Posted: 6/8/16
ADVENTURIST SCORECARDS - HOW DOES IT WORK?
Yes, we said “simply-keep” your scorecard in the Adventurist Class Rules blog post, and you reacted with discrediting our intentions without questioning our statement, “There will be more info on this and more to do!” Simply put, if you are a true Adventurist, you will want to guard your AXIALFEST2016 SCORECARD with the utmost care to not lose it as the adventure simply does not end with your last trail! You will want to make sure your AXIALFEST SCORECARD makes it home with you as we will make a social post on the official Axial FaceBook page some time after AXIALFEST2016 asking you to post a photo of your scorecard! Yes, for those of you who put their hearts and souls into the spirit of adventure, we will ask you to share your scorecards, and who knows what can happen from there…
For those returning to AXIALFEST, you will notice more changes over previous years' scorecards. We are constantly trying to progress the event for the true ADVENTURIST. For both the vets and the newbies, below will give you the details of each section of the AXIALFEST2016 SCORECARD.
The pluses and minuses of the SCORECARD - At A Glance
On your AXIALFEST SCORECARD, you will see boxes for each Trail. You can accumulate your points for ease of tracking and progress. Three things will add to your overall time; touching a Trail Marker, a Hand / Foot Penalty, and a Missed Trail Marker. Trail Assist is the one thing that you can do to earn time back. At the end of each trail, you are supplied boxes to fill out for your complete time after each trail. After the AXIALFEST weekend, you can accumulate all of your trail times for your overall Grand Time. This is NOT a timed competition. The lowest time does not win or not win any prizes. It is only a means for you to compare notes with your friends and most of all track the amount of time you spent driving your rig! You race to get off work to spend more time on your adventure! Yes, we want to see maximum drive time! We will ask for you to post socially and share your scorecard after AXIALFEST.
CHECK IN TIME / CHECK OUT TIME
At the top of each Trail Section on your scorecard, you will see a Check IN Time and Check OUT Time. At the beginning of each Trail Head, mark what time you start the trail and at the end of the trail, mark that time as well. Do not stop your clock once you’ve started a trail until your vehicle passes through the last Trail Marker OR unless you DNF (Did Not Finish). You can note that you DNF'd the trail or incurred more time due to a trail repair but the clock does NOT stop until you finish the trail. It’s all apart of the adventure. Notes can be added below the Total Trail Time box.
HIT A TRAIL MARKER [+2 MINS]: Trail Markers (TMs) are numbered 1-150 per trail. We will have a total of 7-Trails (A-G) with Trail-G being the ULTRA course, of which Adventurists will also be allowed to traverse. This gives you the opportunity to run 1,050 Trail Markers for the event! (Or more…) You do not have to do every trail, we are all here for fun and we are just laying out suggestions for your adventures. But, the point being, with this many TMs, you do not have to work for 15-minutes attempting to pass through a one particular Trail Marker section to avoid the penalty. Think of it like this, the penalty is two minutes added to your overall time, thus at some point (for you to determine), why spend 15-minutes attempting the Trail Marked obstacle? We know honor, ego, and braggadociousness are on the line, but holding up a line of fifteen people behind you is viewed as inconsiderate and is bad trail etiquette. If such event happens where other vehicles are behind you waiting, after your 3RD ATTEMPT, please pull out of the way and allow the next person in line to attempt. At the same time - but a different scenario, you may come upon a group who are all working hard on another particular Trail Marker section and you may choose to take the time penalty and go around. Again, it's not a race and it’s not a checkered flag competition. Your consciousness may tell you that your four door daily-driven trail rig or super-cherry trailered queen may take on too much damage, potentially jeopardizing your adventure journey end goals. You may have kids in the back seat with fresh eggs in your on-board refrigerator, why risk it! On the scorecard you will have a series of boxes to make notes as you traverse the AXIALFEST trails and hit or touch a Trail Marker. Check a box OR write the Trail Marker number in the box each time you hit or touch a trail marker on the appropriate trail of the scorecard. If everyone writes the Trail Marker number they hit, we will see patterns created a tricky section that potentially sucks everyone into the TM-Vortex and we will see this show up once everyone post’s their scorecards. Each checked or numbers box is a 2-minute penalty.
HAND / FOOT PENALTY [+3 MINS] (Formally called a winch penalty, but there is no penalty for using a winch). Check a box each time you make use of “human power” for a tow-strap assist, kick-flip your rig right side up, or HOG your vehicle from the depths of a trench. Only if you use “human power” to recover your rig do you incur the penalty! Hooking and unhooking straps, shackles, D-rings and placing ground anchors such as the signature Pul-Pal are natural acts, thus incur no penalty. It’s the use of “human power” to push your rig with your foot or pull your tow-strap with your hand that incurs the penalty. If you have a working winch on your rig, USE IT - NO PENALTY! If you strap from truck to truck for recovery or tow assistance - NO PENALTY! If you use what we call HOG or “Hand-Of-God” to human power a tow-strap to move, assist or recover your rig, that is when you incur the penalty. Casually cruising down the trail and watching the birds and accidentally tipping over and kick-flipping your rig back over with your foot - check that box, you’ve incurred and penalty!
MISSED TRIAL MARKER [+10 MINS]: Yes, it’s important to not get so excited that you skip a trail marker out of numerical sync. Check a box OR mark the number of the Trail Marker you missed if you passed or missed a Trail Marker. It is important to take your time, be patient and not get flustered and don’t make it a speed competition. That is how most pass or get out of numerical sync. Can we just call it all apart of the visual navigational challenge? While we’ve attempted to bridge the gaps between Trail Markers and will do so even more, we also feel that visual scouting it apart of the adventure. Again, if we intentionally place a certain Trail Marker a scratch irregular or seemingly out of place, we will know we’ve tricked you. Cattle and sheep follow trails and sometime we like to just pop over a hillside or hard-left on a well worn hard-right. But, we will have indicators from each Trail Marker to the next! You will have visual assistance from one to the next, but numerical sequencing could have you criss-crossing an intersection intentionally - for our viewing pleasure.
TRAIL ASSIST [-5 MINS] We know it’s tough out on the trail. If it was easy, everyone would be driving 4X4’s instead of Honda Civics! If you're an off-road soloist, you know you have to be patient and never put your rig in harm’s way. At the same time, in a pinch, everyone can use a little help from a friend. Even if it’s verbal encouragement or tactical tire arrangement suggestions. Sometimes you may find someone in need of recovery assistance and for every rig you assist back into action, you receive a BONUS! Be courteous to your trail companions, you may need assistance when you least expect it. You have to recon' with yourself, if you're a soloist and don’t lend any help, don’t expect any help when you least expect it and need it most. If you are that person trying to blaze the trails for the lowest ET, we have this thing called the ULTRA Class. At the same time, no one should expect you to be the local tow truck either. Typically you pull the vehicle behind you and that rig pulls the vehicle behind him. Remember, trail karma is circularly infinite.
TOTAL TRAIL TIME
Total your run time, add your penalties, subtract your bonuses to get your total trail time. Not shown here, but at the end of your scorecard you will accumulate all your trail times together for your grand total trail time. REMEMBER THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE LOWEST ET! It's about putting in the most amount of drive time. You spend all this time and effort to get here, we want to see you put in the maximum amount of drive time!
