Cotopaxi Questival ‘Scavenger hunt on steroids’ coming to Gilbert

Looking for an excuse to get with four or five friends for a zany 24-hour outdoor adventure race?

Cotopaxi, an outdoor-gear manufacturer with a social conscience, has you covered with an event that helps others and might give you a chance to channel your inner llama.

The official name is the Cotopaxi Questival. Unofficially, promoters call it a “scavenger hunt on steroids.” Whatever you call it, it starts at Gilbert Civic Center on Nov. 6 and 7.

The hunt could take participants all around Arizona, depending on which challenges they choose to tackle. The first-place team wins a trip to Central America for a similar adventure across seven countries.

Cotopaxi founder Davis Smith was inspired to create the event after his own 10-day adventure race from Belize to Panama. It was intended to help launch the brand and Cotopaxi’s “Gear for Good” philosophy.

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But feedback from participants was so favorable that three more Questivals were held last year. There will be five between September of this year and April 2016, including Gilbert event. Seven others are in the works.

“The original Questival was built around the idea of trying to get people out of their homes, apartments, condos and into the wild doing things with friends, family or colleagues and really getting to know themselves and those people,” said Seth King, Cotopaxi’s vice president for events.

“All the challenges were created to put them in position to do things that maybe they haven’t done before and allow them to have a really enriched experience.”

While many of the challenges are about getting outdoors, Davis wanted challenges in keeping with the company’s mission of social service, King said. The company donates at least 10 percent of its profits to 11 non-profit groups that address the needs of people living in extreme poverty.

“Cotopaxi has a tie to social causes and doing good in the world,” King said, adding that some task options involve community service.

“We also have a lot of fun, quirky things,” he said. “It encompasses the full gambit.”

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King said the first event “touched a nerve” with participants, who encouraged the company to do more Questivals. He said first-year events have drawn between 1,000 and 1,500 participants.

Here’s how Questival works:

Teams of two to six people are given a list of more than 300 challenges to choose from. The options will not be revealed to the teams until 24 hours before the Nov. 6 start.

Each team completes as many challenges as possible — or desired — within 24 hours. Using an app, teams document through social media the challenges they’ve accomplished and are awarded points based on the difficulty of the task. Points range from 1 for the simplest tasks up to 13 points for the most challenging (or beneficial to others).

Teams are given a totem when they start, and it must be visible in photos used to document a challenge. This keeps teams honest about their accomplishments.

The challenges can be physical, such as hiking a particular trail or kayaking across Tempe Town Lake. They can be about getting in touch with nature by visiting a national park, camping out or taking a photo of the sunrise from a specific location.

Many challenges are designed to benefit others, such as serving a meal at soup kitchen or taking food to a local food bank. These often earn the most points.

But some tasks are intended to be nothing but fun. Arm wrestling while eating corn dogs is a possibility. Or a team might choose to milk a goat and chug-a-lug the results.

Who hasn’t wanted to try that 13-pointer?

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Teams must strategize about how and where to score points. Some of the challenges require money — a park-entrance fee or kayak rental. But most options are free.

It’s up to teams to decide if they want to rent a private plane and jet to the Grand Canyon to accomplish a task, or tally points within the metro area.

The key to winning the contest is to accomplish as many tasks as possible with a certain amount of flair. Or perhaps with a llama somehow involved, since the company’s logo features those curious beasts.

“Davis grew up in large part in South America,” King said. “He developed an affinity for the animal. They’re funny and quirky but also loyal and strong. From the get-go, the llama became our mascot. We own two llamas, Coto and Paxi, and take them to outreach events. They are quite the hit.”

Team standings are displayed in the app, and the top 50 teams are then judged by their peers and outside observers who download the app. The other participants and outsiders also can flag teams via the app for fudging on the rules — posting a blurry photo of a goat and claiming it as llama, for example.

The top 50 finishers are eligible to win gear from Cotopaxi and other sponsors. The first-place team gets a chance to compete for the “world championship” at a later date during the trip to Central America. King said the plan is for the world championship to follow the Belize-to-Panama route Davis took, with fun activities and service tasks included along the way.

For those not interested in spending a whole weekend, there is an eight-hour Saturday-only option, but those participants aren’t eligible for prizes.

If it sounds tempting, there’s not much to lose. The cost is $35 per person for early bird sign-up and every participant receives a $30 Cotopaxi backpack at check-in. (Corn dogs and goat milk not included.) The price increases to $40 on Sept. 19 and continues to increase by $5 every two weeks after that up to $55.

Details:questival.cotopaxi.com.

Explore Arizona reporter Bob Young is a runner, cyclist and, now, mud-obstacle racer! Reach him at 602-444-8271 or bob.young@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobYoungTHI.

Try this next

The South Mountain 5K is the final race of the popular Arizona Summer Series, presented by Arizona Road Racers. The event starts early and is just long enough for runners to get in a workout and go home before the serious heat hits.

Details: 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 9. South Mountain Park, 10409 S. Central Ave., Phoenix. $20. 602-684-1496, arizonaroadracers.com.