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Sea to Sky racers survive scorching Primal Quest

Mind Over Mountain among late finishers, while Team DART-Nuun pulls out
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Jen Segger and TEam DART-nunn survived runaway horses, 45-degree heat and food shortages to finish 41st at Primal Quest in Utah June 24-July2. Photo submitted

With temperatures hovering over 40 Celsius during the day the 2006 Primal Quest adventure race in Utah turned into a nightmare for several teams that lost members to heat stroke, dehydration and exhaustion.

One of those affected affected teams, Team DART-nuun, included Sea to Sky athlete Jen Segger.

Midway through their fourth day of racing, team member Ryan VanGorder came down with severe heat stroke, and was evacuated to a Colorado hospital where he was stabilized in a medically induced coma. It was a battle of life and death for almost a full day, but VanGorder at last emerged from his coma and, according to one report, almost immediately requested some enchiladas.

He has since made a full recovery, surprising doctors who thought he had about a 20 per cent chance of survival, and returned to work this past week. He also plans to return to adventure racing next season.

"It was a pretty scary experience," recalled Segger.

"We were sitting in 11 th place, and just getting ready to crack the top-10 – happy we were keeping up with the leaders for the most part, and still taking it pretty easy when it happened.

"We had just finished a long mountain bike stage, with some pretty technical trails (outside of Moab), and passed three other teams that night. We got into Moab at around 10 a.m., had something to drink, had sandwiches, took care of a few things, and headed into a place called Pritchard Canyon. It was about 125 degrees (Farenheit, 50 Celsius) in the canyon, there was a heat that we hadn’t felt before in there, and all of a sudden Ryan was heading up on this trail that didn’t exist. We yelled, ‘hey, you’re going the wrong way’ but he kept trying to push his bike over this boulder, then all of a sudden he collapsed with his bike on top of him."

Segger was the first team member to reach VanGorder, and she started performing first aid immediately.

"His core temp when he reached the hospital was 106. I am so thankful that I had just recertified my CPR and first aid, as knowing what to do when his body was going into shock was critical."

Another team came to the rescue, and they proceeded to empty their water over VanGorder, while fanning him with their packs. Segger used the satellite phone to call in a helicopter, which arrived within minutes. By the time 45 minutes had elapsed VanGorder was in a hospital in Colorado, where doctors put him into a medically induced coma while bringing his body temperature down.

He was in the coma for about 13 hours, and once he awoke he started to improve almost immediately. By the time 24 hours were up the team knew that VanGorder was going to survive. As days went by they also confirmed that VanGorder would make a complete recovery.

The doctors were amazed by the recovery, given the fact that VanGorder suffered a stroke during the ordeal.

Segger says the team was disappointed to withdraw from the race, but VanGorder’s health was always their main concern.

Segger acknowledges that there was some grumbling among athletes that the race organizers would have chosen the Utah desert for an adventure race at the end of June, endangering athletes, but says that the conditions were unusually extreme even by Utah standards. Also, temperatures were expected to drop significantly at night, but remained high.

"It was definitely extreme, but in a way it was a true expedition race," she said. "The navigation wasn’t tough at all in this race… so all the top teams had to stay out and race the full seven days. Usually the top team finishes in half the time that was expected.

"And (the danger) is self-inflicted. We were all there because we wanted to be, and we knew the conditions would be tough."

For her own part, Segger enjoyed the heat. She finished 10 th in a running race across the Sahara Desert two years ago, beating out dozens of older and more experienced athletes to rank as the top North American woman.

Team DART-Nuun was one of 19 teams that had to withdraw from the race. Another 15 teams finished after losing a member and did not receive an official ranking, while one team was disqualified. That means just 54 out of 90 teams hung in to finish the 800 km, 10 day expedition race through Utah’s backcountry.

One of those teams was MindOverMountain, which includes Gary Robbins of Squamish and Whistler’s Mark Fearman. They finished 35 th overall, despite the fact that it was the team’s first multi-day expedition race.

They couldn’t have set the bar any higher for themselves, as Primal Quest is recognized as one of the most challenging adventure racers in the world even without the unusually high temperatures recorded in Utah.

MindOverMountain.com didn’t complete the full course, but rather were relegated to a shorter course with fewer checkpoints and challenges, as were most of the other teams once the battle for the top-20 was decided.

"This race was everything I was hoping for and more, almost life-altering, as every smaller race I had done before seemed inconsequential and I found myself longing for the next expedition race Primal Quest had even ended," wrote Robbins.

"In the end our placing didn’t even matter, we started as a team, and we finished the world’s toughest expedition race as a team. Mission accomplished."

MindOverMountain.com almost had to pull out of the race within the first few hundred meters.

The race started with a horse section, and one horse threw its rider and proceeded to trample Fearman who was guiding their animal.

"Mark was bruised and shaken, as were all of us, but he continued without any complications," said Robbins. "The horse that had just danced over Mark then turned up the middle of the field of racers and absolutely blindsided someone else. That guy flew a few fee in the air and in the end was unable to complete the race."

Segger was not a fan of the horses either, mostly because some good teams wound up with horses that were not as willing and were not able to catch the pack.

MindOverMountain.com also got some assistance from Segger’s team, before the incident with VanGorder. They had underestimated their food needs, and ran into Team DART-nuun as they were heading different ways out of a checkpoint. Team DART-nuun were well prepared and near their next food drop and gave everything they had to Robbins’ team.

"Those guys were awesome, and we were happy to be able to help them out. We all made mistakes like that in the begging when we were starting out, and other teams helped us," said Segger.

According to Robbins his team considering an appearance at the 2007 Primal Quest, which is rumoured to be taking place in South America.

As for Segger, she will be switching over to Team GoLite/Timberland for a couple races, including EcoMotion in Brazil. In the meantime her priority is rest, healing her plantar fasciitis, and getting married.

Next year will be busier with races in Patagonia, Baja, Primal Quest, and other events.