Category: kayaking

Just added 20 new pics from our sprawling Adventure Sports Week event in Idaho.

see more on flickr

The Crux and The Crucible Adventure Race starts tomorrow early. Teams hope to finish each of the next 2 days within 14hrs.

Hints from event organizer David Adlard lead us to understand it’s going to be a difficult, particularly grueling course. Best strategy might be to go for only the mandatory check points, and finish safely within regulation time.

Me?

… I’ll be a comfortable volunteer, cheering on the serious athletes.

… On Saturday, at Idaho’s Farragut State Park, the second phase of the inaugural Adventure Sports Week will kick off with adventure races for athletes of many calibers. Some of the sport’s top athletes will be there, including five-time world champion Mike Kloser and two-time world champion Danelle Ballengee, who made national news in 2006 when she fell during a Utah trail run and might have died if her dog hadn’t gone for help.

But the weekend is designed to offer something to everyone. Short-course adventure races are available to amateur athletes interested in sampling the sport, said Todd Jackson, one of the co-founders.

“All you need is yourself and a partner and a mountain bike. …

Seattle Times – World-class adventure racers to compete in Idaho

My big AR event is right around the corner – Adventure Sports Week. Contact me if you can come down with me.

May 24, 2009

For Immediate Release…

Danelle Ballangee is scheduled to compete in the “Crux and the Crucible” at Adventure Sports Week 2009!

Adventure Sports Week is a 10 day long festival of 24 outdoor races, contests, clinics and social events taking place at Farragut State Park, 30 miles north of Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, June 5—14, 2009.

One of the racing world’s greatest stars and most inspirational stories is coming to compete at Adventure Sports Week in Coeur d’ Alene, June 12—14.

Danelle Ballangee is perhaps the World’s most decorated female Adventure Racer, having won Primal Quest, the Raid, the Adventure Racing World Championships, as well as dozens of other equally impressive competitions. She has also been named “US Athlete of the Year” an unprecedented six times in four different sports.

Despite her impressive resume, it was an unlikely slip that has Danelle—Nellie—to national prominence.

In December of 2006, while on a routine training run with her dog Taz, she slipped on some black ice and fell nearly 60 feet down the cliffs at Hurrah Pass, Utah, near Moab, breaking her pelvis completely in half, and leaving her bleeding internally and unable to walk. She managed to crawl over a quarter of a mile to a puddle where she could drink, and she spent over 50 hours in sub- freezing temperatures as her dog tried to keep her warm. On the third day, Taz left her, eventually making his way to the trailhead, where he was seen by the search and rescue team, who followed him back to Danelle.

After major surgery, where she received a titanium plate to hold her pelvis together, she was in a wheelchair for several months, and doctors speculated she would be unable to walk for as long as a year.

As a tribute to her strength and tenacity, Danelle competed in a solo 12 hour adven- ture race less than 6 months after her fall, finishing as top female.

Danelle will be competing at ASW representing Project Athena— http://www.projectathena.org – whose mission is to help women with breast cancer and other medical traumatic setbacks live their athletic and adventurous dreams by providing coaching, equipment, travel, entry fees and encouragement.

She will also be teaching part of the Adventure Racing Clinic, along with other super- stars such as Mike Kloser, captain of Team Nike, and AR World Champion.

source – Mind Over Mountain