BY BRIAN MAFFLY THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2001
It's a little ironic that Utah, the state where the American version of adventure racing was born, has seen little racing in the six years since the Eco-Challenge invaded the redrock desert around Moab.
These multi-sport endurance events, staged with mixed-gender teams in scenic and undeveloped landscapes, have flourished around the West, particularly in California and Colorado. Promoters, wary of the environmental flak fired at the Eco-Challenge, have stayed away from Utah, which many see as a wonderful venue because of the variety and scenic qualities of the state's Alpine and desert terrain.
Now the sport is back. Two Eco-Challenge-like weekend events were staged in the Wasatch Mountains this year and Moab played host to a one-day event.
"That southeast corner of Utah is perfect for racing," said Ian Adamson, a defending Eco-Challenge champion and one the most active adventure racers in the world. "You're exposing people to the wilderness, who then want to protect it."
But environmentalists fear the publicity is a double-edged sword that will just as likely attract others seeking adrenaline-producing recreation amid Utah's scenic and fragile natural treasures. They also believe racers leave a lot more than just footprints as they paddle, rappel, trek and bike through the backcountry, often with film crews on their heels.
This year's Wasatch races drew fire from the state's environmental watchdogs, who tried to force last-minute route changes to keep racers out of sensitive habitat for threatened species of wildflowers. Conservationists also insisted races stick to existing roads and trails and stay out of protected areas and areas proposed for wilderness.
"We are opposed to these kind of events on public land," said Denise Boggs of the Utah Environmental Congress. "If people are traipsing around roadless areas that are proposed wilderness, I'm sorry, we're going to fight that tooth and nail."
When the course for last month's well-funded X-Adventure was announced, Boggs, Save Our Canyons and the High Uintas Preservation Council threatened to seek an injunction to stop the race if organizers stuck to their plan of running the race through City Creek Canyon and the Uinta Mountains' Lakes district, a roadless area that environmentalists hope will win wilderness designation.
Barry Siff, the event's affable and athletic promoter, agreed to changes after meeting with environmentalists.
"I told Barry if he got his route, we were worried that the next race would want the same thing," Boggs said. "He was respectful of our concerns. I was happy that they stayed out of the roadless areas, but I can't say I'm happy that the race took place."
On a suggestion by SOC's Gavin Noyes, the race was rerouted over Grandview Peak along the north ridge of City Creek. The resulting leg turned out to be the toughest of the 126-mile race from Salt Lake City to Park City. Many racers became dangerously dehydrated on the shadeless ridge in the blazing August heat. Among those that were knocked out of contention was the team led by Park City triathlete Tim Henney as it struggled with insufficient water over the ridge Siff later dubbed "Gavin's Trek."
"I respect those groups, but I didn't pay enough attention to their arguments," Henney said. "I have to give them the benefit of the doubt."
Henney and other racers, meanwhile, professed a strong sympathy with environmental causes, saying their love of nature is what attracts them to adventure racing's underlying sports: mountain biking, navigation, running, climbing, paddling and ski touring.
"The people doing these races are wilderness-minded people," said Adamson, 36-year-old native of Australia living in Boulder, Colo. "We're not a bunch of rednecks."
Some environmentalists, however, have trouble squaring athletes' desire to compete with their love of wild places.
"You will never convince me those people have any environmental ethics," Boggs said. "Their whole goal is to get from point A to point B. It's this grueling chore. They are hiking and running in the middle of the night. They can't have any experience of the beauty and solitude."
Siff said he has never experienced any environmental resistance to the many races he has organized in his home state of Colorado, whose conservation community is no less ardent than Utah's.
"We went through much more pristine areas than here," said Siff of last year's X-Adventure, which he staged in Aspen. "Everywhere we've run a race, we've been invited back by the community, the Forest Service and the property owners."
He doesn't expect to return the X-Adventure, part of an international racing circuit, to the Wasatch, since the tour looks for fresh venues every year. But if he if does, he'll hire Boggs and Noyes to help design the course, he joked.
"There needs to be dialogue instead of confrontation," Siff said.
The Utah Sports Commission helped Siff obtain permission from the panoply of agencies, chiefly the Wasatch-Cache National Forest, responsible for the land the X-Adventure crossed. The non-profit organization stepped to the plate, convinced adventure racing should have a home in Utah.
"We want it to be something the community can support," said executive director Jeff Robbins. "My hope is that now we've staged one of these races, we've been through this learning process, the more comfortable people will be with them."
The Utah public's image of adventure racing comes from the Eco-Challenge, the made-for-TV, multi-day extravaganza that has achieved extraordinary success in the years since its Utah debut. Promoter Mark Burnett went on to even greater success as the producer of "Survivor."
A Wasatch Adventure, an annual event with a winter trekking component, debuted in Utah County last March, but without the detente Siff enjoyed with environmentalists. Save Our Canyons objected to the course's rappel section that directed racers onto a muddy slope in Little Rock Canyon and filed a request for a route change with the U.S. Forest Service.
"That was a classic example of something that shouldn't have happened," Noyes said. "They should have sent a botanist all along the route. Plus the race was a big advertisement for the Wasatch. It says, 'Come here and and tear the place up.' That makes it harder for us to conserve it."
Noyes' 11th-hour plea did not get far with the Uinta National Forest, but the Bureau of Land Management later confronted promoter Todd Olsen over the race's alleged use of public land around Utah Lake without a permit. The agency allowed the race to proceed, but was later accused of imposing unreasonable requirements on event organizers.
Land managers have a duty to protect public resources when used by large groups and for-profit concerns, stressed Glenn Carpenter, manager of BLM's Salt Lake field office.
"It's not that we don't want the public using public land," he said at the time. "Au contraire, we think it's great when people are out there doing it."
Adventure racing has enjoyed even greater success abroad, especially among the French and New Zealanders, whose athletes invented the sport in the 1980s.
France holds 200 to 250 races a year, said Lotta Richter of the French company Saga D'Adventures.
"People are into crossover sports. They don't want to do just one thing. It's taking the triathlon concept across wild land," said Richter, whose company stages the X-Adventure on behalf of the title sponsor, the French ski and outdoor manufacturer Salomon. Promoters typically film major races and edit footage for viewing on cable networks. ESPN, for example, plans to air the Utah X-Adventure on Oct. 6.
The sponsors footing the bill expect prominent exposure for their logos and products.
"This is a totally different way to market," said Richter. "You put the gear on the people using the gear"
