60 of the world's top adventure racing teams from 22 countries are currently gearing up for the Wilderness ARC, the 2007 Adventure Racing World Championship. It is a major event in the Highland 2007 event programme, Scotland's Year of Highland Culture, and is guaranteed to be the most spectacular and demanding multi-discipline, expedition-style endurance event ever staged in the UK.

Taking place from 24 May until 2 June (race starts 26 May) in Fort William and Lochaber - The Outdoor Capital of the UK - in the Scottish Highlands, The Wilderness ARC will mark the climax of the prestigious Adventure Race World Series, with a course covering over 500 kilometres of rugged and varied terrain, including 25,000 metres of ascent. Designed to test the limit of mind, body and spirit of some of the fittest, toughest and most determined athletes on the planet, this roller-coaster of rugged sporting disciplines promises to be an adventure of epic proportions.

Competitors will be guaranteed a mix of challenges involving navigation, mountain biking, mountain running, kayaking, abseiling, mountaineering, river crossing and both gorge and open water swimming.   Dedicated team-work, meticulous planning and cunning strategy, coupled with awesome mental and physical stamina and the ability to keep going through extreme sleep depravation, are all vital to success.

The mixed-sex teams of four, who faced a rigorous selection process before gaining entry to the event, will come from a diversity of countries around the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Trinidad, South Africa, Sweden and the United States.   Alongside 20 powerful UK squads they will battle it out for the coveted title of World Adventure Racing Champions 2007.

The British Adventure Racing Champions, Team Aberdeen Asset Management, who have won the Wilderness ARC race for the past two years and who boast a spectacular international track record, are aiming for the hat trick in the face of fierce competition.   They will compete alongside hot favourites Team NIKE (USA), whose iconic Ian Adamson is the seven-times adventure racing world champion, and the awesome Team Adventure Sport (NZ); in addition to other strong contenders like Team SOLE (USA), Team Merrell Wigwam (NZ), Team Buff Cookmax (Spain) and Team Lundhags (SWE).

A spokesman for Team Aberdeen Asset Management, whose squad includes the most prolific of the UK's finest endurance athletes, said: "For the last year and a half we have been training specifically for and eagerly anticipating this race.  We're a very strong team, we work brilliantly together, we're in peak condition and we're going for gold!  With this year's championship on home turf it would be fantastic to see a British team on the podium."

Other British teams expected to present tough competition are Team The North Face (who came second in last year's Wilderness ARC) and Superfeet / Life Is Good, the predominantly Scottish team (who came third in 2006).

As in previous years there is intense speculation about the course, although it is a closely guarded secret until the eve of the race. Course designer Gary Tompsett, said: "I have been visualizing and planning this championship course over the past three years during the development of the previous Wilderness ARC races staged in 2005 and 2006 and can reveal that it will contain more unique, truly dramatic and strenuous challenges than ever before.  It takes competitors into the heart of sensational and sometimes unexpected territory of Scotland - Europe's Adventure Capital - and will draw on the superlatives of Lochaber and beyond.  It's a monster of a route."

Athletes are likely to tackle the UK's highest and roughest mountains and ridges, stunning deep glens, deep cold lochs, wild remote moorland, forests and peninsulas, mystical islands, open sea crossings; in ever-changing weather, always with the possibility of heavy rain, high winds, sleet and even snow.

Jim Mee, Managing Director of Detail Events and co-creator of Wilderness ARC said: "The professionalism of our experienced event team and the massive potential of adventure racing to showcase the huge range of outdoor activity opportunities available to visitors in the Highlands and Islands has once again attracted the unique and vital partnership of EventScotland, VisitScotland, Highland 2007, The Highland Council and The Outdoor Capital of the UK. The financial backing and logistical support of these partners helped Scotland win the race to host the Adventure Race World Championship for 2007."

The Wilderness ARC is currently attracting an enthusiastic response from UK and international media and adventure racing buffs. The media coverage generated from the event is expected to boost the profile of Fort William and Lochaber, a region that is widely recognised as a world-class destination for adventure sport and one of Europe's last great wilderness areas.

Ends

Media contacts:
Paddy Cuthbert for Podge Publicity  T: +44 (0)131 477 2037 / M: +44 (0)7968 699636 / E: paddy@podge.co.uk
Jim Mee - Media Director - AR World Championship 2007 - M: +44 (0) 7790 900 354 / E: jim@allinthedetail.com

Editor's Notes:
The Wilderness ARC 2007, THE ADVENTURE RACING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, one of the most demanding and eagerly-awaited events of the 2007 international adventure race calendar, will be staged in Fort William and Lochaber, the Outdoor Capital of the UK, in the Scottish Highlands from 24 May until 2 June 2007 (race starts on 26 May) - http://www.arwc2007.com/

The Adventure Racing World Series is an international circuit of premier adventure races representing eight countries, creating a twelve-month calendar of professional events around the world and acting as qualifiers for the Adventure Race World Championship in Scotland 2007.

Wilderness ARC 2007, The Adventure Racing World Championship, has been supported by the Highland 2007 Regional Events Programme, which is funded by EventScotland.

EventScotland is the national organisation for sports and cultural events and co-ordinates the delivery of the Major Events Strategy published by the Scottish Executive in November 2002. The strategy is designed to maximise the benefits of existing events, to attract new events, to showcase Scotland's assets and to encourage more people to visit Scotland to experience at first hand major sporting and cultural events being staged in the country. For further information about EventScotland, its funding programmes and the latest event news please visit http://www.EventScotland.org