All Teams Have Arrived
Villa Cerro Catedral
Bariloche, Argentina — Nov. 28, 1999

	Alpine Flowers

Hear Vail's captain Billy Mattison
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All teams have now arrived at the Ski Resort of Cerro Catedral, Base Camp for the Eco-Challenge..many old friends and new faces, a feeling of excitement in the air. The place is a frenzy of activity. Southern Hemisphere of course means that it's coming into summer...no snow on the surrounding hills but still evident on the higher peaks not too far away at 3500m; competitors looking skyward knowing they will be up there amongst it soon enough.

"The rumor mill of the Eco-Challenge is a powerful thing and word quickly spreads of teams having already spent a month or more in the area..."

This is the first opportunity many racers have had to scope out their competition...some people purposefully going about their tasks whilst others full of bravado strut their stuff for all to see. The rumor mill of the Eco-Challenge is a powerful thing and word quickly spreads of teams having already spent a month or more in the area. Team Vail rumored to have, in their stay here, already completed most sections of the course. Team Vail the winners from last year in Morocco and surely the hot favorites for this event.

I tracked Vail's captain Billy Mattison down at lunch in a busy Swiss style chalet to see what truth there was to these stories. [click for Mattison's statement]

Billy laughed and said he had heard all the same rumors and that yes the last month his team had been enjoying an Adventure Training Vacation here in Patagonia with their families. Partly to escape the Colorado winter but more importantly to train and prepare themselves for what they see as the most fiercely competitive Eco-Challenge yet.

Teams like John Howard's Greenpeace, Team Alaska and Team Sweden are all exceptionally strong. Billy said he has admired John Howard for years and seen his exploits and record of wins in every major event on the adventure racing circuit. But unlike Morocco they are going head to head with ALL these big names this year.

Billy has led his team mates, Ellen Miller, Michael Kloser and Andreas Boesel on a quest beginning the day they left Morocco over a year ago leading them here to Patagonia.

It is he admits going to be a very hard race for the team. Their strongest discipline, the mountain biking section, has been replaced this year by increased kayaking, as much as half the course paddling meaning they have spent a lot of time improving this skill.

More importantly the team has spent a lot of the time here in Bariloche high up in the mountains...Two or three days at a time in the Glacier country, gaining experience in travelling on this treacherous terrain. Crampons, ice axes, and travelling roped together a necessity over the crevasse-filled landscape.

So rumors or not, these guys are prepared...the proof we will all see in a few days from now when the race begins.

— Chris Vile, MountainZone.com Correspondent