More pictures from 2004

I found a few more pictures from the start of the 2004, Eureka to Talkeetna.  These were taken just a few minutes before the racers took off from a gravel pit near the Eureka Lodge.  I've labeled the people I recognize.  My apologies to those I haven't labeled.

Thai Verzone - in purple, facing the camera.  Roman Dial - head visible just over the shoulder of the guy in gray.  Ben Summit - in blue, second from the right.  Dave Looney - far right.

 
 Ben Summit - on the left in blue.  Dave Looney - gray shirt and yellow hat.  Hans Neidig - wearing black behind the racer in the yellow jacket.  Chris Robertson - blue shirt, just right of the yellow jacketed racer.  Jeff Bannish - red shirt, center of picture.  Rob Kehrer - blue shirt, just right of Jeff.  Jim McDonough - in black clothes and blue hat.  Butch Allen - blue vest, holding papers in left hand.  John Lapkass - wearing black pack, facing away from the camera. 

 Roman Dial giving the racers final instructions and guidelines just before the race start.  Roman is on the left wearing black with orange bike helmet. 

Packrafting by Roman Dial

For those of you who haven't checked out Roman Dial's packrafting book yet, you should.  Packrafting is an essential skill for surviving the Wilderness Classic and even if you're not adventure racing, it's fun to do.

A packraft is the Supercub of hiking.  It opens up lots of backcountry terrain that wasn't possible before. 
Packrafting

2004 Anchorage Daily News Article

Here's a newspaper article from the Anchorage Daily News about the 2004, Eureka to Talkeetna race. Reprinted in full with the express permission from the Anchorage Daily News.

Vernon , Verzone brave miles of Class V white water to claim victory

WILDERNESS CLASSIC: Pair fights through "Entrance Exam," "Toilet Bowl" rapids.

Anchorage Daily News (AK) - Thursday, July 29, 2004

Author: CRAIG MEDRED Anchorage Daily News ; Staff

Far from civilization in the backcountry north of the Glenn Highway early this week, Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic racers Gordy Vernon and Thai Verzone stumbled upon a group of trekkers who'd accidentally crossed the path of the state's craziest endurance race.

Better hurry up, the young hikers told 48-year-old Vernon and his 29-year-old sidekick, the other competitors who'd left Eureka Summit on Sunday were far, far ahead in the 100-to-150-mile race to Talkeetna. Vernon told the youngsters he wasn't concerned.

"You don't worry about handguns when you have an atomic bomb,'' said Vernon , the veteran wilderness racer, who now lives in Cordova.

The "atomic bomb,'' in this case, turned out to be a 16-foot-long, frameless cataraft that Vernon and Verzone used to dominate the race. While other competitors made difficult, alder-bashing portages around the Talkeetna River canyon, Vernon and Verzone were riding their secret weapon through 14 miles of boiling Class V white water to victory.

Not that it was easy.

"Never again,'' Vernon said when reached by telephone in Talkeetna Wednesday. "We swam twice.''

"We failed the Entrance Exam,'' added Talkeetna's own Verzone.

Entrance Exam is a notorious hole at the start of the Talkeetna River canyon.

In his book "Fast and Cold -- A Guide to Alaska Whitewater," the late Andy Embick warns that Entrance Exam "has flipped rafts and thrashed kayakers. 'Swimmers' escaping this hole inevitably go into several more holes downstream.''

Verzone said he and Vernon avoided that fate only because they crawled onto the bottom of their overturned raft.

"The boat was upside down and going backward,'' Verzone said. "But we paddled it to the next beach before 'Toilet Bowl,' '' a second dangerous rapid.

On the beach, he said, they righted the boat and "got our composure back.''

Then they put back into the river, made it safely past Toilet Bowl and on downstream until they hit a massive, river-wide hole that almost swallowed the raft. Verzone saw the trouble coming.

"I'm yelling at Gordy, 'Paddle, paddle, paddle!' he said. "Just screaming at him.''

It wasn't enough. Vernon 's frantic stroking with a kayak paddle powered the front of the long, skinny cataraft through the hole, but the back stuck. Verzone felt himself being sucked down to shoulder depth in the river.

"Then the boat disappears and everything turns white,'' he said. "I'm in the hole.''

He eventually pops up. Sees Vernon still paddling crazily. Then goes back down again.

