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Posted by Admin on 8. April 2010 15:47
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Untamed Switzerland is an unusual event, and it attracts a colourful cast of characters.
This year, Zurich ultra-runner Jeff Grant -- pictured below with his carbon fiber alphorn -- will be one of the many personalities taking the challenge of 3 days of alpine orienteering/trail running/snow shoeing/racing. The start of Stage 1 will be marked by Jeff and a quick peformance on his alporn. What is an alphorn, you may ask? It's a traditional Swiss musical intstrument, originally used to communicate across the tall mountain peaks. Jeff will use it to communicate the start of Untamed Switzerland 2010. Jeff, besides running ultras and ironmans, has taken classes on how to properly play the alphorn. I said it's a colourful cast of characters.
For more about Jeff, check out his "Hillseeker" blog on life, Switzerland, and, endurance fitness. You can track Jeff on the live Untamed Switzerland race map as the "Hillseeker Fitness" team. We should have some video to post later today or tomorrow from the race start today, and his alphorn virtuousity!
The other race participants are just as interesting, and while everyone warrants their own full bio I just have a few minutes to summarize the rest of the field:
- Chris Roberts organizes HRAdventure events in the US and is a very strong navigator
- Christian Schneider is the defending 2009 champion of Untamed Switzerland and an accomplished ultra runner -- he also finished 24th at the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc last year among other strong finishes.
- Curry and Chips are a couple Brittish expats living in Zurich, Ben Prior and Mark Dowsett. Ben does a lot of triathlon and Mark is building his ultraunning resume.
- Hillseeker Fitness is Jeff Grant, highlighted in this post
- iRule is Mark Lattanzi and Sarah Dallman from Virginia and Ohio (United States). These are a couple very strong adventure racers from the US, with race experience from every corner of the world
- Maya Meyer is a Swiss endurance athlete who really enjoys navigation challenges, so this race will be right up her alley
- Pilatus Aircraft is a duo of Patrick Willcock (South African) and Dani Geiser (Swiss) -- lots of triathlon and mountain running in their backgrounds (and Dani was on the duo that finished 2nd at 2009 Untamed Switzerland)
- Staffan Kallback is the director of the Swedish Adventure Racing association and is another racer who has competed just about everywhere (Coast to Coast in NZ, Bull of Africa, PrimalQuest San Juan Islands, Patagonia when the Raid World Cup was still around, etc). Staffan won our 2009 November 1-day event logging 45 km of orienteering and 1,400 meters of climb in the small mountains around Zurich
- Wijnand Jager is a Dutch "Survival Runner" who is running in his 2nd Untamed Switzerland