UPDATED: Did the "World's Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition" just get less challenging?
posted Monday, June 16, 2008 by Yak @ 2:30 PM -
17 comments
"Primal Quest Race Management has made the decision NOT to prohibit the use of GPS units in PQ Montana. This decision was made due to the fact that the course still has a great deal of snow covering trail and road markings, and we need to ensure that competitors do not wander into avalanche and cornice hazard areas."I emailed Primal Quest race management and just got confirmation from the media director that they did send an email to all teams with the text quoted above and that teams WILL in fact be allowed to carry GPS units.
Navigation has always been a hallmark of adventure racing. You can't argue with need to put safety first and after the death of Nigel Aylott in 2004 I'm not surprised to see PQ deciding to err on the side of caution. At the same time this decision is going to eliminate what many consider to be an equalizer unique to adventure racing.
Smart navigation has traditionally been the way that slower, less athletic teams can beat their stronger competitors. If everyone is carrying a GPS unit then the team in front of you is less likely to get lost...there goes your chance of passing them in the night.
What impact do you think this will have on the race? Will the use of GPS at a race like Primal Quest change the nature of the sport? Is it a big deal or much a do about nothing?
Drop us a comment and let us know what you think.
UPDATE: Mike Bitton had a chance to speak to PQ race director Don Mann not long ago. He'll be posting more information on this decision including some comments from Don later today.
17 Comments:
I for one think this is a VERY big deal. If anyone was ever gonna beat Nike it was gonna be because they got lost. This reduces the chances that will happen and I think it fundamentally changes the nature of the sport.
I don't know about this decision. Sounds like it's dumbing down the race a bit. I know most good navigators won't need a GPS, but I have to admit, it will make it harder to get lost.
If it's really about safety, why don't they cut out those sections, or re-route them? Heck, put up a rope or have guides on the sections that are dangerous. Even if the dangerous area is 20 miles, you going to ruin a 500+ mile race because of it?
It'll be interesting to watch the maps and see if people get lost anyway.
Well - personally - I don't like the idea of allowing GPS use in Adventure Racing. Someone that knows how to use a GPS can take 70% of the navigation away from the race. It essentially will turn the race into an offroad triathlon. Teams will be able to go point to point as fast as they can. I know it'll really ruin the concept of navigation, route finding, and eliminate a portion of the crafty decision making needed to thrive in a race like this, and which is a hallmark of the "Adventure" aspect of ... Adventure ... Racing.
My understanding (and this is second hand) is that the race organization made this decision due to the amount of snow still on the course. Coupled with the snowshoeing and potential avalanche hazards, they felt it necessary to allow GPS units. I don't follow this thinking. A GPS won't tell you where the avalanche hazards are. A GPS won't help SAR teams find you if you get buried. A GPS is more likely to get some teams into trouble - they'll blindly follow their electronic device that tells them what to do. As it stands, the Primal Quest organization is already using SPOT satellite tracking systems, which will give them an idea some of the time where teams might be.
That being said - there is a precedent of use of GPS in Adventure Racing in the past. In fact the Raid Gallouise - considered one of the original founding Adventure Races - required the use of GPS. Subsequently, the X-Adventure RAID allowed GPS use. I'm sure there have been others that I'm unaware of.
One of the big challenges in the last two or so years - the proliferation of integrated GPS systems ... into watches, into shoes, into ... well, everything. So it's even tougher to enforce and police the use of GPS systems.
Don't get me wrong - I think the "pure navigation challenge" of just map, compass, and altimeter (some argue that an altimeter shouldn't be allowed ... ) is the way it should be. I'm a race organizer myself, and I approach the design of a race course from the standpoint of the racers; what will provide multiple route choices, where can teams get lost, what do the roads/trails/terrain look like from a racers perspective, where can a team get turned around navigationally. You throw a GPS into that equation, and it suddenly reduces the confusion about where you are on a race course, which way you're going, and which way you have to go. Might as well call it an offroad triathlon at that point.
From my own personal experience, I used a GPS in the X-Adventure RAID in '05. I plotted all of the UTM coordinates in the GPS, and just pushed "goto CP10" - the arrows pointed the way. It made for a faster more pure athletic event - but really took most of the Nav away. That being said, my ability to use the GPS well and correlate terrain and route decisions, gave us an advantage several times. Some teams would mill around at an intersection trying to decipher what the GPS was telling them - while we just blasted straight through them. Just having a GPS doesn't mean teams will know how to use it effectively. I didn't even use a GPS with a mapping ability - just straight up "left, right, straight" arrow usage to point the way. With some of the modern ones that you can download maps to them, that REALLY takes the challenge away even more...
