Eastern Mountain Sports Team Blog
presented by EMS

What better way to celebrate the arrival of Spring and the end of the longest, coldest, snowiest winter the northeast has seen for years than to hop on a plane with two of your girlfriends and head to Mexico for a week of sun, fun, and suffering. Hmmm... I'm starting to think we might have gotten part of this equation wrong. All the spring break brochures that I remember never showed the revelers wearing heavy packs, using duct tape to patch up blisters or pulling cactus thorns out of each others derrieres by headlamp. I think I need a new travel agent.

Adventure racing has some tough chicks, and Jenny Johnson and Melissa Coombes are two of the toughest I know. And two of the nicest. Nearly two years ago we started bouncing around the idea to form an all female team that could truly go head to head with all of the competition. They loved the idea, but the challenge would prove to finding the right race to give this a go. Then Baja Traversia announced that in 2008 they would not only be hosting an all-female division, but would offer the women prize money and a chance to win an entry into the Adventure Racing World Championships. Finally, a race to take this seriously! I dialed up Jenny and Mel and got a big "hell yeah" out of both of them. Eastern Mountain Sports Team eXXtreme was born.

Jenny Johnson is the little star of Bethlehem; New Hampshire that is. A few years ago she saw a poster in a store window for a crazy three-day race that was to be held in northern Vermont called the Jay Challenge. It featured a 26 mile paddle race on day one, a marathon distance (26.2 mile) trail race on day two and a 65 mile mountain bike race on day three. Most competitors would sign up to do just one day of racing as just on was enough to whoop your butt, but those deranged enough would sign up for all three days. Oh, and as for the distances, well Dan, the crazy French Canadian race director, started out doing well with the paddle race, but probably started drinking as he calculated the other distances and using some long forgotten fur trapper/trader conversion rate to get from kilometers to miles he actually ended up with a 31 mile trail race and a 72 mile bike ride of pure pain. People came, the raced, they complained, Dan smiled. He knew he was on to something and a legend was born. But back to Jenny Johnson looking at this poster in a store window... she turned to her friend and declared that she was going to do it. Her friend laughed. You see, Jenny had never done anything like this. She had always loved experiencing the outdoors, was a kayak guide and was always up for trying something crazy, but she this was fresh territory. When Jenny showed up at the race, nobody knew who she was. That made it all the more frustrating for the other women when she won. Oh yeah, she beat most of the boys, too. Sheâ??s the kind of person you would love to hate, if only you could. Fresh faced and always laughing, she is incredibly humble, upbeat and down to earth. After winning the Jay Challenge year after year, Jenny was eventually lured by top adventure racing teams, including world champions Team Nike, to join them. But despite reaching the pinnacle in the sport, Jenny has never forgotten her friends and continues to race with them whenever she can.

Melissa Coombes was first introduced to me through Vytenis, one of Team Eastern Mountain Sportsâ??s top navigators. A top orienteer, he and Melissa had met while attending Annapolis and he taught her the fine art of map and compass work. She was a natural and they built on this by building a successful adventure race team for the American Legion. As a top navigator, Melissa quickly became one of the most sought after racers in the country, but she is no slouch as an athlete either with first place wins in bicycle races and off-road triathlons. She has led her teams to multiple adventure race wins, too, and even finished first overall once as a solo competitor against a full field including top national teams. She gets an A+ in "Plays well with others" as even other teams canâ??t help but notice how supportive she is to her teammates on the race course. Melissa balances all of this training and racing with her other life as a knighthawk helicopter pilot, running missions in the Persian Gulf or doing tsunami relief in Sumatra. Do you think she'll be just a little frustrated to not be behind the controls during the baja car section of this race? Always one to have fun, Melissa showed up at the USARA 2006 national championships wearing a full-on Foxxy Cleopatra afro wig.

As for me, these women are going to crush me. My strategy is to keep them laughing and to replace the sports drink they normally use with a little mojito. Perhaps they won't notice?

As I write this, I am on the plane to San Diego with Jenny Johnson. When we arrive, Mel and her parents, Mary and Graham, will pick us up. They were kind enough to drive down all the way from Oregon just to do support for us this race! Mary has been a huge help with the logistics, securing a great house for us to stay in near the start line in San Felipe and taking care of a million other details. The mother of Scott Cole, a fellow adventure racing fiend from the northeast, happens to have a house in San Diego that she won't be using, so she has kindly lent it to us this evening and for the night after we return from Mexico. Adventure racers comprise such a great community and with so many other things to worry about, it's nice to have some things fall so nicely into place.

