The classic trifecta is skiing, surfing and rock climbing or mountain biking. But just three technical sports were not enough for students Anya and Eugene - the pair were set on achieving the elusive “fivefecta” about a week ago. That’s five events, if your two leftover brain cells were struggling.
The plan was to ski or snowboard Porters, send it to Castle Hill for a spot of sport climbing, amble through Cave Stream, pack-raft down a river, and finish off with some canyoning.
The twist was that Anya had food poisoning. And not your typical upset stomach from an egg you probably shouldn’t have eaten but couldn’t bring yourself to throw away half your Studylink for the week. No, this was the kind to send you up shit’s creek without a paddle; we’re talking vomiting, dry heaving, and everything in between. “It was like the worst hangover of your life,” said Anya.
For most people, doing a fivefecta is a massive ask in itself. But doing it all while absolutely crook? A whole ‘nutha ball game. By the time Anya got to the first event, skiing, she was already trying not to throw up for the second time. Her focus on the task at hand meant that she forgot to jump off the chairlift at the top of the mountain until she was two metres off the ground. “I didn’t wanna do a ride of shame, so I did what I had to,” she bravely told Critic. Meanwhile, Eugene described the incident as a “highlight”.
Next was rock climbing. Climbing is typically a partnered sport; while one person goes up, clipping in the rope along the way, another person holds the rope at the bottom, prepared to catch the climber if they fall. Eugene joked that he was “basically free-soloing” (where the climber doesn’t use any ropes). However, Anya insisted that she had him secured, venturing that “you don’t have to look at the climber the whole time”. Although at one stage she did tell Eugene to go on safety so she could go have a quick dry retch. Class.
It was at this point that Eugene was seriously thinking about calling it quits as it was becoming a “borderline reckless health and safety issue”. The pair were two hours behind schedule and Anya was not in a good state. “I’d walk a couple metres before having to sit or lie down,” she said. Stoic and determined, Anya insisted she could go on. “We both really know our limits and if it had gotten to the point it was unsafe we would have stopped,” said Anya. The pair only had the day and for them it was “all or nothing”. So on they went.
Cave Stream is a 600-metre long cave with fast flowing currents of water coursing all the way through. Surprisingly, other than hitting her head against a rock (while wearing a helmet), Anya started feeling a little better and they made it out in just half an hour. The last two sports, packrafting and canyoning, were pretty straightforward for the outdoorsy duo. Two rappels down a couple waterfalls and a five-metre jump, and the pair had made it out just before dark.
They celebrated with noodles and plain white rice (Anya’s first meal of the day). After a moment’s hesitation, Anya told Critic that it was “a good day out”, while admitting that at times it was “pretty grim”. For Anya, the silver lining was that she got to “train being in bad situations and do it anyway… it really puts you out of your comfort zone and it would have been too easy without it.”
Anya and Eugene stressed that people should only attempt a fivefecta if they know the sports they are doing really well. “You need technical skills that are really specific to each sport,” said Eugene. As for Anya, she definitely wouldn’t recommend getting food poisoning before trying such a feat, either.