New Expedition Length Adventure Race Announced For Idaho In 2011!

Over the weekend a new expedition length adventure race was announced for North America in 2011. This new race promises to offer unique challenges and an interesting format, while also bringing the sport back to its roots from which it was founded at "The Raid."

Expedition Idaho 2011 is scheduled to take place from August 27 - September 3 of next year, in the northern part of the state in the wild and untouched regions of the pan-handle. The course, which has been four years in the making, will be 500+km (300+ miles) in length, and will feature the usual AR disciplines of trekking, mountain biking, and paddling. Additionally, teams will also face sections that incorporate inline skating, ropes, and of course navigation, with a few surprises added into the mix.

The teams will be competing for a minimum of $14,000 in prize money based on 12 teams entering the race. Expedition Idaho organizers promise that at least 30% of all entry fees will go to back to the teams as part of the prize package, thus the more teams that enter, the larger the prize will be. If the number of teams hits 40 for example, the prize money will swell to more than $50,000. 

The entry fees also include two nights stay at a local hotel for before and after the race, and transportation of all participants, along with their gear, to and from the Spokane airport. There will also be a pre- and post-race party and the promise of potential reduced airline and accommodation rates as well. 

Expedition Idaho is brought to us by the same team that put together the highly successful Adventure Sports Week, which has also be held in Idaho over the past couple of years, so you know they have plenty of experience in adventure racing and events of this size. They are hoping to generate significant television coverage and other media support as well. 

The official website for the race has not launched yet, but will soon. It will be found at: ExpeditionIdahoRace.com soon. Before it goes live however, you can e-mail your questions to funnflip@msn.com or simply call 208-664-0135. 

Organizers of the event are doing everything they can make this as affordable of a race as possible To that end, they have already announced Early Bird Registration, even before the website is up. The details directly from the race director are as follows:

For the first 10 teams to register and pay your $1500 deposit, the entry per team will be only $3600!! After January 1, 2011, or after 12 teams have registered, the cost will move to the regular entry fee of $4000 USD. For our friends to the north, we will accept Canadian $ at par! We will have an international discount to help overseas teams make this race work as well.

It seems that we have a great new, expedition length race on the horizon, and northern Idaho is an excellent place to hold it. I'm sure we'll hear a lot more about this in the weeks ahead, but it is beginning to look like 2011 will be a big year for adventure racing.