Torchmate Racing to compete at 2011 Arctic Man [video]

Torchmate Racing Tyler Thomas and Matt Shrive will compete in the 2011 Tesoro Arctic Man Friday April 8, 2011 in Summit Lake, Alaska approximately 280 miles north east of Anchorage.

A combination of downhill skiing and snowmobiling, Arctic Man is a 5.5 mile race that only takes 4.5 minutes to complete.

“I asked Matt one day at work ‘Hey Matt, do you want to go 100mph behind my sled holding onto a 15ft rope?’ His answer was ‘Yea, sure I will!’ Not your average guy wants to go 100+ on a snowboard let alone behind a snowmobile, so I knew I had the missing link to make this dream happen!,” says Thomas.

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Shrive, X-Games and World Cup snowboarder, will start at the top of the 5,800-foot mountain and will drop 1,700 feet within two miles into a canyon. When Shrive hits the canyon, Thomas will meet up with him on the snowmobile at speed and connect the two with a towrope. The pair will continue uphill for about two miles hitting speeds close to 100mph. At the top of the second mountain, the pair separates and Shrive will drop down another 1200 feet to the finish line.

“To make the event the length that we desired, we had to link one hill to another,” says Howard Thies, creator and race director. It is a rare combination to ever see skiers and snowmobilers together since the worlds are well disconnected, but in this rare combination they have to be a fluid team. The most challenging part will be getting the handle into the hands of Shrive as Thomas approaches at speed and paces the snowboarder.

Both currently from Reno, Nev., 19-year-old Thomas will be driving a 2011 Polaris Rush 600. Shirve, a seasoned competitor and former US Snowbard Team member, will be riding a Burton snowboard.