of the more remote and challenging whitewater runs on that continent.

Whew! Sounds like quite a trip and after reading the press release on it yesterday I immediately wished I were going. At $8695 (without airfare!) this is a bit pricey for my blood, but it was too good of an adventure travel opportunity to not share. And if the itinerary wasn't enticing enough on its own, co-founder of Mountain Travel Sobek John Yost, who has led plenty of river expeditions, will be the personal guide on this adventure. Sounds absolutely fantastic and I'm very jealous of those who get to go on this trip.

One of the toughest endurance races on the planet will take place this weekend with the start of the North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, which officially gets underway on Friday. The course begins and ends in Chamonix, France and crosses into Switzerland, as it covers 168km (104 miles), of tough mountain terrain, completely circumnavigating around Mont Blanc in the process. Oh, and it also happens to feature 9600 meters (31,496 ft) of ascent too.

This year, for the first time ever, the event will be broadcast live on the web. Considering the coverage kicks off tomorrow and runs for 84 hours straight, that's an impressive feat of endurance as well. The live broadcasts start Thursday, August 30 at 06:00 local time and will continue with 15-minute news briefs through Sunday, September 2.

At the start of the event, more than 6000 runners from 73 countries will take the line. How many of them actually finish remains to be seen. This is one of the largest and most difficult tests of endurance on the planet and isn't for the faint of heart. We'll probably get to witness some of the suffering first hand on these live broadcasts over the next few days.

Good luck to all the runners!



The North Face® Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc® by UltraTrailMontBlanc

The Eiger just might be the most iconic climbing face in all of Europe. Located in the Bernese Alps of Switzerland, it is an intimidating 3970 meters (13,025 ft) in height and has been challenging the world's best climbers for more than 150 years. The BBC made an interesting documentary on the beast and you can watch the entire thing on YouTube. The video is below, so pop some popcorn, get comfortable and find out why this is one of the toughest and most well known climbs in all the world.

We're kicking off a new week with another snowboarding video from Xavier de Le Rue, who returns to the Alps for the final video of the season from his TimeLine series. Xavier and friends wanted to cap the year in style, so they took on some impressive slopes in Europe before taking the summer off. This is a beautiful way to end what has been an impressive strong of great snowboard outings this past winter. Enjoy!

Two Belgian adventurers are in the final stages of planning a canoe and hiking expedition to the remote Inari Lake, located in Finland. The journey, which is set to begin in September, will be three weeks in length and looks to put a heavy emphasis on exploration of the region. The duo hopes to make a complete circumnavigation of the lake, provided the weather allows, spending plenty of time on and off the water.

Bert Poffé and Dirk Michiels will travel on foot and by canoe as they not only paddle the shores of Inari but also trek through the wilderness that surrounds it. The lake, which is the third largest in Finland, falls above the Arctic Circle in the northernmost region of Lapland. Covering 1040 square kilometers (646 sq. miles), Inari has more than 3000 islands sprinkled across its waters, while a wild and untamed wilderness lines its banks.

Refreshingly enough, Bert and Dirk say that they won't be chasing any speed records or racing from point to point on a map. They intend to explore the region as much as they can and that means making slow, deliberate progress. It is their hope that by taking this approach they can genuinely get to know the lake and all of its hidden corners.

In preparation for their expedition they've launched a blog that provides much more information on Inari Lake and the region they'll be visiting. Hopefully they'll also be updating that blog as they travel to keep us not only informed of their progress but share what ever they discover there.

Personally I love these small, grassroots adventures that send adventurous men and women off on excursions to remote areas. These two men sound like they have the hearts of explorers past and visiting remote Lapland should be an amazing experience.

Personally, I haven't quite figured out the appeal of highlining,or slacklining, just yet. It seems like a crazy pursuit to me, although I must admit I do get a nice sense of tension out of watching these videos. The one below was filmed over the Verdon Gorge in the south of France, which is actually 700 meters (2296 feet) deep. It looks spectacular, but I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy taking in the view from the top of the mountain with my feet on solid ground.