"I wonder, in this chaos, if Gordy knows I'm not on the boat,'' Verzone said.

Not that it mattered all that much. Vernon had no choice but to try to paddle the boat out of the hole, which he finally did. Verzone, meanwhile, managed to kick to one side and break free of the current.

He rode a wave train down to the raft, climbed back aboard, and the two were off to their first Wilderness Classic win since the course went from Hope to Homer on the Kenai Peninsula in 1997.

"It was a good adventure,'' Verzone said. "You never know what's going to happen.''

Second-place finishers Bobbie Schnell and Chris Robertson, a pair of para-rescue jumpers from the 210th Rescue Squadron in Anchorage, can attest to that. They thought they had the race won until they rolled into Talkeetna.

"We didn't sleep during the race,'' Robertson said, "and the first two days we were flying.

"We came down the (Talkeetna) river. We hadn't seen anyone from the start. We'd crossed the creek nobody could cross last year.''

They thought they had the race in the bag, but what they didn't know was that while they had deflated their packrafts and begun an alder-bashing portage around the worst of the canyon, Vernon and Verzone were riding the river to victory.

"We had no idea of Thai and Gordy's secret weapon,'' Robertson said.

But then neither did anyone else.

As of Wednesday afternoon, 16 of the 35 racers who started the race had finished. Here are the early results and times:

ALASKA WILDERNESS CLASSIC

Eureka Summit to Talkeetna - Finishers

Vernon and Verzone, 2 days, 7 hours; Schnell and Robertson, 2 days, 9 hours; Jim McDonough and Butch Allen, 2 days, 11 hours, 13 minutes; Bjorn Flora, Jason Geck and Jeff Bannish, 2 days, 12 hours, 30 minutes; Ben Summit, Tyler Johnson, Hans Neidig and Paul Hanis, 2 days, 12 hours, 51 minutes; Roman Dial and Roman Jr., 3 days, 4 hours, 20 minutes; and Bill Collins, 3 days, 4 hours, 50 minutes.

More Pictures from 2004 Race - Eureka to Talkeetna

The morning of Day 2. 4:00 am start after "sleeping" on the ground for 2 hours.



This was a hard morning as I tried to choke down some dry food with ice cold water while hiking. I lagged a bit behind my partners but felt better after an hour or so. I didn't want them to slow down for me and they didn't. That's why a partner on the Classic is so valuable, to keep you on the pace. This picture is in the upper headwaters of the Oshenta River. We came across intrepid adventurers Erin and Hig and talked with them for a couple minutes before going our separate ways. http://www.aktrekking.com/


Climbing to the 6000 foot pass that divides the Susitna River drainage and the Talkeetna River drainage.


On the Talkeetna drainage side of the pass. We followed a nice sheep trail up to the top of the ridge visible in this picture and then slid down scree. The ice was bullet-proof hard so we carefully skirted it on scree and unstable moraine.

After a couple miles of large, unstable moraine rock, this down-sloping tundra was a great respite. About 55 miles into the race. Not long after this picture was taken, Roman and Roman Jr. passed us on their mountain bikes, making excellent time over relatively flat ground.

About 58 miles and 24 hours into the race.

Here's that super-sweet but short highway of a trail that gradually descends for a few miles to the Talkeetna River. This trail is so smooth you can almost sleep while you're walking it. It's the middle of the day and warm, exhaustion is starting to set in, the tundra looks soft and comfortable. A nap was really tempting but we pressed on at a fast hike knowing we could start floating in just a couple miles.

After 62 hard miles on the ground, we were happy to get off our feet and into the boat. However, the water was fast, rocky and difficult. One of our team dumped his boat within 100 yards of launching in the water. In an amazing feat of gymnastics, he was able to get back in his packraft, grab his floating pack and navigate Class II-III glacial water all at the same time. A couple miles downstream, we passed Roman and Roman Jr. on the bank of the river. This picture is us getting ready for the first float of the race.

We floated the next 12 hours on the Talkeetna River until it got dark and hypothermia set in. At about midnight and mile 80 on Day 2, we built a fire with driftwood on a gravel bar and tried to warm up. We were floating again super early and by noon on Day 3 we were portaging the Talkeetna Canyon which is somewhere past the 100 mile mark. We portaged the Talkeetna Canyon on the left by using a bear trail. This trail was scary and strenuous with FRESH piles of bear scat as it gained and lost elevation in and out of gullies. At one point, as we thrashed up and out of a steep ravine through thick undergrowth, trying to find the faint trail again, we climbed past a den that smelled strongly of bear or some other carnivore.

