Yukon Arctic Ultra Update

The foot and the skiing sections of Yukon Arctic Ultra 2004 finished on Friday afternoon when Andrew Barnett and Laszlo Kovacs came in together at around 2pm. They had spent just over six days on the course. We caught up with Andrew back in Whitehorse, where he was taking some well-deserved rest at the High Country Inn. He was relieved, but obviously clearly still exhausted.

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‘The last 24 hours was good weather, clear with beautiful sunshine, though the route out from Pelly Crossing to Pelly Farms was tough. It was along the river, and although a skidoo had been over it a week before, it had snowed since, so I was having to make my way through fresh snow on the trail. Hard going, thirty miles of that.’

The route back (the finish line is back at Pelly Crossing) followed a farm track which made the going much easier apparently, though there was a hill of 800 feet. Of course he was able to use his sled to slide the downhill on the other side. Actually Andrew preferred going uphill, which meant that the section between Carmacks and McCabe (mostly uphill) was a pleasure for him. The only thing was that the downhill section never came.

Although he wasn’t officially the first to cross the finish line, Andrew was the winner of the largest class of the race, the foot section. There were 18 competitors in that section and he beat them others by 24 hours. Shelley Gellately, in second place at the last count,is expected in next.