What the Hell Is the Rebelle Rally, Anyway?

Right this moment, 110 girls will start an off-road competitors like no different. They’ll use nothing greater than a paper map and compass to navigate greater than 1,600 miles of off-road trails all through the California and Nevada desert, because the Rebelle Rally, the all-women’s off-road navigational rally now in its seventh yr, begins close to Lake Tahoe. The grueling 10-day navigational competitors is the longest within the U.S., is GPS and cell phone-free and nothing to take flippantly. I do know; I competed within the Rebelle Rally in 2021, courtesy of Porsche.

No GPS, No Cell Telephones, No Drawback

The Rebelle is particular on this planet of off-roading, each as a result of it’s open solely to girls, and since it isn’t a race about velocity. It’s a contest extra simply characterised as a precision off-road trek that depends on driving and navigational ability.

Opponents in groups of two (one driver, one navigator) go fully off the grid. No cell telephones or GPS gadgets are permitted. As an alternative, you utilize printed topographical maps, paper map rulers and compasses (correctly declinated based mostly on the place you’re within the desert) to seek out each marked and unmarked checkpoints alongside the route.

To determine distances, you utilize a rally pc that must be calibrated to your tire dimension and constantly-changing tire strain as you navigate the whole lot —from delicate dunes, to sharp rock fields, to difficult slot canyons. You’re chargeable for the whole lot from small mechanical repairs to getting your self unstuck.

Opponents are up earlier than dawn, and infrequently return to the roving base camp previous sundown. It’s not, nonetheless, all warmth and hardship. Every night time — except one self-camp night time when groups camp with out the assist of the Rebelle employees and mechanics — the ladies eat a gourmand dinner cooked by Chef Drew Deckman; they camp collectively, and are woken by a cowbell that Emily Miller, the race founder and powerhouse behind the Rebelle, rings every morning between 4:00 and 4:30 am.

The course is a secret to everybody besides Miller and a handful of the 110 assist employees she employs to maintain opponents secure and on monitor throughout the 10-day occasion.

“You recognize what it’s like to have the ability to sit there at 5 o’clock within the morning, with a cup of espresso and a headlamp and plotting a latitude and longitude on a bit of paper,” Miller tells me over Zoom earlier than this yr’s competitors. “It’s simply insane, and it’s a ability that in all probability, like, level .0009 % of the inhabitants on this planet know tips on how to do, and also you be taught it, and also you do it and also you do it rather well,” Miller says.

Emily Miller is well-known in off-road racing. She lower her tooth below famed off-road legend Rod Corridor, who died in 2019. She spent years driving together with Corridor and his co-driver as he raced, and says she tried to be taught the whole lot she may from him. She was the primary lady to solo drive the grueling Vegas to Reno off-road race in 2005. And he or she and her companion, Sam Coburn, gained. She’s been mentoring and instructing girls within the off-road house ever since.

“My lifelong mission is to offer girls a possibility to show simply how badass they’re,” Miller goes on. “It brings me actually nice pleasure … I’ll by no means cease with the mission of showcasing the automobiles in your driveway are extra succesful than you assume, and’ll take you to in all probability the best adventures,” she says.

This yr, Miller and longtime Rebelles Emme Corridor, Rebecca Donaghe, Lyn Woodward and Sedona Blinson all participated within the Rebelle Rally-supported Rally Jameel in Saudi Arabia. The Rally Jameel was the primary of its form, a women-only offroad rally, in a rustic the place girls solely received the authorized proper to drive final yr.  

Corridor is a widely known automotive journalist, and this yr’s MC for the Rebelle’s Reside Feed, which is able to present protection of the occasion for the subsequent 10 days. Donaghe is a particularly expert navigator who’s been competing within the Rebelle for the reason that starting. Woodward is one other automotive journalist, and a five-year veteran of the Rebelle; Blinson is her navigator, who occurs to be a six-year veteran of the Rebelle.

How the Rebelle Works

Every October, girls from everywhere in the world make their pilgrimage to the beginning line, which is in a distinct location annually. This yr, girls from ages 23 to 74, who hail from 24 totally different states and 4 totally different international locations will descend on South Lake Tahoe for tech inspections and the beginning of the occasion. The Rally says 54 opponents are returning Rebelles and 56 are rookies, identical to I used to be final yr.