This picture is on the bank of Iron Creek about 140+ miles and 58 hours into the race. Just a few hours left to float on the mostly flat Talkeetna River. Just as we started to inflate our packrafts, Jeff, Jason and Bjorn floated by us on Iron Creek. We hadn't seen them the entire race and they floated by just a few minutes ahead of us. Right after they passed by, we saw a fresh half-eaten salmon a few feet away. We inflated our packrafts as fast as we could and just as we were launching through the weeds of the bank of the swift stream, we saw the good sized grizzly across the creek about 100 feet away. We yelled and waved our arms, it hesitated and we almost fell over each launching our rafts and floating away, leaving the bear to finish it's lunch.

2005 Race Report

Thank you to Roman Dial who emailed me this race report.

2005 – Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic
Eureka to Talkeetna – June 26--July 3, 2005

Overall Winners: The big news this year is that the 48-hour barrier in a Wilderness Classic was broken by Bobby Schnell (2nd Place 2004), Jason Geck (4th place in 2004), Tyler Johson (5th place in 2004) and newcomer Rory Stark, all of Anchorage. Their time was 1 day, 23 hours and 29 minutes. Solo racer Bjorn Flora of Fairbanks came in second with a time that also nearly broke the two day mark (2 days, 1 hour, 20 minutes). Third place went to Butch Allen and Jim McDonoungh (2 days, 5 hours, 38 minutes). This pair has finished third three years in a row, each year taking a new primarily floating route. All three teams smashed the Gordy Vernon and Thai Verzone “atomic bomb” (cat raft) record carrying only “had guns” (packrafts). That’s how coups are pulled, no?

Route Dist. Time Winner(s)
1982 Hope to Homer 150 miles 6 d 10 h 15 m Roman Dial
1983 Hope to Homer 150 miles 4 d 20 h Roman Dial & Jim Lokken
1984 Hope to Homer 150 miles 3 d 13 h Dave Manzer
1985 Mentasta-McKinley 235 miles 7 d 22 h 12 m Hank Timm
1986 Mentasta-McKinley 235 miles 5 d 23 h Hank Timm
1987 Mentasta-McKinley 235 miles 4 d 18 h 27 m Hank Timm & Randy Pitney
1988 Nabesna-McCarthy 150 miles 2 d 16 h 28 m Roman Dial
1989 Nabesna-McCarthy 150 miles 3 d 6 h 9 m Dave Manzer, Adrian Crane & Tom Possert
1990 Nabesna-McCarthy 150 miles 3 d 8 h 42 m Brant McGee & Jeff Gedney
1991 Gates of the Arctic 130 miles 2 d 6 h 18 m Brant McGee & Adrian Crane
1992 Gates of the Arctic 130 miles 2 d 16 h Brant McGee & Dave Dixson
1993 Gates of the Arctic 130 miles 2 d 7 h 52 m Gordy Vernon
1994 Donnelly-McKinley 140 miles 2 d 12 h 36 m Frazier Miller
1995 Donnelly-McKinley 140 miles 2 d 12 h 20 m Clark Saunders
1996 Donnelly-McKinley 140 miles 2 d 12 h 20 m Steve & Rocky Reifenstuhl
1997 Hope to Homer 150 miles “fifth day” Gordy Vernon & Thai Verzone
1998 Hope to Homer 150 miles 4 d 23 h 30 m Gordy Vernon
1999 Hope to Homer 150 miles ???? Jim Jaegar & Laura McDonough
2000 Nabesna-McCarthy 150 miles 2 d 11 h 43 m Steve & Rocky Reifenstuhl
2001 Nabesna-McCarthy 150 miles 2 d 5 h 49 m Steve & Rocky Reifenstuhl
2002 Nabesna-McCarthy 150 miles 2 d 4 h 23 m Roman Dial
2003 Eureka-Talkeetna 160 miles 3 d 15 h 5 m Hans Neidig, Chris Robertson, Paul Hanis
2004 Eureka-Talkeetna 160 miles 2 d 7 h 40 m Gordy Vernon & Thai Verzone
2005 Eureka-Talkeetna 160 miles 1 d 23 h 29 m Schnell, Geck, Johnson, & Stark

Long sunny days and afternoon showers raised glacial rivers to high volume during the first few days of the 160 mile race. Air Force PJ Bobby Schnell led his team of Jason Geck, Tyler Johnson, and Rory Stark to cruise to a sleepless victory in 47 hours 29 minutes, vaporizing last year’s record by over seven hours and breaking the 23 year record by three hours.

