Weather Conditions Deteriorating
Top Teams Strategize Their Sleep
Bariloche, Argentina — Dec. 3, 1999

	The Three Women

Mark Burnett Talks About the Leaders
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Lucky to be here typing this after a near death helicopter flight in the mountains earlier today...caught in 80-knot winds trying to cross the jagged peaks to PC11 and forced to abandon our flight.

Tough on the journalists but sheer hell for those teams caught up there in the high alpine of Patagonia. The cards have certainly been dealt favorably for the two leading teams Greenpeace and Atlas Snowshoes/Rubicon who have descended from 2400m to begin the whitewater leg of the course.

Throughout the night, teams Greenpeace, Atlas Snowshoes/Rubicon and Sierra Nevada were forced to ascend the sheer rock faces and waterfalls in darkness to arrive at the top of the Catedral Traverse at 5:40am. Under the dark, moonless sky, crowds of locals gathered by the roadside of this beautiful alpine lake to peer across in the distance at the silhouette of the jagged rock walls. Small pinpricks of light could be seen painfully, slowly, edging up the rock walls as the teams ascended the fixed ropes.

"Ahead of them in the pouring rain lies a night of whitewater-river rapids, these rapids would be classed as dangerous in daylight let alone the pitch darkness...."

Team Greenpeace arrived into PC11 at 3:30pm looking strong but certainly on the surface a little worse for wear...John Howard's race bib hanging in tatters. He commented they had a good time of it in the mountain traverse with no problems. I would hate to see the state of him after a bad day! On the course design he said, "I give credit to Mark Burnett for making a very difficult course interesting, even for the most experienced, and the course is going to be very difficult for the teams further back in the pack."

At the transition PC11, Greenpeace makes the decision to push forward despite the pressing need to sleep. In the three days since the race began they have had a total of less than two hours of it — grabbed fleetingly in 15-minute naps. The team leaves crampons, ropes and ice axes behind in favor of wet suits and life vests. They are issued with two-person, inflatable kayaks and with an elapsed time of less than 1/2 an hour they press out through the reeds onto the lake. Ahead of them in the pouring rain lies a night of whitewater-river rapids, these rapids would be classed as dangerous in daylight let alone the pitch darkness.

No sooner than the team departs, Atlas Snowshoes/Rubicon arrives at the PC only one hour behind them. The three-women/one-man team is looking fresh, even a bounce in its step. The team's initial plan to sleep at the checkpoint is brushed aside as it realizes that team Sierra Nevada from Spain is hot on its heels and the Kiwis an hour in front.

Earlier this afternoon, Team Outback Canada was rescued between PC6 and PC7 way off course...completely lost, with female member Laura Walsh suffering from severe abdominal pains and two of her teammates suffering from dehydration. With conditions now deteriorating rapidly out there, we are sure to see many teams start to question the sense of continuing.

— Chris Vile, MountainZone.com Correspondent