Update 4th August 2025

A few Q & A’s that came up from the release of the schematic at the end of last week are below.

a) Do we have to carry our paddle bag ever while paddling, or will you transport that between TAs while we’re paddling?

You will be required to carry your paddle bag and wet bag on kayaking sections unless you are instructed otherwise.

b) May we attach/clip our helmets to our bikes while you transport them without the boxes between TAs 7&8? (this applies to ITERA only)

Yes – helmets clipped to bikes are OK.

c) Will there be cut-offs to arrive at TAs and when will we find out what those are?

Yes, there will be cut offs. All will be revealed at the Briefing!

d) Confirmation of what kit we need to bring to registration for inspection

Please bring all your mandatory ropes kit (harness, slings, helmet, belay device/descender, carabiners) to registration for inspection. We trust you on everything else, but we WILL be making spot checks during the race. Make sure you everything you need and that it meets specifications.

e) Which ARWS kit list is the correct one?

Hmmm – it appears there are actually two v1.8 ARWS equipment lists – one dated Jan 2024 (which we have linked to from the event website), and another dated Jan 2025 (which is the version now on the ARWS website).

We need you to have everything on the Jan 2024 list (this is the list that includes the mandatory ropes equipment). However, we will allow any of the strobe options included in the Jan 2025 list. We think these are the only two differences between the kit lists.

Update 1st July 2025

PLEASE do read carefully the ‘Updates’ tab on the website before firing emails to us. Most of this stuff is answered there.

• Climbing Helmets – these ARE required, as is everything else on the ARWS ropework mandatory kit list. We will spot check helmets and climbing kit at registration.

 

• Paddlesport Helmets – there ARE NOT required – use of cycle helmets for these stages will be acceptable.

 

• Wetsuits: ITERA (Quad) Teams will need wetsuits. ITERA-LITE (Pairs) Teams will NOT need wetsuits. We suggest robust watersports types rather than fragile swimming-specific suits or expensive drysuits.

 

• Buoyancy Aids, Paddles, Backrests: you need to supply these (we will not be supplying anything other than the kayaks). BA’s will be spot checked at registration for buoyancy – we had a surprising amount of failures at a previous event. Old BA’s lose their buoyancy over time.

 

• Maps: we will supply each team with two map sets. These are printed on waterproof paper, though you may want to provide additional protection for them (e.g. map bags).

 

• Bike Lights: Bike Lights must be a minimum of 50 Lumens Front (white) and Rear (red) (though seriously: you need more than this at the front).

 

• Skills: Kayaking: Please see the FAQ tab on the ITERA website;.

 

Please do not come to the event with little or no paddling experience. You won’t be safe, and you won’t have a good time.

MTB: we’re not using super-gnarly trails for the race. It will be a mix of quiet roads, land-rover tracks, quad tracks, and singletrack. If you’re capable of riding ‘red’ grade trail centre stuff, you’ll be fine.

Ropes: we are planning a couple of trouser filler special stages. These may involve ropes. You should be able to put a climbing harness on properly, and know how to use a belay and abseil device. These skills are easy to acquire – we suggest you spend a day or two at a local climbing wall, or look for a local climbing group/club.

Bike Rental

ITERA is not able to offer bike rental for the event. However, there are a number of places nearby that may be able to help. Some of these are listed below.

Please note; (a) We have not made any arrangements with any of these suppliers, (b) we have no affiliation with any suppliers, (c) we have no idea of availability, bike quality/suitability etc. 

Aviemore and Nearby

https://iye.scot/mountain-bike-hire_aviemore/

https://backcountry.scot/

https://ridescotland.com/pages/bike-hire

Inverness

https://www.tickettoridehighlands.co.uk/bike-hire-mountain.php

https://www.highlandbikes.com 

Update 30th January 2025

The following are extracts from an email was sent to Team Captains on 30th Jan 2025;

Packrafts

We can confirm we will NOT be using packrafts for the races in 2025. There are not enough boats in circulation in the UK yet, and there are no substantial rental fleets. We talked with a couple of manufacturers and retailers to try and arrange a deal of some kind, but couldn’t make it work. We really did not want to force teams to spend even more money on the race or have the hassle of borrowing boats.

So, we are using our usual fleet of 2-person Sit On Top kayaks. The organisation will provide the boats ONLY. You will need to bring PFDs (these must be in good condition – we will check them, including for buoyancy if we feel we need to, at sign-on), Paddles, Back Rests, and anything else you might want during the paddle stages.

