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Author Topic: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge  (Read 13616 times)

Offline RobertH

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #80 on: September 03, 2014, 06:30:13 PM »
Run hard and shoot straight!
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Offline landon410

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #81 on: September 05, 2014, 08:43:53 AM »
GPS is live on these fellas, say a quick prayer for their trek, let it be safe, fun, and quick!

Offline OnTheFly

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #82 on: September 05, 2014, 11:12:23 AM »
GPS is live on these fellas, say a quick prayer for their trek, let it be safe, fun, and quick!

AND accurate.  ;D

Fly
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Offline landon410

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #83 on: September 05, 2014, 12:12:48 PM »
i wish the GPS mapping would also show start points check points and end points to give a better idea of where they are at in the course

Offline OnTheFly

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #84 on: September 05, 2014, 12:29:39 PM »
The initial points are speed out and follow a road until they get to an area with buildings.  From there the points are more closely spaced and off road terrain.  I'm wondering if the area with buildings was the initial staging point and they were in a vehicle to get there.

Correction: It looks like the first area with buildings may have been a staging area and the second area with buildings might have been the launch point?

Fly
« Last Edit: September 05, 2014, 12:38:50 PM by OnTheFly »
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Offline kozball

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #85 on: September 05, 2014, 01:50:17 PM »
Looks like they might have gotten lost for a short time, around 11:00 - 11:45.
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Offline OnTheFly

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #86 on: September 05, 2014, 01:53:00 PM »
Looks like they might have gotten lost for a short time, around 11:00 - 11:45.

Looking at the terrain map, I'm betting they decided that was a better route.

ETA: But maybe I'm not looking at the correct time.  There are a few backtracks.  Could be for terrain, getting lost, or just where they have to go to shoot the targets. 

Fly
« Last Edit: September 05, 2014, 01:57:25 PM by OnTheFly »
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Offline kozball

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #87 on: September 05, 2014, 03:22:16 PM »
Looks like they have stopped.  No movement since 13:54.

Hope they are OK.
\"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn\'t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.\"

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Offline kozball

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #88 on: September 05, 2014, 10:46:55 PM »
Looks like they finished. Hope all is well.
\"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn\'t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.\"

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Offline NENick

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #89 on: September 06, 2014, 12:55:25 AM »
I didn't know everyone was going to be watching! If you saw us backtrack, the route we were taking was either too dangerous, we were lost, or we were in the right area but couldn't locate the checkpoint.

The land nav was much harder than I anticipated. I'm not really sure what I was expecting. We got the mandatory checkpoints for the first mission, 0900-2000. We decided not to do the 2nd mission, 2000-0800. As many times as we got turned around, it would have just been nightmare when all of douglas wyoming would have had to come look for us.

I did get a good chance to beat the ever living **** out of my brothers ACOG+RMR. Every rock I climbed over smacked it.

As for the beginning, the cluster of buildings was a muster area. From there, we went an picked up tree trunks an carried them to the 2nd set of buildings. It wasn't easy, but much easier than I imagined. If we were sitting in one place, we were probably planning/ double checking checkpoints on the map.



Offline kozball

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #90 on: September 06, 2014, 08:04:35 AM »
Ya did it, CONGRATS.

Yup, some of us were watching. I know that I was overly excited watching the spot tracker. It stopped, I wondered.

Can't wait for the AAR.
\"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn\'t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.\"

Ronald Reagan

Offline Mudinyeri

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #91 on: September 06, 2014, 08:59:27 AM »
To add to what Nick said, we really struggled with the land nav.  I THOUGHT I was pretty good with land nav.  I usually do several "normal" adventure races a year.  No problem.  This was on a whole other scale with less prep.  Normally, adventure races hand out the coordinates and map the evening before the race and you can plot and re-plot to make sure that you have everything right.

Not this race!  Everything was done on the clock.  Consequently, we rushed some of our initial point plotting and it bit us in the hiney.

We probably added 3-4 hours of mountain trekking to our time yesterday making navigational mistakes and correcting them.  I'll put up some pictures to give you an idea of the terrain.  It was no joke.

Our physical training was good.  Despite our death march back to HQ to try to make the 8:00 p.m. cutoff, both Nick and I still felt pretty good last night.  We're not even really sore this morning. 

Our packing was also very good.  No extraneous weight.  Several competitors remarked at how small our packs were.

We did a lot right but did one very critical thing poorly. :(

Offline NENick

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #92 on: September 06, 2014, 09:07:19 AM »
I'll also add - we'll be back next year. Training starts on Monday. I'm going to cut down from 245 to 220ish. The donut around my waist didn't prove to be necessary.