DOWN WITH THE GPS IN ADVENTURE RACING!!
Shane Gibson
Wicked Race Director
Wicked Adventure Racing, LLC
http://www.wickedar.com/
I am a PQ04, 06, and 08 competitor.
We are a very competitive team who have considerable skill in true map and compass navigation. This has been the full and complete extent of our training. There are many issues that accompany navigation by GPS device and adding this in the last week before race start simply does not give a chance to train on these devices. The response that "perhaps we should just use compass then" is not adequate, because GPS proficient teams have a very clear advantage, with the ability to simply program in the entire track and follow the device around. There are also many different technology levels and this has created a very uneven playing field. Race management has gone so far as to specify the exact locking carabiner in a safety setup, but the GPS units on race day will vary from $50 wrist units to $600 tree cover immune units with 3D displays, full maps and trails, and two way communicators.
If we are "to avoid cornices", then provide additional coordinates and let us navigate around the danger. GPS units do absolutely nothing to mitigate this risk.
If units are still allowed, then race management must specify the identical unit for all teams and provide training on these units. If this is for safety, will there now be certification?
Our navigation certification covered the route finding in "complex mountain terrain". It also said that we needed to understand pacing. This should be sufficient. We were not required to do any GPS certification or training.
This is setting this race up for considerable abuse. After the maps have been released, the support crews can simply drive to major parts of the course, plotting GPS tracks, use topo software to provide new uploads to ther racers as the race progresses, and when they have learned of pitfalls that racers in front of them may have suffered through.
Most importantly - this is not what we signed up for! From the website that we signed up on and payed our $12500, "Primal Quest is an environmentally friendly, ecologically aware wilderness Expedition Race. Teams of experienced back country adventure athletes journey across expansive terrain using ONLY A MAP, COMPASS, and combined skills."
Solutions for the safety issues:
Wand the couple of areas that any real avalanche conditions exist. Provide additional waypoints that must be reached to guarantee safety.
I can't say that I approve of GPS use either, especially for the reason provided. Then again, they may be planning to upload location data to each team's GPS?
I recall watching an Eco Challenge years back (could have been NZ in 2001?) where little red flags were visible to mark unstable terrain and crevasses. This seems to me the most viable option.
I don't get what they mean by "covering trail and road markings". Do they mean "covering roads and trails"?
Being a South African, I don't know too much about snow but surely having a snow covered landscape means that roads and trails are irrelevant anyway. You just head in the right direction on top of the snow. Far more freedom I would presume?
Lisa
www.ar.co.za
Hmmm, so the biggest AR race just became a triathlon only 5 days before the race. I know for a fact many teams would not have done the race if the navigation was going to be eliminated.
Makes one wonder if this was the idea from the start and was the only way permits could be pulled to use the land the race goes over, just wondering.
Will PQ allow teams to get refunds if they do not what to race now, it is simple crazy to make this major of a change only 5 days out. The “condition of the course” excuse does not fly, as was already said, 99% of the course conditions have not changed or are not any different than was thought they would be when the race location was first set.
We are so glad we did not bring our team to PQ, pay all that money and then have PQ eliminate the main reason teams do AR races. What is next will PQ drop MTN biking or the paddling?
J.Hafke
I would have to agree that I wouldn't have signed up if I knew GPS was going to be allowed. I want my money back. PQ you better change your name now. It's not the World's Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition... it's a "Guided Tour" of MT.
I don't believe for a minute PQ intended to allow GPS all along and are just springing the news now.
I think more likely they are legitimately concerned about safety and that is what motivated them to make this decision.
Having said that I think the concerns being expressed about the impact of this decision are valid.
It does change both the nature of the sport and it shifts the competitive dynamic towards more athletic teams and away from teams whose strengths revolve more around strategy and navigation.
I understand the logic that having teams carry a GPS means they will know where they are in the event they need to be rescued...although that is exactly the point of SPOT...which does NOT allow teams to know their current position.
At best allowing teams to carry a traditional GPS unit is redundant so far as the safety issue is concerned while at the same time providing them a way to navigate that they would not otherwise have.
That's the problem.
PS - If you're going to criticize or express an otherwise passionate opinion please have the consideration to do so openly. Throwing darts anonymously is not constructive.
I am a PQ04, 06, and 08 competitor.