Mandatory Kit

We’ve added a couple of items to the Mandatory Kit list – hopefully this is stuff most teams will already have access to;

Equipment Lists – ITERA (Quad Teams)

The following items will be required (mandatory) by each team member;

Wetsuit (standard neoprene watersports-type suits are fine/recommended, though swim-specific suits will also be accepted. Suits with ‘shortie’ legs are acceptable.

All items specified in the ARWS Mandatory Equipment List for Ropework Disciplines (Climbing Helmet, Harness, Descending Device, 60cm Slings, Carabiners). NOTE: we will check this equipment at registration – please ensure the kit you bring is correct, undamaged and within its’ working lifespan.

Equipment Lists – ITERA-Lite (PairsTeams)

The following items will be required (mandatory) by each team member;

All items specified in the ARWS Mandatory Equipment List for Ropework Disciplines (Climbing Helmet, Harness, Descending Device, 60cm Slings, Carabiners). NOTE: we will check this equipment at registration – please ensure the kit you bring is correct, undamaged and within its’ working lifespan.

Event HQ Accommodation

Most teams have now booked accommodation at Badaguish (Event HQ). There is a limited supply of this, once it’s gone, it’s gone. August in the Cairngorms is often busy and/or expensive for accommodation, plus we think Badaguish is going to be great little AR hub during the event.

NOTE: we CANNOT allow campervans/sleeping in vehicles at Badaguish. They have been very firm with us on this as it is a condition of their licence from the local authority.

Maps

The events will use UK Ordnance Survey mapping (the best in the world, though we might be a little biased!). There will most likely be a mixture of 1:50000 and 1:25000 maps.

We will probably also use a variety of other map types and scales for various bits of the course.

Update 13th January 2025

Equipment Lists – ITERA (Quad Teams)

The following items will be required (mandatory) by each team member;

• Wetsuit (standard neoprene watersports-type suits are fine/recommended, though swim-specific suits will also be accepted. Suits with ‘shortie’ legs are acceptable.
• All items specified in the ARWS Mandatory Equipment List for Ropework Disciplines (Climbing Helmet, Harness, Descending Device, 60cm Slings, Carabiners). NOTE: we will check this equipment at registration – please ensure the kit you bring is correct, undamaged and within its’ working lifespan.

Equipment Lists – ITERA-Lite (PairsTeams)

The following items will be required (mandatory) by each team member;

• All items specified in the ARWS Mandatory Equipment List for Ropework Disciplines (Climbing Helmet, Harness, Descending Device, 60cm Slings, Carabiners). NOTE: we will check this equipment at registration – please ensure the kit you bring is correct, undamaged and within its’ working lifespan.

Update 25th September 2024

Schedule

We’ve done a bit of development of the master schedule for the event. There are no dramatic changes from the details previously published, but we have added more detail to help inform choices on travel dates and accommodation etc.

Airport Transfers

We do plan to arrange an airport shuttle (for international teams only), and will confirm details later in early 2025. If you are booking flights sooner than that, please get in touch with us and we can discuss details.

**UPDATE 24/7/25 – we are no longer taking shuttle requests. Sorry. 

World Champs Qualifier

ITERA 2025 will be a Qualifier for the 2026 ARWS World Championships (at the time if this update the venue for 2026 is not announced). The reason for this is that it was felt that only c. 1 month between ITERA 2025 and the World Champs 2025, was not a good position for teams looking to qualify and then recover in time for the World Champs. 

Update 7th August 2024

Packrafts

We are considering the use of packrafts for at least some of the paddling stages as this will allow some incredible course options. However, we are aware that these are not yet widely owned in the UK, and there are few boats in UK rental stocks. We will only go down the packraft route, if we are sure we can work with suppliers/sponsors to make boats available for rent or purchase at sensible costs. Watch this space….

Schedule

The outline schedule for ITERA and ITERA-Lite 2025 is indicated below. This is subject to change, In particular the -Lite race registration and briefing process is likely to be held on Monday 11th Aug. The start time of both races is not confirmed at this stage.

	ITERA	ITERA-LITE
Thurs 7th Aug
Fri 8th Aug	Registration
Sat 9th Aug	Reg, Brief
Sun 10th Aug	Start
Mon 11th Aug	Race	Reg?, Brief?
Tues 12th Aug	Race	Reg?, Brief?, Start
Weds 13th Aug	Race	Race
Thurs 14th Aug	Finish	Finish
Fri 15th Aug	Finish. Prizes	Finish. Prizes
Sat 16th Aug

 

ITERA2024 Updates (also apply to ITERA/ITERA-LITE 2025)

Text below related to the ITERA2024 race, however it may have some relevance for ITERA2025 as background info, or give a feel for how we are likely to approach the event in 2025. 