After a BBQ hosted by friends of Mel (she used to be stationed in San Diego), we will get some sleep and then head to San Felipe tomorrow morning. It's not a long drive, but with the border crossing and slow travel, which I am told could include stops by local police, it will take a good part of the day. We'll have gear check, check out the paddleboards and then enjoy a pre-race party here we get to exchange shirts with the field of International racers. Sunday morning at the pre-race meeting we will get last minute instruction and finally, our maps. Even though the gun won't go off for several hours, the race will have really begun. Map work is critical and based on what we know about the course, we will need to carefully organize our gear.

The race begins at on Monday morning and while we don't know all the details of the course, we have been told to expect, besides the typical mountain bike, kayaking and trekking sections, paddle boarding and a baja car rally section. We won't drive the vehicles, but will have to navigate the for the drivers as they tear across the Peninsula in the wild style Baja is famous for. At some point we will navigate our way through what are described as stunning canyons, a maze of rocks and brush. Winding our way through this puzzle with our ropes, harnesses and ascending gear we will eventually reach the top of the ridge that runs through the Peninsula and finally begin our descent towards the Pacific.

Please follow along with the race at http://www.bajatravesia.com/ and check back for a race report from me later CheckPointZerohttp://www.checkpointzero.com/

Cheers!

Jennifer Shultis
Captain, Eastern Mountain Sports Team eXXtreme

"Don't be stupid!"

It was 2 pm, a mere 7 hours into the CheckPointZero race 2008 and now those three little words were coming back to haunt me. The week leading up the race, the team emails back and forth were a flurry with conflicting details about what the coming weekend's weather would bring. While Joe, Dave, Chad, Jeff and Dawn debated the possibility of freezing temps and snow, I had my own flurries brewing all around me. I was in the midst of trying to wrap up my job of over 8 years to depart for a new position and it was not going well. I had plenty to deal with without getting into the fine details of which rain pant, jacket, sock combination would be best. I needed to get a message out to the team and get it out fast and without any possibility of ambiguity. "The weather is going to be lousy and we are Team Eastern Mountain Sports. We represent the best outdoor gear company. We're from the northeast and train in bad weather all the time. Bad weather should be seen as on opportunity not a detriment to us. While other teams struggle, we should be flourishing. Bring every piece of warm clothing you have. Don't leave anything at home and then tell me you wish you had it. Don't be stupid!" Now, 4 days later, Dave, Chad and I were being blown sideways and backwards into a dock in high gale winds. Icicles were dripping off my helmet, I was paddling as hard as I could into the wind and despite wearing two jackets, including a ski jacket, I couldn't feel three fingers on my right hand. We weren't even half way through this paddle leg and I realized that I was the stupid one. My dry suit was hanging in my closet at home.

When the Yaks siren went off on the shores of Lake Chatuge at 7am that morning, racers sprinted around the island in a short prologue to the boats while the clouds simultaneously gathered their might, pawed the ground and took off along side of us. As we pushed off in a brand new canoe that Mohawk Canoes had provided to us, the snow began. It was driving hard and stinging our faces as we rounded the bend, ducked under the bridge under the main road as we headed up towards the river. Georgia has been hit by some of the worst droughts on record this past year, but the rains from the previous days were doing their best to make up for that. We were witness to this as we paddled against the current towards the take out point. Jumping in and out of our boats to drag it when the current defeated us, we finally reached the take out point alongside the three other lead teams, ABC/Capital Bikes, Enduraventure and Black Dome. We checked in, dropped our boat, then started looking for our support crew. It turns out that after following our instructions to our crew to get to the TA first and grab a prime spot by the check-in tent, the take-out was moved twice down river and our crew had been denied permission to move. They were now at the furthest most point away which created a little panic in us as we ran through almost the entire park before finally finding them. However, we did and after a relatively quick change and were off on our bikes just after Enduraventure who turned around a fast TA.

We had a small bobble on the first road section, passing what looked to be a driveway at first glance but then ended up being our road. We determined this quickly, but as teams were so closely spaced, this allowed ABC and BlackDome to catch up. These are all great guys and so it was enjoyable to have the added company for the misery of that first long climb. The snow continued to fall and combined with the dried leaves, it made for a ghastly mixture that gunked up in our frames and halted our wheels from turning. All our teams battled with this, alternating with shifting issues, troubles clipping in, frozen brakes and failing forks. Consistently grinding away, we eventually caught back on with Enduraventure and after sharing a lovely bike whack section, in which Lisa Randall got to witness me getting my first ever black eye, we proceeded through the section and all rolled into the TA-2 together.

