Team Geared Up

We have and Irish team competing the in form of IrishAr Inov-8. The team members are be Eoin Keith(captain), Vanessa Lawrenson, Barry Minnock and Evan Ryan. We will keep you updated daily on how the team are progressing.

Today marked the end of a frenetic time for Primal Quest Utah. The 89 teams – the largest field in any expedition-length adventure race since the sport’s inception in 1989 – have poured into Red Cliffs Resort outside of Moab, Utah over the past several days.

At tonightÂ’s pre-race briefing, they learn that roughly 800 kilometers of some of the United StatesÂ’ most sun-blasted, arid terrain lies between the starting line and the finish that awaits more than ten days from now.

The teams spent most of their past three days in a series of skills testing and gear checks. Roughly 60 percent of the teams arrived on flights into Salt Lake City and were transported by race management; the remainder drove from varied points across the United States. What they all brought was gear; a mountain of gear. 36,000 pounds of it, to be (relatively) precise.

What results is an aggregation of ultra-light, cutting-edge equipment that would bust the seams of the average outdoor store and make a gear geek swoon. The mandatory gear list alone contains 189 disparate team and individual items, not counting such small considerations such as food and clothing.

Each item of gear is checked by race staff to ensure that it conforms to the mandated safety protocols, and only after each piece is checked out are the athletes sent to the skills testing stations.

The weather, of great concern to race management due to the potential for dangerously hot temperatures, seems to be holding steady, and the forecast for the week is for generally-manageable highs of 99 degrees.