About The Untamed New England Staff

Untamed New England Staff

About The Untamed New England Staff

We've been organizing events for a long time; check out the Untamed New England expedition history for an example.

Grant Killian - Chief Instigator and all around guilty party behind Untamed New England.

Grant started organizing races in 2004; he has overseen adventure races in the Swiss Alps, the Atlantic Barrier Islands, the Virginia piedmont, and of course all over New England. Grant has also assisted events around the world -- from trans-oceanic sailing regattas to motorbike races through the Sahara Desert -- in various technical capacities, particularly live race coverage and satellite communications.

A journalist covering an expedition race, many years ago, observed that Grant should probably be planning wars or missions to other planets. None of that work pays nearly as well as adventure racing, though, so Grant continues with the endurance sports.
Al Sleight - Medical Coordinator

Al combines his passion for the outdoors and his medical team leadership expertise to coordinate the overall safety plan for Untamed New England. If he's not hiking or maintaining a stretch of the Appalachian Trail, you can usually find Al teaching a Wilderness First Responder course somewhere far away from a city.
Mason Holland - Technical Course Consultant

Mason is an avid adventure racer with the NH Trail Vets team. He's helping support the next edition of Untamed New England in a variety of capacities we're calling "Technical Course Consultant." It means we'll count on him to staff that remote transition area, test that bushwhack section, or listen to Grant ramble about how adventure racing is a dead sport at the local brew pub.
Clay Abney - Public Relations

Clay has a long history as an adventure racer, and now we've enlisted his help presenting the public face of Untamed New England to sponsors, journalists, and all sorts of other partners. He has traveled around the world documenting adventures of all shapes and sizes for various publications, and now does so primarily from his West Virginia home. Look for Clay advocating on our behalf far and wide!
Todd Fallesen - Operations Manager

Todd got his start adventure racing in graduate school, with an Untamed Adventure racing event in Virginia serving as one of his big early influences. He joined the Untamed team several years ago and has proven a key member of the race HQ staff for events in both Switzerland and New England. For 2018, his responsibilities involve managing race operations and supporting international marketing efforts. Based in the U.K., Todd is very active in the European rogaine scene.
Amanda Cabral - Staffing and Volunteer Coordinator.

Amanda knows who is going to be on top of which mountain top and when, where they're going next, and when they get to go back to the lavish staff housing for their 45 minutes of "time off." Amanda has worked events with Untamed Adventure Racing for a long time and has proven herself reliable, smart, and adventurous enough to pull off all the crazy requests we make of her!

Interested in volunteering at a race? Contact us to get the conversation started.
Randy Ericksen - Media Coordinator

Randy may require no introduction to those familiar with expedition adventure races around the world. "Legendary" Randy is the host of the TA 1 Podcast on adventure racing; when not recording interviews about the sport for his podcast, he is busy photographing and filming adventure races and all kinds of other outdoor craziness. Don't be fooled: Randy may live in the Black Hills of South Dakota, but he is a citizen of the world.
Bolivar Rhumba - Director of Barketing

Named after Latin American revolutionary figure, Simon Bolivar, Boli is the dog-wonder of the Untamed New England operation. When not chasing squirrels or barking at vague shapes she sees in her peripheral vision, Boli is dreaming up new ways to earn treats or meatie scraps in a house full of vegetarians.
Barb Campbell - Operations & Media Consultant

Barb has paddled, trekked, skied, run and biked in wild places from the High Arctic to Nepal. Hooked on adventure sports since 2002 (with the Visa bills to prove it), she has competed in rogaines, ultraruns ski loppets, expedition adventure races and everything in between - including Untamed New England, of course! Barb has designed courses for a number of navigation events, and has been Assistant Race Director and HQ Manager of the Wilderness Traverse 24-hr adventure race since 2011.

Barb's primary adventure organization is Wilderness Traverse in Ontario, Canada where she manages their race headquarters.
Tessa Bertran - Operations Lead

From warm and sunny Barcelona, Spain she moved to London where she embraced hiking and orienteering in the fog and rain. She is also an active rogainer and has discovered several amazing places around Europe practicing this sport.
Michelle Faucher - Operations Lead

After watching the Eco-Challenge back in the early 00’s, Michelle became intrigued with the sport of Adventure Racing and gave it a try. She was addicted — and has never looked back. Over the past 15 years, she has competed in roughly 100 adventure races from smaller sprint and 24-hour races such as Untamed Virginia way back in the 2000’s, to expedition races like Primal Quest, numerous ARWS races, the 2017 World Championships in Wyoming and, most recently Expedition Oregon. She also competed in the 2009 and 2012 editions of Untamed New England.

Michelle got involved with race directing and in 2011; she started Adventure Addicts Racing with a friend, Andy Bacon.

Today she races less frequently, and focuses more of her free time on running Adventure Addicts Racing with her wife Liz. They produce races all over Virginia and the DC metropolitan area, from short, beginner- friendly 3-hour races, up to 24 hour races. They also produce the Buff Betty — which is the only women's only race in the country — and she is very passionate about getting more women into the sport. Her love of all things adventure and her desire to see the sport of adventure racing grow continues to motivate her.