The Rebelle Rally combines the love of driving with the challenge of precise navigation in eight days of competition. It’s the first women’s off-road navigation rally race. Participants compete using maps, a roadback, and compass on the elements of headings, hidden checkpoints, distance, and time. The rally covers more than 2,000 kilometers across Nevada and California. It ventures to be the ultimate road trip as well as a serious competition. Founder Emily Miller saw a need for a women’s rally and after year’s of work, the first rally happened last year.
Who is Emily Miller?
Emily Miller, 50, grew up skiing, biking and reading her father’s car magazines, in Colorado and Arkansas. She launched a sports marketing firm and began racing and teaching racing in her 30s. Creating the Rebelle Rally took three years and called upon all of her experience. She chose her favorite aspects of rallies and races she’d participated in as she designed it. The race took 40 Bureau of Land Management permits and 60 staff, but after three years, she finally pulled off the first race a few years ago.
Miller has been in automotive races where she was the only woman driving. It’s a notoriously male-heavy world, which makes Rebelle Rally revolutionary. Rather than make this purely a race, like most male-centric automotive races, this is a competition that challenges women to have endurance, accurate navigation, and excellent communication skills if they want to succeed.
What Kind of Leader is Miller?
Miller is known as a 5’1″ blond powerhouse who motivates the competitors and encourages them to work harder than they realized possible. She has a team of devoted admirers and followers who she encourages nightly during the competition. She encourages her team to do their research but be willing to take calculated risks.
As teams work together to drive their vehicles in search of specific coordinates, they are back in a world before GPS, before cell phones, and before the internet. They’re adventuring old school, competing perhaps more against themselves than the other teams. Miller chose the competition to showcase some of her favorite parts of the Southwest while giving women a chance to achieve more and be surrounded by other like-minded women.
Why the Rebelle Rally?
In her experience with driving and learning programs, she found that women were reluctant to sign up for these (often free thanks to their employer) programs, and when they did come, they would stand in the back, reluctant to jump in and go for it. Women tended to be more nervous than men, who were more likely not to question if they were capable and just go for it.
She says that women are great drivers and great navigators and they’re great at being coached, so an endurance event like this gives opportunity for them to learn and grow during it.
The rally takes ten days total, including some training before the teams head out on their own. The terrain gets harder each day and encourages women to learn new skills along the way. Using a plotter, compass, and scales, it’s primarily a series of map and compass checkpoint challenges.
How Do You Win?
Competitors win by getting the highest score, which is done by getting to the most checkpoints successfully. Three levels of checkpoints are featured. Competitors score half the points by successfully locating the required, green, checkpoints. Additional points are earned by visiting the blue and black ones. Successful teams also do a great job getting enough sleep, staying hydrated, eating well and communicating with each other.
Emily Miller is a badass and is helping to coach and encourage more women to step out of their comfort zones. That can mean more competitions, like she has done, or just into an occasional event where they can push themselves. She’s catering to women, but you won’t see any pink here. Just a group of supportive people ready for a challenge.
If you liked this article and want to do more off-roading, RVing can be a great way to vacation. Head here to rent an RV for your next trip. And you may enjoy this article with ten New Year’s resolutions for outdoorsy people to consider.
