Over the last several months we have been posting the Primal Quest Badlands webisodes. On Friday, I received an advanced copy of the Primal Quest Badlands DVD. As promised, Randy Ericksen stated that the DVD would be ready in April and he has made good on that. The full video is over 90 minutes long and it appears that he has included everyone in the full length version. If you have not already, be sure to order your copies here.

Great job on the DVD Randy.

Check out this video to see some of the horror stories from the trail on Primal Quest Badlands Web Episode 10. For more videos, check out http://legendaryrandyericksenfilms.wikispaces.com/

We have only one more web episode to post in the near future.

Check out this video to see the Chicken Story and hear some horror stories after the section on the Cheyenne River on Primal Quest Badlands Web Episode 9. For more videos, check out http://legendaryrandyericksenfilms.wikispaces.com/

Check out this video and watch as Team OrionHealth.com crosses the finish line on Primal Quest Badlands Web Episode 8. For more videos, check out http://legendaryrandyericksenfilms.wikispaces.com/

Check out this video and watch as Team OrionHealth.com heads for the finish line while Salomon/Crested Butte chases them on Primal Quest Badlands Web Episode 7. For more videos, check out http://legendaryrandyericksenfilms.wikispaces.com/

Check out this video which takes a look back at the first half of the race on Primal Quest Badlands Web Episode 6. For more videos, check out http://legendaryrandyericksenfilms.wikispaces.com/

Watch what teams do at a transition area on Primal Quest Badlands Web Episode 5. For more videos, check out http://legendaryrandyericksenfilms.wikispaces.com/

Watch Team Bones on the ropes course in Primal Quest Badlands Web Episode 4. For more videos, check out http://legendaryrandyericksenfilms.wikispaces.com/

We will be posting a new web episode each week from the 2009 Primal Quest Badlands race.

Check out number 1.

We are still following up with teams following Primal Quest about their mandatory gear for the race in South Dakota. We followed nuun-FeedTheMachine leading up to PQ focusing on their training for the event.

Primal Quest Mandatory Safety Equipment:

Backpack: Miwok pack from Gregory Pack’s Active Trail line
Headlamp: Light & Motion’s Stella 200L with headstrap.
Lightweight Long pants and Long-sleeved shirt: Arc’Teryx Palisade pants and Rho SL shirt
Waterproof shell jacket and pants: Arc’Teryx Alpha LT jacket and Alpha SL pants
Thermal undergarment top and bottom: Ibex Woolies crew and Woolies bottom
Fleece top: Arc’Teryx Rho LT
Lightweight to medium weight full fingered gloves: Arc’Teryx Gamma SV gloves
Sunglasses: A varied selection of Rudy Project glasses. I used the Noyz
Shoes: Vasque Blur SL
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This is the first in a series of videos that we will post from this year’s PQ Badlands. Thanks to Randy Ericksen for these clips.

Team Salomon/Crested Butte finished in second place overall at this year’s Primal Quest Badlands. This year’s team was comprised of Jari Kirkland, Eric Sullivan (Sully), Jon Brown (JB) and Travis Macy (on Team Merrell/Zanfel Adventure in Primal Quest Montana-2008). We have asked several teams to send us their gear lists which satisfied the PQ mandatory list requirements.

Primal Quest Mandatory Safety Equipment (per person):

Backpack: Salomon Raid
Headlamp: AYUP
Lightweight Long pants and Long-sleeved shirt: Salomon tights, light-weight Salomon longsleeve
Waterproof shell jacket and pants: Salomon Goretex Paclite
Fleece top: Salomon
Sunglasses: Rudy Project
Shoes: Salomon XT Wings
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Rumors abounded before, during and after PQ Badlands as to whether there would be another event for Primal Quest. With participation at a definite low…the rumors were not unwarranted. However, PQ Media Director (and Adventure Blog author) Kraig Becker posted the below on The Adventure Blog to quell the rumors for now. I truly hope it is true as we need this epic event to continue.

While I was in South Dakota a few weeks back for Primal Quest there was a lot of chatter about the future of the event, and whether or not we’d see another race. Many held a grim view of the topic, thinking that the Badlands event would be the last of its kind, while others speculated that a year off might allow the PQ to return to form. Some chose to remain optimistic and talk about “next year”.

