The 'Last Wild Race' may be a big test for the competitors but it is also a huge challenge for the photographers and communications team who are sending updates from the field – and instant reporting from the wilderness is not easy!
The hub of the race is not in its belly but actually in Punta Arenas, where the official Race HQ, set up in the office of race organisers Nomadas Outdoor Services, keeps a 24-hour watch to receive and distribute communications as quickly as possible to the Twitter and Facebook feeds, the race website and the Chilean and international media.
Thanks to a network of Inmarsat satellite communications, which includes sat phones and BGAN data terminals (a mobile internet, although not nearly as quick as broadband!) the Punta Arenas HQ is linked up to every checkpoint (PC) along the course as well as a ‘Remote HQ’, which travels along the route between the most accessible checkpoints.
Checkpoint managers call in to HQ with the latest news and race positions as the racers pass by while the Remote HQ aims to catch up with the teams wherever possible and deliver quotes and fast photos back to Punta Arenas.
This year, as well as staying in some pretty remote campsites, Remote HQ has also spent several nights set up in the luxurious Remota Hotel in Puerto Natales, which has provided comfortable shelter, fast internet – and some great food and comfortable beds!
Out on the course, the photographers do all they can to capture the action in high resolution, while the official race production crew is chasing down the stories to get them on film. But getting to the heart of the action is far from easy – and sending it back as live as possible is even tougher.
Photographers can only take photos of teams that pass them, and when the whole race moves non-stop that is unpredictable.
When the course is accessible (usually the kayak and bike sections), the photographers and film camera men try to follow racers on boats or in cars and an editor obtains those photos to send back to HQ via satellite or via the Remota hotel internet.
When the racers are remote trekking, some photographers are stationed in one location to take photos of every team coming through (although some pass through at night) and others follow the racers through the course and tend to stick with those teams (so they don't get lost!) until they can't keep up, then turn around and come back or reach a checkpoint and get transported out.
Those remote photographers’ images only get back to the Race HQ in Punta Arenas, usually via a BGAN at the Remote HQ, once the photographers are 'reclaimed' from the field - so some photos could be taken on day one, but may only arrive on day five because the photographer went straight into the course and took days just to make it back to remote HQ.
Add to that the complicated logistics of transporting tonnes of food and a whole load of tents, bags, equipment and people around from location to location in the most remote wilderness on Earth, and you start to realise quite what an achievement it is that Nomadas puts on this amazing event every year...