Running across 65 miles of mountainous terrain, including several high, snow covered passes, the group put in on the upper Talkeetna River using packrafts 23 hours after the start of the race near Eureka Lodge on the Glenn Highway. They then floated 45 miles to the Talkeetna Canyon, portaging the worst of the rapids, and floating an additional few miles before pulling out to follow bear trails through the canyon. They put in again at Iron Creek, 25 miles upstream of Talkeetna and paddled to the fastest finish ever in the 24 years of the event.

“It was all Bobby,” said 32 year old Jason Geck. “I led for a lot of the river portion, but on land I felt like a sheep. I was so impressed by Bobby’s strength and his ability to keep it together all the time, even without sleep.”

Schnell, however, said it was a team effort. “Everybody did their part, everybody helped in a critical way at some point in the race.”

“We were more experienced in the packrafts than Tyler and Rory, but after they’d helped us break trail in the mountain snow, we just couldn’t leave them behind,” added Geck, who described the 8 foot waves they paddled in the Talkeetna Canyon as “very impressive.”

Race rules allow for any combination of people to travel, start, or finish together. During the 2003 running of the Eureka to Talkeetna event, Schnell and Geck together finished fifth, after starting with other teammates. Tyler Johnson finished fifth in 2004.

Coming in second, less than two hours behind the leaders and five hours ahead of the 2004 winning pace, was solo finisher, 29 year old Bjorn Flora of Fairbanks. Bjorn took a slightly more northerly route, traveling the first 50 miles with third place finishers Butch Allen and Jim McDonough to the Oshetna River. From there Bjorn headed up into the mountains following the so-called “APU” route down Aspen Creek to The Talkeetna River, while Butch and Jim blew up their boats and headed downstream on the Oshetna, headed for the Susitna River. Wilderness race rules allow for any route that is not near civilization (no roads, motor vehicles, caches or pack animals).

“The rivers were real high this year,” said Butch, who with Jim has come in third place for the last three years, each year by a wildly different route. “We found the Oshetna very exciting, particularly the last five miles.” When asked if they had slept during any of their 53 hour 38 minute run, he replied, “Yea, we took some cat naps when we tied our boats together on the Susitna.”

The two portaged Devil’s Canyon and Watana Canyon on their 210 mile route, first pioneered by last year’s winner, Gordy Vernon, in 2003 when he finished that race next-to-last.

2003 winner Hans Neidig teamed up with Dave Looney to take on a new route this year that involved floating the supercharged Chickaloon River. After hiking into the river in late afternoon, they blew up their packrafts and ran several miles of the river before coming to a blind curve.

“We couldn’t see what was around the corner,” said Looney, “until it was too late. There was a big rock on river-right with a log pushed up against it by the high water and another on river left with a big sweeper pinned there, too.

“We both got by the first one, but Hans got caught upstream of the second one. I looked back and saw him coming out from beneath the sweeper without his boat.”

“I got my arm dislocated going under the sweeper into a rock tunnel. I thought I’d cork that little rock tunnel and drown but I shot out of that and got washed over a submerged boulder. Then I got washed down between two cabin-sized boulders, getting caught between them in their hydraulics.” Looney was downstream watching helplessly as his partner was washed up and down in the huge “hole” below the house-sized boulders

“I came up over and over but just couldn’t get out. Finally, I thought, ‘This is what it feels like to die,’ when an image of my wife came to me and I realized I had to give it one last try. That last shove seemed to do the trick and I was washed out.” Hans was able to swim to shore with a dislocated shoulder that popped back into place.

Meanwhile the winning group made good time in the high waters. “Yea, it was pretty much a near-perfect run. We had no bear problems, no flips in the boats. We really didn’t make any navigational errors either,” said Schnell who trained for this year’s race by running mountains, trails, and even sprints at the track for speed work.

