The high Sierras, the Grotto, bats and the 1i-XViro Team gets the call for Tasmania.

One month ago: It was proving difficult for teams to finish the full course of this Adventure Racing World Championships Qualifier. I had spent 11 hours up an amazing carved granite canyon in the high Sierra Nevadas of California, waiting for teams to start the accent. Teams never came. I later learn, it proved more strategic for the teams to skip the rugged checkpoint to make the finish line time constraints. From this canyon, I made my way out of the Sierras to a small dot on the map to await teams. I had slept one hour in the last 28 hours of chasing teams through the Sierras for the past three days and nights . I had no idea what I would find at this checkpoint, being a checkpoint near the end of the race. I was unsure if teams would reach it in time.

To make sure I would stay ahead of the teams I ran with my pack and camera in the silver pre-dawn glow, climbing steadily to a cliff outline above me. Moving fast I startle a group of large winged bats who launch themselves from the trees silently gliding into the dawn above me. I reach the cliff base and descend into the darkness of an enclosed grotto my headlamp illuminating basalt pillars and scraggly trees. A cacophony of birds descend upon me screeching, hooting, swooping close enough to feel their speed. Strange calls reverberates off the cliff, not avian in nature. I wonder if I will be spending time with the originators of these wild calls as I descend to the floor of the grotto. My headlamp reveals scurrying rodents, a Hitchcock numbers of frogs and skittering insects. This is where I will be, with my camera, for the next 8 hours as dawn pulls in the coming heat of the day. I will await the teams, await the shot.

That was four weeks ago in Northern California. We will soon be headed to Tasmania. I can’t imagine what type of imagery we will bring out of it’s temperate jungles and rugged shorelines, what strange creatures we will encounter, what dramatic action and incidents we will capture. As we lead into our departure for Tasmania I will give you an insight into the preparation, training, research and thoughts that will bring us to Tasmania. Once there I will give you a behind the scenes glimpse into the filming of the Adventure Racing World Championships and the experience of the 1i-XViro team.