Our pre-event preparation started with a special get together to celebrate the recent news that the Mountain Designs Wild Women were at the top of the rankings for ARWS Oceania Series! We popped the bubbles that Laura and Kim won at the Legend AR in April. Unfortunately, Hells Bells 2026 was not part of the ARWS Oceania series, so it was not a points race for us, but being relatively in our own backyard and a Mountain Designs sponsored event, we were never going to miss it.
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| Kim, Nicola, Cass Laura - Celebrate the latest ARWS Oceania rankings! |
The first ever Hells Bells was held back in 2004 and our very own Mountain Designs Wild Woman and legend of the sport, Jan Leverton (who was volunteering at this event) was part of it finishing 3rd overall in a premier mixed team. Kim and Jan have ever since been at almost every event, whether racing, refereeing and or volunteering. At some point early 2026, Wild & Co produced a Hall of Fame for some of their events, including Hells Bells. The Mountain Designs Wild Women are recognised on the Wild&Co Hells Bells Hall of Fame as the most successful Hells Bells team since 2013.
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| Ashild, Kim, Cass & Nicola - Hells Bells 2024 |
So, that brings us to the 22nd edition of Hells Bells, (the 11th edition for Wild & Co) and it was great to see something a little different! Yes, this year saw the introduction of a BYO skis for an ocean paddle, providing an opportunity for teams with ‘superior’ ocean kayaking skills and or ‘faster craft to BYO, so the Mountain Designs Wild Women took the opportunity to use EPIC V8 Double skis.
Laura said ‘Hells Bells 2026 was epically beautiful! Showcasing some of the best of the Sunshine Coast, this race had everything: surf, rocks, trails, hills, cold water, fun navigation and plenty of laughs along the way.”
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| MDWW Ready to start Hells Bells 2026 |
Leg 1 - Kayak
This was a paddle around ‘Old Woman Island’ from Mudjimba, with a beach landing near Pincushion Beach. On the map it looked pretty simple, but with the start being delayed by 1hr from the advertised 10.30am start, it was a little choppy by the time we started but as Cass said ‘’Conditions were perfect - sun out, warm water, minimal wind.” Laura mentioned ‘the run out was brilliant, popping over the metre swell with ease.
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| Old Woman Island |
The beach landing was not quite as graceful!” There were huge waves on the beach as we headed in and both teams managed to get in without getting smashed! Cass said ‘A beach landing is always exciting, even though Nicola & I misjudged the water depth and exited the boat a little too early. The Epic V8 double boats are such great boats to paddle - a perfect combo of comfort, speed and stability.” Kim’s goal was not to lose her BZ Optics Photochromatic Bifocal sunglasses sunnies, and they were still there at the end! TA 1 was back at HQ, so we left the skis and our paddle gear at TA3 (where we would return later in the race) and ran to TA1/HQ.
Our time -02:23:15 (Rank 3) because we received a 3hr credit
for the Ocean Kayak.
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| Kim & Laura brace! |
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| Cass and Nicola find a deep hole! |
Leg 2 - Trek
This was a coasteer from Mudjimba to Coolum. Laura
said “the coasteering was epic—rock hopping, dodging waves and navigating the
coastal cliffs. It was fast, fun and exactly what Hells Bells is all about.” Cass
found this her most challenging leg stating ‘I was so slow over the rocks and
spent most of this leg desperately scrambling to keep up with the other girls
who moved like gazelles over the rocks. Luckily, the scenery was awesome which
made things a bit nicer.” As we got closer to Coolum, the cliffs became steeper
and with an incoming tide, the waves were smashing directly into the cliffs….so
we had to time our run / scramble to not get smashed / sucked out! Some teams
went high, but this was OOB on the map, so we got a bit wet, but made it to TA2
at Coolum before 2pm, so plenty of time to dry out!
