Yukon Arctic Ultra, Start line, Whitehorse

It’s the start today. At midday the forty-six competitors from 12 countries will depart from the town of Whitehorse, and set off into forbidding back-country of the Yukon in northwestern Canada on one of the most gruelling winter races around. It’s the start of the Yukon Arctic Ultra 2004.

There are three courses in the race – some runners have a marathon ahead of them, some a 100 mile course and others a 300 mile course. They also have a choice of transport – on foot, on cross-country skis or on mountain bike. Interestingly there are more competitors in the 300 mile race than in either of the other. Twenty-two competitors will be setting off and hoping the make that distance (two of them on mountain bikes and two on skis, with the rest on foot). There are 18 racers in the 100 miler, and six on the marathon.

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All three races leave at the same time. For the first mile or so they move through the town, passing the scattered houses of the outskirts and moving along the frozen Yukon River. Then they continue as the trail passes through forests and over frozen lakes. The trail is well packed snow, giving a reasonably comfortable surface to walk and run on, assuming that it doesn’t get too warm and begins to thaw. This is a concern. For a few days recently it has been unseasonably warm (which leads to water on the course, which can cause difficulties for the racers and then there’s the prospect of bears waking up, hungry). Luckily for the competitors the temperature has gone down again. It is now at around – 12 centigrade (or 10 Fahrenheit), so there is less danger of melting snow

At the end of the marathon distance at Sir North Country Ranch there is a compulsory layover of four hours for all competitors. Racers that are continuing on the 100 or 300 mile courses must camp out, to show, before they leave areas easily accessed by road, that they have all the equipment they need to survive in the wilderness.

After that, as they walk on into the first night, the competitors will continue through undulating, but basically flat country. Much later along the course the terrain changes and the ground becomes steeper, so that competitors occasionally need to push their pulks in front of them, even crawl uphill on their hands and knees in some cases, but to begin with it is unrelentingly flat. The distance between the checkpoints is quite long (usually around 30-35 miles, and as much as 45 miles in one case), but a meal and hot water awaits them each time they arrive in one. It is a heart-warming moment (and warming in other senses too, no doubt), and doubly hard to leave and get back out onto the course.

The Yukon Arctic Ultra is held on the same course as the Yukon Quest dog-sled race, but that changes its direction each year and this year it will be running from Fairbanks to Whitehorse. Competitors are not expected to meet the dog teams.

Many competitors on the 300 mile course will take the full permitted eight days to cover the distance, but everyone in the race will be exhausting themselves over the next few days. Still as every adventure racer knows, the feelings of being out in the wilderness, giving it your best shot, and triumphing over a course in adverse conditions are worth the all trials and efforts. On the Yukon Arctic Ultra they’ll probably be lucky enough to see the Northern Lights during the 17 hour nights. And if they don’t then they probably hallucinate them instead!

If you wanna contact Lyndelle joe email her at
angel_babe1_03@hotmailcom okay there is the email for lynny joe. Thank you. The Y.A.U might know. bye

Hi you might not remeber me but i'm the girl at the pelly river ranch with the 4 eyes,hahhaha.
And i still remeber you. Dale said thank you for the pins and the things you do. I thought they were fantastic.
And Taylor and lyndelle said Hi. Lets hope you come next year.
Tell the wife i said hi.
Oh and i will mail you some pictures of us bradley and joe family,okay. email me luck please.