Once the race ended, and we all returned home, the rumors about the future of Primal Quest spread to the larger adventure racing community as a whole. Fans of the sport wanted to know if and when they might see another 10-day epic race from the Primal Quest crew headed up by Don Mann, the mastermind behind the event the past few years. Today, on the Primal Quest website, we responded to the rumors and speculation from the community.

In a nutshell, the plan is for PQ to return, possibly as soon as 2010, but more likely not until 2011. The economic downturn has been brutal on just about every aspect of society, and adventure racing in particular. A number of races had to be canceled this year, and some may never return. Sponsorship dollars have been tough to come by, and many teams have scaled back their racing seasons in an effort to save money as well. Hopefully, as the economy begins to turn around, the sport will bounce back to life as well.

I do know that Don is already planning for a 2011 race, discussing possible locations and funding. He hasn’t ruled out a race in 2010, but it would require funding from the host site and a solid number of teams to commit to racing before we could move forward with the race. But, he is strongly committed to having the race return in 2011, and is working to make that happen.

So, for those who have been wondering, there you go. Primal Quest is one of the biggest, toughest races in the world, and it will be back. And you can bet that when it returns, there will be as challenging as ever.

Photo by Kraig Becker

Thanks to Kraig Becker for this most recent update on the Primal Quest Badlands site. Since the race started last weekend….Kraig and the PQ media crew have been keeping us in the loop with up to date information on the race. We will post the final standings tomorrow when they become available. Congrats to all that have competed in the longest expedition adventure race in North America.

Over the past 24-hours there has been a lot of speculation and questions regarding the final placement of the top five teams in Primal Quest Badlands presented by SPOT. Determining that final order is not as simple as who came across the finish line first, as a lot of factors need to be weighed into the equation, including any time credits earned or penalties incurred, and the number of orienteering points found while on the course. Each of these is added or subtracted from a team’s final time total to determine who will be named the Primal Quest champion.

For the past day and a half, the Primal Quest race jury has worked long and hard to factor in all of this information to determine what the final order of finish will be for the top five teams, and while the results are not official until the race ends at 12 PM local time tomorrow, that order should look like this:

1. OrionHealth.com
2. Salomon / Crested Butte
3. Merrell/Zanfel Adventure
4. Bones
5. WEDALI

Congratulations to these five teams for completing the longest adventure race ever held in North America. The grueling 600 mile course through the Black Hills and Badlands was designed to test your skills and determination, and it is safe to say that you passed that test with flying colors.

Comeback after the race officially ends to see the final order of all the teams that competed in Primal Quest Badlands.

This short clip has team members reflecting about their time on the course at PQ Badlands. Don Mann (Primal Quest Director), Travis Macy (Team Salomon/Crested Butte) and others discuss the magnitude of the race and some of the highlights of the event.

We highly anticipated a late night/early morning arrival last night when we posted about Team OrionHealth.com’s position in relation to the finish line. However, due to some navigational errors…it was actually later on Thursday when they finally crossed the finish line. And following in succession after them came Team Salomon/Crested Butte and Team Merrell/Zanfel Adventure. More teams will continue to migrate towards the finish line in the coming days. Congrats to the first three finishers.

Team OrionHealth.com

Team Salomon/Crested Butte

Team Merrell/Zanfel Adventure

Primal Quest Badlands is the 6th installment of the expedition adventure race. Founded in 2001, the adventure race has been dubbed the “The World’s Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition.” Its goal was to bring a world-class, multi-sport expedition race to the North American continent. Each race lasts up to 10 days with the top teams finishing in 5-6 days. Each team is required to be co-ed and have four members.

The past events include the following years and locations:

2002: Telluride, Colorado
2003: Lake Tahoe, California
2004: San Juan Islands, Washington
2006: Moab, Utah
2008: Big Sky, Montana

Below you will find a short summary of each event along with a link to view a video clip from that event.

2002

The first Primal Quest (Subaru Primal Quest) was held in 2002 in the Telluride, Colorado area. Sixty-two from 8 countries competed in this inaugural event that was approximately 250 miles of biking trekking, fixed ropes, kayaking and mountain biking. This first event had a large prize purse of $250,000 for teams from 1st – 15th place. The winning team, SoBe/Smartwool, was comprised of Mike Kloser, Michael Tobin, Danelle Ballangee (all 3 from the US) and Steve Gurney (NZ) and they crossed the finish line in a little over 3 days. SoBe /Smartwool became Nike ACG/Balance Bar in 2003.

