I can give you some insight into this ride---I
crewed for the winning team, Brian Weaver and Annalea Moonbeam, both from
Pennsylvania. I was dating Brian at that time (ah, we were soooo young
back then!!). The ride was held at Brianhead Utah, which is a ski area way
south of Salt Lake. I am not certain of the exact elevations, but I think
I remember that base camp was near 10,000 feet and the ride climbed to over
14,000. The landscape was absolutely unforgiving with rocks, elevation,
not alot of natural water, and heat. Wayne McMinn and I drove well up the
mountain above all the other crews and since we didn't know if we were actually
allowed to be there, we crewed every horse that came by, not just our own.
We made sandwiches for exhausted riders and watered every horse, using all of
our available water. John DePeitra was making a video and came along and
filmed us. I hadn't seen the video until a couple years ago - too
funny!!
Brian is an incredible athlete, and at 25, was
probably in the prime of his fitness. He actually ran on foot for most of
the up hills and all the down hills. When you watch the video of horses
going by on the trail, he is always the only rider on foot. He wasn't
exactly built like a runner, either, being about 5'5" and fairly 'sturdy'.
At one point in the video you see him swing up from the ground at a trot- pretty
cool.
Brian's MO was to sit back, save horse and win in
the end, and just like twice at the OD and twice at Big Horn, among many
others, he did just that at ROC. He was midpack for most of the
ride. At the last check, he had a sandwich and a beer and started out
in 4th or 5th place, going down the mountain to the finish in the dark. He
crossed the line alone---one of the most thrilling moments of my endurance
career.
It was a brutal trail, though and those that were
not lame or tired and pulled, were overtime.
Interestingly, Brian didn't own Beamer, and had
never ridden him before that day. Beamer had won the ROC a couple years
before with his owner, Annette Taschner.
I just talked to Brian a few days ago, he is going
to break my four year old for me--he is an excellent horseman, and made
endurance look easy - even on other people's horses.
