French athlete Quentin Grieu finding his way on the beautiful and challenging trails of Savin Kuk. In the end he finished in 9th place.

The race started at 4:30am and thus it was pretty dark for the swim. Athletes actually had to negotiate 2 lakes during the swim segment before they could get on their bikes.

Out of the water and back on the land briefly. Between the 2 lakes, a volunteer assists athlete out of the water of Small Lake to cross the land bridge before getting into BlackLake.

The weather did cooperate with the race all day and beautiful sunshine accompanied the athletes on their 182k bike journey. But the course profile with 3200 meters (10,500 feet) of elevation gain was no joke.

There were many narrow mountainous climbs to negotiate but with such views who would not want that opportunity?

Up and up and no other athlete in sight.

Italian Michele Petrone on the way to second place.

Folks who have watched Treasure in Silver Lake and any of the Winnetou movies might find that this terrain looks familiar. Many of the Karl May based films were indeed shot in that region. But Marko Butulija has other things on his mind - likely a black t-shirt.

The running course of the Black Lake Xtreme Triathlon had 1,500 meters (4,921 feet) of elevation gain and plenty of tricky section crossing the Savin Kuk.

With determined steps towards the finish.

Damian Faulkner from Ireland spent 9:01:12 on the run course and in the end that meant 7th place and a black t-shirt.

Croatian Dino Belakuši with a support runner in tow on the way to third place in 15:57:17.

With views like this maybe next year this venue will see many more applicants and starters.

With a white Norseman shirt on the way to hopefully a black Black Lake Xreme Tri shirt, but first a rest.