"Primal Quest Race Management has made the decision NOT to prohibit the use of GPS units in PQ Montana. This decision was made due to the fact that the course still has a great deal of snow covering trail and road markings, and we need to ensure that competitors do not wander into avalanche and cornice hazard areas."
My personal opinion? I don't believe this is best solution to the safety issues they are facing and I am thankful that my team did not drop $12,000.00 to do an event that will essentially end up as a glorified, off road triathlon. This is not to take away from the sport of triathlon, or the incredible efforts it will take each team to complete PQ Montana. This is simply not in line with what the sport of Adventure Racing was founded on and I truly hope we do not see any future events trying to mimic what PQ has decided to go with this year. I feel bad for many of my friends who are competing in this event, as they have just had their advantages of time tested experience and map expertise ripped out from under them. The GPS tracking will certainly loose some luster as everyone follows the exact same line of travel for 800km!
GR
4 comments:
wow! that is an unbelievable decision. i too am glad i'm not racing! i bet don mann's email is a shit storm right now. ha.
Yup! I would not be the least bit surprised to hear of select teams demanding a refund after this news. PQ is famous for their last minute changes however, by next week they may even allow snowmobiles!
GR
That is the original post but to be fair to PQ, they did re-release more info here:
http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/2008/06/17/primal-quest-and-the-use-of-gps/
They are seeing how the snowmelt is going (rapid) and will likely limit GPS to only certain sections of the course and/or have a time penalty for any team that uses it. I definitely see where they're coming from and it is a hard call.
Thanks for the update Todd!
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