Our time 01:45:05 (Rank 7 – think all the teams who opted
out of the ocean paddle were faster as they did not have a transition and were
fresh)
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| Wild Women on the rocks! |
Leg 3 MTB
This was a mountain bike leg from Coolum to
Parklands Conservation Park, via Peregian Springs, West Weyba, Doonan, Eumundi
Conservation Park, North Arm, Mapleton State Forrest, and Yandina. We had a bit
of local knowledge and a home ground advantage as not only have we been in some
of these areas in Hells Bells before, but also Wild Women AR events and many of
our Tri Adventure weekend adventure sessions. We still had to find the
checkpoints though and this can always be challenging. Our first obstacle
however was a flat tyre before we reached the very first CP on the bike. Kim’s
back wheel started spewing sealant and it soon was dead flat. The MD Wild Women
are usually prepared, so Nicola quickly got out the plugs, Kim used the tool to
plug the tyre (it took 3 small pieces) and after reinflating the tyre we were
soon back riding again. Unbeknown to us at the time, our tracker was not
correct – on paper were team 29, our team numbers on us were team 29, but on
the live tracking we were listed and shown as Team 30. So, it looked like we
were tyring to swim across Stumers Creek at that point….. but we were not! We
were by then making our way through the course! We were caught by a few teams
at CP 9 in West Weyba – it was 20m SE of Track junction, but after a grid
search it was more like 20m S – frustrating! So, we showed a few teams the way
through under the motorway enroute to Eumundi SF. Navigation was simple on this
section as familiar, but the circle for CP13 was not correct either ☹.
Anyway, we made it through to Mapleton, and Yandina and hit Parklands just on
dark. Local knowledge here was a definite advantage, so we headed down Anger
Management to CP18, we got a little bamboozled getting out of there with teams
and lights everywhere but eventually got to Lush - an absolutely beautiful,
flowy track to find CP19. Laura said, I can now completely understand why Chris
insists we follow the track directions—because some of those trails are just
too good to miss! We arrived at TA 2 the party TA – but said no to sausages
before the trek!
Our time 04:51:02 (Rank 8 – Probably not as fast as we thought ☹)
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| Nicola at CP 15 - we took a photo as the electronic control did not beep! |
Leg 4 Trek
Kim knows Parklands well and could almost get us to the CP
locations without the map. On this leg there were 9 checkpoints, we needed to
collect 6 in any order, but there was a credit of 1 hr per extra CP, so our
plan was to find 6, then as long as we had found them, to then look for the
last 3. Ho Chi Ho -F, Radar Hill Fire Trail - H, Medows - I, Double Dab, Roo
Valley, Red Dog - G, Fire trail -C, Rock n roll, Rocky Creek Rd -D, skills
park, up past Blue Tongue. Then ‘according to Laura …… “apparently, the actual
course wasn't quite enough for us. We decided to add a couple of detours,
picking up some bonus elevation along the way. Why follow the easiest line when
you can make things harder for yourself?” Yes, we went in at the wrong y
intersection to look for ‘B’ everything lined up ‘sort of’ and after 3 attacks,
Cass said ‘are we actually in the right place’? Kim had another look at the map
and said ‘NO’ we are ‘here’ and we should be ‘there’ – I am so stupid! So, we
continued to the correct intersection and found B straight away. Along the way,
Kim stopped to help a team ‘who were totally lost’ as we know how confusing it
can get in Parklands with so many unmarked trails on the map. CP A was an easy
high point, so we were back at TA 2 before midnight and this time we had
‘sausages’ thanks to Sam Brauns & his TA crew!
Our time 00:44:55 (Rank 7 – obviously our little extra
creekline travel had a bit of an impact on this)
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| Kim's redraw of our Parklands MTB (Green) & Trek ( Yellow) |
We had no trouble making our way from one side of Parklands
to the other, as once again, Kim knew the way – CP 20 Top of Rock & Roll;
and then up the fire trail beside Phoenix to the Atkinson Rd exit. Nicola was
on fire on the bike again spinning away gracefully but then ….. oops! We took a
few early turns on the roads. On a positive note, Laura said “this gave
us the perfect opportunity for some bonus hill repeats. The hills were simply
too good not to fly down… and then ride straight back up them. Not exactly part
of the plan, but definitely fun on the downs!” Kim felt a bit ‘mad and sorry’ but
it was after midnight and ‘that’s why we call it the bewitching hour’ you can
just make stupid mistakes. CP21 an old historical cane train track on the bank
of the Maroochy River, was somewhere Kim had not been before, and our final CP
was near TA3. We arrived before 12.30 am with just a paddle and a short MTB to
go!
