2015 Expedition Races

The running of the Adventure Racing World Championship in a little over a fortnight will mark the 18th and final expedition race in the world this year (by this author’s count). This is a little down on the 23 announced at the start of the year, with Ecomotion in Brazil, Raid in France, Endurance Quest in Finland, XPD Portugal and the Gold Rush Motherlode in the US all either postponed, downgraded from expedition status or cancelled. These are all well established races in their own right and are an indication of how difficult it is to get an event of this magnitude off the ground.

The inaugural Wildside Adventure Race in Australia.

A closer look at the numbers reveal 7 races in Europe, 5 in North America, 3 in South America, 2 in Australia/NZ and 1 in Africa. Of the 18 races, two of these, the Maya Mountain Adventure Challenge in Belize and the Wildside Adventure Race in Australia, were held for the very first time.

The exciting news is that it is never too early to start planning your bucket list of adventures for next year. A total of 13 races have released dates and locations for next year, with a further 3 set for 2016 (including the exciting return of the Patagonian Expedition Race). A complete list will be kept up to date here, and includes another 23 races which may make a return at some stage soon. Links to those that have dates confirmed can also be found below. [Note that earlier this year, the return of Primal Quest to the US was announced, however by all reports this is a scam to attract registration dollars and racers should be very wary when considering this event].

2015

JANUARY

Desafio Aysen
Chile
January 13-17
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