Le Parcour de Wild Race Report

The hike and the trail sounds like a huge challenge!!
How many people participated in the hike?

Hey Chris, Are you interested in next year? I know its a year away but I am very interested in trying the coarse next October. Sounds and feels very challenging— Time will tell…Does any body know why Sam and Matt bailed out?I mean more details?

Jay,

As of right now, I'd definitely be up for a run at it next year but it's too far out to say 100%. Maybe Sam or Matt will come along and offer more detail on their route.

This highlighted one of the bare facts of traveling in such difficult conditions: good gear is only a prerequisite. Fitness, experience, and confidence are as important as any piece of gear.

Bingo!

Thanks for the very nice trip report.

And we're already plotting for next year. It was such a cool time of year to be out there.

I think Dave is awesome and I spent a week in a tent with him–have you ever done that? Any mom signed up on the BPL forums has to pretty cool too!

Here's my list which includes my stuff and my part of group gear. It's from a spreadsheet that doesn't translate to this format well:
With snowshoes skin out weight was about 19 pounds, carried weight about 15 (when carrying the snowshoes) and with food and water I probably started with 36# skin out.

You can try to link to the Google Spreadsheet:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlTloRsx2hiWdDA0SmQ4ekNzVkYyUlEwMi1xellzYXc&hl=en

Type Model Weight (oz)
shoes or boots Salomon XT Wings 27.6
socks, 1st pair Smartwool ankle 1.8
socks, 2nd pair Smartwool ankle 1.8
snowshoes NorthernLitesrace 30
gaiters Dirty Girl 1.1
primary torso base layey Ibexultralight 5.5
trekking pants REI Thaw 7

rain jacket Patagonia Specter 6.5
shell pants GoLyte Reed 6.2
warm hat/balaclava OR beanie 2
warm gloves/mittens Lowe heavy liner 1.5

Tent Group
Sleeping bag Nunatak Custom + balaclava 26
Bivy sack BMW Nano 5
insulated jacket Patagonia Puff 11
insulated pants BMW Cocoon 6
Vapor Barrier clothing Homemade 5.5
torso pad Torso foam 2
three-quarter pad Ridgerest cutdown 6

backpack GoLite Pinnacle 27
dry bag for insulated gearPacific Designs50L 6

sighting compass Sunnuto M2 1.4
Maps Custom print and overview map 4 Group
GPS Garmin Foretrex 101 3.4
Pen/Pencil one pen 0.2
0.5mm mechanical pencil n/a
waterproof map case included with map
LED flashlight Zebra light plus camp light 4.4 with two spare batteries for zebra light

water bottle Nalgene 1L x2, additional 2L 5.5 should have had insulated covers
water treatment Klearwater 30ml 2.2 repackaged in plastic
eating utensil BMW longhandled Ti 0.4
Food Protection included in food weight

trekking pole(s) REI Kids summit 13
whistle ACR 0.2
First aid kit 3
sunglasses Oakley radar path (spare lens) 1.2
earplugs
bear spray UDAP 12

mitt shells BPL Vapor mitt 3.5
underwear Nike Pro 2.5
torso layer PatagoniaHoody R1 11.8
hat with brim Montrail baseball cap 1.5
waterproof socks REI Gore-tex 3.3

personal hygiene items All of that stuff! 3
tiny knife Ringer #2 1.7
camera Panasonic FX580 6
rope 75' 3mm cord 4.9
river shoes Homemade 1.7
Satellite Phone Iridium 9555 10

Stove Trail Designs Caldera Cone–Tri-Ti 2.5
Pot BPL 1100 ti 4
Fire Starting Kit Lots of Stuff 4
Fuel Esbit for two nights 2.5

Thanks for posting up the gear lists…..interesting for sure to see those after reading the article.

Should it be Parkour? Why put a French name on an American race? Yuk…

Of course it's a nice write-up…

Nice work fellas–all around.

Curiously-

Why October?
Who gets invited to the "underground" race?
Is the Le Parcour Race planning to change venues every few years like the AMWC?

Thanks-

In response to Lucas: "Why October?
Who gets invited to the "underground" race?
Is the Le Parcour Race planning to change venues every few years like the AMWC?"

Those are questions only Ryan can answer fully. I know he invited anyone who had completed his wilderness trekking III courses in 2007/2008 but I think he posted it somewhere on the BPL website. I don't know what Ryan's plans are for "Le Parcour" in the future. I hope it becomes a regular fall feature.

In regard to "Why October" I think it was chosen as a time when the big rivers could potentially be run by packraft and when the uncertainties of weather added to the challenge. October hit it big on the bad weather this year but the freeze would have prevented packrafting altogether.

The answer to the food question depends on trip length, conditions and intensity. In this trip the long days, cold weather but relatively short duration had me bring about 2.5# of food per day (including packaging). I probably could have gotten by with less but I hate to run short.

I always try to get 100-150grams of protein daily this takes up about 1/2 pound of weight. I mix the rest between fat and carbohydrate the proportion depending on trip length and intensity of travel. The longer or colder the trip the more fat is needed, the more intense (fast) the travel the more carbohydrate. Proportion can range from 40% carb to 80%. It should be a mix of simple and complex carbohydrate.

Number of calories is calculated roughly by 150 calories per mile (unless your load is heavy), 500 extra for every 1000' of gain, 10% extra for cold conditions.

A 30 mile day with 4000' would have me burn around 7000' calories per day in cold conditions. To replace this fully would take about 3# of food with 60% from carbohydrate. Certainly you can short this significantly for 2-3 weeks if you have enough body fat (I have about 10# of body fat and can get by losing 1/2-1# daily for about a week before my performance suffers). If I targeted 4000 calories per day in these conditions I would lose 2/3 of a pound daily.

On this trip I didn't want to lose much weight as I'm in the middle of training to pace a 3:00 marathon (and need to be able to run one ~2:50 pace to reliably pace at 3:00). When I lose too much weight–especially if I don't get enough protein–recovery and training suffers. I only lost about 2# on this trip.

Another comment on diet is that VARIETY is needed. I've been on several trips with people who simplified their diet to only 2 or 3 items only to find that they couldn't stand them by the end of the trip. I take a variety of bars, candybars, nuts, raisins, mango, tortillas, jerky, during the day and I have a variety of made at home "boil in a bag" type dinners I use. On this trip they were my "cold tested" foods that I know i can eat if frozen.

Perhaps I should write an article on nutrition and the way I make up my meals someday.