We are a very competitive team who have considerable skill in true map and compass navigation, which is incorporated into all aspects of our training. This has been to full and complete extent of our training. There are many issues that accompany navigation by GPS device and adding this in the last week before race start simply does not give a chance to properly train on these devices. The response that "perhaps we should just use compass then" is not adequate, because GPS proficient teams have a very clear advantage, with the ability to simply program in the entire track and follow the device around. There are also many different technology levels and this has created a very uneven playing field. Race management has gone so far as to specify the exact locking carabiner in a safety setup, but the GPS units on race day will vary from $50 wrist units to $600 tree cover immune units with 3D displays, full maps and trails, and two way communicators.
If we are "to avoid cornices", then provide additional coordinates and let us navigate around the danger. GPS units do absolutely nothing to mitigate this risk. The only way to travel safely in avalanche prone terrain is to observe safe travel protocols. This includes putting in proper control points to keep teams away from hazards, selective route wanding (flagging) at critical passages and pre-screening teams to make sure they know how to recognize the hazards and know safe route finding. A GPS receiver is no replacement for common sense, experience and conservative judgment. It will not warn the racers when they are traveling too close to the edge of a cornice on a ridge, when they are traveling under an exposed cliff band with a steep avalanche start zone, or how to judge slope angles and look for islands of protection. Savvy backcountry skiers and boarders do not carry GPS receivers to protect themselves from avalanches. They carry knowledge.
If units are still allowed, then race management must specify the identical unit for all teams and provide training on these units. If this is for safety, will there now be certification?
Our navigation certification covered the route finding in "complex mountain terrain". It also said that we needed to understand pacing. This should be sufficient. We were not required to do any GPS certification or training.
This is setting this race up for considerable abuse. After the maps have been released, the support crews can simply drive to major parts of the course, plotting GPS tracks, use topo software to provide new uploads to ther racers as the race progresses, and when they have learned of pitfalls that racers in front of them may have suffered through.
Most importantly - this is not what we signed up for! From the website that we signed up on and payed our $12500, "Primal Quest is an environmentally friendly, ecologically aware wilderness Expedition Race. Teams os experienced back country adventure athletes journey across expansive terrain using only a map, a compass, and combined skills."
Solutions for the safety issues:
Wand the couple of areas that any real avalanche conditions exist. Provide additional waypoints that must be reached to guarantee safety.
-----
Ken
"I don't believe for a minute PQ intended to allow GPS all along and are just springing the news now."
Please, we are just wondering, guessing and speculating; however can someone explain what has changed so much over the last month that makes the course so much more dangerous.
The course was always “extremely remote”, always had “predators” and always had a chance of snow in the higher elevations, just speculating and wondering why not just be up front and tell everyone that the PQ will be a GPS race from the time the registration was allowed. We all can only guess and speculate, however would as many teams signed up if they knew ahead of time a major part of the AR was going to be removed, Navigation.
Keep in mind I speak only for myself and realize that being so vocal about this is going to cost me the ability to do some races, however I feel the need to voice what so many are thinking. We all have limited resources and time to do huge races, and we pick racers based on many facts, for example we did not do PQ do to the elevations and instead look to races like the Bull. However, if race directors make such huge changes at the last minute and it appears to have been possible pre-planned, what are we to do as racers when picking races.
Just wondering and speculating and not knowing if it would be the case, however if someone requested all the state, local, federal, and county request for permits/surrounding communications to use land via Freedom of Information Requests, and look over the insurance PQ has for the race, wondering if one would find any hint of this GPS decision having been made before 5 days out.
J.Hafke
As a race director myself, I would never allow GPS units in my event! Ken Meyer has said it best. Read his post and then read it again! His reasons against GPS units are solid and undeniably correct.
The last 24hr race I did, my (less athletic) team placed ahead of a (more athletic) team that passed us at least four times during the race, (that we know of.) (By them saying "Hello" as they passed), but due to our superior navigation skills, we still finished ahead.
I have never and will never enter a race that allows GPS units. End of story!
Racer (over 50 events) and director (13 events) since 1998
Hi All,
I do think its best to wait for more info before those on the sidelines completely and utterly condemn Donn's decision. I think comments and speculation are fair game but some of the comments are pretty lame and hint of the jealousy of not being there:(
I did like Ken's comments...he's makes some great points and as a racer his comments carry much weight with me..but still so much depends on the actual course and possible weather conditions expected.
I also would not be surprised to see PQ put some restrictions on GPS use.
