Aucklanders win Alpine Mountain Marathon

A great field of sixty competitors took part in the first running of the Alpine Mountain Marathon in the weekend. At the sharp end there was close competition between some of New Zealand's most accomplished adventure athletes, with pre race favourites Phil Wood and Ross Rotherham eventually triumphing. The event was blessed by amazing weather, awesome landscapes and some top quality navigational challenges.

A rainy Cathedral square greeted competitors on Saturday morning, but as the bus headed south the skies quickly cleared and by Rakaia the foothills could be seen clearly with a light dusting of snow. The bus headed through Mt Somers as the snow began to dazzle in the suns glare. Before long the mystery start for the event became obvious as the Woolshed Creek area at the end of the Mt Somers Walkway. A quick briefing and the teams loaded up with their self-sufficent kit were off into the beech forest of the lower Woolshed creek catchment. An early challenge designed by course setter Chris Forne was a detailed navigation challenge through an old mining area. The lead teams powered through this and a top three was quickly established. Wood and Rotherham were being chased hard by Greig Hamilton and Tim Sikma as well as mixed team Aaron and Lara Prince, the siblings inspired somewhat by the 2nd place performance of Anna Berthelson and Stu Lynch in the recent KEEN Adventure Race were looking to bruise some egos of the all male teams.

The early highlight of the course was a waterfall control, in a deep canyon near Woolshed creek hut, which provided a giddy feast of height, light and water. From here the teams headed up on a loop high up Mt Somers. Exiting the waterfall control, Hamilton and Sikma made a big error heading up the wrong creek, they were to recover quickly but the 4th place team led by Ake Fagerang and the 5th place team with Tony Popenhagen were to pay dearly for this early mistake.

At Woolshed creek hut organisers were ensuring all teams were disinfected for didymo before they headed off west into the Stour catchment. This began the real "journey" of the race. A route from the plains into the vast open spaces of the Ashburton Lakes Basin. Teams from the short course, known as "The Charmer" were checking through, with many taking the opportunity to visit the second detailed map, the amazing jumble of boulders and cliffs known as the water caves. This innovation provided a special and unique challenge for the navigation junkies. Coming down off Mt Somers Wood and Rotherhams lead had been cut back to just over five minutes and there was some hesitation as they approached the boulders. In contrast the next two teams were neck in neck and charging. Lara Prince dwarfed by the scale of the terrain was hanging in there, quietly.

From Woolshed creek hut the long traverse of the Manuka Range began, the Charmer teams who had left earlier were quickly swallowed up by the leaders of the Classic race and it was Wood and Rotherham who arrived at Double Hut, the overnight campsite, first outright, followed 20 minutes later by the Princes. With the organisers understimating the time the course would take the day would prove longer than expected for many teams, who got to enjoy the sunset and moon rise from out on the course. They were eventually greated by the light and fire of Double Hut and everyone had packed plenty of gear for the nippy conditions, as well as light weight tents and food.

The Double Hut campsite proved ideal, showcasing the highlights of the new Hakatere Conservation Park. By moonlight the silhouettes of the mountain ranges fringed the horizon and as the sun rose the first rays of light struck the Arrowsmith range across the valley on the other side of Lake Heron. Those teams with gas left brewed up again for breakfast, while others just sat watching the sunrise. Before long it was time to race again, with the scoring system adjusted to compensate for the previous days miscalculation. Wood and Rotherham justifiably had a clear lead and it was going to be hard for other teams to get past them, but there were teams out there prepared to make a move.

The first was the team of World Rogaine champion Dennis DeMonchy and Robert Jarvis. A bad error early on day 1 had reduced them to also-rans but they were determined to make ammends, opening up a 10 minute lead through brute physical force through the first loop. Long course teams returned to the campsite at this stage and completed another detailed map insert of the immediate hut environment. The scale threw many out as it had done to the Charmer field who tackled it first up. The two leading teams were marking each other and the only other team still in the race was Sikma and Hamilton who had made a strategic decision to miss out an early checkpoint in hope of having more time to collect other checkpoints later in the course.

From Double Hut the teams headed up the Swin river valley over a couple of subsidary high points to the most distant checkpoint at Clent Hills saddle. All teams cut out at least one optional checkpoint here, as the rough river travel and long snow tussock slowed progress. From here it became a race to the finish with all teams following down the Swin to the glassy Lake Heron and around its coast opposite the gigantic roche moutonnee of Sugarloaf to the finish on the southern shore. They were greeted by a BBQ and a glistening Arrowsmith range on a perfect day. A great rebirth of the mountain marathon.

The winners were Wood and Rotherham, followed by the Prince siblings, while on the Charmer it was Colin and Chris Dixon who mastered the elements and the navigational challenge to come home in front. After a relaxing afternoon, complete with a "mountains" and "marathons" quiz to decide the spot prizes. The bus rolled off back to Cathedral Square, leaving the lake and the mountains lying in the sun. To check more photos and results look at www.madeventz.co.nz/alpinemm