We now transitioned to Paddle Leg 2 on Lake Burton, the same lake we paddled on in last year's CP0 race. Last year it was a warm, sunny day and we had watched people milling around their million dollar starter mansions, but today's weather would give it a drastically different look. The winds were wicked (a high wind advisory was in affect and this section of the race was eventually closed), but despite the white caps, our trust boat handled the chop and being blown sideways without losing stability. I was pretty proud of myself for dressing well for the first hour, but then the cold started to creep in. My attempt to put hand warmers in my gloves failed and I knew all I cold do was paddle as hard as I could and try to stay warm. I warned Dave and Chad as we approached the take-out that I was as cold as I could ever remember being and that I would need some time in the car at this next TA to get warm. We took out dead even with Enduraventure, but a long TA time due to the time I needed warming up would drop us back 15 minutes out of the lead leaving on Bike Leg 2. Lucky for us, Wedali's support crew had stopped over to help our crew of Bob, Susan and my sister, Hilary, clean up and lube our iced over bikes. None of our crew are cyclists, so it would have been a much tougher ride without this help. It made a huge difference and once again, our friends from Minnesota proved why they are such terrific individuals. They truly represent the spirit of this sport! We owe you guys!

This leg started slowly for us. I was feeling very drained after getting so cold and Chad and Dave worked hard to keep my speed up by taking turns on towing duty. Our speed wasn't great, so we were surprised to learn we were just 7 minutes out of first when we got to CP8! We pushed on past CP9 expecting to catch Enduraventure around each turn, but instead kept coming upon teams that had short-coursed their race. We then came upon an interesting trail junction with tire tracks going both ways. I stopped behind Dave and promptly toppled over. I claimed I had been unable to unclip but he clearly had his doubts about that story. We were faced with a choice; straight ahead and downhill or, up a very steep climb up to a ridge to the right. The tire tracks up the steep stopped and turned around which gave us pause for thought. The locals had changed their mind. Hmmm. What might they know that we did not? Was there an unmapped trail that would connect us if we went straight? As tempting as it was to follow the tracks and go downhill, there is a reason why we remain so consistent both at home and away- we know how to navigate. We know that you can't ever stop and trust local knowledge, that of your own or of others. Going straight made no sense as we would end up climbing more. We went right. Tough as that bike push was, followed by a crazy, treacherous downhill bushwhack, it was our gold medal move. It put us into a lead that we held the rest of the race.

We bumped into Team Inertia from Kansas (hi guys!) on the way down who were on a shorter course and on their way out. After finding an old road, we hopped on our bikes for a fast descent when I quickly realized, in horror, that my brakes were frozen and I had nothing! Zip! Nada!All I really needed to do was pulse the brakes, but when you're accelerating at the speed of scream, getting fingers out of death grip is not likely, I did the only thing I could and ditched myself into a crash. This was painful and we'll leave it at that. But it may have snapped me out of my funk as I started to ride pretty descent. I could no longer clip in as I had indeed snapped one of my cleat's screws off causing that earlier fall (see, it wasn't me!) but I was still climbing pretty well. I'm sure the guys were relieved to have a break from towing me, but as the cold took over my gearing and reduced me to a single gear combination, my abilities again became limited. But how can you complain when you know that all of the teams out there are dealing with issues? We coasted back into the checkpoint/TA at the fishery at Burton Lake to confirm that we were still holding onto first place. But by how much? Tick, tick, tick... That's the problem with being in the lead.

