Adventure Racing: The Ultimate Guide - Written by two endurance athletes, Adventure Racing covers the sport from its origins in New Zealand 20 years ago through today. It delves into the nuts and bolts of navigation and orientation, mountain biking, trekking, rope skills, and paddling. Information on nighttime racing and training, how to prevent injury and illness, fuel and hydration, and what to expect after a race are included. This book also offers appendices with sample gear list, race instructions, support crew list, and volunteer gear list.
Surviving the Toughest Race on Earth by Martin Dugard - The author covers the six-to-twelve day races that would cover up to 500 miles of climbing, swimming, navigation, kayaking, and more as a journalist before he began competing in them. The book is a dramatic, fascinating, intensely personal story of adventure racing written from his dual perspective as a journalist and an athlete.
Eco-Challenge is an expedition race. Each team of four, comprising men and women, races non-stop for 6 to 12 days, 24-hours a day, over a rugged 300 mile course using mountain biking, river rafting, horseback riding, mountaineering and fixed ropes, kayaking and navigation skills. The first team to cross the finish line together, in full complement, is the winner. If a team loses a member due to ilness, fatigue, injury or a team disagreement, they are disqualified. Only teams that can work together as friends have any hope of reaching the finish line.
Eco-Challenge Australia - 1999 - The Discovery Channel's Eco-Challenge: Australia is a multiple-sport endurance test that is the ultimate X game for true adventurers. The competition entails teams of four racing nonstop--24 hours a day--over unforgiving terrain. The 1999 race took place in one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, North Queensland, Australia. The expedition features 48 teams from 15 countries, and each team member must compete; if one falls or cannot go on, the whole team is disqualified, placing the onus on team effort, not individual determination. The first leg of the expedition is set in Undura as the teams battle their way through a 59-mile trek in dense spear grass that leaves all the contestants bloodied and bruised. After this they must endure a 26-mile canoe trip through waters that would send a shiver up the spine of Crocodile Dundee. This is followed by an intimidating rappel down the sheer rock face of Herbert Falls. At the end of the day, the contestants collapse out of exhaustion, while others tend to their injuries. Lack of sleep and stress begins to take its toll after just the first day. Follow the teams for the rest of their arduous journey, and feel their pain and eventual ecstasy when the winning team crosses the finish line.
Eco-Challenge British Columbia - 1997
Fixing Your Feet : Prevention and Treatments for Athletes - This book provides runners, hikers, adventure racers, triathletes--any athlete, with a complete source of information about proper foot care. Too often athletes spend vast amounts of money, time, and thought on training, equipment and travel, but little or no preparation on their feet. All factors in foot care are explored. You learn how to be proactive in order to prevent problems with your feet through proper prevention techniques, how to be reactive with treatments when problems develop, and what supplies and resources are available to help fix your feet.
Staying Found : The Complete Map and Compass Handbook
Secrets of Warmth : For Comfort or Survival - Living our lives in well-heated homes, cars, and offices, we rarely view hypothermia or frostbite as anything that will happen to us. Yet, as Hal Weiss explains, something as simple as becoming stranded on a winter commute, or getting wet and cold at a football game can lead to problems. In this simple, well-organized book, Weiss guides readers through the basics of how the body loses heat; how to determine the best clothing combinations for any activity; and how to prepare for and survive a cold-weather emergency. Winter outdoor enthusiasts will find tips on how to camp in winter along with basic plans for types of snow caves and shelters. Additional sections cover hypothermia prevention and treatment; treatment for frostbite; and tips for stocking your home and car with an emergency kit.
The Endurance : Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition - Melding superb research and the extraordinary expedition photography of Frank Hurley, The Endurance by Caroline Alexander is a stunning work of history, adventure, and art which chronicles "one of the greatest epics of survival in the annals of exploration." Setting sail as World War I broke out in Europe, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by renowned polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, hoped to become the first to cross the Antarctic continent. But their ship, Endurance, was trapped in the drifting pack ice, eventually to splinter, leaving the expedition stranded on floes--a situation that seemed "not merely desperate but impossible." Most skillfully Alexander constructs the expedition's character through its personalities--the cast of veteran explorers, scientists, and crew--with aid from many previously unavailable journals and documents. We learn, for instance, that carpenter and shipwright Henry McNish, or "Chippy," was "neither sweet-tempered nor tolerant," and that Mrs. Chippy, his cat, was "full of character." Such firsthand descriptions, paired with 170 of Frank Hurley's intimate photographs, which are comprehensively assembled here for the first time, penetrate the hulls of the Endurance and these tough men. The account successfully reveals the seldom-seen domestic world of expedition life--the singsongs, feasts, lectures, camaraderie--so that when the hardships set in, we know these people beyond the stereotypical guise of mere explorers and long for their safety. Alexander reveals Shackleton as an inspiring optimist, "a leader who put his men first." Throughout the grueling ordeal, Shackleton and his men show what endurance and greatness are all about. The Endurance is a most intimate portrait of an expedition and of survival. Readers will possess a newfound respect for these daring souls, know better their unthinkable toil and half-forgotten realm of glory
The Complete Guide to Adventure Racing - Adventure sports have seized the interest of the world. According to the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) 189 million outdoor enthusiasts in the U.S. were involved in adventure sports and travel in 1998. Millions of Americans are heading outside for fitness, self-discovery, and a closer connection to the environment, and many are creating a lifestyle out of it. Adventure racing is a new multi-discipline sport that requires individual will, endurance, survival skills, outdoor savvy, and teamwork to be successful. The duration of adventure races varies from one-day races to two-week expeditions requiring both day and night navigation through harsh and challenging terrain. The sport requires the athlete be versed in a variety of outdoor sports, have individual drive and the highest team skills. In The Complete Guide to Adventure Racing, you'll learn: the best techniques for biking, paddling, and climbing, gear selection, proper use, and preparation, navigation and orienteering essentials, tips on nutrition, hydration and health, team strategy and logistics, a comprehensive listing of schools, races from around the world and much more. Author Don Mann has over 20 years (1,000+ races) worth of competitive racing experience, and was once ranked 38th in the world as a triathlete.