Wow, it seems like only yesterday that our Product Regulatory Manager, Vern Schrum, strapped on his cycling shoes and started peddling in pursuit of a life-long goal – to ride his bike coast to coast. Well, earlier this week he did it.
Ostensibly tracing the ACA’s Southern Tier Route, Vern set off in St. Augustine, FL, in late September and eventually completed his journey 3,382 miles and 61 days later in Pismo Beach, California, near where he grew up and where family and friends were eagerly waiting to congratulate him.
Type 1 high altitude mountaineer and AMK-sponsored adventure athlete Will Cross provides trip planning advice for athletes with diabetes who are prepping for a major expedition or climb.
Insulin storage – Wrap the bottles or delivery devices in aluminum foil and mark using sports tape. This will insulate and protect the insulin from a hard knock. Use a small coffee thermos to protect from the heat or the cold.
Foot care – Inspect your feet daily and use a foot powder or foot cream, like HealthiFeet, recommended by a podiatrist. Clean socks are imperative. Clean your nails and between the toes with the alcohol swab used for injections.
Team Tecnu at finish line of Adventure Racing World Champs Race
AMK is proud to announce that our favorite group of adventure athletes, Team Tecnu Extreme/Kailash (featuring AMK’s own Kyle Peter), battled the globe’s top-ranked athletes on the rugged terrain of Tasmania to clinch 12th place at the 2011 Adventure Racing World Championships.
This was no small feat considering the epic nature of Australia’s biggest expedition race and the team is still beaming with pride at their achievement – one that now ranks them as the top team in North America.
Big congrats to AMK’s own Kyle Peter and the other members of Team Tecnu Extreme Staphaseptic, who won the Gold Rush Mother Lode Expedition Race this past weekend.
AMK's Kyle Peter (pictured second from left) & Team Tecnu at Finish Line of Gold Rush Mother Lode
The team, which AMK also sponsors and supplies various survival and first aid items to, finished the race more than four hours ahead of second place Dart-Nuun and Team Gearjunkie.com/YogaSlackers, which took third place. The four-day long event saw four-person co-ed teams attempt to cross a 275 mile (442.5km) course of rocky, challenging terrain in the Sierra Mountains of California.
Adventure Medical Kits is happy to announce that it is outfitting Field & Stream Adventurer Jim Baird on his snowmobile expedition through the northern Canadian wilderness. AMK has equipped Baird, a wilderness travel expert from Toronto, with a variety of essential medical and survival gear, including the Expedition Medical Kit, the Trauma Pak with QuikClot, and the SOL Thermal and SOL Emergency Bivvies; all are indispensable items, given the remote terrain that the 29-year-old will be traveling.
Kyle Peter, Adventure Medical Kits’ East Coast sales manager, adventure racing pro par excellence and all-round thrill seeking freak, is at it again. This weekend Kyle is attempting to scale 15 peaks in Desolation Wilderness, the wilderness area located along the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
Kyle and two friends, Dennis Wilkinson and Mats Jansson, kicked off their journey early this morning. The loop the three will be traveling covers 35 rugged miles and about 15,000 vertical feet. The 15 peaks they will be scaling range from 8,600 ft to 10,000 ft in elevation.
For the second year in a row, Rebecca Rusch took top spot among women in the Leadville 100mountain bike race, one of the most grueling and high-profile races on the mountain bike tour, which was held in and around Leadville, CO, this past weekend.
Rebecca’s winning time of 7:47:35 set a new course record, destroying the previous record, held by Laurie Brandt, by more than 11 minutes. The next closest racer behind Rusch was Amanda Carey, who came in at 8:12:54.
Many of us at Adventure® Medical Kits just got back from another busy but greatOutdoor Retailer Summer Market — the trade show for leading outdoor manufacturers and retailers, which takes place the first week of August in Salt Lake City, UT. Prior to and during the show, AMK was recognized by OR’s organizers as one of its ’40+ Legacy Partners’. The initiative, which included special call-outs on OR’s website and signage on the convention floor, honored AMK as one of only 54 companies that has exhibited at Outdoor Retailer for at least 40 shows. Below is a summary of other highlights that occurred during OR:
Working in concert with Scout Troops 364 and 361, of Madison, AL, AMK is supporting the Jamboree with the donation thousands of samples of DEET-free Natrapel® 8 hour insect repellent wipes, which will distributed along with “Be Safe” outdoor first aid pamphlets in goodie bags to scout leaders. In addition, AMK is also providing a variety of its medical kits, survival packs and hygiene products, including the alcohol-free Adventure® Hand Sanitizer and Fresh Bath Travel Wipes.
Congratulations to AMK East Coast Sales Manager Kyle Peter, who recently competed in his first 100 mile race — the Western States 100. Known for its grueling terrain, the Western States 100 takes place in late June, in California, starting at the base of the Squaw Valley ski resort and finishing up at the Placer High School track in Auburn.
Kyle recuperating post race
Over the course of the race runners climb 18,000 feet and descend a total of 23,000 feet on mountain trails before they cross the finish line. Runners finishing before the 30 hour time limit for the race receive a bronze belt buckle; those who finish in under 24 hours receive a silver belt buckle. Kyle, an accomplished adventure racer and member of Team Tecnu, snagged a bronze buckle, finishing in 169th place at a time of 26:35. Read below his account of the challenges he experienced during his first stab at an ultra marathon:
This was by far the highest quality event I have ever competed in, and that includes Ironman and Primal Quest. After the race, I definitely developed a new outlook on the pace of adventure racers – Adventure Racers, we are slow!
