ESAR was founded in 2003 by Mark & Heather Arnold of Hark Events.  In this its 11th season, the race is now produced by past racer and long-time staff member Sean Roper, as part of the Storm Multi-Sport Adventure Series.

As his friends and family will attest, Sean has been obsessed with the sport of adventure racing since he first volunteered at an event back in 1998. After the highly successful launch of his first race Storm the North Shore in North Vancouver, Sean brought Storm Racing back with him to Ontario in 2002, and has since grown it into Canada's largest adventure race series. He is a career "event guy," with over 10 years of experience behind the scenes at adventure racing, running and cycling events ranging in size from 200 to 12,000 participants.

An accomplished adventure racer and ultra-runner himself, you can usually find Sean at various events throughout the province, or across the country and beyond.

The Team Behind ESAR:

Vinson Lee

Petra U

Mike Van Den Bosch

Patty Van Liefland

Heather Brown

Kathie Zeman

Laurie Ross

Jonathan Rocillo

Scott & Deanna Hembruff

No ESAR event would be possible without the support of a fantastic group of individuals who make the race experience all that it is through their tireless dedication and unwavering enthusiasm. No amount of late hours, driving rain, relentless bugs, formidable truckloads, miserable cold or extreme heat ever presents too great a challenge for this incredible crew of adventure-lovers. We are forever indebted to these amazing people for all they do behind the scenes at ESAR and our other Storm Racing events.