Our time 02:24:16 (Rank 12 – This was just because Laura loved hill repeats so much 😊😊)
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| No excuses for nav errors, but in the "bewitching hour' I did not remember N had changed! |
Leg 6 - Kayak
Paddling at night is never easy – sands bars,
grid searches – lucky we were warm…. as we took the time to put on waterproof
top and pants before we got on the water! Cass loved that we had the EPIC’s
again for this leg and for that reason, it certainly helped us with being one
of the faster teams.
Our time 01:59:05 (Ranked 7 – we think that the teams who
complete this leg in daylight would have had a definite advantage as they could
see exactly where to go and where the sand bars were.)
Leg 7 - MTB to finish.
The final ride was fast, cold and all about getting home. We
finished by 3am - that was unexpected!
Our time 00:14:27 (Ranked 9 - probably because it included
the ‘transition’ and we probably can always do better at that)
The live tracking had us as Team 30, but we were 29, so when
Kim arrived home around 4am Jan thought she was an intruder or that we had
pulled out, as just a few hours earlier we ‘apparently had started the trek in
Parklands’. What a relief as what ever team ‘she had been following’ was not
navigating and moving as well as anyone would have expected for the Mountain
Designs Wild Women.
The Results
1st Female Team in Hells Bells; 5th
overall; 3rd team of 4 not too bad for a bunch of women two 50 plus
and two 40+
Link
to Live Tracking (now correct with MDWW as Team 30)
VIDEO Mountain Designs Wild Women Hells Bells Video
Laura said afterwards, “we worked brilliantly as a team, we
looked after each other, solved problems when things went sideways, embraced
the unexpected detours, and kept moving forward - Hells Bells 2026 delivered
everything we could have asked for—and a few extra hills we definitely didn’t. Epic
scenery. Epic adventure. Epic team.”
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| Epic scenery - Epic adventure - Epic team - Mountain Designs Wild Women! |
Thanks to Chris and the Wild & Co volunteers for
putting on the race and to Mountain Designs for supporting Hells Bells since
the beginning.
Thanks to all of our sponsors and supporters
Mountain
Designs – supporting the Mountain Designs Wild Women since 2017
Tri Adventure
– AR skills development training and all female events
Ay Up Lighting Systems
– the toughest lights out there, made in Australia.
Venture Cycles
– Trek Bikes Australia – Kim
rides a “Supercaliber XC Trek”.
BZ Optics –
Worlds first Bi Focal Photochromatic Lenses – protection and vision!
Moxie Gear
– Gaiters for those who love to go off track!
Champion Systems
- Champion Systems have been making the Mountain Designs Wild Women Team Cycle
Kit for almost 10 years now and it has been great to see the clothing evolve,
but we must admit, that sometimes it’s way too nice to take out in the bush to
get trashed, so we often race in our ‘older kit’, but wear the new stuff for
photos 😊
Epic Kayaks – We are not sponsored by EPIC but, Kim and Jan have had an EPIC V8 Double
since 2016 (we purchased this especially for the Wild Women to race at
GeoQuest) and paddled EPIC V10 Sport & EPIC V10L back in the old Anaconda
Adventure Race days. Epic have continued to make affordable high-quality ocean
ski’s in makes and models that suit your skills and ability. The V8 enables us
to go out in almost any conditions! Thanks to Greg & Michele Krome for lending us their same vintage V8 Epic Double for the race!
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| Mountain Designs Wild Women & the Epics! |