Once more, groups are made up of two opponents every: one driver, one navigator. You may swap roles in the event you like, however most groups — together with mine — stick to what ever roles they’re drawn to and expert at. I used to be a driver whereas my companion, photographer Beth Bowman, was a navigator. You by no means know what every day will carry: whether or not you’ll begin with a time-speed-distance stretch (TSD or Enduro for brief), which requires opponents to go by means of timed gates at exact (all the way down to the second) moments based mostly on their begin time. Or in the event you’ll find yourself attempting to navigate to unmarked checkpoints within the “shitty dunes,” attempting to not get caught, or spending hours digging your self out.

Throughout tech inspection, opponents get a monitoring machine hooked up to their autos backed by Iridium, a satellite tv for pc firm that gives monitoring for a lot of off-grid races, and in addition by Mapbox, a navigation firm. Every group will get a YB tracker, which are sometimes utilized in sailboat racing, to check-in at each marked and unmarked checkpoints.

Opponents are divided into two lessons: X-Cross and 4×4. X-Cross is for two-wheel and all-wheel drive autos, whereas 4×4 is for these with switch instances and locking differentials. There are additionally Bone Inventory and Electrified designations. Bone Inventory is for these like my group that haven’t any off-road modifications to sort out the Rebelle. And Electrified is reserved for these autos with hybrid or fully-electric powertrains. The variety of EVs competing this yr (backed by OEMs) has grown to seven.

Earlier than the beginning, opponents pull staggered begin instances from a hat. After the 4:30 am get up and after packing up their tents and kit, groups congregate within the base camp tent to get their listing of checkpoints, and start plotting them on topographical maps that Miller prints on a large-format printer she has at her house. Groups work collectively to verify one another’s math on Enduro sections, after which doublecheck their factors, although every designation has a distinct route, basing their calculations on the capabilities of the automobile the groups are in.

Opponents are allowed to assist one another whether or not which means by digging out, rescuing, altering a tire or checking others’ math, however exterior help is strictly prohibited. If a group wants employees assistance on the path (whether or not mechanical or in any other case) they’re penalized. A highly-skilled group of mechanics can be found at base camp, however utilizing the mechanics means additionally taking a penalty.

When groups find a checkpoint (or what they assume could be a checkpoint location, since many are unmarked), they stand as near the goal as potential and hit the YB tracker, which returns a GPS location. Inexperienced checkpoints are the simplest to get; they’re marked with large inexperienced flags, usually seen from far-off. These are value essentially the most factors, and are required to advance. Blue checkpoints could be both a flag or small blue pole hidden in a bush or behind a rock. These are sometimes tougher to each navigate and drive to. Black checkpoints are essentially the most tough to seek out, have the smallest goal space and haven’t any markers.

Factors are awarded based mostly on how close to to the bullseye opponents are after they hit the tracker. And whoever finishes the 10-day stint with essentially the most factors wins their designation.

Extra to Come…

We’ll have extra every day digests from the occasion because it progresses, however the Rebelle is at all times an journey. Final yr, a huge haboob (or sandstorm) pressured us to sleep in our automobiles, and shelter in place as the bottom camp close to Demise Valley was torn to shreds by 60 mile per hour winds. In years previous, opponents have confronted the whole lot from snow and ice to abandon temperatures and rain.

In our more and more related world, the handful of individuals with the know-how and abilities to tackle such a problem is already extremely small. Toss in the truth that the Rebelle Rally is an off-road competitors for girls, and the sphere shrinks much more. However curiosity within the Rebelle is rising.

This yr, the competitors offered out earlier than final yr’s occasion even started — a primary for the Rally. In 2022, eight totally different OEMs are fielding groups, and the Rebelle has expanded its assist for EVs competing within the occasion.

“Placing this collectively is absolutely onerous. How we made this course to have the ability to work on public land, and we constructed the format, after which we constructed the scoring system. And we constructed the programs to assist it with expertise,” says Miller. That expertise assist retains the opponents secure, and traceable ought to something go sideways. Keep tuned for extra from the Rebelle because the competitors begins.