AR Live Coverage

24/07/2025

Pangong Lake.
Pangong is an endorheic ( no outlet ) lake but also a salt lake. Left over from when India crashed into Asia. The Ocean/Lake is now more than 4km's above sealevel.
Most international borders follow rivers or Ridgelines but there's a border that runs directly across Pangong lake. One third is in India and the rest is in China which is interesting when you consider both countries often have border disputes. Asking for trouble.
Now it is claimed that Pangong is the highest salt lake in the world at 4350m but on my AllTrails Topo it only reads 4250m. Both Tso Moriri and Tso Kar come in at approx 4530m.

22/07/2025

A few days ago we had hoped to go from Nubra valley to Pangong lake via Shyock but due to the high flow of the river the road was flooded. Didn't know that at the time of shooting this video but you can tell it's full. So we had to go back to Leh over the Kardungla (5359m) and then the next day cross the Changla (5300m) to get to the lake. Even that road had a small washout that took 30min to clear.

20/07/2025

Some fun travel on the back of a truck to Tyakshi the last village before the Pakistan border. They were at war a couple of months ago but it's all quiet on the western front at the moment.

19/07/2025

Two days hiking the upper valley above Hunder Dok weren't enough but it was tough, enjoyable fun. You could spend a week up there easily.

16/07/2025

This is so awesome to see, a Youth team in North America. Congratulations to Mr Johnston, Brain, Wayne, the parents, school and all the other people for making this happen because it's impossible by themselves. They need key people behind them to coach, plan, organize and coordinate all of the logistic in a very complex sport. Good luck to all involved and I'm sure it will be a wonderful experience and the first of many learning curves!.

We're excited to have four high school adventure racers from Maryland, USA heading north to 🇨🇦 to compete in Wilderness Traverse, the Adventure Racing World Series - North America Region Championship and, oh yeah, it's their FIRST EVER overnight race! 30 hours of nonstop trekking, biking, and paddling that will test their grit, brains, and heart as they compete with some of NA's top teams.

How is team getting to the starting line? Thanks to the amazing support of friends & family AND the global AR community who are rallying to get them ready, get them to the start line, and support youth development in adventure racing. Follow and cheer Team Full Steam Ahead as they level up to a new challenge.

➡️ Read how it happened: https://www.wildernesstraverse.com/single-post/full-steam-ahead-to-canada

📍 July 26-27 | Sudbury, Ontario
📡Follow the race and the teams at wildernesstraverse.com

Thanks for the support from:

The Dark Zone: An Adventure Racing Podcast
ARWS - Adventure Racing World Series
Canadian Adventure Racing Association

Adventure Enablers
Broad Run Off Road

16/07/2025

The patchy cloud and light in Nubra valley always makes the scenery look even better. We are going for a two day hike up behind Hundar to the high meadows and Hundar Dok tomorrow.

14/07/2025

The Spanish lady we meet in Upshi came back from Stok today and found a Rat in her loo.
The joys of India.

14/07/2025

This is another great Post ( from 2.5 years ago) that just happened to come up on my feed this morning. I think Andrew has made great progress in NZ and we now have teams from Taranaki and Nelson looking to take on the bigger races and some may progress to racing internationally. Sponsorship will come when we have meaningful media that reaches beyond our small iinsular circle. As Andrew points out NZ has a depth of talent and there are many people that are helping, supporting and encouraging youth development. My concern is internationally. Where are the new teams? Not just youth but any new teams! And teams that are capable of completing a Full Expedition competently and competitively. I have talked many times about the drop off in race entries ( partially because there are too many races ) but it's the competitiveness that is also a major concern. Over the last 5 years we have lost Haglof Silva, Avaya ( the two best teams over the last ten years ) and several other top Swedish teams. I could just about predict the top five at the WC's without even seeing the line up. It will be the same as last year and the year before with the potential addition of Fear Youth. Fear Youth is the exception and this is largely due to Andrew and others. I have seen shoots of hope in France and pockets of development in South America but it takes years for this talent to come through if at all. What is being done to not just developing Youth but to develop competitive teams? Sadly I see no progress. I see a bright future for the sport in NZ competitively and progressively with an amazing school system a great 4 race A1 National series, the return of GZ and now with two major races.

OPEN LETTER ABOUT YOUTH SUPPORT!
(5 min read--lets do this! please repost and share!)

To the NZ AR community--

I’ve been championing youth in AR for decades–initially by leading teams of my students through 24-48 hour races in California, then during a stint in North Dakota through an organization called Ground Up Adventures, and now in NZ via the FEAR society. Over time my thoughts on youth in the sport have essentially stayed the same–there are some incredibly capable kids out there who, if given the chance and support, could be engaging and enjoying even the biggest and gnarliest events on offer.

AR is a special type of event. It is transformative in many ways and demands of successful participants qualities that are highly valuable as part of a well-lived life–good communication, resilience in the face of failure, and a good balance of ambition and a checking of the ego. Achievements are wrought, in the microcosm of the sport, only as a collective. There is no individual glory, and harnessing strengths while acknowledging weaknesses within a team is a critical skill in the game, as is a willingness, or maybe even a desire, to embrace uncertainty and thrive together in spite of it.