Cut Offs and Optional/Mandatory CPs

There will be cut off times at various parts of the course. These will be detailed in the Race Book you receive alongside the race maps at the briefing. We do not expect all teams to complete the full course within the cut off times (typically, this is less than 50%, and we refer to these teams as ‘Long Course’). ITERA is a bit unusual – most CPs are optional (though teams wishing to be ranked as Long Course must visit them all). As a team you can choose your own course to a great degree in order to (a) avoid the cut offs, (b) customise your experience) by missing as many of the optional CPs as you want. Missing optional CPs’ will carry a time penalty (detailed in the Trace Book) which will be added to your finish time for the results.

As a team you will need to make some early decisions about whether you are a Long Course or Short Course team.

Teams will be ranked in the following order;

• Full Course Teams (all CPs) by finish time order
• Short Course Teams (some CP’s missed) by time calculated as finish time + penalties
• Unranked teams

The equipment on this list is mandatory for ITERA, along with the additional local requirements (minimum standards for bike lights) – the additional requirement for a group shelter/bothy bag is now a requirement of the standard kit list.

There are a few important event-specific notes/exceptions to this; 

a) Bike Lights must be a minimum of 50 Lumens Front (white) and Rear (red)

b) The event is NOT providing bags or boxes – you must bring all of these (Bag A, Bag B, Team Bag, Paddle Bag, Wet Bag, Bike Boxes) yourself. These must be under the specified weights (these will be checked and bags will be rejected if overweight). Bags and Bike Boxes MUST NOT have bungy cords or similar.

c) The event rules for bags/boxes take precedence (as is allowed for on the ARWS equipment list) – these are clearly described on the website and have not changed – please see the ‘Bags and Boxes’ sub-menu on the ‘Updates’ page.

 

A few good questions came up at the online Q&A session on 14/12/23. A summary of the answers is below.

Q – Are there any restrictions on packing bicycles, such as size and material?

A – There is a standard max size of box that bikes must fit in.  Details are elsewhere on the website (see ‘Bags and Boxes’ section of the ‘Updates’ page).

Q – What kayaking gear do you provide or available to rent? 

A – We are only providing kayaks (2-person Sit On Top type). Teams will need to bring paddles, PFD’s, backrests etc.

Q – Can you recommend what level of experience we need for the kayak?

A – see the ‘FAQ’s’ page of the website

Q – Is a split paddle necessary?

A – No, fixed shaft paddles are OK, but see the notes around kit being in bags etc. 

Q – Has it got to be a mixed team of 4?. What navigation skills are required?

A – You could race as a same gender team but will not be ranked in the Adventure Race World Series ranking system. Nav – can you navigate on the mountain in the dark using paper maps and compass?

Q – Food & water – how does this work in practice? I presume we carry sufficient food & water for a stage(s) and resupply at a transition?

A – Correct. You can pack food into your transition bags for restocking yourself. Don’t rely on passing shops, cafe’s etc. 

Q – is sleeping at a TA allowed?

A – Generally yes, we will allocate space outside the TA for this where possible. You will not be allowed to sleep inside the physical TA building though,

 

Questions that came up in previous editions, but still relevant in 2024/2025;

Do we really need to take a digital camera. Can’t we just use a smartphone?

You need to have a ‘dumb’ camera. This is to prove location in the event of a CP being missing, or you think it is missing. Take a picture. Your smartphone will have GPS/mapping/navigational ability and is therefore not allowed to be used during the race. You are required to carry a phone for emergency purposes, but this will be sealed into a bag at registration and not accessible to you unless in an emergency.

Schematic: We plan to send you a course schematic around 1 week before the race start. This is intended to help you plan your logistics and bag/box packing. 

Maps: we plan to print these on waterproof paper. These will generally be A3. We strongly advise you still think about providing a second waterproof/protective layer (e.g. Fablon, Map Bags etc.) as your maps will get some abuse and are critical to your safety and success. The map sets (2 per team) will be issued at the course reveal. Race maps will be mainly UK Ordnance Survey based and will be at 1:50000 and 1:25000 scales.

PFDs for kayaking sections are not supplied by the organisers – you need to bring your own. These must have a buoyancy of 50kN as a minimum. We may test these at sign-on. The foam inside PFDs degrades over time – you’d be amazed at how many fail the test.

Paddles for kayaking sections are not supplied by the organisers – you need to bring your own, and they must be transported in the team Paddle Bag.

Backrests for kayaks are not supplied by the organisers. Please feel free to bring your own, but fitting/removing at each TA will be your responsibility, and will be in race time.

We strongly recommend you bring a tent big enough to accommodate all team members, and sleeping bags. At the very least you are going to need this to sleep somewhere on the course/at a TA, and you might take these with you on some stages.