Extreme Adventure at the End of the World~ Patagonian Expedition Race

On a bike you have so much time and you can’t carry so much stuff. Life immediately gets simple. After getting a taste of how simple and free life can be, it made me want to ditch the car altogether! By now I know that transitions are hard, and my immediate reaction to the car is normal. I know that it is a necessity at times, but this trip has made me see how amazing bikes are and how accessible they are. With the right gear and time frame, you can accomplish so much with your legs and two wheels.” (Chelsey Gribbon, July 16, 2009—after spending over a month mountain biking and putting on yoga workshops in Colorado)

She may be little, but she is pure dynamite. Photo by Ron Steinau

Chelsey Gribbon is headed to Patagonia to take part in an extreme adventure race at “the end of the world.” The Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race will pit various 4-person co-ed teams against each other as they cross bodies of water by sea kayak, ride over terrain without a trail on mountain bikes, and trek over and through the glacier-covered Darwin Mountain range. At times they will follow guanaco tracks, make their way through peat bogs and swampy forests, wade through ice-cold rivers up to their waists in some of the most remote and wild country on earth. It is Chelsey’s second international race and this race is quite different terrain from her first international adventure race in the desert and seas of Abu Dhabi.

Chelsey, now 25, grew up loving and enjoying the outdoors life with her family in Anchorage, Alaska. “I’ve been into the outdoors all my entire life. Growing up on the weekends, we would always go out into the back country and do cross-country skiing and downhill skiing. Then in college I really got into mountain biking and into whitewater kayaking.”

Outdoors adventure and yoga were the two constants in her life after she left home at 18 for college in Gunnison, CO. She felt restless staying in one place for long, even though as she moved to various western states she would stay long enough to get in-state tuition and attend college for a semester or two before the urge to travel and go somewhere would kick in again. She visited Costa Rica, traveled around and learned to surf. She traveled all over SE Asia. She became a white-water raft guide for 6 years and, was a “ski bum” in the winters and even built tree-houses and lived on the river. It was while she lived in Arizona that she received training as a yoga teacher. Never before had she taken it to that level—it is not putting it too strongly to say she absolutely fell in love with yoga. It was through yoga that met Jason Magnus who was an adventure racer with a team named YogaSlackers and he introduced her to adventure racing, which she has been doing for a year and a half now. (The YogaSlackers team has joined forces with Team Gear Junkie and will be racing under the Gear Junkie name for the Patagonian race.)

It feels like the perfect fit for her life now: “I’ve always been into pushing my own limits in everything that I do… I’m going to make my living doing what I love with teaching yoga: acrobatic yoga and yoga on a slack-line and adventure race and live to inspire ourselves and other people.”

Team Gear Junkie is captained by Stephen Regenold (2nd from left), On Chelsey's left are her Yoga Slackers teammates Jason & Daniel. Photo by Ron Steinau

The Patagonian Expedition Race begins on February 9 on the extreme southern tip of Chile. The race will be over 800 miles, although no exact mileage is given until the racers get there and they will have to navigate their way from one transition area to the next. It will include trekking, sea-kayaking and mountain biking. The Abu Dubai Adventure Challenge race in December 2009 included 70 miles of trekking across the desert, 90 miles through choppy waters by sea kayak and over 160 miles of mountain biking. That was all prefaced with a sprint triathlon on the very first day. From that first international race experience, she knows what she can generally expect: “It can be over 2 days until you’ll see the next transition area. So you have to pack food for 2 days. If you’re trekking, then you know that I am going to take my shoes, my layers, a couple pairs of extra socks and I’m set to go. At the next transition area, I’m going to pick up my mountain bike, new maps, all my water, GUs, and an overnight little thing. For this race, you’re always required to carry a sleeping bag.”

She has been training hard and anticipates the physical and mental challenges of this very difficult race with its unknown aspects, but is ready to compete. “This is the hardest race I’ve ever done. This is the most ‘out there’ remote race in the world right now.” Between transition areas they are totally on their own although emergency measures are in place: “We are required to bring a GPS tracker and a ‘spot tracker where they can see where we are at. And they give you an emergency phone so if you are ever in trouble you can hit the panic button and hopefully, most likely, someone will come get you.” How long will it take? “I have no idea how long this will take. I’m hoping not ten days but I hear it’s ten if you want to finish the race. If you finish you have a very good chance of winning and that’s what we’re there to do.”

Congratulations & Good Luck Chelsey!

Photos of Chelsey and Team Gear Junkie by Ron Steinau