-Rock climbing. 5.13a onsight.
-Mountain running. No idea for longer courses, but check these times and courses out from the world championships.
-Mountain biking. Standard? Hard to define.
-Backcountry skiing/off-piste skiing with some serious down. Ski mountaineer races seem good?
-Whitewater kayaking (downriver race).
-Nordic skiing of some kind (going fast on little skis).
-Ice climbing/mountaineering/winter climbing stuff.
-Paragliding (includes hiking to launch).
Marginal "mountain" sports, or sports we couldn't agree on:
-Road biking
-Horseback riding
-"Freestyle" snowboarding, skiing, anything that is judged can't be a mountain sport.
-Canoeing
-Rafting
-BASE jumping
-Swimming (lakes etc).
-River surfing.
-Snowshoeing
It would be pretty much impossible to do all of these events in one place, but how about a season of events that would tie all of the above together into one event? Hmmm....
Doesn't what you're suggesting sound at least a little similar to adventure races? And also the http://www.redbulldivideandconquer.com/teams.php expect that one person does all the events...
ReplyDeleteSounds really cool though.
*except*
ReplyDeletehow about instead of mountain biking and the undecided road biking, come up with a course for a cyclocross bike. last year i raced a cyclocross omnium in Montana that included an uphill time trial. it may have been some of the toughtest 10 minutes of my life. there was a a tough fire road fire road climb and some fast singletrack along with some barriers and 2 run-ups. plus, i live at sea level and the race went from 7000'-8000'- an interesting twist to lots of mountain sports...
ReplyDeleteJust an FYI, a heptathlon is 7 events. 8 would be an octathlon. =)
ReplyDeleteWill, I have to say that I'm suspicious about turning "mountain sports" into games. Then we have a lot of viewers rather than doers. It's contrary to what I think these "sports" are all about.
ReplyDeleteBest, Kim
Adventure races are contrived exercises in group suffering and sleep deprivation, I'm talking about sport skill vs. self-abuse skill (which is a skill, great, have at it, ha ha!). I always wanted to do the Divide and Conquer and do all the events, I did the running (my worst event!) once...
ReplyDeleteCyclocross riders wear Lycra. Any "sport" involving Lycra is not a sport. Back when I wore Lycra climbing it briefly stopped being a sport Good luck with the cyclocross, it's a rad sport sarcasm aside.
Hepta, Octa, sheesh, some people actually remember what they learned in school? Thanks.
Kim, just 'cause a sport is watched doesn't mean it loses its sport status. I fully agree that doing kicks ass on watching, but sometimes watching is cool too. I like watching rally car racing, probably better for me to watch that than do it, ha ha!
"just 'cause a sport is watched doesn't mean it loses its sport status." It does for the viewer. The viewer takes no risk. For them it's a game. And that, I think, is a problem for all of us who are doing it. That said, I like to watch as much as anyone. I'm still trying to figure that one out.
ReplyDeleteBest, Kim
All sports are games--whether or not there are spectators.
ReplyDelete