Countdown to Raid the North Sun Peaks

Geoff Langford, President of Frontier Adventure Racing and Race Director with Raid the North’s 36 hour race format has brought his company out west for the Raid the North Sun Peaks venue.

Sun Peaks is just north of Kamloops, BC and is on the Thompson Plateau. The first Raid the North in western Canada was held out of Sun Peaks and was a memorable event with a challenging course.

Expect nothing less for this years’ Raid the North and here’s why: the race course has been set by Pat Chan, a seasoned adventure racer who grew up in the Kamloops area and now resides in PEI. Note the original Sun Peaks Raid the North in 1999 was designed by local adventure racer Chris Koch who is racing this event with team Helly Hansen. It should be an interesting race for Chris, who is virtually racing in his backyard. Pat will likely take this into account and ensure the course will challenge Chris’ local knowledge and neutralize any advantage he may have.

Geoff was able to spare a few moments while multi-tasking the myriad of administrative concerns that precede a race of this magnitude and answered a few questions:

Sleepmonsters.ca: Why Sun Peaks?

Geoff: While at the western AR Race Directors Summit in fall 2004, Chris Koch encouraged the idea of a return to the original western host site of RTN. Looking around, I realized that was a great idea. Sun Peaks was enthusiastic about the idea, and the region certainly offers great RTN potential, so we jumped at it.

Sleepmontser.ca: Who are you working with to make this race happen?

Geoff: Sun Peaks has been a great partner, especially Greg in their events department, Denise at Hearthstone Lodge, and the food and beverage people. Of course, Russ and Wendy at Valhalla Pure Outfitters have been an incredible support, rounding up the ropes people, finding boats locally, helping with all their insider knowledge of the backcountry, and more. Shop at their store, you\'ll be well taken care of.

Sleepmonsters.ca: Teams - who\'s hot and who\'s not (well, ok, your top five predictions would suffice.)

Geoff: We\'ve got some interesting combinations of teams this time out. For me, having Stu (former partner in FAR) racing on Komex Kinetics instead of on race staff will be interesting. I hesitate to make any predictions, as there are so many strong, experienced teams in the west. Perennial favorites Wild Rose will certainly be among the front of the pack, with a very solid lineup from their roster. Team Helly Hansen has recruited Spirit superstar navigator Chris Koch and will likely put the hammer down with Chris\' intimate knowledge of the area. Vinny Osbourne has entered Team BanffLodgingCo.com with some great athletes including Tom Zidek. Shane Worman\'s Team Pure is back, they won the 2004 RTN at Silver Star. Team DARTNuun is joining us again from Washington - they have a large roster to choose from, and we don\'t know yet who will be on that team, but they\'ve been showing some great results in the US this past year. One of the more interesting teams is Team SART, coming from Singapore for this race. They\'ll certainly win the prize for most distant team.

Sleepmonsters.ca: Pat Chan Course Designer - how\'s he doing with the course and what can racers expect?

Geoff: Pat has done a great job with course design. He spent his youth in the Kamloops area, and although he lives in PEI now, he\'s been racing and volunteering with us across the country for years. That experience, and his background organizing and designing the course for multisport events in PEI, has given him great perspective on putting together an excellent RTN course. He\'s tapped into local knowledge with Russ, Wendy and others, and discovered some stellar highlights, great off-trail bushwhacks which everyone loves, some fun biking, and a rappel with a twist in a beautiful spot - a nicely balanced, challenging race course.

Sleepmonsters.ca: Weather/gear - any special instructions?

Geoff: Yeah, it\'s gonna be hot, bring lots of water.

Further updates will be provided as the days count down to the start, August 4, midnight! Sleepmonsters.ca will be on site providing live coverage of the Raid the North Sun Peaks event and will give you pre-race, race and post race news and stories….stay tuned!