Team Summit Achievement holds on to the lead to win the race.  They came in strong, jogging to the finish line. Their official finish time is 7:02 pm. 

Once teams arrive, they will put on their climbing equipment and head to the ropes site at Artists Bluff.  Teams will be climbing the cliffs, using mechanical devices (called ‘ascenders’) to climb the sheer wall.  They will be free-hanging at some points, as well as against the rock face; it’s a good test of rope skills!  After they go up the cliff, they must rappel back down.  Their whole team must complete this circuit of ascent and descent before they can continue in the race.  EMS Climbing School is administering our ropes site and making sure everyone is safe. 

After the ropes course, teams have a kayaking course to complete on Echo Lake.  Each team will be given a tandem kayak; they must use this kayak to paddle to the floating buoys in the lake.  Each team must complete two laps of the course; teams of 3 and 4 must swap out their paddlers in between laps so that everyone does a circuit of the lake.

After the kayaking course, teams must complete a final long trekking leg through the scenic Franconia Notch State Park.  Teams will hike the Kinsman Ridge Trail on the West side of the Notch, and visit Greenleaf Hut on the East side of the Notch.  All in all, over 3,000 ft of elevation gain for this relatively short trekking section.

After teams finish the trekking leg, they will continue to hike down to the finish line at the Franconia Inn.  

I have a bit of down time while waiting the last couple of teams to come into CP 27 and I don’t expect to get paddling splits for another hour or so. So, I thought that I’d answer some questions regarding our AR roots. We started Hampton Roads Adventure (HRA), about 5 years ago working with a team of friends while living just outside of Williamsburg, VA. Grant was really into AR, tired of traveling far for races and wanted to consistently bring the sport to the area to expose folks to it in a beginner’s sort of fashion. We started doing sprint races (4-6 h) around 5 years ago and gradually started building time onto races (ie, they just keep getting longer and longer!). When we decided to move away from Virginia, we handed HRA off to Mike and Pam who have done a phenomenal job continuing the races.

As an alternative, Grant formed Untamed Adventure and now organizes races, 1-2 per year (from Switzerland, no less) and this is officially his third race under Untamed. So, if you are out on the course, you’ll meet lots of folks from VA (both volunteers and racers) that have made the trip up; we just couldn’t do this without that kind of dedication!  Well, we probably could but it wouldn’t be nearly as fun.

Grant selected NH because I grew up in Littleton, NH, (technically we Peloquins are Berliners) so this is my backyard and, well, and it’s just an amazing landscape.Grant’s knowledge of the area, however, now far exceeds mine. I personally never spent time bushwacking through bogs growing up :). Oh, and Grant’s “real” job is software programming, so this website is his baby; thanks for all the great feedback.

We’ve finally cleared out Stag Hollow and Chris and Pat our volunteers there have earned some major sleep time (they've been staffing the CP for 24 extremely active hours). This means that all the teams are on their way to the paddle put-in at CP 27. To the best of our knowledge (still verifiing), four teams were able to get 6 additional CPs on the O-course (total of 7). This gives these teams a substantial advantage in time bonuses: these teams are TSA, Running Free, Littleton Bike and Fitness and NYARA. It’s hard to tell how this will impact final time right now so we’ve got to see how these last two teams transition to paddling. Nevertheless, these four are probably our lead teams with Team Hype/Gung Ho right behind (got 5 out of 7 CPs).

Wow! A girl goes to sleep for 5 hours and look what happens; what a race! I suspect that some of you are staying awake for one last peek at your team before heading to bed (have been there many a time myself) so I wanted to update. Where most of the teams are right now -Stag Hollow on the last O-course- gets pretty bad cell reception and just OK sat. phone coverage so we’ve had a hard time keeping a connection long enough to report complex split time/bonus points, etc.  It will likely be a slow process getting all those splits uploaded (my guess is 5 am EST); so AR fans- take a nap!

I am, however, getting updates from our TA#2 (CP 27). TA#2 allows teams to access gear bins and prep for the canoe leg that opens at 4 am. We have 5 teams there right now, but Team #12 and #6 are the only ones on the full pro course that cleared (got all of the bonus CPs) on that last O course. Our RD is not surprised toooo often (except when Scott Pleban is racing, of course); but he’s impressed with their race - just fantastic. Running Free and TSA will have extra time to rest, rehydrate and because they have cleaned the course thus far – their time here is off the clock. In other words – this is now a race between these two teams for the top spot and it should be thrilling day tomorrow!

-Summit Achievement through and out at 4:35 and running free out at 4:44.
-Littleton Bike Shop over and out at 6:26 third team through
-Jenny Johnson of Littleton Bikes was thrilled to see her husband at the CP (he apparently is a friend of the EMS team or a racer with them?). After her surprise passed she asked why he wasn't at home painting.

Over at Stag Hollow where all the action is this evening, a tough cut-off was just enforced. Teams needed to return to CP 21 by 4:00 pm to remain on the Pro Course. Half the pack made it; some (Team GMARA) by one minute! Truly exciting! Teams on Alt course D will be skipping CPs 22, 23 and 24. Sidenote: don’t forget to check out our audio content; there are some fantastic interviews with racers with our “embedded” staff.

Cute anecdote from HQ. I was grabbing splits from the first TA and noticed that Ultrabambi was nearly there (with the online tracking) so I told Missy to watch for them any minute. An hour later she still hadn't seen them and we were a bit perplexed. It turns out they went straight into Lancaster and slept/ate in McDonalds for an hour. Very creative way to meet two goals. Wish I could have seen this.

I have a few updates; the area where the lead teams are just gets terrible cell coverage, so I don't know too much new at this point. There are some rumors regarding some teams forgetting the detailed maps and having to navigate with low res map; so we'll have to see how map organization impacts the final result. Grant will know more. Another note - lots of folks are asking questions over trail mail regarding "bonus" hours. There are several locations that had optional CPs. If a team was able to get this CP (usually with a time constraint associated with it), they were given time bonuses. This time essentially gets subtracted from their final course time. A good thing all around ! Lastly, we were able to print out trail mail and give it to *most* of the teams in the wee hours of the morning this morning. My understanding is that teams were thrilled to have a pick me up after racing for nearly a day!

"Temps will drop into the high 30s tonight, but no frost unless you're high up in the mountains in which case look for snow and colder winds."