The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“Actually, Percoset helped too”
The latest incarnation of Team Salomon/Crested Butte headed over to the Persian Gulf for their third trip to compete in the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge. The Abu Dhabi race offers Team Salomon/Crested Butte a brief respite from the cold Colorado air. Unfortunately, with the race success dependant on strong paddling skills, Team Salomon/Crested Butte continues to struggle in the opening stages.
After a brief quadrathalon prologue section, biking, running, swimming and paddling, the race kicks off with a 30-kilometer paddle to an island in the Persian Gulf. Teams camp out that night and then return to the mainland via a 50-kilometer open water paddle. The consecutive water sections immediately had Team Salomon/Crested Butte back in 11th place.
“We didn’t paddle as well as we needed to,” says team member Eric Sullivan. “We lost quite a bit of time to the top three. The Kiwis paddle like we ski.”
“We went into it with some pretty high hopes,” adds Brown. “We got smoked.”
From there teams are shuttled to an area of the Liwa Desert called Rub Al Khali which, when translated, means the empty quarter. An area barely suitable for camels, let alone adventure racers.
Nevertheless, teams were there for two days and 120-kilometers of trekking in, out, over and down the sand dunes of the Rub Al Khali.