1. SoBe/Smartwool
2. Team Montrail
3. Team Golite

Primal Quest Telluride video

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Primal Quest River Director Josh Galt discusses some of the challenges that teams faced swimming and paddling the designated course at this year’s event. Wind, no wind, dark and other factors have shown why adventure racing is not predictable.

Image courtesy of Primal Quest

Word from Primal Quest HQ is that Team OrionHealth.com may finish tonight around 11pm or 12 midnight. These are rough estimates based on time trials — they may come in ahead or behind them — but the team is undoubtedly on the home stretch as they set out on the final 112 mile bike ride to the finish.

Update by Frances Fisher

Photo by Wouter Kingma

Two teams have been disqualified from Primal Quest Badlands presented by SPOT for numerous rules violations. Both Team SMART and Team Native Eyewear were pulled off the course last night following the infractions and a Search and Rescue operation by Primal Quest staff.

Both teams were traveling together at the time of the incident, in which two racers, one from each team, became separated from their teammates, which violated the rule that states that all team members must stay within 100 yards of one another at all times. They also failed to have all of their mandatory gear with them at all times as well, and when the lost athletes went missing for an extended period of time, a search and rescue operation was launched to find them.

As darkness fell, and the night wore on, the PQ staff and volunteers grew more worried for the missing racers. They were wearing just shorts and light shirts, and the evening was growing colder. Luckily the missing members of SMART and Native Eyewear were found, and in good health.

Unfortunately however, the race staff had no choice but to pull them from the race due to the obvious rules violations which were put in place for the safety of the athletes involved in Primal Quest. Both teams are disappointed of course, but understand the reasons for their disqualification.

By Kraig Becker, Primal Quest Media Director

Photo courtesy of Primal Quest

     The race has now been going for about 100 hours, and it has to be taking it´s toll.
     Orionhealth.com (OH) still at, recently got off the water and are trekking towards CP33 “Indian Creek Overlook”. Though the SPOT Tracking Pagedoesn´t show it, racers on the field report Salomon/Crested Butte (S/CB) should be up around 2nd or 3rd place. Merrel/Zanfel (M/Z) put in a strong effort last night and have currently jumped up to 2nd or 3rd, they will continue to remain strong contenders, you may remember they were second place finishers in last years PQ. Team Bones, just a couple hours behind them. Next in line is the Irish team, Endurox_R4 making a strong showing and then Team Imoat. Team nuun-FeedTheMachine, apparently missed a couple of checkpoints and will be penalized an uknown amount of time, possibly explaining why their position dropped down 7th/8th. It is unclear why team Cordura/Osprey Packs (C/OP) is positioned down at 8th/9th as they were right with Team iMoat at the beginning of the Cheyenne River kayak section. Teams trailing the leading ten will have to race to make various cutoff points.

     A bit of drama reported by O/H at the Angostura Reservoir transition, posted up at sleepmonsters.com

“-when Neil Jones’ Merrell/Zanfel (M/Z) team came into transition at Angostura Reservoir. First was their arrival with two team members arriving on one bike (Denise McHale balanced precariously on the seat, husband Greg standing on the pedals and riding) with Neil running the “spare” bike along beside him. One of 5 separate flat tyres which have afflicted M/Z in the race so far occurred not too far from transition and so they proceeded as described to be most efficient and allow those not repairing the bike to prepare for the next legs.”

     Additionally, team M/Z caused a stir among teams at the transition point when they chose to bike with their equipment to the point where they wished to swim from, instead of leaving their bikes in the transition area. It will remain to be seen whether they will be penalized for their interpretation of the rules.

And now, for my favorite: Part II of quotes “Heard on the Course” thanks to Frances Fisher, doing a great job on the media front for PQ (posted this in the middle of the night). Hey don`t you guys ever sleep?
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It appears that the climbing team did not disappoint the racers this year at Primal Quest Badlands. The ropes portion of the race each time has been an integral part of the race. The group tries to find new ways to challenge the teams.

Image at top by Wouter Kingma