My sister, Hilary, had come to take her first ever turn as a support crew member, and I know she was relieved to see I had warmed up. She had gotten concerned as I headed out on the second bike leg still shivering quite a bit, but she had not shown it. In fact, she practically pushed me back out on the course. She, along with Susan and Bob, did an amazing job of support throughout the race (Thanks guys! You rock!!) I felt relieved to know we only had the trek in front of us as this is a strength for me and, well, all of us. Cruise through this and we head to the finish line, right? Clearly I had forgotten that Tony Berwald had designed this course. There would be no cruising. As we headed out we learned that CP13 was being recommended as a good one to skip for tired or less experienced teams as it would involve crossing a raging river on a log. Well, that is unless Dave Lamb is your navigator, in which case you will cross the river wherever he first sees the opportunity. We had already crossed about 20 rivers that day so the wet and cold wasn't an issue, but the idea of being swept over the falls by the river didn't do my nerves any good. But if you know Dave, you know he only takes calculated risks, and I trust him. We got through just fine, of course, ran up the trail on the other side of the river, punched CP 13 and were off for 14. I would love to tell you about CPs 14, 15, 16 and 17, but it was dark and I was getting tired. They were all hard and seemed to take forever. Dave nailed them (thanks to the Barkers for the brownies at CP17!) and as we headed towards 18 we passed by CP14. We popped in to get a sense of how far in the lead we had been when we had passed through this point hours earlier and Team Eastern Mountain Sports Masters, Jeff, Dawn and Joe, were there! They had been trying to decide which CPs they still had time to get within the 30 hour limit and when we passed through, they decide to bail on 15, 16 and 17 to join us for 18, 19, then head for home. Unfortunately, I feel we enticed them into abandoning their course earlier than they should have, but we were all getting worried about making our flights back home. None of us expected to be on course longer than 24 hours! It was great to have us all there for 18 and then 19 and it was a thrill to be the first teams to arrive at these CPs. We thank the volunteers who gave us so much of their time to be out there in the freezing cold. Sorry that you didn't get more company during the race!

I was dead tired when we crossed the finish line. Drained completely. As tired as my memory allows me to remember ever having been as we crossed the line, but so thrilled to learn we had won. In the end, we would be the only team to officially clear the course. ATAC would also complete the full course, although unofficially due to a lost passport. Hats off to them for refusing to give up when others would have thrown in the towel and gone home to pout. It was not an easy course and you have my respect. Thanks to Dave and Chad for being so super strong and supporting me through some real tough moments out on this course. Thanks to Tony and Yak, well not so much Tony ;-), for putting together a seriously tough and technically challenging course. Thanks to our support crew, Bob, Susan and especially, my sister Hilary. During this race, whenever I wanted to quit (and how I did!) I thought of Hilary and I knew I needed to do whatever I could to bring her a win. She was there for me and I would be there for her. Quitting simply wasnt an option. Thanks as always to our most excellent sponsors, Teva, Rocky Mountain bikes, Gregory Packs, SmartWool, NUUN, and, of course, Eastern Mountain Sports. If this race didn't destroy the gear you guys make, I don't know what would! Thanks for all of your support to the team and the sport of adventure racing.

For years now the ski areas in the northeast have been hurting. No significant snow has kept the airlines carrying skiers back and forth across the friendly skies to Colorado, but what a winter this has been! We have record snow all over the northeast and a friend just had to cancel his biathlon race because they had TOO MUCH snow. The skies just would not stop dumping the white stuff long enough to get the trails groomed! It's great for winter fun, but it means that we have had to get creative up here with our training in the north country. Two weeks ago, Team Eastern Mountain Sports wiped the cobwebs off our bikes, jammed them into boxes and flew down to Florida for the Swamp Stomp. While you southerners frolicked around, we cooked. Dave Lamb, Joe Brautigam and our new boy wonder, Dave Romilly, joined me, Jen Shultis, to round out the co-ed open team, while Jeff Woods and Dawn Nicholas from the 2007 USARA Masters Champions team, joined us for some "Spring training." Oh, we suffered. But WeCeFar puts on such a great race that it's hard to complain (for those of you that missed my pre-Swamp Stomp interview about adventure racing on NPR's "Here and Now" you can listen to it here, the sixth story from the top, http://www.here-now.org/shows/2008/02/20080206.asp) Thanks again Jessica, Kip and crew for another great race. For those who haven't checked out this race, put it on the list. It's a super creative course and so much better than putting the Jimmy Buffet on repeat for beating those seasonal depression blues.

Last weekend, we saddled up again. Well, kind of. No bikes were involved as Joe Brautigam, Chad Denning and I headed to Bolton Valley for the GMARA's Frigid Infliction. Now here is a race that we kept trying to get to and finally this was the year. I had never back country skied, but how hard could it be, right? I have never felt like a bigger clutz in my life. Hats off to Daniel and Martin from Endurance Aventure (http://www.enduranceaventure.com/) in Quebec who blew by me like they were born on skis. Daniel puts on a great race series up there in Canada and we might have to get up there ourselves to give one a try. In the end, navigation saved the day as Joe Brautigam led an unbelievable charge through the fresh snow from check point to checkpoint on the post-hole section to the tyrolean traverse and then the last snowshoe leg.
Leaving a clear path all the way around the course, I have no idea how we stayed in front. Chad was a machine breaking snow much of the time despite having destroyed his snowshoes. By destroyed, I mean that there was nothing left of one except the cleat and the strap holding that to his foot. OK, those crazy Canadians helped a lot, too. Thanks, guys. Somehow we were able to pull away from Berlin Bikes, the 2007 winners, who had led us through the ski. The folks at GMARA put on a great race and the post-race meal was a real treat. Thanks so much to them for their hard work and dedication to putting on a quality event. Please check out their races at http://www.gmara.org/about_gmara.html