Offline RobertH

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #93 on: September 06, 2014, 03:41:50 PM »
proud of you guys! better luck next time.

according to the comments, there was a team or teams of Rangers.  do you know if they won?
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Offline Mudinyeri

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #94 on: September 07, 2014, 01:41:21 PM »
Official results were just posted to the Competition Dynamics Facebook page.  We ended up in 26th place (out of 30 teams in the Endurance division).  Not bad, I guess, for being lost nearly half of the time that we were on the course.

Brief AAR:

This year, the Challenge was broken up into three "missions".  In previous years, the Challenge was one long mission.  Based on our reading of the rules, teams would have to complete Mission 1 (Find all the mandatory checkpoints in the right order in the allotted time) before being able to proceed to Mission 2 and so on.  Mission 3 was a bonus mission.  As it turned out, our interpretation of the rules was incorrect.

The event started with all teams lined up. Each team was given their course map and checkpoint list with UTM coordinates.  We were told that the first challenge was required, that it was a log carry and that it was first-come, first-served on the logs.  Nick and I opted to follow the crowd (we were one of the last teams to receive our maps and checkpoint list) and hoofed it down the lane away from the HQ and up to the road at the base of the mountain.

We followed the road about 3/4 of a mile to the pile of logs, selected our log, threw it on our shoulders and headed up the hill to the base of the mountain. We were allowed to stay on the road for this portion of the event. That made this a little easier but there was still a pretty good rise to the road up the base of the mountain.

The log carry was a little more than a mile.  Both Nick and I felt fresh at the end of the carry.  After we put down the log, we grabbed a drink from our hydration packs and pulled out our map, checkpoint list, UTM plotter and compass and got to work plotting the mandatory checkpoints (MCP's).  The checkpoint list also had bonus checkpoints (BCP's), emergency water locations and the location of our re-supply cache.  We plotted the MCP's and BCP's and the re-supply cache and decided to plot the water locations only if we needed them.  (Some checkpoints were supposed to have water.)

The first MCP was due north of our position at the end of the log carry at the top of the mountain.

We chose to head up this draw ...



It was a brutal climb.  We did a fair amount of "bouldering" on the way up (climbing up and over boulders) and waded through what seemed like acres of dense scrub brush.  As it turned out, we should have gone up the next draw to the east.  That was where the MCP was located and it was much less rugged than the draw we chose.

Navigational Mistake #1.

The was the valley in which MCP #1 was located.


Eventually, we realized that we had gone up the draw to the west of the MCP and made our way over to the next draw.  It took quite a bit of searching to find the MCP (an orange driveway marker about as big around as your pinky and about 36" tall) hidden behind a tree next to a large rock pile.

From there, we began our search for MCP #2.  Unfortunately, we had plotted it two grids north of where it was actually located.  (Lesson Learned: Take all the time you need to make sure you plot your points accurately.)  We took a leisurely 4 kilometer stroll down the back side of the mountain and then back up again once we realized our error.

Navigational Mistake #2.

Nick ran out of water on our return trip up the mountain.  I was down to about a half a liter after sharing with Nick to get us back up to the top again.  We stopped and plotted the nearest "emergency water" location.  Fortunately, we navigated quickly to the water supply.  Unfortunately, here is what we found.



Emergency water, indeed! 

Fortune favors the prepared. After reading on the Competition Dynamics website that much of the water re-supply would need to be "harvested" from "fresh" sources I had decided to carry the additional weight of my Katadyn Hiker water filter/pump.  We filtered about 1.5 liters of water into each of our hydration bladders and set off to find MCP #2.

Nick re-plotting MCP #2


Once we had the correct location, it didn't take us terribly long to find MCP #2.  After finding it, we stopped, double-checked our plotting for MCP #3 and mapped a route that followed a small stream along the valley in the middle of the mountains.  The going was relatively easy.  We found a well-used game trail and made good time.  Unfortunately, we mis-read the terrain and ended up searching in the wrong area for the checkpoint.

Navigational Mistake #3. 

After an hour-long search, we decided to head in the direction of the re-supply cache.  As we headed for the cache, we noticed a pickup parked at the east end of the valley in which we had been searching for MCP #3.  We headed for the pickup after remembering that MCP #3 also included a challenge (meaning the checkpoint would be manned).  The checkpoint was about 10 yards from the pickup.  That was exasperating!

We punched our card for the checkpoint, completed the challenge (demonstrating that we were carrying some of the required gear), refilled out water bladders and headed for MCP #4, the final mandatory checkpoint for Mission 1.  It was about 6:00 p.m. and our cutoff was 8:00 p.m. 

