Chris O'Bara

Chris O'Bara

Chris O'Bara began his adventure racing career while looking for interesting ways to stay in shape. Never satisfied spending hours on a treadmill, he quickly turned to the outdoors. Starting with mountain biking then trail running and kayaking, he quickly discovered competition as a way to gain that motivation to push him to new levels. Trying a sprint biathlon, he decided he needed more of a mental component to be truly satisfied.

Chris then discovered sports involving navigation such as Orienteering and Adventure Racing. Always interested in maps, it was a logical path to follow. After a brief introduction to map reading and compass use at a local Orienteering meet, he went out and won the Yellow course, and placed second in the Orange course in the same meet. Next, he decided to try Adventure Racing starting with sprint races running around four hours. After two years and placing as high as second place in the male division he decided to expand to longer races to push himself to new levels. In the summer of 2007, Chris tried his first 12 hour race and his team won the male 3 person division. Later that year, he was the lead navigator in his first 24 hour race and placed second in the 3 person coed division. He also attends as many local orienteering and Rogaine events as possible to keep sharp.

Chris is also an avid hiker especially since discovering New York's Catskills and Adirondacks mountain ranges. He completed climbing all of the 35 Catskills 3500 foot peaks in just one year and is just six peaks short of repeating all of the peaks in the winter time. He has also undergone climbing all of the Adirondacks' 46 four thousand foot peaks and is always looking to create interesting routes stringing together several peaks many of which involve navigating without trails.

In addition to local climbing Chris has also accomplished climbing the tallest peak in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro at 19,340 feet in 2005. Next, in order to gain some experience in more technical climbing, he was a member of a guided climbing team on Mount Rainier in 2006. He is also working on the state highpoints, climbing several of the tallest state peaks such as Rainier in Washington, Humphrey's Peak in Arizona, and Wheeler's Peak in New Mexico, all over 12,500 feet.

Chris is an Electrical Engineer by day and his other interests include skiing and motorcycle racing, both on and off-road. In the summer, he can also be found deep in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New Jersey exploring many of the thousands of local shipwrecks.

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