Red Bull have got together with course designer Gary Thompsett to organise a 72-hour multi sport adventure race to be held in the Cairngorms this April, the Red Bull Northern Exposure. Which is great news for anyone who thinks the Red Bull 24hr is a bit short and summery, or anyone who fancies throwing in a bit of mountaineering, ice climbing, canoeing etc. into their race plan.

With the course being designed by Thompsett (professional map maker, veteran of all 25 Polaris events, World MTB Orienteering competitor and stalwart of ‘underground’ invitational epics such as “Man of Porage”), high quality mountain biking sections are guaranteed. Participants can expect to be riding big sections of twisting forest and moorland singletrack around the Aviemore event centre, both during the day, and to make things really interesting, at night. Steve Duffy (BIKEmagic Forum poster and editor of On The Hill magazine) is also part of the organising team.

Whether you’ll be awake enough to enjoy the biking is another matter though, as the event is a straight through set course challenge, with competitors sleeping as and when they have to over the 72-hour period. To add even more spice, the Scottish Cairngorms are also legendary for their severe weather at any time of the year.

The event is for mixed teams of four and is expected to pull in top level as well as novice athletes from across the world. If you don’t think you’ll be able to persuade your mates you can even stick your name up on the site and volunteer yourself for somebody else’s team.

More information is available from redbullnorthernexposure.co.uk, although the wolf-howl sound effects make you wonder exactly what the “specialist challenges” will involve!