This feels like the right opportunity to share a bit about the history of Untamed Adventure Racing. The Untamed New England expedition is a result of organic growth. We started competing in adventure races in the year 2000 with an 18-hour overnight event in the Florida swamps; we were hooked on the sport from that point forward!
Here's a photo of our team racing in 2005; can anyone name all 4 of these vagrants?
We began organizing races in 2004 and used our local terrain in Hampton Roads, Virginia as the base for our first event ever: the Tidewater Adventure Sprint Challenge. It was a 4-6 hour race that sold out before most of our friends could register for the event, so instead all our friends helped us to put the event on. That was the spark of a great idea: friends together putting on the best races they can imagine. We were organized under the name "Hampton Roads Adventure" . . . or HRAdventure for short.
From the modest start in 2004, in 2005 HRAdventure hosted a 4 race series in southern Virginia that included a 12-hour "Tidewater Traverse" race and an 18-hour "Storm the Eastern Shore" event.
For 2006, HRAdventure revisited the 4 race series and participation really boomed. At the podium ceremony for that last event in 2006, we announced our run as HRAdventure had come to a close as we were relocating to Switzerland for our "real work." Good friends took over HRAdventure, and we formed a new organization with no ties to Hampton Roads or any particular geography: that was when Untamed Adventure Racing was started.
For 2007, we operated the first event under the "Untamed" name: Untamed Virginia. It was a 24-hour event through central Virginia.
In 2008, we organized the first Untamed New England race based from Franconia Notch, NH. It was a 60-hour race that stood out from the crowd as a long race at a time when there were very few multi-day races in North America. New England, in particular, struck us as terrain that was ripe for adventure yet under appreciated in the form of organized events. We also organized another 24-hour Untamed Virginia race that year in central Virginia.
For 2009, Untamed New England moved north to the US/Canadian border with a 3 day event based from Dixville Notch, NH. Untamed Adventure Racing also hosted some events in Switzerland, including the 3 day alpine stage race "Untamed Switzerland" combining snowshoeing, trail running, and orienteering.
Here's a great photo from an Untamed Switzerland stage on Mt Pilatus near Luzern, Switzerland:
In 2010, the Untamed New England adventure race joined the Adventure Racing World Series (ARWS); it was a prestigious distinction few races in North America had earned up to that point. The race became officially a "3 to 4 day" event in duration. Our Untamed Switzerland events continued, and plans started developing for a real expedition race in the Swiss Alps the following year.
2011 was the year we moved back to the USA from Switzerland, so there was no Untamed New England on the calendar. We did organize final editions of some of our favorite events in Switzerland (like the CRUX winter ultra through the Züri Oberland!) and we assisted Eco Outdoor Sports GmbH (Staffan Källbäck's organization) with the inaugural Apex Expedition race (http://theapexrace.com) -- Staffan carried the Apex forward into 2012 independently of us, and continues to be active in event management in Europe. We were also commissioned by the New Hampshire "North Country" in 2011 to design a new endurance event called the North Country Endurance Challenge that we ran for 3 years through the Connecticut Lakes region of northern NH.
2012 saw the return of the expedition Untamed New England race and this time a new host venue in Maine was the base: Northern Outdoors in The Forks, Maine. We also started operating stage races in 2012 for private companies in a "corporate challenge" framework. Additionally, other international events began engaging our services in technical support capacities for their specific events (we would assist in satellite tracking, communications, logistics, etc).
For a change of pace in 2013, we organized a shorter adventure race called "24-hours of Untamed New England" from Sugarloaf, Maine.
In 2014, Untamed New England returned to Maine with the AMC as our host partner and the AMC's 100 Mile Wilderness as the signature location. This was the last running of Untamed New England . . . but that wasn't a permanent state of affairs.
After a few years, our batteries have recharged and we've heard the calling of the New England wilderness again. We couldn't stay away for long.
2018 will mark a return for Untamed New England we'll start adding new chapters to this history.
I want to emphasize that all of these events, and the many left off the list for the sake of brevity, have been successful due to the support of many friends, colleagues, business partners, and other groups. It's impossible to operate successfully in a vacuum, and the sorts of outdoor challenges we thrive on are even more dependent on the collaboration of different teams and entities to make the sum greater than the constituent parts. Finally, I'll conclude with the acknowledgement that this is only made possible through the strong support of our family in the pursuit of all this craziness. Sacrifices are made. I like pointing out how the best way to make a million dollars in adventure racing is to start with a billion dollars and just don't pay attention . . . the best adventures are rarely the most financially profitable.