The Pathfinder Legacy

Now one of North America's premier adventure races, the Pathfinder Challenge owes much of its heritage to the long-standing Pathfinder Wilderness School.

The founder of the Pathfinder School, Thomas Dorsch, has traversed the globe Learning the art of survival and gaining invaluable wilderness skills. Traveling through the Philippine jungles, across the African Savannah and the streets of Beirut, Dorsch, a former Marine and State Department Special Agent gained a formidable knowledge in all things outdoors.

Tom Dorsch practices and promotes the concept of challenging wilderness training to help foster respect for our collective greatest resource:

The American Wilderness

Synthesizing primitive, military and modern outdoor skills, the Pathfinder school - now Pathfinder unlimited - was approached by business owner and survivor of the grueling, "Pathfinder Ranger Course." Tsatas and his intrepid team of adventure racers intended to compete in the 1997 Eco-Challenge.

Team Pathfinder, led by Tsatas, performed well as they adapted to the natural elements. In 1998, The Pathfinder School, Tsatas and Team Pathfinder teammate James Chiarelli organized and conducted the inaugural Pathfinder Challenge adventure race in and around Kettle Moraine State Forest in southern Wisconsin.

The Pathfinder Unlimited school continues to train adventure racers and wilderness students in the art of wilderness survival in Wisconsin, and now Colorado.

The Pathfinder Challenge adventure race, now owned exclusively by Tsatas, has charted its own course as one of the purest and most challenging races going today. The eclectic combination of horses, rope work, canoeing/kayaking, mountain biking and technical land navigation has attracted racers from all compass points, catapulting the Pathfinder Challenge into the top echelon of adventure races. The Pathfinder Challenge continues to offer racers a fair price and superior event that continues to strive toward a special balance between man's humble respect for our wild lands, and the delivery of a true passage to adventure.

WorldAR for Adventure Racing.