Alpine Club Talk
The Tour Divide is the longest mountain bike race in the world, with 2750 miles in one stage and self-supported. It starts in Banff, Canada and finishes in Antelope Wells, New Mexico at the border with the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It follows and intertwines with the Continental Divide, crossing it over 30 times, and it accumulates a total elevation gain of over 200,000 feet, the equivalent of climbing seven times Mount Everest. Competitors are required to finish in no more than 32 days, carry all supplies including food, water, and camping gear, and to self-navigate. No planned external support is allowed. My wife, Palas, and I teamed up to tackle this course on a mountain bike tandem.
In this slideshow, I will disclose how I convinced my wife (and myself) that this race could be an (almost) regular vacation in the backcountry and a dream of a lifetime and how we came to realize, during the race, that instead we had signed up for arguably the toughest race on earth that could turn our dream into a nightmare. Yet, motivated by our longing for adventure we challenged grueling climbs, rough terrain, including rocky, muddy or sandy roads, elements from heavy rain and thunderstorms to strong head winds, and with over 70°F of temperature difference in one day we risked both dehydration and hypothermia. With 3-4 hours of sleep per night, we faced fatigue, sleep deprivation, and sickness, and battled our own willpower to finish in 30 days and 16 hours. We are the fifth tandem to ever complete this race. It was the adventure of a lifetime!
I will describe the natural wonders we saw pedaling from the striking peaks of Alberta, and British Columbia to the woods and big skies of Montana and Idaho, and how upon crossing the vast expanses of the Great Basin in Wyoming we were startled by wild horses and antelopes. I will talk about the satisfaction of crossing the highest passes in Colorado (at nearly 12,000 feet) and thinking that the rest is downhill, only to discover that the hardest climbs were still to come. And it was tackling the steepest and never-ending uphills of New Mexico, debilitated by sickness, that we encountered our worst enemies. We had to tap into our deepest inner resources to fight living nightmares. But more importantly, the bravery, grit and dedication that we discovered during this adventure are invaluable gifts that we will keep for life to face everyday obstacles.
The talk will be followed by a reception with free refreshments.