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The Adventure Zone

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If you can't go over it, can't go under it and can't get around it, then you have to navigate through it.  This will be the perfect mantra for the competitive and enduring wills of search and rescue (SAR) workers, adventure racers, orienteerers, marathoners and hikers as they converge on Halifax for the sixth annual 24-hour Eco-Endurance Challenge on May 6 and 7.

Securing footing on slippery stones while withstanding the biting chill of fast flowing streams in spring, fighting through the scratchy brambles of thick tangled forests and fumbling to stay atop sinking moss in wet bogs will only be the beginning of the challenge facing participants.

The 24-hour challenge is physical and mental, with participants having to navigate over 220 square kilometres using a map and compass, trying to find 60 control points hidden in the wilderness.

"Keeping a focused mind when the body is physically exhausted is very difficult," says Kelvin King of Halifax Search and Rescue, who hosts the challenge. "Add in the long night portion and it is a great challenge."

King expects 235 participants to take part in this year's challenge. Although they range in age from 14 to 70, most people taking part will be between the ages of 25 and 45, and come from the Maritimes, Ontario and Quebec, with an increasing number coming from U.S. states such as New York, California and Oregon.

In 2001, the first year of the challenge, it was designed solely for SAR first responders, who must be able to use a map and compass, day or night, regardless of terrain or weather, to do their job. The public took notice of the event, and by the next year the challenge was open to anyone who was up to it.

King attributes the quality of the course to its designer, Michael Haynes, an avid outdoorsman and hiker who is well known in Nova Scotia for organizing the first ROGAINE (rugged outdoor group activity involving navigation and endurance) in the province in 1997 and 1999.

"Competitors strategies vary from a relaxed pace and resting at night in the woods, to competitors moving non-stop for the full 24 hours," says King. "The majority do not stop for more than 30 minutes in the 24 hour period. Hallucinations are common for participants who push themselves hard."

Link:
http://www.hrsar.ca/e2c/index.htm