Rock kills man during adventure race

ROCKPORT, Wash. – A falling boulder struck and killed an Australian man during an intense 400-mile adventure race through northwest Washington.

Nigel Aylott, 38, a Team AROC member who was known as one of the world’s best backcountry athletes, died Tuesday.

Eight people, including Aylott’s team and an American team, Montrail, were hiking down a rocky slope about 400 feet below Illabot Peak. One participant felt the boulder, which weighed more than 300 pounds, come loose underneath him, Skagit County Chief Deputy Sheriff Will Reichardt said Wednesday.

The boulder tumbled. Everyone else dodged it, but Aylott couldn’t. It struck his head. Race spokesman Gordon Wright said Aylott was not wearing a helmet; helmets were required only for the biking portion of the race.

The racer who had been on the rock suffered a serious leg cut and was airlifted off the mountain, then driven to Skagit Valley Hospital, Reichardt said. The man, John Jacoby of Team Montrail, was released from the hospital Wednesday.

Organizers halted the race at Rockport, 70 miles north of Seattle. Racers gathered at a park, wept and embraced one another after hearing that Aylott had died.

Organizers announced late Wednesday that the race would resume early today, as Aylott’s team and his family had urged. But they said the course would be shortened.

In the meantime, all the racers gathered Wednesday afternoon for a barbecue put on by race organizers.

“This is so Australian: We asked the team what would be the best way to commemorate his death, and they replied, in unison, ‘A barbecue,’ ” Wright said.

AROC and Montrail were in the lead at the time of the accident and were the only two out of 56 four-person teams to make it to the orienteering section, where racers on foot are tested on their map and compass skills in rough terrain. Other teams were still biking up state Highway 20 when the accident happened.

The hiking, biking and kayaking race began Sunday on Orcas Island in the San Juan islands and was expected to last about 10 days, with the winning team claiming a grand prize of $100,000. From Rockport, the race was to lead competitors down the Skagit River to Mount Vernon before heading back to Orcas Island.

Organizers cut out eight checkpoints after the accident, however, and the race was expected to end Friday on Orcas.

According to a feature article posted on the race’s Web site Tuesday, AROC was the only team that had not slept since the race began. The orienteering course its members were on was at about the halfway point of the race.

Aylott lived in the Australian state of Victoria, but his hometown was not immediately available. He was not married, had no children and he worked as a business analyst for Telstra, an Australian telecommunications company. An experienced racer, he finished in the top three in 12 adventure races in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and the United States, according to the team’s Web site. He was on Team AROC when it took second place in last year’s Subaru Primal Quest race at South Lake Tahoe.

“It’s just rotten,” Wright said. “He had a huge personality, was well loved by all of us, and he was an extremely accomplished backcountry athlete.”