Primal Quest heading to Badlands
By IR Staff - 10/09/2008
PAUL RUHTER Billings Gazette - Teams competing in the Primal Quest Expedition Race trek across a ridge near Lone Mountain during the first leg of the race earlier this year.
The event was held in Montana this past June.
“This is the sixth edition of the Primal Quest 10-day expedition adventure race, and at 600 miles — the longest,” said Don Mann, director of Primal Quest. “We’re especially excited to have teams experience the Badlands, as there is truly no place like this in the world.”
Next summer, just after the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, co-ed teams of four will race, without support crews, through the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota Aug. 15-24.
The traditional adventure racing disciplines of trekking, mountain biking, orienteering, swimming, and paddling will be represented, but competitors can expect new challenges as well.
Athletes will spelunk in cave systems deep beneath the Black Hills, and will test their climbing abilities while ascending and rappelling from towering spires. Navigation will play a much larger role than in previous Primal Quests, and racers will traverse many miles of single track in the mountain biking sections. Teams will run with herds of buffalo and share the trail with deer, prairie dogs, turkeys, elk and bighorn sheep.
The drama and intensity of expedition racing will be broadcast in the fall of 2009 on Rush HD. With the majority of teams from 2008 committed to returning in 2009, including Montana’s own Team Big Sky, the field will be deep and competitive.
Billings mapmakers MyTopo.com will again be a partner in the race, along with TATE, Mind Quest, and Peak Assurance.
For more information on the race, log on to www.eco
primalquest.com/wp-primal/.
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mjvande wrote on Oct 11, 2008 9:53 AM:
A favorite myth of mountain bikers is that mountain biking is no more harmful to wildlife, people, and the environment than hiking, and that science supports that view. Of course, it's not true. To settle the matter once and for all, I read all of the research they cited, and wrote a review of the research on mountain biking impacts (see http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/scb7 ). I found that of the seven studies they cited, (1) all were written by mountain bikers, and (2) in every case, the authors misinterpreted their own data, in order to come to the conclusion that they favored. They also studiously avoided mentioning another scientific study (Wisdom et al) which did not favor mountain biking, and came to the opposite conclusions.
Those were all experimental studies. Two other studies (by White et al and by Jeff Marion) used a survey design, which is inherently incapable of answering that question (comparing hiking with mountain biking). I only mention them because mountain bikers often cite them, but scientifically, they are worthless.
Mountain biking accelerates erosion, creates V-shaped ruts, kills small animals and plants on and next to the trail, drives wildlife and other trail users out of the
area, and (worst of all) teaches kids that the rough treatment of nature is okay (it's NOT!). What's good about THAT?
For more information: http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/mtbfaq . "