COVID19 Compliant - Morning Intermediate Desert Drive - Area 53: the 1km ascent quest - 26 Jun 2021

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

We are going to have a single convoy tomorrow, all waitlisted are confirmed. I will be posting the convoy order later tonight, so please stay tuned. 

Meeting point is confirmed as per drive post: https://goo.gl/maps/JkhE9hDwve8mkkU99

Drive start time will be at 5am, so be there no later than 4:45am. Please be punctual! 

Convoy order later!

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

Please find below the convoy order for our drive:

@Javier Lucero, @Gok Krish, @Mario Cornejo, @Goutam, @Alexander Alcala, @Rizwanm2, @varunmehndiratta, @Ahab Shamaa, @Wrangeld, @Shaaz Sha, @Dodi Syahdar, @Shehab Alawadhi, @Abu Muhammad, @Hisham Masaad, this drive is going to be very demanding from a technical point of view, both mentally for the drivers and mechanically for the cars. It will require your full and undivided concentration at every step, especially when we will reach elevated positions on steep slopes, so make sure you come well rested and hydrated and that and you don’t have any reason for being distracted. Also, please consider carefully if you wish to bring passengers along with you.

We will be using Carnity Channel 4 (446.08125Mhz).

The meeting point is confirmed as per original drive post: 
Al Badayer Exit - E44 Dubai - Hatta Road - https://goo.gl/maps/JkhE9hDwve8mkkU99 

See you tomorrow morning, ready to go (i.e. already caffeinated, deflated, flagged and briefed) by no later 5:00am (sharp), so make sure you make it to the meeting point at least by 4:45am. 

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

DRIVE REPORT 

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

Today's drive was called "The 1km ascent quest": the whole purpose of the drive was in fact to climb as frequently and as high as possible for the whole 4h of the drive with the aim of scoring the highest possible total ascent, ie the total cumulated altitude gain/loss during the drive and to exceed the ideal threshold of 1000m both ways, ie up and down. 

For this reason the drive was planned to move from one area of big dunes to the next one and to perform, in each area, at least 4 to 5 climbs from various sides to reach the highest elevation in the smoothest way, so that even a 14 cars convoy could make it to the top and so that, for every group of tall dunes, at least 100-150m ascent could be built up. 

This plan resulted in an incredibly fun, mentally and physically demanding and totally exciting drive where we literally climbed whatever could be climbed in every way possible, making it most of the time to the highest peak, pumping adrenaline for 4 hours in a raw and generating one burst after another of endorphins as we fought our way up and and dopamine as we conquered the very top with amazing views all around. If your hormones were asleep, they certainly woke up today 😂😂😂.. 

We started quite on time at 5:06am, in the twilight before the sunrise. After a first few minutes to warm up out tires and wake up completely, we tackled straight the big dunes at Area 53, from the north west side. A couple of refusals immediately showed that this wasn't going to be a relaxed and easy drive. 

After we climbed Area 53 from 3 sides, everyone had tuned to the right mindset for the drive and the fun really began. 

We moved progressively through 8 different areas of big dunes and every time, no matter what, we made it to the top from all sides. It was really impressive how the convoy handled the big challenges that this type of drive put in front of the drivers. Yes, we had refusals, but very few, and even less stucks, all quickly recovered, except for a nasty one with @Abu Muhammad who had to be winched out from a nasty crest.

Area 53 and Al Badayer are always very busy but today we met very few convoys: this is one of the few perks of driving in the hot season (possibly the only one..😅). Nevertheless we had often to fight against churned up sand with multiple tracks from the days before, even though the strong wind of today had done a very good job at polishing most of the dunes, especially on the south west side of the track. 

@Javier Lucero had a very hard time as my 2nd lead but did extremely well, as today's drive was definitely a step up for him. Even if occasionally his momentum was lost, he always knew when to stop safely while I was making an attempt or having a self-recovery. Well done! 

@Gok Krish followed with great concentration and an excellent performance as a fairly new Intermediate driver. Today's drive for sure boosted his confidence through the roof. 

@Mario Cornejo finally found a terrain worth challenging his legendary car. Great performance with a few refusals and a spectacular crested stuck at the very top of Suhail dune, if I'm not wrong. 

The yellow Jeep Wrangler of @Goutam was never idle today and was very prompt to give it a 2nd attempt whenever the 1st one didn't go through. Today we have several interesting bowls to run around and I could definitely see him flooring the throttle to climb as high as possible to enjoy every full bowl. 

@Alexander Alcala, with his super upgraded Jeep Wrangler certainly found today the fun he was hoping for when he asked to join the drive, but was also a precious center forward helping the middle part of the convoy to get out of trouble and even towing me down from a crest where I had remained stuck. 

I couldn't see much of what happened behind but I know for sure that everyone did great. We had a couple of situations with a split convoy, which is a frequent risk in these long and high climbs when someone in the middle has a stuck or a refusal, if those in front are not prompt enough to stop. Too many tracks around make it impossible to understand where the car in front may have gone.. so convoys end up cut in two. 

