Twice the size of France but with less inhabitants per square kilometre than the Western Sahara, more than 100 years after the arrival of Europeans Patagonia continues to be one of the most remote places. The perfect setting for a race that would be classified by the participants as the "wildest ever to have taken place..."

From here on, there are no more roads. Only the skill of the navigators, their expertise with the map and compass along with the tracks left by the guanacos, would help us to arrive at the next control points...
...we started to see to the very fullest why Patagonia - the land, the mountains, the pampas, the forests, the peat bogs - are such wild territory...
Mental strength, rather than physical strength, became more important. Blisters, bruises and scratches were nothing compared to the mental fatigue...
In their minds, the landscapes that compete for pristineness and beauty will remain forever. To know how privileged you are to have walked or navigated through such remote lands, and to feel yourself part of them, to have achieved so many dreams... that is the best victory for everyone...

We have paddled across the Beagle Channel... what a chance to be able to do that... there are very few people in the world who have been able to cross the Beagle Channel by kayak... It has been a challenge that included a trekking section that was just wild, we had to make our own trail for 100 km,

normally in the trekking sections of the races you are always on trails or paths - here those don't exist. We had to go through the Patagonian forest breaking our own trail, having to let yourself get into a much more natural state in tune with the environment. We have gone through valleys, through rivers, we had to get into rivers at only 8º C and cross them with water almost up to the waist. The truth is that this has been a really tough test for all of the racers, it has been the toughest race, the toughest test, that we have ever undertaken...

I have run raid as Gauloises in Tibet and have participated in Eco-Challenge of Fiji what it has allowed me to be in very warm tropical places and also in very cold places and high altitude, but never have been in a place like Patagonia...

They said that we were coming to the end of the world, and from what we saw along the route it was true... the only trails we saw were made by guanacos or beavers... we walked through places that, probably, very few human beings had ever walked through...

Always at the limits - of time to arrive at a spot before nightfall, with just the right amount of food to not carry too much but to not be hungry, with the right jacket to not be cold but not to carry too much weight...

Of everything I lived through in this race, it was the places that struck me the most, going paddling and having dolphins jumping a metre from your kayak, penguins, seals, sea lions. Birds of every type, beavers, and beaver ponds everywhere you look. Hanging glaciers surrounding the entire Darwin Range, alpine lakes of every

colour, and ourselves passing through places that are so untouched...
The truth is that the experience that we had was that of an adventure race that was so authentic, without assistance, without external support - an expedition, without people, without roads, without even any dwellings where you could ask for something, in the infinite lands of the Austral cordillera... it was just your team and nature...
...the experience of this race was nothing less than the BEST of all - what I had been searching for as a racer, the adventure of my life...

I had the luck to run this expedition race with team Uruguay. I was hallucinated by the landscape, besides to experience incredible sensations within the race. It was different from all, here tapeworms that valerte by your own means, to control the fear,

the hunger and the cold. To me particularly I leave a flavor that almost I cannot describe it with words...

The difficulty of the terrain and the navigation surprised us... It took us over 20 hours to complete the first trekking segment, without stopping... Demoralized, because the navigation was arduous and the terrain, without any road or path to follow, was insufferable;

dense forests and swampy areas where you sank up to your knees...

to have rowed accompanied by dolphins is one of the great things that God has given me, and I could live it in this race...

When dawn arrived, we continued trekking towards PC8, which for our team meant 20 hours through forests, beaver ponds, peat bogs and swamps... ...navigation was the biggest difficulty. We figured out where we were. The four of us got back together and decided by mutual accord to resign from the race...

Seldom have I participated in a race so difficult, so hostile, so wild, so authentic, and at the same time so stunning and majestic...

I liked it because it has been an authentic race... we had to break our trail, walking slowly through the forest, the bog... that is what there was... ...to cross the Darwin Range, and we had to cross it on foot... and it took over two and a half days to do just the one trekking segment...

Each day was different - we saw a very pristine landscape... the terrain was very technical and difficult, both physically and mentally exhausting. But it was very cheering to wake up and to see something different every day. It was beautiful...

