Team captain Nicoals Pivcevic has tried and failed to complete the race three times (in 2004, 2005 and 2006) – the closest he got was when he actually arrived at the finish line in 2006 but was out of time after suffering from injuries in the latter part of the race.
Sadly, a first finish was not to be this year, and the spirited team dropped out at PC3. Speaking in Puerto Natales after being transported back from the race course, Pivcevic spoke of his disappointment but also his determination to finally get his hands on one of the carved wooden finishers medals in 2012…
Q: How does it feel being back in civilisation?
“Horrible! When you try to get prepared for so long and then you get trapped there and you realise the rest of the teams are going on and you are back you feel really bad. It’s not what you want to have.”
Q: What went wrong?
“The team was perfect. I think what was wrong was not the preparation of the team, not even our physical conditions, I think it was something tactical. The race began a little later than expected and we can’t compare the rhythm we had to the teams in the front, but one thing led to another and unfortunately the sequence we took to take the kayak part put us in last place when we arrived to the first trekking part and that was specifically the most difficult part to face, because when we began to trek we could not see the mountains and we were not able to work out exactly whether the better route was to drop the line suggested by the organisation and go out the mountains or following the tracks.
“In this case it was obvious the best was to go up and walk on the edge of the forest, rather than go through it. You can see that on the PC3 when we arrived we were in really good conditions. All the teams arrived together by five or ten minutes. Teams walked together in groups, and the last group when we left from the kayak we got lost because you could not see the route at night.
“At 1am we could see the Brazilians going down from the hill, the other Brazilians going up, the Four Continents returning, and nobody knew where the passage was. You could see only 20m from your light. If we could have had one hour more of daylight we could have seen that the track was a few metres away. We decided to stop and take the night there, and we all lost three hours. In the morning, it was very easy to find the way and walk fast.
“The worst thing for us is that everyone is in very good shape - we were actually asking for our bikes to return to Punta Arenas by bike because we were not tired, and it is quite disappointing.”
Q: As one of the Chilean teams, is it particularly frustrating to be out of the race so early?
“Yes, absolutely. It’s annoying to be out so early but not because we are local but because we know we are able to walk or trek for 600km or whatever. You always try to do your best, but when you think that because a few things that could have changed you could still be there and not because you failed or are discussing with your team or anything like that, it is like nothing.”
Q: It sounds like you are definitely wanting to come back – what are you going to take away from this one to make sure you finish next year?
“Next year we are going to be able to go further. First of all, once we have the maps we are going to go back and download to Google Earth, the professional one, and that is common of every team. With that, you can get a better track, knowing the altitude, and know exactly what you are going to do, and you can save hours of trekking not in the forest by doing that. And then you can use the same map the organisation gives to you and you know the alternative route.
"The first trek was completely over-estimated in terms of time. We know that the teams that went over the ridge only walked for 14km instead of 19km in the forest, so it is much faster. There are many other things you can include in your strategy and preparations that you don’t normally think about - but it is time to do it.
“Apart from that, the physical preparation was ok. You can always to better, but it was ok. The team was perfect, we were joking all the time, we faced the problems that everyone had, but at the end we were always laughing, and that’s the most important thing.
“For me as a captain, the first goal was to return with an even better friendship than we had before and that everyone is safe. So we did that, so we are happy. We learned a lot from the Brazilians who were also stuck with us in the same conditions, they were in perfect shape and dancing the Samba!
“Of course, next year, we hope we will be able to do much more.”
