Mountain Designs Wild Women : So that was how the Mountain Designs Wild Women finished 2024

2024 was a great year for the Mountain Designs Wild Women, starting off with our historical win at the ARWS Oceania Legend Expedition Adventure Race .....

https://www.sleepmonsters.com/news.php?rticle_id=7219

https://www.legendexpd.com.au/news/historic-win-for-the-mountain-designs-wild-women-team-at-legend-race-in-australia

..... and later our best result ever at GeoQuest where we entered two teams with one of the Mountain Designs Wild Women teams finishing on the podium - a first for an all-female team.

Jan and Kim then travelled to Canada to race in the Adventure Immersion Lab Raid the Rockies 4 Day Stage Race where we raced as Tri Adventure Aunties and surprised ourselves with a win in the all-female category! We were certainly out of our comfort zones many times but were able to rely on our experience and navigation skills to get through to the finish every day of racing.

The Finish of Day 4 - Stage 4 - Raid the Rockies 2024

Hells Bells was the next event on the calendar for the Mountain Designs Wild Women - we probably did not have our best result ever, but we had a great time. It was the first Hells Bells for Ashild and a great opportunity to race with Cass and Nicola together in preparation for Ironbound Malaysia later in the year.

The year was not over yet....so here is how the Mountain Deigns Wild Women finished off 2024.

October - Wild Women Adventure Race 2024

Mountain Designs once again were the major sponsors for the Wild Women Adventure Race, and it just so happened the top three teams were made up of some of the Mountain Designs Wild Women.

1^st Nicola Jelinek and Ashild Kridge

2^nd Cass Kimlin & Ali Wright

3^rd Katie Booth

Here are some insights from Ashild and Cass following the event.

Ashild Kridge

I still get the biggest smile on my face when thinking back to this year’s WW race. I had SO much fun thanks to the extremely well-prepared and organised yet casual-feel vibe of the race, the smoothness in which everything ran, the awesome volunteers who are always so happy to help, and of course my awesome and hilarious partner Nicola. We do make a great team on so many levels 😆

Strategy- we definitely wanted to clear the course and thought we could do it if we could nail the navigation. As we are both rather inexperienced navigators we tried our best to remember what all the amazing navigators we have raced with over the past years have taught us. Our main strategy was to pick directions of entry to the checkpoints where the maps provided the best guidance, ie have concrete guides on the map. This might mean having to pick a slightly longer route but it paid off (most of the time 😆)
Navigation - since navigation is our weakest link we decided to take turns to navigate and to make sure we would give each other plenty of time for this task. This failed at the first bike checkpoint when we (with myself in charge!) flew straight past the flag and down the hill on the other side (my contour reading of the map was not up to scratch 😆) we decided Nicola would take over and we worked together to figure out the best way forward. Surprisingly, the on- road bike navigation was where we stuffed up throughout the race as we did not consider the map scales and the short distances between checkpoints in combination with our high bike speed when estimating distances. We nailed that track navigation though by making sure we used our planned strategy from the start.
The Course - The course was brilliant! I loved the varied terrains, beautiful scenery, and of course, the hills!! Completely up my alley!! My only slightly challenging/scary part was when I got hooked by a fishing hook after paddling under the bridge near the kayaking TA. Two young guys were standing on the bridge fishing and I was centimetres away from getting the hook caught in my chin, just managing to grab it before it touched nicely to the side of my mouth 😳😅
Tips or advice for first timers - Getting into AR and meeting the wonderful, positive, engaging, supportive, energetic and creative people who are involved in this sport is one of the best things I could have done at this point in my life. The fun and laughter, amazing moments and experiences, many new skills learnt and the opportunities that have come my way since i (somewhat reluctantly actually) joined the Wild Women race in Tewantin with Hubertiene 4 years ago is something I could never have dreamt of and the people and the sense of belonging to a community of like-minded people has made my very challenging personal journey over the past years so much easier. I have always felt a little out of place with my needs and desires to get out there and push myself the way I always have, not really knowing many others who could relate to this. I think I finally have found my tribe!!

So, to all those newbies out there wondering if AR is something for you; give it a go, as it will give you so much more than just the mere beauty of being out there in nature racing.

Thank you, Jan and Kim at Tri Adventure for all you do!

Cass Kimlin

This year I raced with Ali Wright, we both love the Wild Women AR as it’s so much fun racing in an all female environment and to just see so many women out there smiling and having fun! Congratulations to Ashild and Nicola on the win.