We found a double-track trail that seemed to lead in the general direction of MCP #4 and followed it to increase our speed.  The trail led us to within a few feet of the checkpoint.  We punched our card and checked our watches.  We had about an hour and 15 minutes to make it back to HQ before the 8:00 p.m. cutoff. 

The hours spent hauling packs around Nebraska and Iowa's biggest hills served us well.  We set a blazing pace back to HQ.  My estimate is that we were logging 15 minute miles.  While that may not sound particularly fast, keep in mind that we were carrying roughly 50 lbs of gear and we had been climbing up and down a mountain, carrying that gear, for nearly 12 hours.

Night fell.  We switched on our red safety beacons and kept up our pace.  At about five minutes to 8:00 it became clear that we would not make the time cutoff for Mission 1. We slowed our pace and finished the last mile or so.  Both of us felt defeated.  We had made up so much time since MCP #3.  Yet, it wasn't enough.

We dragged ourselves into HQ and turned in our punch card.

"That's it.  We're done, right?" I asked.

The gal at the check-in told us that we would still be allowed to continue on to Mission 2.  Nick and I looked at each other, surprise on our faces.

We requested that the woman check with the race director and he confirmed that we could continue.

With that, we took our next set of coordinates and the Mission 2 punch card and went to sit down to eat and change socks.  We both wanted to continue but recognized that we might well be risking our lives if we made similar navigational mistakes at night.  After discussing it for a few minutes, we made the decision to "ring out".  It wasn't the heroic thing but it was the intelligent thing.  Getting lost in those mountains in the dark would not only have risked our lives but, potentially, the lives of those who might have had to come retrieve us.

Watching the gal at the check-in/out desk write "quit" next to our team name was one of the biggest disappointments of my entire life.  I hate quitting.  I'm not even sure I knew what the word really meant until that instant.  It sucks.

With that said, we did a LOT of things right (probably including quitting).

Our fitness was superb.  To be able to log 15:00 miles at the end of a 12 hour day ... that was an incredible feeling.

Our gear was excellent.  Not a single piece of gear failed us during our 12 hours on the course.

Our packing was top notch.  Several competitors commented on how small our packs were.  We had honed our packing to the point where we had exactly what we needed and not a single ounce more.

At the end of it all, we're going to train harder this coming year.  We're going to work on land nav until we're like laser guided missiles in the light or in the dark.  We're going to keep up our fitness regimen and add some weight.  We're thinking about switching shooting roles to allow this "old man" to carry the lighter of the two rifles.

We'll be back next year!

« Last Edit: September 07, 2014, 02:37:56 PM by Mudinyeri »

Offline kozball

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #95 on: September 07, 2014, 03:32:21 PM »
Hey, I don't want to hear the dispair from you two about the word
" quit "

You went and competed while some of us sat and dreamed of the what ifs.

Hold your heads up and be proud of your performance, re-focus, and get ready for next time.

I for one, am proud of what a couple of rookies were able to accomplish.
\"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn\'t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.\"

Ronald Reagan

Offline RobertH

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #96 on: September 07, 2014, 04:32:19 PM »
A pic of your cards with "quit" on them would give me lots of motivation. I would have put it on my computer and phone wallpaper so i see it everyday and remember what youre training for.
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Offline Mudinyeri

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #97 on: September 07, 2014, 04:32:20 PM »
Hey, I don't want to hear the dispair from you two about the word
" quit "

You went and competed while some of us sat and dreamed of the what ifs.

Hold your heads up and be proud of your performance, re-focus, and get ready for next time.

I for one, am proud of what a couple of rookies were able to accomplish.


Thanks, Doug.  You're right.  We got up off the couch and gave it a shot.

Given the competition, I never expected to win.  I mean there were active duty SOF from three different countries (based on what was said around the race HQ).  If that's accurate, this was a bit like grabbing four of your buddies and challenging the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls to a friendly game of round ball.  :D

Offline Mudinyeri

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #98 on: September 07, 2014, 04:45:10 PM »
A pic of your cards with "quit" on them would give me lots of motivation. I would have put it on my computer and phone wallpaper so i see it everyday and remember what youre training for.

The official card didn't end up with the word "quit" on it.



Offline AWick

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Re: 24 Hour Sniper Adventure Challenge
« Reply #99 on: September 07, 2014, 06:42:00 PM »
According to their Facebook page, a team from Ares Armor was there. Team 19, they got 2nd place.

Congrats to you guys! I taught the orienteering merit badge at Camp Laramie Peak, the boy scout camp just south of Douglas, and absolutely loved it! I became really familiar with that type of terrain... especially when we thought we had a scout missing in the mountains and was part of a search party!

 Hold your heads high, and keep at it!
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