Yukon Arctic Ultra 2004 Update

Shirley Thompson, now safe and well at the High Country Inn in Whitehorse, phoned in to let us know how the competitors have got on on this year’s Yukon Arctic Ultra.

Rocky Reifenstuhl, on a mountain bike, is still way out ahead. He left the checkpoint at Fred Lake at 4.45 am on Tuesday morning, the only person through by then. He is followed by Laszlo Kovacs, who is on skis. At the last count, the leading runner in the race (only the 300 mile course is still going now) was Andrew Barnett. There is little information on their timings. Still, here are a few stories from the course, though.

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The winner of the 100 mile race, Ray Zahab, covered the course pretty much non-stop (apart from the mandatory 4 hour stop at the Marathon checkpoint). He only stopped twice otherwise, for 10 minutes and 15 minutes, and the rest of the time he was on the move. Other competitors found it impossible to do this. Ken Bell from the USA even bivvied up just 3 miles from the finish line of the 100 mile course.

Part of the difficulty has been that despite the cold, the air has been unexpectedly humid, meaning that people have been getting wetter than they normally would. It has then been freezing and making them cold. A number of competitors have suffered from hypothermia, including Tom Ripley, a veteran of Iditasport races, and Shirley Thompson. For others it has spelled disaster for their feet. Martin Like has been forced to retire because of trashed feet, as has Scott Smith, who was reckoned to be one of the favourites.

Of course many racers are still out there, battling on along the remainder of the 300 mile course. Behind Andrew Barnett, Shelley Gellatley is going strong. Steve Bowron and Luke Cunliffe are also doing well.

Shirley was just leaving to go out onto the course, to Carnacks, at around about 170 miles, just over the half way mark, to help out with marshalling. No doubt she will see some of them going through the checkpoint over the next 24 hours.