So, we've gone from the fire to the freezer and what is up next for weather? Who knows. I mean, it IS Georgia after all. Yup. The CheckPointZero race is this weekend, ready or not (NOT!). From what I understand, Yak and Tony have 90 teams signed up to be at the start line on Saturday morning at 8am. And just look at that line up! Returning champs and local favorites Enduraventure will be there, of course. ABC Bikes, Black Dome, Citgo, IndyRootStock, Wedali (Hi guys!) and those dirty rats, Snickers Marathon, who beat us in Florida. Just kidding; they ran a great race and deserved to win. We still haven't been on the bikes, but what tricks do we have up out sleeves???? While I try to think up a good answer, I will just say that it's great to be back racing in a new year and Team Eastern Mountain Sports look forward to seeing all our friends from around the country again. Thanks to my sister, Hilary, for coming out to take her first turn as support crew and thank you to Mohawk Canoes of Chattanooga, TN (http://www.mohawkcanoes.com/home.htm) for their help in getting a boat for us to use at the race this coming weekend. See you guys out there! Oh, and let me know if you find my lost shaker of salt. I know it is around here somewhere....

The t-shirt could say, "I went to the Berryman Adventure Race and all I got was this stupid a** kicking." Hey! That's not me talking-- that is the pride of the Berryman Adventure Race! Bonk Hard Productions calls their race "A Real Ass Kicker" and the logo features a kicking (ass) donkey, (what did you think I was talking about?) Race directors Jason and Laura pride themselves on giving racers a tough race for their money and they arenâ??t messing around.

Team Eastern Mountain Sports members Dave Lamb, Chad Denning, Dmitry Drozdov and Jennifer Shultis packed up their bike boxes (no, it never gets any easier) and rode the friendly skies to St Louis. In a moment of impulsiveness, Jennifer upgraded the mini-van to one with satellite tv/radio and we were off.

The fact they we spent the next 4 hours playing "Name That Tune" as we bounced back and forth between the 60s, 70s and 80s stations may have contributed to our navigation errors that first night, but eventually we arrived in Van Buren after avoiding the numerous white tailed deer (with little suicide notes pinned around their necks) that lined the highway.

On a recent week day, team captain, Jennifer Shultis was on her way to one of her favorite lunch stops in Harvard Square, BOLOCO Burritos. But as she got close, she saw a line that stretched around the corner. She hadn't seen a line like this since Star Wars was released in 1978! She discovered that over the previous weekend, one of the company's founders, John Pepper, had tagged a letter he wrote to a small New Hampshire paper with an offer-- bring a copy of this letter to select stores and get a free burrito. He figured about 75 people would show up, but in a college town, word of free food spreads like a Utah wild fire. By the time Jennifer came back at 4pm with a copy of the letter, BOLOCO had handed out 6,000 burritos and had quite literally run out of food. But none other than John Pepper was there. He apologized to Jennifer and amazingly, gave her his personal email address. He said that if she emailed him, he would send her a coupon for a free burrito. As Jennifer walked back to her office, she reflected how incredible the personal level of attention was all the way to the top. She already loved the food-- "the Chicken Bangkok is to die for" --now she wondered if he would be interested in sponsoring the Team. So she emailed him and "Fueled by BOLOCO" was born.

As it turns out, John Pepper is an athlete himself.e competes in cycling races and even met his wife while doing the 197 mile Hood to Coast run relay. Personally committed to promoting a healthy lifestyle--BOLOCO offers organic tofu as an option to chicken or steak and whey-out protein smoothies-- John loved the idea of partnering with the current US Champion adventure race team. Since the Team already loves taking burritos on long races and training missions, it was a perfect match. With locations in New Hampshire and Massachusetts and partners in Washington, Ohio, California, North Carolina and Indiana, there is sure to be a BOLOCO not far from where the team travels to race.