Iron Men keen again

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 34

Iron Men keen again

All the competitors from the nine previous Fresh-up Iron Mans are being invited back for the tenth anniversary contest at Queenstown over Labour Day week-end. And, jokes the organiser, Robin Judkins, he is expecting an overwhelming response to his invitation. “They’ll come for the party,” he said, though carefully avoiding any promise to provide the liquid refreshment. Depending on the weather, the ski-ing, cross-country running, kayaking and mountain biking- event will be held on October 21, 22 or 23.

So far there have been three of the Iron Man contests at Wanaka, four at Mount Hutt and two at Queenstown. The tenth Fresh-up Iron Man is scheduled to begin with competitors flown by helicopter from Skippers Canyon to the summit of Mount Aurum for 2500 vertical feet of tricky skiing. They ski off with a massed start, or at 30 second intervals, depending on snow conditions or avalanche danger. Ahead of the intrepid entrants lies a 14km mountain run down Aurum Valley with multiple river crossings, 20km of

kayaking on the Shotover River (grade four or five) through the Skippers Canyon, taking in the five major rapids and the Oxenbridge Tunnel, to Arthurs Point, and, finally, 25km of mountain biking finishing at the Queenstown Mall.

It is the same course that was set last year, but had to be altered drastically when half the competitors were caught in a snow-storm driving in. Fifteen centimetres of snow fell in just half-an-hour.

Mr Judkins estimates that the fastest competitor will take about five hours to complete the course and the slowest eight or nine hours. When the event first moved to Queenstown, only 18 competitors dared to win, that figure doubling to 38 last year. This year he expects to get 40 or maybe 50. Last year’s winners were Steve Gurney and Anna Keeling, both members of a Canterbury team entered for the Grand Traverse race in the Southern Alps this November.

Prizes for the Iron Man contest will again total about $3OOO.