There were very long distances between the CP's and the forest was very dense, so much so that often our speed was less than 2 km/hour... It was good to test the team in new and rough circumstances. The time spent with the other teams was very instructive and we learnt alot from them.

The fastest teams carried even less equipment that we ever dreamt off. Jeff Mitchell from the NZ team saw my digital camera and said with a smile that a camera weighing 100 grams is absolutely unnecessary weight and should not be brought on a race"...

For a mountaineer come to Patagonia is an illusion...

the most difficult, yet at the same time the most enjoyable race that we have ever had the chance to participate in... the places were really incredible, a tremendous solitude and with some harsh landscapes, that at times give you so much pleasure and other times fill you with fear...

I think that this is the most difficult race that we have ever participated in... The countryside is magical and, even though you are going through it totally trashed, you try to enjoy it...You try not to think of anything, to make your mind blank, because, if you stop to think about how many

kilometres you have gone or of how much your feet are hurting, you get stuck and you start to sink rapidly. More than the physical, the secret to finishing an extreme race is in the focus, in your head...

Definitely a race founded on patience and experience. I think it was a beautiful and incredible race... we had to use many strategies and tactics. It was really an adventure... it was an amazing experience...

You cannot pass through this life and not come to this place...

"It impressed us, the beauty of the country, how savage. We saw nobody and nothing, . and then at the end we saw whales and sea lions. More than anything, it is the scale of it all; the scale of this race goes with the country. It is all too much, the land, the kilometers...

It is marvelous. Every racer who likes savage country is looking for this race."

"The most difficult race in the world..."

"This is the race that I have been looking for"

"We have done lots of races, and we don't need a race, we need adventure. Those other races, they don't really have the adventure, it is only in their name. This was true adventure."

"There was a spot on the trekking where I had to choose, make the right decision, where we go through bog or water or forest. It was hard to understand the maps, with only 100 m topographic contours.On the ground you see ravines 50 m deep that don't show on the maps, ravines full of fallen forest,

very hard to get across. At times our speed was 400-500 m per hour."

"It was the best race that I have ever done... and I've done a lot. It was definitely one of the most difficult that I've done, but it was also the friendliest. There was so much camaraderie between the teams - I think because of the situations people put themselves in.It was such an extreme race that you had to help each other

out, just to get to the finish line... I was afraid that there wouldn't be much competition because there was no prize money, but the competition was very fierce. I think that is people give this race a chance, it can be one of the best experiences of their lives ."
"I am really impressed by the passion of the people putting on the race. It has a really grassroots feel."

"It's amazing to be paddling along the shore, and you expect to see something - some people, a speedboat, something... but there is just nothing ."

"You cannot estimate how long it will take you to hike a certain distance - it is the geography that dictates your speed, not the number of kilometers... Last year was tough on us, but we learned how to overcome the immensity of this place.

Everyone in this race is really nice. Beyond the language barriers, the difficulties that the teams encounter unite us all even more. We all know that, above all, we must have a real lot of respect for the natural environment here."

"This year we had an advantage, we knew what it was really about... the most difficult race that you can do . We trained a lot, but we also knew that we would need a lot of mental strength to keep the team together."

"The race organization was superb! The course was incredible, and was definitely the experience of a lifetime . This was harder, yet more fun and fulfilling than any other expedition race I have competed in. A true expedition from beginning to end .

I very much hope you continue to stage the race as I would love to see many of my friends come down and experience Patagonia the way I saw it. I would also love to come back again next year."

"There are few events left in the world where you can experience such remoteness. Competing in the PATAGONIA EXPEDITION RACE was like going back in time, setting foot in a place just as a explorer would have, and experiencing all that mother nature has to offer. It reminded me of the way adventure racing once was... a true adventure in every sense. Patagonia is an unforgettable place and this race will stay with me above all others."

We made it to the southernmost limit of the American continent. We lived through experiences that every adventure racer on this planet wants to experience. We had the luck of being able to meet incredible people - including those from the race organization as well as the other team members.

It was a unique expedition, where nature dominated over everything else. We could move forward only where nature allowed it. We will see you in 2006.