Great job by @Rizwanm2 (more and more brave), @varunmehndiratta (I think you could do even better if you deflated more), @Ahab Shamaa (survived to yesterday's Extreme: which of the two was better?), @Shaaz Sha (glad to see your leak was sorted out or that the tape still did its work and great Center Forward today + same question as Ahab). 

Kudos also to the "big boys" at the back: @Dodi Syahdar (who was craving for a midweek drive while still inflating after today's), @Shehab Alawadhi (who finally completed a full drive in Area 53) and @Abu Muhammad who had the toughest task of all with his beast at the back. 

Last but not least, our great Sweep @Hisham Masaad, newly promoted (with @Shaaz Sha) to the Advisors Group, who did an awesome job at the back taking good care of the last part of the convoy. 

As time went by we started to see a few more refusals (after all it isn't easy to endure these levels of drive intensity for so long), but not a single time we had to reroute because of someone struggling. 

A few minutes before 9am, @Hisham Masaad announced he had lost his power steering, so we planned a our exit a few minutes earlier (we would have probably done just 15-20 mins later as our time was in any case almost over), so we headed straight towards Iftaar Bowl, which was surprisingly empty but, most notably, we climbed from the west side straight up to the top back to back one car after the other with zero hesitations: after all what we had gone trhough, Iftaar Bowl was literally a piece of cake for everyone, including @Hisham MasaadMasaad,  who climbed it to the top even without power steering...

We then completed the drive with a couple more climbs (we got addicted) and exited in Tawi Ghadaya by 9:15am. 

We drove 65.9km at an average moving speed of 19km/h. To come up with a proper analysis of our ascent / descent I had to process the track data on line with proper tools and I am glad to say we overshot our target by more than 50% as we hit almost 1600m ascent/descent (with an average climbing speed of 29km/h)!!!

Congratulations to everyone for a fantastic team performance and thanks to the Seniors who supported it. 

See you soon in the sand again! 

[M.Seidam]

@Lorenzo Candelpergher now I know why it’s called area 53 😄 and definitely this it was a drive that I missed . But this is life you miss one occasion only for the better one to come … so I am kindly asking you when are you planning of the next 2000 meter climb ?😊 even if I take a leave don’t wanna miss that dopamine / adrenaline action climb 🤣 

cheers my friend 👍

[Rizwanm2]

Thank you lorenzo for fun and adrenaline filled drive... Of couese it was one of a kind drive...    Hope you will do a take 2 for our dear friends who missed the opportunity 😊😊

[Mario Cornejo]

Amazing drive @Lorenzo Candelpergher, without a doubt everyone had fun and an adrenaline fix that am sure will last all week.  I had an amazing time and learnings from those refusals and the spectacular crest 😅.

According to my tracking we effectively went beyond the 1000m objective, I can see this a theme for drives aiming for distance as well as climb.  Thanks again!

Thank you for hosting the drive and thanks to the support team, @Alexander Alcala and @Hisham Masaad, as well as the seniors making sure the convoy continued moving.  Everyone it was a pleasure driving with you all.

I left a few pictures in the gallery.

Have a great week ahead!

 

[Varun Mehndiratta]

3 hours ago, Lorenzo Candelpergher said:

. 

Great job by @Rizwanm2 (more and more brave), @varunmehndiratta (I think you could do even better if you deflated more), @Ahab Shamaa

. 

. 

 

Wow what an observation ...today was driving at 13/14 psi for most part of the drive, around 2-3 points higher than my usual. After first hour had a drastic drop in pressure on one of the tyres (perhaps a bit lose valve or something don't know), after inflating kept it at 14psi as was concerned that it may drop again... It stayed however meant was driving at higher than usual. And since one was high, didn't deflate others when they went up in course of drive....

[Rizwanm2]

Here  some  video clips of perfect climbing

 

 

 

 

[Varun Mehndiratta]

Thanks @Lorenzo Candelpergher for this awesome drive ..been to Area 53 a few times (at least thought so), it's today that i realized the real fun of it... The whole drive was a medley of adrenaline pumping "Highway to the danger zone" while ascents and beautiful and calm "Take my breath away" while descent. 

The speed, the elegance and energy with which the convoy went through this beautiful terrain full of awesome bowls, high dunes and tall ridges made it undoubtedly one of the best drives i have been on...Iftar bowl literally felt like a baby dune today @Ahab Shamaa what steroids do you feed into your FJ, the roar of your engine following my vehicle really added to fun... sincerely curious is it the muffler effect or have you boosted/tuned the power? 

Thanks to @Hisham Masaad @Shaz Shah @Alexander Alcala for holding this long convoy togather was surely a challenging task...with no visibility of what's happening on other end of dune..👍 thanks @Ahab Shamaa for continous feedback and much valued advices through the drive. Really appreciate. 

Hope to see you all soon for another action filled drive..

 

 

[Mario Cornejo]

...and here is the video I took and it is a bit long, but again, was a great drive.  At 13'20" I got crested, lesson learnt for most of the drive: stay on ridge, control throttle 😎

Cheers!