Eco-Challenge 2001
2001 New Zealand
In 2001, the Eco-Challenge race wound its way through more than 220 miles of the spectacular and untamed backcountry of New Zealand.
The Eco-Challenge®
Eco-Challenge is the world's premier Expedition Race™ attracting the best adventure athletes from around the world, it is held in a remote region of the world each year.
The format is simple: each co-ed team is comprised of four competitors, with skill levels ranging from pure novice to world-class athlete. Teams must travel quickly using mountaineering, mountain biking, horseback riding, river rafting, and fixed rope skills to overcome challenges including climbing the equivalent of more than one Mount Everest, descending slippery 3,000-foot pebble slopes, and crossing icy-cold rivers. All team members must finish - if one person quits or is injured, the entire team is disqualified. But with enough dedication, mental stamina, endurance, and most importantly, teamwork, teams will successfully make it to the finish line.
Event History - The World of Expedition Racing™
In 1992, Mark Burnett created the Eco-Challenge. He based his idea on the multi-sport endurance races that had been so popular in New Zealand since the early 80's and had also started to emerge in Europe. He lengthened the race, removed assistance crews and added a strong environmental message, reflected in the race rules and associated local service projects.
The first Eco-Challenge attracted 50 teams from six countries and was held in April 1995 in Southeast Utah, USA.
Eco-Challenge has become the world's premier Expedition Race and now attracts the attention of the world's media and best endurance athletes. Eco-Challenge distributes its 6-hour mini-series worldwide, reaching up to 944 million households annually. As a result of the international press corps invited to cover the race, Eco-Challenge has reached over 1 billion readers since 1995. From magazine covers to feature print, the Internet, global TV news and an epic mini-series, it is an event that continues to attract the world's attention.
Eco-Challenge®: The Race
The Eco-Challenge is the ultimate adventure. It's the world's toughest Expedition Race. It's epic, gritty and unpredictable.
Each team of four, comprised of men and women, races non-stop, 24-hours a day, over a rugged 300-mile (500km) course, participating in such disciplines as trekking, whitewater canoeing, horseback riding, sea kayaking, scuba diving, mountaineering and mountain biking. It's an Expedition Race against time, pitting the dramatic forces of Mother Nature against the skill and experience of world-class adventure athletes.
The Eco-Challenge is a challenge that transcends physical fitness and the individual; its very essence lies in team dynamics and the ability to solve problems under constant stress, including little sleep and limited food.
The race demands mutual respect for others and for the environment, while each individual is pushed to the very edge of human endurance.
It is a race measured in pain-endured lessons. If one person quits or is injured, the entire team is disqualified. To succeed is to finish as a team; to win demands something extraordinary.
Environmental Commitment
The Eco-Challenge® is based on the philosophy that interaction with the environment requires both a knowledge of and respect for the terrain through which the race travels. Each event is designed to have minimum impact on the land and encourages a "leave no trace" philosophy.
For racers, media, TV crews and event staff, strict environmental guidelines must be followed: hiking and biking on existing trails where possible; choosing camping sites that do not disrupt soil or vegetation and that are at least 300 feet from isolated water sources; the use of only approved stoves and the prohibition of campfires; a "pack it in, pack it out" approach covering personal belongings and rubbish; and participating in a local environmental community service project.
Disqualification and a lifetime ban from all future Eco-Challenge events are imposed on any team that breaches the tough environmental guidelines/regulations.
The local environmental service project is held prior to the race in the host city. Each project is designed to contribute to the environment and the local community.
Event Locations
1995 Utah, USA
1995 New England, USA
1996 British Columbia, CANADA
1997 Queensland, AUSTRALIA
1998 Morocco
1999 Patagonia, ARGENTINA
2000 Sabah, MALAYSIAN BORNEO
2001 NEW ZEALAND
Utah, 1995 - The premier Eco-Challenge event was held
in Southeastern Utah in April, 1995. During the event, the
heat of the desert scorched the teams by day; by night they
shivered together as temperatures plummeted. Of the 50 teams
that began the event, only 21 officially finished.
New England, 1995 - Held on the heels of the first event, the second Eco-Challenge race was in Maine and Rhode Island in July, 1995 as part of ESPN's Extreme Games. 12 international teams were invited to compete in this 320-mile race; only eight teams were able to officially finish.
British Columbia, 1996 - The third Eco-Challenge event and first one broadcast on the Discovery Channel was held in the Canadian province of British Columbia in 1996. Only 13 other teams officially finished what competitors claimed as "an endurance race of a lifetime" and "the toughest yet."
Australia, 1997- Held in tropical North Queensland, the race introduced the added peril of local wildlife including poisonous snakes, spiders and plants as well as the ever-present danger of crocodiles.
Morocco, 1998 - For the first time, the race included two new disciplines: coasteering, where competitors scrambled along the Atlantic coastline, climbing boulders and negotiating cliff edges in a rush to beat the incoming tide; and camel riding, a colorful, unforgettable Moroccan experience.
The Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge 4-hour documentary on the Morocco Event won a Sports Emmy for "Outstanding Program Achievement." The Eco-Challenge Morocco documentary also won a 2000 Banff Rockie Award for "Outstanding Sports Program."
Argentina, 1999 - Held in the extreme terrain of Patagonia in December 1999, this proved to be the most competitive Eco-Challenge yet with the top finishing teams from past Eco-Challenge races competing together for the first time. Competitors navigated deep fjords in sea kayaks, paddled whitewater rivers in inflatable kayaks, and crossed the expansive windswept pampas on horseback. Teams also traversed the ridges of the Andes, the longest mountain chain on the planet and ascended a glacier to the summit of a 12,000 foot peak.
Sabah, 2000 -The seventh Eco-Challenge in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo offered competitors a chance to explore one of the last truly wild places on Earth. With over 2,000 species of animals on the island of Borneo, the theme of the 2000 race was Malaysia's wildlife. In August, the first year of the new millennium, international competitors competed in what was the most difficult and exotic race in Eco-Challenge history. Only the second US team to win the event, Team Salomon/Eco-Internet won the race in 5 days, 23 hours and 41 minutes.
New Zealand, 2001 - Seventy-Five international teams, each with four competitors converged on the South Island of New Zealand in October, 2001. The teams traversed 500 kilometers of breathtaking terrain that tested the skill and endurance of even the best adventure athletes in the world.
