2016

2016

After Two-Year Hiatus, PER Returns for 12th Edition

Before the start of the 2016 Expedition Race, Race Director Stjepan Pavicic noted, “[The] Patagonian Expedition Race 2016 will be another monster race that carries the same wild spirits throughout the past 11 editions,” he said. “We are eager to see how the racers will perform in the new course, whether with new strategies or simply with strong determination to win or complete. It’s going to be a tough fight!” The twelfth edition of the the `Last Wild Race,´ featurting 18 teams from 12 different countries around the world, was not just the return from a hiatus, but the homecoming for previous notable champions, such as five-time participants and winners, Team Adidas Terrex from the United Kingdom (GODZone Adventure Team), four-time participants with four podium finishes, YogaSlackers from the United States, and four-time participants with two second-place finishes, East Wind from Japan.

The 2016 expedition´s start line brought the teams to the east entrance of the Strait of Magellan, located at Faro Dungenes, where they trekked along the beach to reach Villa Punta Delgada, or the start of a 272 kilometer bike ride. This route took teams through Río El Zurdo, Estancia Laguna Blanca, and other notable locations before reaching the transition to a 76 kilometer trekking section, located about 25 kilometers after Villa Tehuelches. After reaching the end of the trekking section at Río Primero, the teams once again continued the route on bike, passing through Puerto Natales on their way to Estancia Perales, which would be the first of two kayak sections, the first connecting Perales with Antonio Varas, and also the eventual finish line. Antonio Varas would lead the teams to the beginning of a strenuous 56 kilometer trek through Worsley and Última Esperanza, where the teams would enter the second kayak phase, passing through the glacier at Balmaceda to reach the final trekking section and the beginning of the second-half of the loop to return to the finish at Estancia Perales. The 14th and final stage of the expedition passed through the last checkpoint at Paso Byron, leading teams to the crossing of Río Perales and the eventual finish line of the 2016 Patagonian Expedition Race at Estancia Perales.

Despite the fact that YogaSlackers and East Wind led for most of the race, YogaSlackers was forced to retire from the competition at PC 13 due to injury and East Wind lost an entire race day due to a bicycle accident, opening the way for GODZone Adventure to retain their winning streak and take the 2016 title with a race time of 5 days: 22 hrs: 25 mins., making it the team’s sixth, and captain Nick Gracie’s fourth, PER title. Even with the lost time, East Wind still managed to capture second place, making it their third consecutive second-place finish, with an overall race time of 6 days: 13hrs: 26 mins. This year’s PER also featured a strong showing from new racers, such as Merrell Adventure Addicts, the first all-South African team to win a podium spot with a third-place finish, coming in less than thirty minutes shy of East Wind in 6 days: 13hrs: 52 mins., and M.O.B (Mind Over Body), a Canadian team, who finished in fourth place with a time of 7 days: 10hrs: 4 mins.

In light of these struggles and triumphs, Race Director Stjepan Pavicic reflected on what makes the Patagonian Expedition Race so magnetic. “Why are we here time and again? What invisible force attracts all of us here?,” he asked during the 2016 closing ceremony held in Puerto Natales on February 26th. The answer: “The Place, the Challenge, and the Human Endurance experience… sometimes we need to return to our original home in the wild, to reconnect with where we’ve come from.”

1. GODZone Adventure Team
Nick Gracie (C)	Chris Hope	Warren Bates	Jari Hiatt
United Kingdom	United Kingdom	United Kingdom	United States

2. East Wind
Masato Tanaka (C)	Yoki Tanaka	Michitomo Yamakita	Machiko Nishii
Japan	Japan	Japan	Japan

3. YogaSlackers
Jason Magness (C)	Chelsey Magness	Daniel Staudigel	Alexandre Provost
United States	United States	United States	Canada

4. Vaucluse Aventures Evasion
Jerome Berruer (C)	Jean Cateau	Corinne Bonnet	Pascal Reymond
France	France	France	France

5. Merrell Adventure Addicts
Graham Bird (C)	Hanno Smit	Grant Ross	Robyn Kime
South Africa	South Africa	South Africa	South Africa

6. Mila finland
Juha Lehtonen (C)	Riitta Siltanen	Ken Batten	Pavel Paloncy
Finland	Finland	Canada	Czech Republic

7. Kaweskar
Abelardo Escalona (C)	Claudio Wistuba	Dennis Alarcon	Nelson Diaz
Chile	Chile	Chile	Chile

9. Team Patagonia Germany
André Hook (C)	Wolfgang Grohé	Yvonne Schönbach	Alex Glantz
Germany	Germany	Germany	Germany

10. Osedea
Martin Coulombe (C)	Alexandre Coulombe	Benoit Plourde	Elizabeth Woodgate
Canada	Canada	Canada	Australia

11. NorCal Odyssey
Tim Kuenster (C)	Wendy Welling	Mark Lattanzi	Peter Spagnoli
United States	United States	United States	United States

12. Spirit of Poland
Rafal Nowakowski (C)	Krystian Mokrycki	Pawel Matenczuk	Agnieszka Dziadosz
Poland	Poland	Poland	Poland

14. Team T.B.C.
Lucy Shepherd (C)	Timothy Taylor	Martyn Adams	Thomas Middleton
United Kingdom	United Kingdom	United Kingdom	United Kingdom

15. PRS Fit
SheriAnne Nelson (C)	Aaron Spurlock	Michael Evans	Dale Moomaw
United States	United States	United States	United States

16. CAMPZ Adventure
Thilo Hassebroek (C)	Thomas Kuhn	André Kolbasa	Laura Marquart
Germany	Germany	Germany	Germany

17. Patagonia 4 Barth
Olivier Renard (C)	Frédéric Decamps	Wilfrid Grossoeuvre	Claire Grossoeuvre
France	France	France	France

18. The Green Sentinels
Ben Spurway (C)	Natalie Gardner	James Gardner	Ben Hill
United Kingdom	United Kingdom	United Kingdom	United Kingdom

19. M.O.B. Mind Over Body
Francois Charest (C)	Sandra Baribeau	David Lebrun	Michal Dorocicz
Canada	Canada	Canada	Poland

20. Sherpa
Jean Desrosiers (C)	Adam Pemberton	Andrew Pemberton	Elizabeth Moore
United States	United States	United States	United States