This coming weekend, the ARWS European Series race, Endurance Quest, held in Lohja, brings together Finland's best adventure racers for a 24 hour Adventure race.
The 15 teams lining up at the start on Saturday face a varied and demanding course through the forests and lakes of western Uusimaa, with the race featuring 44 kilometers of paddling, 41 kilometers of running, and 137 kilometers of mountain biking. This time the course features two long stages, Stage 3 is a 51km long Kayak + Trek taking over 9 hours for the fastest team and the last stage is a 116km long MTB. Of course, in the spirit of Endurance Quest there is once again a demanding night orientation stage with IOF standard maps.
The winner of the Endurance Quest Lohja earns a spot at the sport's European Championships, to be held in Denmark at the end of August.
In addition to awarding ARWS Ranking points, Endurance Quest Lohja serves as the Finnish Championship of Adventure racing in 24-hour competition.
Based on past performances, the pre-race favorite starting the competition is the reigning 2025 European Champion, Lane4 Adventure Team. Behind the favorite is a tight field, with Runour AR, Avanti Adventure, and Tehoketju, as well as Estonia's Tripassion, all among the contenders.
The competition is organized by Northern Adventure Team
Endurance Quest Lohja's course designer, Lauri Hollo, is excited about the upcoming course in Lohja.
"Uusimaa's largest lake, Lohjanjärvi, along with Lohja's other magnificent nature — its ridges and diverse forests — offer truly fascinating possibilities for creating a route that is physically, navigationally, and visually compelling," says course designer Hollo, noting that the diverse waters of Lohjanjärvi add a special flavor to the competition.
The Lohja Region — A Paradise for Outdoor Enthusiasts
Lohja's Director of Education, Juha-Pekka Lehmus, is excited that the city of Lohja is taking part in the marketing of the international series.
"The people of Lohja certainly know how wonderful Lohjanjärvi is, but there would be plenty of room here for international nature-sports enthusiasts as well, since Lohja and the surrounding area offer almost unlimited pristine and diverse nature-sport opportunities.
“Through this event, and through the photos and video material that spreads worldwide via the ARWS network, we also gain a great deal of international visibility.
“The more than 1.9 million social media impressions from the summer 2025 event demonstrated that the sport is highly compelling as a driver of international brand recognition," Lehmus said.
"Together with the organizers, we have also considered how we could offer young people in Lohja the chance to try a new sport that suits our conditions exceptionally well. I believe that in the autumn we will have new things to share about adventure sports trial programs," Lehmus reveals.
Endurance Quest Lohja's race director, Harri Hollo, is likewise excited about the event coming to Lohja. He notes that Lohja has long traditions in national adventure racing, since it held Finland's most legendary adventure racing competition, X-kaato — organized a remarkable 25 times — for the first time, back in 1999.
"Experiential outdoor activity in nature is clearly growing, including among young people. We believe that the terrain of the Lohja region and Lohjanjärvi, with its surprises, can offer many opportunities in the internationally growing genre of nature sports," said Hollo. |He continued;, "Through this event we are also trying to attract young people to the sport, since it offers a wonderful opportunity to combine spending time with friends, nature, and versatile physical activity."
Next year Endurance Quest is an ARWS World Series Qualifier
After the success of the 2025 ARWS European Championship, adventure racing will return to the Lake Saimaa region in 2027 when Endurance Quest Saimaa hosts an Adventure Racing World Series (ARWS) World Championship Qualifier from August 1-8th.
You can follow the race, starting June 26th on the ARWS Europe and Endurance Quest social media channels, with live tracking available at https://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/2026eq
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