Photo Courtesy SEASAR

By Jayson Taylor

Medicine Hat Massacre Adventure Race ends in its closest finish ever

May 15, 2023 | 4:19 PM

The Medicine Hat Massacre Adventure Race concluded Saturday with a result that has never been closer in the race’s 16-year history.

The race combines physical endurance with navigation skills. Using only a map and compass, racers attempt to find checkpoints around the backcountry.

Gerry Prince, one of the race organizers, states that the race was incredibly close through the entire nine hours.

“In a nine-hour race where top teams collect over 1000 points, the spread between the top five teams was only 20 points. That’s incredibly close,” Prince says in an email.

The race was held at Cypress Hills Provincial Park and drew teams from as far as Vancouver and Winnipeg.

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The overall winner in total points accumulated was the Quads of Fury team of Barry Hoy and Ezequiel Quian. They finished the race with 1,025 points.

The men’s race needed a tiebreaker to determine the winner. Between a Walk and a Hard Place (Brad Gaylard and Ryan Kloepfer) were the winners, beating out The Money Line (Steve Malo and Darren Wagner). Both teams finished with 1,015 points, but Between a Walk and a Hard Place finished 19 seconds faster.

In the women’s category, the winning team was Lake Tornadoes (Sarah Danielsmith and Stephanie Dwyer) who finished with 1,010 points. This was the duo’s second consecutive win in a row at the race.

Hitched Hikers (Lawrence and Kristin Ator) won the mixed category.

Finally there was the Lite Race which is half the length of the Big Race and competitors are able to use GPS to find their way through the race. It was won by Team S&Q3000 (Kyler Millington and Brolin Vanderspruit), accumulating 429 points.

More information can be found at mhmassacre.ca.