Teams to Watch at the 2025 Endless Mountains Adventure Race

The Endless Mountains Adventure Race, a qualifier for the 2025 Adventure Racing World Championship, is heading north for 2025! After two editions in the Wilds of Pennsylvania, this year’s event brings racers to northern New England for a 500-mile journey through the Green Mountain State.

The Endless Mountains Adventure Race, a qualifier for the 2025 Adventure Racing World Championship, is heading north for 2025! After two editions in the Wilds of Pennsylvania, this year’s event brings racers to northern New England for a 500-mile journey through the Green Mountain State.

Endless Mountains: Les Verd Monts takes its place in a long history of adventure racing in New England, from the Racing Ahead events of the mid-2000s, to Vermont’s long standing Green Mountain Adventure Racing Association and Strong Machine Adventure Racing’s Maine Summer Adventure Race, to the glory days of Untamed New England. With thirty-five teams lining up on the start line, this year’s Endless promises to build on that legacy, bringing new energy to a state with some of the best adventureland in the country.

Sixty-five percent of those teams include veterans of past Endless Mountains editions, including two-time defending champions Bend Racing, competing this year as Team 4-Hour Fuel. The squad, made up of Alex Provost, Karine Corbeil, Jean-Yves Dionne, and Dan Staudigal, is the same foursome that stormed through the 2023 course, finishing more than ten hours ahead of the next team.

Pushing 4-Hour Fuel will be another 2023 podium team, Bones Adventure, whose roster includes Roy Malone, Mari Chandler, Chad Spence, and James Galipeau. These two teams did battle in each of the first two editions of Endless Mountains so they are well accustomed to the character and complexion of Rootstock Racing events. For all four members of Bones, Endless Mountains marks their second expedition race of the 2025 season. Mari competed with the Rootstock Racing team at La Ruta Madre in March, and James, Roy, and Chad are all fresh off an adventure of a lifetime at the Bimbache Raid in Morocco, just last month.

Chad’s Bimbache teammate Chris Laughren, racing at Endless with Bones Canada, no doubt has eyes on the podium as well. Chris is joined by Megan Esparmer, Sean Roper, and Harper Forbes, and each of them brings an impressive AR resume to the Endless start line. 4-Hour Fuel and Bones Canada take their place in the largest Canadian field at the Endless Mountains to date, perhaps resulting from the added exposure of Rootstock Racing’s 2024 Two Rivers Adventure Race, which served as the inaugural ARWS North American regional championship. Other Canadian teams on the start line include Raving Mad, competing in the mixed-open division, and Spare Parts NARly Expedition. And dot-watchers will see several Canadian flags adorning the bibs of individual athletes competing on US teams.

The Endless Mountains Adventure Race has earned a reputation as a destination event for many US racers as well, and 2025 is no exception. Several additional teams will no doubt be coming to the start line with podium aspirations, including No Complaints, who finished fifth at the last edition of Endless; Strong Machine Adventure Racing, fresh off their third place finish at the 2024 USARA National Championship; USARA Masters champions TanZ Navigation/EX 2 Adventures; the Silent Honey Badgers, who at the very least have topped the podium for their pre-race photo collage, and look to be in a strong position on the race course as well; and Vermont locals Alyssa Godesky, Matt Cymanski, and Kit Vreeland, joined from north of the border by Scott Cocks to make up Pretty Reckless/VERT.

Other teams to watch in the premier four-person mixed division include Adventure Addicts Racing, captained by Michelle Faucher, who co-directed the most recent USARA national championship; fan favorites AARP (the Ageless Adventure Racing People), whose roster includes Shari Hymes, Val Hardin, Pete Spagnoli, and Bruce Kuo; AR Dot Watch, who will be offering embedded media coverage during the event; Lost in Pace, We Will Survive, and Spurious Reasoning, who each bring several Endless Mountains veterans to the Green Mountains; Orange Lederhosen, No Ragrets, and Vibes AR, lining up for their first Endless expedition event; and Moonhowlers, which brings together Wendy Bryden, Brittany Locker, Paul Ryan, and Chris Paisley, racing together for the first time.

The Endless Mountains also offers a mixed-open division, which includes two- and three-person mixed gender teams. Here, the dynamic duo of Team Nerdquist returns as the two-time defending champions. Long-legged cousins Val and Russ Nordquist have a storied history of running around in the woods together. They can typically be spotted two-stepping through the brush in glittered tutus while shotgunning Starbucks Doubleshots.

This year, they will be challenged by Trust the Compass and 3Roc, two past podium teams in the all-male division; Team Wildstyle and Misguided, both with past Endless participants on their rosters; Vermont locals Megan Moir (who completed Endless 2022 and 2023) and Neale Lunderville, racing as NYARA - Ubuntu; and Endless newcomers 38.6 Degrees, Double Trouble, and Purple Haze. Also racing in the mixed-open division is Adventure Enablers, following a late roster drop to move them from the four-person mixed field. On the Enablers, past Endless participant Meg Hammond will be joined by Anna Stewart and Joe McCardell, who join several other racers in making the leap from the 24-hour Endless Lite in 2023 to this year’s full seven-day experience.

In the all-male division, Chaos Required, who finished third in each of the last two Endless Mountains editions, brings back two returning members in Rick Kielty and JP Farley and a third two-time Endless participant in Jason Glenn. They are joined by Ryan Corken. Rounding out the division are two additional New England teams: Edge of the Wild, which includes Brian McLeod, lining up for his third Endless Mountains, and Wild Roots Racing. They will be lining up against Carl Bailey and David Yanzer of Backwater Tide, making the trip to the Green Mountains from the flatlands of Florida.

The 2025 Endless Mountains Adventure Race begins Saturday, June 21 at 8:00am EST. For more information, visit the Endless Mountains website. During race week, you can find expansive coverage on the main landing page, on the Rootstock Racing facebook and instagram pages, and on all of the ARWS social media channels. Live tracking is available here.