“It’s a new race out there,” observed Geck. “If you want to win you pretty much have to run -- down the hills, across the flats. These guys go really fast.”

Alpacka Raft Drawing Winner: Butch Allen won the Alpacka raft donated by Sheri Tingey of Alpacka Rafts.

Satellite Phones and Evacs: Once again Sat Phones were required equipment and once again they worked very well, both for responding to emergency circumstances and for getting out of the race in no-emergency situations. They will continue to be required gear.

2006 Wilderness Classic: Next year’s race is planned for the Brooks Range. Possibilities are (1) Atigun Pass to Arctic Village or (2) Haul Road to Coldfoot with mandatory checkpoint at Anaktuvuk Pass. Current plans are for last week of June or first week of July, possibly with a van driving to the start from Fairbanks. For the Atigun Pass to Arctic Village route racers would be responsible for getting out, taking the daily Wright Air Service flight to Fairbanks (http://www.wrightair.net/ArcticVillage.htm $155 currently – more next year!).

2005– Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic -- Eureka to Talkeetna

OFFICAL RESULTS 19 starters, 13 finishers

1. Bobby Schnell (Anchorage), Jason Geck (Anchorage), Tyler Johnson (Anchorage), Rory Stark (Anchorage): 1 day, 23 hours, 29 minutes NEW RACE RECORD
2. Bjorn Flora (Fairbanks): 2 days, 1 hour, 20 minutes
3. Butch Allen (Anchorage), Jim McDonough (Anchorage): 2 days, 5 hours, 38 minutes
4. Zach Shloser (Anchorage): 2 days, 13 hours
5. Bill Collins (Palmer): 2 days, 17 hours, 56 minutes
6. Matt Reardon (Eagle River), Robert Kehrer (Anchorage):, Pete Ostrinski (Anchorage): 4 days, 30 minutes
7. John Lapkass, (Anchorage): 4 days, 12 hours

DNF Dick Griffith (Anchorage), Dave Looney (Anchorage), Hans Neidig (Palmer), Donna Klecka (Eagle River), Will Gilmore (San Francisco), John McConnaughy (Anchorage)

Talkeetna Canyon

Rumor has it that the overgrown airstrip just above the Talkeetna Canyon might be "brushed-out" and usable by the end of the summer. In the past, willows and brush had overgrown this strip so that only very skilled Super Cub pilots could land there and most of the time even they wouldn't risk trying to squeeze their planes into the tight accommodations.

Rafters and kayakers wanting to do the Canyon have traditionally flown in to Buck's Airstrip, Yellowjacket Creek or Murder Lake. It takes a few hours to float from Buck's to the actual Talkeetna Canyon rapids and Yellowjacket Creek airstrip is a little closer than that. Murder Lake is a drop-off point for float planes. From Murder lake, you can float down Prairie Creek to reach the Talkeetna River just a few miles above the start of the Talkeetna Canyon rapids.

The Talkeetna Canyon is one of the best whitewater runs in the country. It's about 14 miles of continuous Class III and IV rapids. A note of interest is that Wilderness Classic veteran Barney Griffith may have made the first descent of the Talkeetna in 1978 with Bill Spencer. The Canyon is not suitable for packrafting.

For more information on running the Talkeenta, check out Andrew Embick's book on Alaskan Whitewater. Fast and Cold You can also check out Karen Jettmar's river rafting book. The Alaska River Guide. Or you can also check out this cool link to Jim Strutz's description of the Talkeetna. Jim has extensive experience on Alaskan rivers.

Contact Talkeetna Air Taxi for more information about when they might start flying in to this small landing strip for Talkeetna Canyon adventure runs.

The Wilderness Classic route from 2003 - 2005 ran from Eureka to Talkeetna and most racers spent a fair amount of time floating the Talkeetna River and circumventing the Talkeetna Canyon rapids. Note: when I passed through this airstrip a few years ago during the Classic, there were numerous fresh grizzly tracks in the sand near the river. This probably isn't a good place to camp if you want to avoid bears. In fact, the whole Talkeetna Canyon area seems to heavily populated and traversed by bears.








Here's a couple Classic racers at the confluence of Prairie Creek and the Talkeetna River "battening down the hatches".