The Expedition
There are races, and then there are journeys that change you. Alpine Quest is the second kind.
This is a true expedition adventure race — one continuous line across the highest, wildest country there is, raced non-stop by teams of four, day and night, until the finish. No stages reset overnight. No easy days. Just you, your team, and the mountains, for as long as it takes.
One Line, Start to Finish
Alpine Quest is a linear, point-to-point course. Teams board a bus and are carried out to a remote start line, and from the moment the race begins there is only one direction — forward, across the full breadth of the range, to a finish that must be earned kilometre by kilometre. Every leg is new ground. Nothing is retraced. The country simply unfolds ahead of you, bigger and more remote with every checkpoint.
The race is built on the classic disciplines of expedition adventure racing — trekking, mountain biking and paddling, linked by navigation that never stops. Teams move entirely under their own power and find their own way, choosing routes, reading terrain and making decisions together when they are tired, cold and a long way from anywhere.
Race Self-Sufficient. Race Equal.
Alpine Quest is run without private support crews. Instead, the race organisation and its volunteers transport every team's gear between transitions — so there are no crews to manage, no vehicles to coordinate, and no advantage to the teams with the deepest pockets. Every team arrives at every transition on exactly the same terms.
This is the sport stripped back to what truly matters: your fitness, your skills, your navigation and your teamwork. Nothing else decides it.
Maps Made by Racers, for a Fair Race
We are racers ourselves, and we know that a great adventure race is won by skill — not luck. So we make our own maps, and we make them properly.
Drawing on every source of open data available to us, we produce a purpose-built suite of cartography at multiple scales: broad-scale sheets for covering big country at speed, detailed large-scale maps for the technical sections where precise navigation decides everything, and dedicated water maps where the route runs to the rivers. Strong navigators will be rewarded. The course will push your route choice and your map skills to the limit — but it will always be a fair contest, never a lottery.
Midcamp: Race Hard, Race Safe
Somewhere out on the course, every team must stop. Alpine Quest features a midcamp with a mandatory rest, where teams have access to their own tent and sleeping bag — a chance to eat, sleep, dry out and reset before pushing on.
It is a strategic gift and a safety net in one. It keeps the field racing sharp rather than dangerously sleep-deprived, and it ensures the hardest decisions on course are made by rested minds. How you use your time at midcamp is up to you. That you take it is not.
The Mountains Don't Negotiate
This is demanding terrain, and the weather here writes its own rules. Teams must be ready for everything the high country can throw at them — temperatures ranging from well below zero to the high thirties, long stretches on and in the water, and the genuine possibility of snow on the highest ground, even in the racing season.
Preparation is not optional. The teams who respect the conditions, pack smart and look after one another are the teams who reach the finish.
Watched Over, Every Step
An adventure of this scale demands a serious approach to safety, and Alpine Quest takes it seriously. Every team carries a satellite phone and a live GPS tracker, so the race organisation knows where you are at all times and help can reach you wherever you are on course. You will be out in genuinely wild country — but you will never be off the grid.
This Is the One
Alpine Quest will ask more of you than any single-discipline race ever could. It will test your body, your mind, your navigation and the bond between four people across one of the great alpine wildernesses. Cross that finish line, and you will carry it for the rest of your life.
The mountains are waiting.