Flagging: If the weather is crappy then having teams carrying GPS's might be the only viable solution to keep teams safe. If the weather is great then the RD can change their mind and limit or outlaw GPS use... BUT to have that flexibility the RD has to make GPS's required gear prior to the race start.
Those folks that have not experienced a white out/bad storm on a exposed ridge line with only one safe place to descend from may only see the wisdom of Donn's decision. A waypoint in the GPS can make a big difference...pace counting on super technical terrain in a blizzard is bit much to ask 99% of the teams! :)
I have done quite a few expeditions that required GPS's and I was as skeptical as some of the folks who posted here but I found them to some of the best races I've ever done. Best the peanut gallery reserve judgement until we know a little bit more detail.
Cheers,
Neal Radford
PS I am NOT a fan of GPS in races BUT do see it being well justified on occasion
So we are all clear, it does not appear racers or anyone in the peanut gallery cares if an AR race uses a GPS. The point is to make this huge change only 5 days out is the major problem when racers pick a race to do on the bases of no GPS being used and that navigation will be a major skill needed in the race.
Once again, nothing on the course is that different than was known or could have been known when the registration was opened, thus the sudden change to allow GPS seems a bit odd.
On a happy note it is great to see that PQ is re-thinking the free use of the GPS, however it will be interesting to hear the GPS use rules. We hope the rules are clear before the start of the race.
One has to wonder what effect this type of action by PQ will have on the race in the future. Wondering, how many teams that have limited recourses (time/money/energy) will not race in PQ after this type of major issue before such a huge endeavor. All racers should know that it is the middle/back of pack teams and racers that keep this sport alive and this type of action by PQ will make many of these type teams think twice about doing another PQ.
I would guess, the AR World Series has a bit of a smile on their face for many teams will pick AR World Series races as the one big race a year to do instead of PQ
J.Hafke
I am opposed to the idea of using GPS in an adventure race for many reasons. I am an adventure racer and an endurance mountain bike racer. I have used a GPS on many of my mountain bike races, so I know how much easier it makes navigation than a map and compass, especially at night. It completely changes the nature of the race, making it mostly a pure athletic event. This is not what adventure racing is about - it's supposed to be a balance of athleticism and brains.
As noted by others, a GPS unit does nothing to address avalanche dangers, unstable cornices, etc.
I am also concerned that this last minute change is unfair to the participants who have spent thousands of dollars to compete in this event. Many of these participants are not proficient in the use of a GPS unit. Racers will have GPS units of differing sophistication, giving those with better (and more expensive units) and advantage. Finally, a GPS race is not what these competitors paid for. I had been asked to race on a PQ Team and turned it down for a variety of reasons. I am now very happy that I did turn it down, because I would not want to race a GPS PQ.
I competed in Raid the North Extreme last year. They faced a similar problem as the PQ organizers do this year. At RTNX, significant snow pack and melting made many portions of the initial race course unsafe. Instead of going the GPS route (thank god), the RTNX organizers completely rerouted the entire 6-day race course just a couple weeks before the race.
I think PQ should look seriously at rerouting certain CPS to avoid the areas they think may be unsafe.
Or, as another suggestion, perhpas they can allow GPS units only on those specicic portions of the race course that are deemed dangerous. Teams could hand over the units for other portions of the race that do not pose the same potential danger.
My previous comments were more related just to GPS use...not a critic of PQ in general ...so, just to clear...
I too think is VERY crappy to make this change 5 days out - that is pretty hard to excuse. Much better to at least warn racers that this might happen to give team a chance to buy or borrow units and them make a final decision close to race time.
I believe this is NOT the course Donn and team expected 2-4 weeks ago...I am guessing that either there were big unusual snow falls or snow just isn't melting as expected. Maybe other things happened...perhaps their last minute efforts to get permits to reroute the course fell thru etc ...who knows? we certainly don't :)
All the best & cheers,
Neal
I'm a newbie AR racer. The main reason why I joined this amazing sport is because it allowed me to use my brains in addition to my athleticism. AR directors please keep AR free from GPS. The introduction to GPS will destroy the AR experiences that so many racers hold dear. The frustration one feels when you find out you made a navigation mistake and the euphoria one feels when you find the solution to your nav errors. Keep AR GPS FREEEEE....
Just a little perspective...
the race directors have one previous fatality ...and need to offer alternatives as not to invite another...
My suggestion, sealed gps, to be used IF needed, that carries a 4 hour penalty. Next TP, turn in used GPS, aquire new "sealed" GPS and move on.
Available in emergency but at timing expense
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