Last year Tim Kuenster and Melissa Griffiths took on the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race and failed to finish after being beaten by the trekking section. This year, they returned with new team-mates Jason Urckfitz and Peter Jolles seeking revenge.
After nine days of life-changing racing, they were challenged to the limits and made it into the Pali Aike crater as the last team across the line to be greeted by this year’s winners adidasTERREX/Prunesco.
Here, the team tells of their experiences in the Patagonian wilderness. And, well, it’s been emotional…
Q: Crossing the line was quite emotional for everyone?
Melissa Griffiths:
“It was really emotional. To come back the second time and try to do it and certainly throughout the race there were points where some of us were ready to quit, and I certainly would have been happy the other day to climb into a nice warm bed and call it a day because it was so hard but the team pulled everyone through and I am really glad we made it. It is a very hard race. We have done a lot of races, but it just breaks you. The weather, it is just very hard.”
Tim Kuenster:
“Across the finish line it was just incredible elation after, like Melissa said, as a team we went to the depths of hell, all together, and to climb back out and cross the finish line. It was just like, we made it, we pulled ourselves out and we proved to ourselves that we could do something pretty big.”
Q: All in all, you were just pleased to get to the finish?
Melissa Griffiths:
“I think this year was all about finishing. Last year was about experiencing Patagonia for the first time, this year we just wanted to get to the finish line.”
Q: What were the highlights? Was there any?
Tim Kuenster:
“Hell yeah! The kayak was just huge. Kayaking by all those ice fields, clonking into all those icebergs in our kayaks, how fun is that?! It’s just a thousand different mosses out there, different colours. And how about those little red fly trap thingies, that probably eat insects?! There is just all these little fantastic things all over the place. And, oh, the condors. We saw them flying around then we came up over somewhere and there are two just standing there watching. They were huge, and they weren’t scared because they weren’t expecting us. There were a lot of birds, there were angry birds, they would fly round then sit in a tree right behind the four of us and we’d keep walking and they’d fly to the next tree and they’d be right behind us, just chirp, chirp, chirp…”
Q: So, for each of you what does Patagonia mean to you now either having never been here before or having come back and conquered it?
Peter Jolles:
“Having never been here before, Patagonia, I knew it was going to be wild, remote, wet, painful, but even knowing those things you don’t know it until you’ve experienced it. You can’t go back and explain it to anyone, people see the pictures and they are like ‘wow, that’s really cool’ but they still won’t get it. That’s going to be difficult to explain to someone who’s never been here. It’s definitely an amazing experience. I can’t say I’d recommend it to everyone, or even anyone, but you know I would love to come back and see some more stuff. It’s a beautiful place in the world.”
Melissa Griffiths
“For me, Patagonia now is about friendships and the team. The scenery is always going to be there, but we went through a lot this race. We had some big downs and some big ups and that is what I will always remember about this race.”
Tim Kuenster
“I’d have to say the same thing and some more. Patagonia seems to be about the people, it is clearly about the unreal majestic beauty, but the race itself is about the people and as a team going through the race it is a big psychological mind bender. Last year I went home and spent weeks processing it, and it will be the same again this year.”
Jason Urckfitz
“Along Peter’s theme, it’s brutal beauty. You see it, but you don’t realise what it takes to go see it. Every little missed step has its consequences. You get your legs or your shorts wet. These tights are soaked, and you what am I going to sleep in. Then you set your tent up and it’s on a giant sponge and you’re soaked for the night but you wake up in the morning and it’s 32 degrees and it’s great. But it takes quite a toll.”