Strategy on treks - we used a combination of on and off track nav to get around the trek stages. We had a couple of options during the treks where we scoped out the vegetation thickness before we committed to going off track. I'm still scared from that last trek in the 2023 edition where we decided to bush bash.....
Navigation - the navigation this year was much harder than the last couple of races and I was very happy with that. Its so much more satisfying finding off track CP's.
Course - I really liked the course. It was a nice mix of disciplines and flowed really well. My favourite leg was the Mt Ninderry trek. This was only a short leg on paper, but it packed a punch with a lot of sneaky elevation. Even though I've done quite a bit of training in this area, there were lots of places I'd never been before.
Tips/advice - Practice your nav - get along to some of the Tri Adventure training days, Night Nav events or MTBO events. You'll meet some amazing people at these events too, who are more than willing to answer any questions you have.

Looking forward to next year already, so we hope to see you there. If you are in the Maryborough / Hervey Bay area, feel free to get in touch as it’s always so much fun to share our adventures with friends!

November - Ironbound Malaysia 2024 - Report by Nicola Jelenik

When Tri Adventure were offered free entry and accommodation for the 2024 edition of Iron Bound – a 48hr adventure race in Lenggong, mainland Malaysia, I was in. Warm weather, being able to speak some language, experience racing overseas and revisit Penang after many years ticked a heap of boxes for me.

Our team of 4 came together with Cass; navigator extraordinaire and team captain, Ashild; athletic super women, Eibhlin; who I had never raced with, however quickly realised she would keep us (me) inline, and I could listen to her Irish accent all day no matter what she said. A great team, I was super excited about this race.

Getting to the start line is often the hardest part of adventure racing; organising gear, families and work etc. Our flights were booked, a few of us arriving earlier to explore Penang Island. Then a week before flying we find out that tragically both Cass and Ashild cannot race. With such heartbreaking events racing seemed far away and no longer important, however Eibhlin remained keen, and I decided we should still race. It was unclear if we were able race the 48hr, or have to do the 12hr option as a team of only 2 up until the day before when Sham the race director said we could choose. So, the 48hr it was.

Nicola and Eibhlin - ready to race!

After a couple of days at the race accommodation with the usual preparations of sorting more gear/food, mandatory gear checks, race briefing, and map handout we were feeling nervous but excited to race. Eibhlin had discovered a young youtuber on navigation and was cramming in extra nav practice.

Preparing the 18 maps didn’t leave much time to sleep that night. Although we were both worried about the navigation in general, the course looked fairly straightforward…apart from the 40km paddle predicted to be at night on a large river with many channels and islands. CP19 looked particularly difficult, and we had happily crossed it off as being unobtainable, however we kept the map ‘just in case’. We also planned a portage to shorten and simplify the paddle.

We needed to be at the start line at midnight for a 1.00am start as ‘dignitaries’ were visiting. The start was eventful with both Eibhlin and I needing to race back to our rooms, me in the last minutes realising that I had inadvertently taken off the all-important control punch with a last-minute change of clothes to something cooler. Even at midnight it was very warm and humid.

The first leg was a 123km bike and with nerves and adrenalin pumping it was hectic with all 23 teams squeezing on to a narrow road, with a few people crashing which we managed to avoid. We took our time to navigate correctly but rode steady and solid which seemed to be our motto for the race. After a quick 83km of bitumen, the track quickly turned into soft clay with long ‘hike-a-bike’ sections. We caught up with a Malaysian team who told us it’s better to travel in larger numbers if we come across elephants and/or tigers, and there certainly was a lot of elephant poo around, so we stuck with them. A few quick stops to fill up with fresh running water, to which we diligently added the electrolytes needed to complete the predicted 12hr leg with such high humidity.

CPs proved to be quite obvious with many local ‘marshals’ gathered or camped around the flags. We navigated half a map each to avoid having to stop so frequently to rearrange our map boards. Our pedals were completely jammed with clay, therefore unable to clip in and my shoe was falling to pieces. It got completely left behind stuck in the mud a few times. Our bikes however held up, only needing to tighten my head stem and Eibhlin’s map board. We did give them a wash in the river and re-lubed the chain which felt wonderful. Just before TA1 we had the most delicious ‘kalapa muda’ (young coconut) to drink with ice at a roadside stall. Just what we needed before embarking on the 7km trek and mystery challenge.

The trek included a very steep & slippery mountain and a large limestone cave system, both requiring ropes to prevent us from slipping away. At one point we lost our way in the cave and I was left dangling in the dark. Eibhlin came to the rescue with lights showing the way out. The mystery challenge was to de-husk a coconut which Eibhlin nailed, and we got to drink another – yum!

