Asia's biggest adventure race

Adventure racing is a sport, or actually a "multi-discipline endurance competition," that I have been getting more and more interested in over the last two years or so. No two races require exactly the same combination of disciplines, but most races, which range in length from 8 hours to up to 10 days or more, generally involve at least some combination of trail running, mountain biking, orienteering, climbing and/or rappelling, and paddling.

Recently, I remembered that the biggest such race in Asia takes place somewhere close to where we live, so I looked it up and found that the 2011 Red Bull Mountain Quest would be taking place the weekend of September 3, so Stacy and I bought train tickets and headed out for a whirlwind weekend to check it out.

Stacy and I on the upper lip of the karst

Mostly, I just want to post video and pictures of the event, but I am trying to give enough context to make it all make sense. The event took place in a karst, which is a natural rock feature similar to the Grand Canyon, but instead of being open-top canyons, caves and natural rock bridges have been formed as water flows through the soft limestone.

This specific race has 15 co-ed, four-person teams from all over the world (America, New Zealand, China, France, etc.) racing for three days through the karst landscape. Teams navigate with a map and compass, kayaking, rappelling, running cross country, and mountain biking from one checkpoint to another.

Sadly for us, because of the rugged nature of the course, much of the activity did not lend itself to spectating, but on the race director's recommendation, Stacy and I positioned ourselves to see the rappelling, which was done in pairs off of a bridge. The course director described it as "spectacular," and I would have to agree. See for yourself:

On top of the bridge

The bridge racers must rappel off of: 500 ft. straight down

We arrived as race organizers were setting up the rappel and were able to see the whole event, from start to finish. Here they are rigging the scaffold and the ropes:

See the first team to arrive at the bridge rappel all the way down:

And finally, two teams are rappelling while a third, which has finished the rappel, links up with their other members and begins the trail run:

By the end of the race, we had met some students who were acting as interpreters for race teams, and volunteered to be a part of next year's squad of interpreters. Hopefully they will remember to call us...