It’s awesome. And Kiwis, at least per capita, tend to be pretty good at it. The depth of talent in NZ adventure racing is arguably unmatched anywhere in the world. At a national level, secondary school adventure racing programs are thriving–the Hillary Challenge is a proud tradition, with its national title being heavily contested by schools on both islands. Adventure racers are celebrated here, and rightly so, with the big events being iconic challenges that many everyday Kiwi’s aspire to.

For our youth teams, despite their potential, there’s a challenge though. AR is expensive. Training is less of a problem. Getting a bit of time off and managing university or secondary school exam timetables is sometimes an issue, but these can often be worked around. The 25-40K it costs for a young team to race internationally, or 15+K for some of the bigger races here in NZ or across the ditch? Not so easy. Sponsorship for young teams is HARD to come by (ok, sponsorship for ALL teams is hard to come by!), and takes time, experience, and connections most of these talented young athletes won’t have. Not only that, many sponsorships aren’t good fits, and take energy and focus away from teams, not really being worth it in the end.

So this leaves a dilemma. We have crazy talented kids in NZ who, given the opportunity, could represent this country on the world stage. These teams would serve as role models to up and coming teams and demonstrate a pathway forward that extends beyond the Hillary Challenge Cup, a pathway that wouldn’t make these kids choose between paying for university (or other costs of burgeoning adulthood) and exploring their potential as members of the new vanguard of youth adventure racers. But they need support and resources, or simply put, this vanguard will disappear as quickly as it came.

This year FEAR society is currently supporting team FEAR_youth in their bid to exemplify this potential. The team was formed just over a year ago and has been exciting to watch. They are currently racing in GODZone, sitting somewhere inside the top 10, not too far behind team Estonia Ace, currently ranked 2nd in the world in the Adventure Racing World Series rankings. The combined age of the FEAR_youth team is 75 years. None of them were born when Nathan Fa’avae and his legendary crew were definitively declaring NZ as the AR capital of the world more than 2 decades ago. That’s pretty awesome.

But what’s even more awesome is that they’re not anomalies. Yeah, they are awesome–each member of the team has put in the work, done the suffering, and learned the lessons. They are each and every one of them incredible athletes and human beings. But they aren’t alone. This country is filled with youth like them. Youth who aren’t afraid to navigate themselves over mountains, paddle down whitewater rivers, get lost, freeze and go hungry. Youth who are ready and willing to “meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same” as Rudyard Kipling advises in his poem ‘If’.

So how do we give them a shot? How do we extend that pathway? How do we bridge the gap between Hillary Challenge and the national and international stage for these youth?

Well, it starts with a conversation. And getting people excited about the idea–as excited as I am. As excited as Craig from AR Live Coverage is. We need excited people with connections and passion. And then it takes a good plan–something that is inclusive, and fair, where these youth teams can afford to participate and test their mettle against others of their ilk. And then it takes resources–reliable and consistent annual funding that will take away the burden of choosing between AR and the rest of their lives and allow the best of these teams to represent NZ on the world stage.

This open letter is part 1: the conversation. Part 2? Well, I’ve got a plan, and am currently seeking feedback from select folks in the NZ AR community, so if you’re keen to be involved, or learn more about what I have in mind, feel free to get in touch via fearsociety. And part 3? Well, FEAR society is committed, so that’s a start. I reckon with our commitment alone, we’re about 20% of the way to where we need to be on an annual basis, and thats before we’ve really even gotten started.

So lets generate some excitement about the future of youth AR in NZ while we watch those dots and get this conversation rolling, shall we?

AR Live Coverage GODZone Adventure Adventure Racing Discussion Group

14/07/2025

Another incredible post by Nathan with some insight into how they became the greatest of all time. Follow True West and enter the race and become Better by learning from the best.

12/07/2025

The Dalai Lama arrived in Leh today. It was great to see people in their traditional dress and proudly waving the Tibetan flag ( something they can't do in their own country ). Many Tibetans live in exile like the Dalai Lama. Total population in Ladakh is just 300,000 people yet the road was lined 3 or 4 deep with people from the airport to Choglamsar ( 10km ) for a fleating glimpse. Many shops were closed for the morning.

08/07/2025

The landscape around Lamayuru was stunning. Across the valley you have massive peaks with different shades and colour's while just 2km down the road you have an area called moonland. Ladakh is stunning around every corner and there are lots of them.

08/07/2025

In 2023 when Jo and l traveled from Kashmir to Leh we passed through a village called Lamayuru that looked very Interesting with old houses and a Monastery on a hill. Zander and I hitched 120km for a visit. These villages have only been connected by road for 40 or 50 years so before that they were very isolated and only connected by trails with the odd merchant passing through. It would probably take them a week to get to Leh. 70% of the village is very old and traditional. Each village is unique. The inside of the Monastery had great carvings and beautifully painted. Couldn't take photos.