In December of 2009 I left Minnesota in what turned out to be one of the most snowy winters in the recent history. I stopped in Lima for a few days to spend Christmas with my wife and then left for Buenos Aires to work on the 2010 Dakar Rally. The Dakar is the longest rally of it’s kind covering more than 9000 kilometers. Most people have heard of the Baja 500. Just think of that times 18! After prepping in Buenos Aries for a few days we departed on January 1st and would not return for two weeks at the rally finish. One of the most memorable days of the trip started in Fiambala, Argentina where the temperature reached 120+ degrees in addition to a sandstorm. Not the most ideal condition to work in especially for the equipment (see photo).

After working all day in those condition our crew decided to leave for the next portion of the race early so we wouldn’t have to spend the night camping in that heat. This was the also the portion of the race that crosses the Andes Mountains over the border into Chile. We had hoped to make it to the border to sleep that night and we did just that. The part that we failed to think about in our planing was that would mean camping at over 15,000 feet (see photo). The temperature got down to around 25 degrees that night but that seemed very cold since the clothes and camping supplies we had were designed for a hot desert. We made it through the night. In the morning we discovered that there was a traitor among us who went to sleep in the car during the night to stay warm. It was a beautiful drive the next morning down the Western side of the Andes but we all had symptoms of altitude sickness to contend with for a few hours.