4 local climbers practice night navigation

Jul 01, 2011 3 Comments by

Team Kootenay Kaos: Vince Hempsall, Nelson Rocha, Sacha Kalabis, Dusty Eagleston

On June 27, at 9 pm, four local rock climbers who make up the “Raid The North Extreme” adventure race team Kootenay Kaos set out to practice night-time orienteering in the backcountry near Nelson, BC. It took 8.5 hours to go from the parking lot of Whitewater Ski Resort and through four checkpoints back to town. And we only got lost once.

The course involved hiking up to the summit of White Queen and then bushwacking our way down, up, and through terrain that included alder-choked slopes, creek crossings and snow. The training was also a chance to practice sleep deprivation – everyone on the team was up for a minimum of 24 hours and, after the training, we all had to go to work. (Dusty was actually late for her job as a master baker.)

Here’s a video from that night:

Training

About the author

Vince is an editor, writer and owner of Wonow Media Ltd, the publisher of the West Kootenay Rock Guide.

3 Responses to “4 local climbers practice night navigation”

  1. Rik says:
    July 2, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    You guys are going to rock this. It’s 5am after a night of bush-wacking and you’re still looking fresh.

  2. Chris Shepherd says:
    July 4, 2011 at 10:41 am

    That looks awesome! A little Blair Witch at times, but still awesome!

  3. See locals prepare for Kootenay adventure race | Nelson BC News : The Nelson Post says:
    July 5, 2011 at 11:20 am

    [...] it out at Climbing in the Kootenays. window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({appId: "114928558568159", status: true, cookie: true, [...]

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