Back on the bike for a short ride to the dreaded paddle leg. Amazingly though, the sun was still high, so it was a quick transition to make the most of the remaining daylight hours. The river was wide with a fair flow. There was also current in the smaller channels, so we changed our route choice to a shorter way that would be easy to navigate in daylight. We had already decided that we had to go for CP 19 – there was no question, we had to do it for Cass and Ashild (lucky we had the maps). We were traveling really well until darkness hit. We had a convenient stop under the shelter at CP 19 during a massive rain squall, then paddled back out the channel through the large lily pads and then got completely disorientated. We could not find our bearing, ended up amongst more lily pads, then managed to paddle out but were still confused. After spotting a light in the distance we decided to head for it, thinking it was a house, however to our surprise it was another team. A Malaysian team who could tell us where we were on the map - phew we didn’t need to drift around till morning light! It was an eventful paddle spotting a group of endangered Malaysian Tapirs in the shallows.

At CP 20 we stuck to our plan of portaging the kayak 1.4km to avoid getting lost in the river maze again. After a few gut sinking incidents – not being able to find the track to river and then coming to 10m drop-off above the water, we found a way down to the river edge and re-launched the kayak. After collecting the last few kayak CPs it was on to the zip line and 20km trek.

The zipline was across the water was quite saggy, which meant a very fast descent to a stop with feet dangling in the water and needing to pull ourselves out gripping the overhead wire until someone could throw us a rope to pull us up on to the bank. By this time our hands were extremely tender even with gloves on. The trek was again up a very steep slippery mountain to a site of old aeroplane wreckage, then once down we found some energy to pick up the pace to jog for the remaining CPs.

Almost home – the final leg was an abseil off a pretty high bridge and then a swim with our packs, harnesses and PFDs etc. to the finish line. I was surprised the find the abseil rope ended a few meters above water, so needed to just drop in. Up the bank on the other side we ran to the finish line with big smiles. We’d had a great race – lots of laughs, super friendly locals/event crew and the best team mate…so much grit and determination!!

Winning Female Team (unranked because only 2 and female)

We placed 1^st female and 7^th overall, out of 23 teams coming from Malaysia, New Zealand, India, Japan and Australia. Great to see so many young Malaysians racing. This race is held every 2 years in alternating locations. The 2026 edition will be in Langkawi, and yes I’ll be there if able. Thank- you to Mountain Designs for the best race socks and lightweight mandatory rain jacket.

Nicola Jelinek

December - Not Packrafting the Mary!

In South East Queensland there are not too many places where you have running rivers with rapids and thus opportunities to get out the packrafts and have a bit of fun and adventure do not come too often. We spend most of our time paddling plastic surge style kayaks in races and our ocean skis training. However sometimes when we get a little bit of rain, the Mary River gets a bit of flow and we all get a bit excited about the prospect of planning a trip down parts of the Mary. Also it has been a year of ups and down for some of the Wild Women, but at the end of the day we just love getting together for fun laughter and of course adventure.

So we locked in a date, Kim got out the maps and planned a 25k packraft and mountain bike adventure. Well, from that moment it simply did not stop raining and but because we did not live in Kenilworth, we did not realise just how much water had been flowing and collectively over the past few days and preceding weeks. Luckily, Kim did realise that paddling may not be an option so if the Walker Rd Bridge was under water we would not paddle.....well we could not even get near the bridge as the road was flooded and water was less than 1foot under the bridge at Moy Pocket, when usually there would be a football field above us as we paddle underneath. This was a very clear message that today was not our day for a packraft.

No packrafting today!

Instead we opted for a ride and a trek - so we rode from Kenilworth out towards Charlie Moreland - our plan was to ride up Sunday Creek Road and hike into Summer Falls - we thought that would be awesome! As we rode past the QPWS HQ the sign said road OPEN! But Little Yabba Creek was impassable just metres from the campsite. So there was going to be no way we could get our bikes through when the water was that high and flowing that fast!

Charlie Moreland - Flooded

About turn and we had to suffice for a road ride in the countryside out to Conondale and Jan found a nice little country road to explore that would take us back to our usual turnoff to Booloomba Creek. Still eager to find somewhere to hike, we thought we would go and have a look....well the entrance was closed to cars, so we stashed our bikes and used our 'Coast to Coast' swift water crossing techniques to get the group across the creek so we could enjoy a hike. Yes it probably was a little bit risky, but we were all there as a team looking after each other - and in adventure racing, sometimes you do have to take risks, test yourself against mother nature and learn from the experience. So, despite not getting the packraft adventure that we had planned..... the Mountain Designs Wild Women finished off 2024 wanting more thus ready to thrive in 2025.